T-Mobile SIM Lock - MDA, XDA, 1010 Software Upgrading

Hi,
I just bought a T-Mobile Pocket PC. It is locked onto T-Mobile and I want to use it on Cingular Wireless for a couple of days till my number is ported to T-Mobile in the next 5-6 days as I have been told.
Any solutions will be most appreciated but please understand it is a brand new unit I have bought after cooking the ROM on the old Siemens SX-56 still lying with me; and I really really don't want to mess this one up. It has Windows Mobile 2003 edition on it.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Before trying to unlock it, I would check that Cingular are NOT operating on the 850Mhz band in your area as they are in mine (Atlanta) As the XDA is only tri band, it will not work on Cingular's 850 network. Even if there are roaming options in your area, I have found that the Cingular SIM prevents roaming on 1900Mhz, when a native Cingular 850Mhz band is present.

Thanks for the reply. Yups, u're right but I wanted to use the phone in London and its ok since they have a 900Mhz bank there. Also, I spoke to T-Mobile and they will be sending me the unlocking code in 4-5 days, they are more helpful than Cingular in that way.

Ah, London!, my home town!! You may know this already, but in case not, here goes...
Before you go, make sure that T-Mobile USA have your account set up to make international calls. When you get there, you will have to manually change the band on your phone to pick up the 900Mhz band. Once you do that, the phone will probably connect to either the O2 or the Vodaphone network, as T-Mobile operates only on the 800 band over there.... You will of course be hit for some pretty hefty call charges, as all your calls (even to UK numbers) will be treated as international calls. It took me a couple of trips and a couple of $400 - $500 monthly invoices to get wise to what was going on. Then, once I had the phone unlocked, I switched to using an O2 Pay and Go SIM card whenever I am in the UK, leaving a message on my US TMO voice mail with the UK number if someone wanted to reach me. It saved me a lot of money when I finally figured it out.

Re:
Well my friend you saved me the trouble of figuring it out on myself and of course the huge amounts of un-justified spend dollars!!!
Thanks a bundle! I will take your advice and use the pay-to-go cards instead of my T-Mobile service, and leave the voice mail and I can as it is extract the voicemail from anywhere, unlike the Cingular voicemail which you cannot except just from your phone.

Great! glad to help A couple of other things spring to mind...
When you go into the O2 store to get the 'Pay and Go', see if they can also set you up for international calls. Its about a $3.00 one time activation fee. That way you will be able to dial back to the US with the Pay and Go SIM. Rates are about $1.50c a minute. You may have to phone O2 custmer service to activate it, buts its worth the trouble.
O2 will also give you a top up card that you can use at pretty much any gas, sorry, petrol station to top up your pay and go account. Just give the attendant the top up card, a credit card and tell them how much you want to add to your pay and go account. Its pretty slick!
Also, if you need to pull e-mail down from your US e-mail account, you can always just put the T-Mobile SIM back in and connect via GPRS through O2. I believe that there is a data option available with O2 Pay and Go as what they call one of their "bolt ons", but I never managed to get that done on my last trip. Anyway, have a good trip!!

Re:
Thanks a million!

Related

Access to 3G Network (vodafone)

Hi, I have been watching with keen interest the development of the Universal. I had the original XDA and the XDA2 but have been waiting for this 3G device before I upgrade.
I have one on back order, but not with Expansys. I have been watching Expansys wondering if I should get one through them instead of waiting however when I phoned them for some technical info about 3G networks the sales individual did not know anything about the "UK networks"!!!
So, does anyone know if you can take an unlocked, uncofigured, JasJar (such as those being sold on Expansys) and just configure the settings for 3G, or is it far more complicated than that.
I am sure I read somewhere that 3G settings need to be configured by the network, unlike GPRS which I have easily configured for my voda sim card in my xdas.
Well if it can be configured, anyone know the settings for the JasJar to use vodafone 3G ??
Cheers, Numb
jasjar on vodafone
just got my jasjar today, put in my normal sim which was purchased already on the normal 2g network and it not only came up ok but came up on vodafones 3g network with no problems what so ever.
talking to vodafone they also told me that for instance my 3g sim from my datacard which is not even on a voice contract would work though of course as i have no free minutes i would get charged at normal network rates for voice calls.
jasjar on vodafone
just got my jasjar today, put in my normal sim which was purchased already on the normal 2g network and it not only came up ok but came up on vodafones 3g network with no problems what so ever.
talking to vodafone they also told me that for instance my 3g sim from my datacard which is not even on a voice contract would work though of course as i have no free minutes i would get charged at normal network rates for voice calls.
re
n1, thats good to hear. But did u have to configure any settings for 3G ? or was the phone already configured, and if it was already configured it who by, Expansys ?
If they are unlocked presumably you have to configure it to your chosen network ?
Thx fer the reply tho, can't wait to get mine now, you lucky devil.
Cheers, Numb
to make a long stiry short: settings for gprs and umts/3g are the same, no need to change anything, if you have your vodafone gprs set you are ready to use 3g as well.
cheers, lutz
re
:lol: n1 lutzh that is what I was after. Keeping my fingers crossed for early next week. Otherwise I may to try a different distributer.
Thx again for the heads up.
Cheers, Numb

