I sold an unlocked blackberry to someone with a t-mobile account and he's stating its locked. I tried my ATTWS sim card and my cingular sim card and they both worked. My question is has anyone seen a phone unlocked to all carriers but one? I've never heard of such a thing I work for a major wireless carrier and been in the industry for 9yrs. Any info or input would be greatly appreciated.

I assume this was a 7290 from Cingular. It is locked for all carriers except for Cingular and AT&T since they are now one company. It is not unlocked.

And in the future, you may want to use those 9 years in the industry to help yourself check to see if it is actually unlocked!



Go to Options - SIM Card and:

Press ALT + MEPD

When done correctly, it will show more options in the SIM Card Screen. Including which locks are active, if any.

For example, my 7290 says "Disabled" for all the locks.

Doesn't matter if its one company or not if I go grab any Cingular branded phone out of my inverntory room and insert an AT&T Sim card into it it reads enter subsidy code. So I hate to rain on your parade NJ Blackberry but that statement is incorrect. As for the ALT+MEPD when I do that on the blackberry it shows:
SIM Disabled
Network Active
Network Subset Disabled
Service Provider Disabled
Corporate Disabled
Phone number +1775XXXXXXX

Which one is the subsidy lock?

Well "Network" being Active means that it is locked.

An unlocked BlackBerry will say that all locks are disabled.

That BlackBerry isn't unlocked.

I find it funny that it doesn't accept an AT&T Wireless SIM though. Kudos to whomever did that job.

No the funny thing is that it DOES accept an AT&T Sim card whereas the other gsm phones in the store (treo650's and sx66 included) don't they come up with enter subsidy code so it must be written in the rom somewhere?? anyhow thanks for that cool little trick greatly appreciated.

What is meant by done correctly? I can't get ALT + MEPD to do anything.

If you have a 7100, you have to type the letter P by hitting the key twice or you get the letter O instead.

Whether a Cingular unit will take AT&T sim is another issue. To make sure the phone is unlocked for all other carriers, go to 'tools', 'sim card' and do the mepd thingy to make sure 'network' is 'inactive'. In my 7290, I just have to type 'mepd' only but some older device might require you to hold down the 'alt' key.

Right you are, it works without the alt key...

EDIT: added out.