How to unlock a Cingular Treo 650











This subject is not directly related to photography, but important enough for those of you that do any international travel and have a tri or quad band GSM phone. GSM is used extensively throughout the world, both in Asia and Europe. In order to use your phone over there you have two options. Connecting to local services using your current SIM card - VERY Expensive. Or, you can buy a prepaid SIM card in the country you're visiting. You will then become a local user and pay local rates.

In order to do the latter, your phone has to be unlocked. To prevent customers from switching providers by changing SIM cards, all cell phone companies lock their phone so only their card can be used. To unlock the phone, call Cingular a couple weeks before you go on an overseas trip and tell them you would like to unlocked your phone. They should give you an eight digit code; anything else is confusion or slowdown tactics. Once you receive the code, do the following key sequence to unlock the phone.

Press call button, (green phone), then
*#*#eight digit code#
press call button again.

You should get a message noting that your phone is now unlocked.

Now the phone is capable of using any SIM card including prepaid ones. Once you get back to the US you just plug in your regular Cingular SIM card and you're in business.