Guys what's the story With the UK O2 3G Availability

Hi. i have just got my Exec, totally happy with it, it's just that i cant get my VIDEO CALLING UP AND RUNNING :-(((
I live in North London, and there is no network coverage. so i thought, maybe that's the area problem. Than, @ Notting Hill , still no coverage, and finally @ oxford street, NOTHING. What the F**K i thought...
I am porting my Number from Orange, and it will take about a week for my Temporary O2 number to become what i had from Orange,
so i thought maybe that is one of the reasons???
May be i have to Activate the service somehow, i have no idea, what am i doing wrong, I even tried to change the Band from Auto to Umts, but that didnt help either.
please share your steps, or sollutions???
cheerzzzzz
:evil:
Did you receive a new sim with your exec. If you did, you will have to activate that before using 3G. On O2 your video calls will only be charged from your free minutes until 31/03/2006. After that it's 50p per minute!
What with skype and all the other services up & coming I find it hard to believe that they will stick to the pricing. But we shall wait and see.
so how do we activate the 3G then?
so how do we activate the 3G then?
alpharom said:
Did you receive a new sim with your exec. If you did, you will have to activate that before using 3G. On O2 your video calls will only be charged from your free minutes until 31/03/2006. After that it's 50p per minute!.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Somewhere on O2 website i read that Video calls are charged same rate as voice calls ? isn't true ?
Wow that was a quick reply.
i Was trying to call these guys in the morning, but my 30 min break just wasnt enough :twisted:
@ the end this idiot told me that my phone is not 3G Compatible. Tat put me off the conversation :roll: and plus i had to go back to work 8)
anyway i think that i will have to wait for my orange number to finally ported and got activated, and hopefully then...
[quote="Somewhere on O2 website i read that Video calls are charged same rate as voice calls ? isn't true ?[/quote]
As posted before see link here...
http://flash.o2.co.uk/personal/videocalling.html
Pay Monthly - Until 31 March 2006, video calls from O2 mobiles will be charged at the same rate as equivalent voice calls and will be eligible for inclusion within the monthly inclusive calling plan minute allowance. From 1 April 2006, Video calls from O2 mobiles to other UK mobiles will be excluded from the monthly allowance and charged 50p per minute. Video calling is handset and network dependant.
Pay & Go - Video calls made in the UK to all UK mobiles will be charged 50p per minute at all times and will be excluded from any Bolt Ons or free allowances that include voice mails (other than O2 Friends). Video calling is handset and network dependant.
Still if anyone knows how to activate this 3G service, it would would help out us who dont realy know about these things. Thanks
You should get a new sim with your exec unless you already have a 3G sim. Ring customer services and go through the security checks. They will ask for the serial number of the sim to be activated. It usually is done within 24 hours. Mine was done after 6 hours.
Good luck
PS. Check your postcode to see if you have coverage in your area as well.
http://www.webmap.o2.co.uk/map.asp
my o2 card was working since i put it in, plus i haven't seen anywhere on my papers asking me to Activate. Thats a bit stupid of them.
Unless it's just me
Yep, your original card will work just like mine did, but I received a new sim card in the box. (They are different to older sims). Only these can run 3G. They activate the new one and the old one gets switched off....eventually!
alpharom said:
You should get a new sim with your exec unless you already have a 3G sim. Ring customer services and go through the security checks. They will ask for the serial number of the sim to be activated. It usually is done within 24 hours. Mine was done after 6 hours.
Good luck
PS. Check your postcode to see if you have coverage in your area as well.
http://www.webmap.o2.co.uk/map.asp
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks mate I'll phone o2 tomorrow. they never told me this when i purchased.
mine was new one, came in the box as well. I am migrating from Orange.
But i will try to get hold of them tomorow again.
Thanks
OK your exec should be supplied with a 3G sim card ...it tells you on it in the small numbers on the card itself...8989 889 3G bla bla.... you need to call O2 and they need to activate GPRS and 3G (UMTS)....once they to that you should see the small icon on the top displaying either a "U"..(yep i see 3g) or a "G"..(yip i see gprs but no 3 g......3g or not 3g that is the question :lol: )...you can only video call when you have a U.....so to test it...use internet exploper on the device and surf the web on it via gprs...slower,,....then 3g...should nice and quick...then at least you know you have 3g and gprs connections are workin.....but i think o2 have a wee problem with there video calling on the exec...but i dont want to talk about it just now..lol as its doing my head in ..been in a o2 shop trying to fix the video calling.......sad thing is i knew more than they did....gggggggrrrrrrrrrrrr..ps or is that ee.g ? eh?
ArgyleMoss said:
so how do we activate the 3G then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Fellow Plymothian!
1st Problem
Fist thing did the SIM have 3G printed on it (on the big card before you pop it out), if it just says GSM it's not a 3G SIM.
I got my O2 XDA Exec from Mobileshop.com and checked beforhand it would come with a 3G SIM, it didn't but they shipped me a proper 3G sim the next day.
2nd Problem
O2 3G reception is very very poor where I live in Peverell (top of the hill near Outland Road), I can only get a 1 bar signal upstairs in the front of the house. The O2 coverage checker showed good 3G signal strengh.
In comparison 3 and Vodafone 3G are very good signals anywhere in the house.
So I have set the Phone to GSM only and use Wifi when at home, when away I switch over to 3G (UMTS) if need it for data but keep it on GSM for better battery life the rest of the time.
Jonathan
well well.
I have got it now finally. The BUYMOBILES.COM sold me EXEC with a regular SIM 2G one. I have called them in the morning and they told me O2 does not supply them with 3G SIMS for this phone. and told me to comtact o2 to get a 3G sim.
I did that, and they told me either you wait 5 working days or go to any O2 shop and ask for 3G SIM. I did that, called them to activate it(YOU HAVE TO DO THIS IN ORDER TO GET 3G) and now i got my U sign instead of G and video calling is working.
On the sim, YOu do actually have a 3G sign.
Mine came from O2 direct (online)
its a 3g sim card
showing as G not U - so might be needs activating or might be not in their 3G area ??
However I wonder if the free GPRS until 31/12/05 ( if it exists) is for G or U usage, so not going to call them to activate 3G until I know ( if I get free GPRS on 2g, I think I'll leave it a couple of months)
o2 said no nned to activate a 3g card - must be because I'm not in their 3g coverage, that I only get "G" not "U"
Using the 02 sim in my nokia 7600 I can do a network search .. as it details all 2g and 3g networks , and yes I'm only showing 2g for o2 and orange , whereas voda and T Mob all have 2 & 3G ( so does Three , although their 2G is actually o2 piggyback!)
Placing a "3 network" sim in the xda Exec , changes the G to a U, and after changing settings I can get 3G GPRS access - but only to their page telling me to register/pay for the service

3G + Universal + Australia

Hi,
Could those Universal owners in Australia response to this thread with...
a) What provider they are with
b) What plan they are on
c) The procedure for configuring their unit with their provider (to this point of surfing the net on mobile broadband.
Rather than trial and error I thought I'd try and cheat and just ask someone who's gone through all the pain already.
I would also be interested to hear comparisons between plans and providers.
Regards
Michael
I'm interested too! I've been looking on the net at Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and Three but I can't see anything really great - all very exy!!
Most are linked with phones on plans - not good for us we've already got the unit.
I want a sim only plan that gives me reasonable rates for data download.
I'm using Three - gave the bundled phone to a friend who wanted to upgrade an old NEC. $99 Cap Plan includes $15 towards data usage, but i've never managed to get past the $99 cap yet.
The data speed is fast - to get 3G you need to create a new connection, set the AccessPoint, which is "3netaccess", and leave all others blank. Roams to Telstra GPRS when out of coverage in Oz.
Don't bother with Three if you go overseas - there's no data coverage outside Australia for Australian customers.
There is also no comprehensible FAQ on their site for the MMS setup - just lots of pages with "your phone comes preconfigured - don't change it" comments. Ringing support is no good, if you try to, they soon figure out you are not using "their" phone, and can't help you.
If anyone else here has MMS working please give the settings.
Telstra Universal on 3G
I purchased my JasJar in the UK on a business trip, and with my UK Vodafone SIM had 3G working fine.
For Telstra 3G you need a new USIM for 3G - they should supply for free if you're a post-paid customer.
It actually roams onto the joing 3/Telstra network and drops back to Telstra GPRS.
The Telstra settings are simple - telstra.internet for the APN
Also, the 3G data plans are more generous - I changed from $55/month 5MB plan to a 3G $15/month 6MB plan.
All seems to be working fine.
www.andrewgrill.com
I have the JJ and use Telstra. The process was simple, Tell my secretary to give it to me, TElstra call me back and say that I have it, use the Imate auto configure to install it and of I go.
Expensive yes, but in the overall scheme of my business costs, its not worth looking at. Telstra I believe have a special for the video call bit that they charge the same for a video call as they do for a mobile phone call, to get you to join and try it. I dont have anybody interested in video calls.
I didnt need a telstra sim to do this, and havent actually tested it for videos.
I only really use it a little bit for internet connectivity, and given that I have wireless networks at home and office, I dont use the GPRS to 3G connectivity much.
Heads up though and it is posted in these forums elsewhere that phone companies (and I suspect telstra) would limit it your speeds to the minimum required for video conferencing which is 128kb ps, whereas 3G networks are capable of 384kbps, and only switch it on when you ask for it.
I really dont have that much need, and it doesnt even come close to the capabilities and speeds, ease, costs and overall benefits of the ADSL wireless network.
Hi, I sold my Universal (O2 Xda Exec unlocked) to somebody on eBay who lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Today I received this e-mail from him after he received it:
"My sim card doesn't work."invalid or missing sim card" appears.Can you help me to figure out."
Any ideas anyone?
PS: I should add that mine was one of the 1st Execs shipped in December and was definately unlocked as I had it working with O2 and Orange. All I have changed is to install the new Extended ROM update from their web site, which I presume doesn't have SIM locking does it?
PPS: Update from user: "Thanks for your response.Australia has got a couple network. I currently use $49 cap plan Optus network. but I don't have any idea about frequency."
my friend had a problem with optusnet, told it was the phone!!
I put my telstra sim in, worked perfectly the first time.
went to optus, requested a new sim, got it tested it didn't work, logged a support call, waited for call back, tried agin with support, nothing returned, got a telstra sim the next day and never looked back...
moral, optusnet support sucks when they don't sell you a phone, the knoledge is limited and competency sucks.
BUT I do use them for adsl, and home phone, even then acknowledge that they suck.
Tell your customer to test it on a friends telstra card and run the telstra cab, its something in optusnet.
by the way, my friends phone wa the imate jam / xda mini so the problems hadn't even started with the 3g network of the exec.
my jasjar works perfectly on telstra.
pm me, or get your customer onto the forum if I can provide localised help.
Thanks. Can you please clarify what you mean by "run the telstra cab, its something in optusnet"? What is a 'cab'?
Are they the same network and would he be able to retain his account, or does he have to switch networks?
Networks in Australia
Although Optus and Vodafone in Australia actually share a 3G network (3G air interface) everything beyond that is separate so for billing etc your friend would need a new SIM card. It's likely thet Optus people did not sell him a 3G SIM card - they will have to tell them what it is for so they give him the right SIM.
In OZ, Telstra share with 3 so you 'roam' onto the 3 network for 3G even though you have a Telstra SIM
the cab file is located on the extended rom, or on the 02 website, or the imate website, I have also posted the file elsewhere on this forum if you look for telstra.
if you cant find it, i can locate it and post it, just dont have it handy now.
a cab file installs programs or settings to a device. this particular one sets up all the mms, phone and 3 g settings. if he did a hard reset, the phone itself would ask him his communications provider and do this automatically. but telstra can only be used on telstra, and optus on optus networks, and they are effectively strings of commands to access gprs, 3g, and wap sites.
he may not have run the setup correctly on this. if he installs total commander, and types into the address field \extended_rom\ he would be able to locate the file on the device already and just run it to establish his correct settings.
however, i feel it is likely that the sim card is dud.
Hi all, thanks for your previous help. The customer now has a new SIM from Optus, Australia, which works great for calls.
However, he cannot set up GPRS. He states:
"I tried everything to set up gprs setting.I couldn't.I check the my friend's xda ii series gprs setting.It has got auto config option.So it does itself.But my xda exec ask me phone number ,domain name,username password,dns setting etc.
I rang to Optus technical support.They told me they don't support this one.They gave me dns number but didn't work. But I think . if xda ii works, exec should work.I just need set up for Australia. Please help me."
Does anyone have a link to an Optus Australia auto-config util that will send him the config in a magic SMS?
Failing that, can you type all the details here or provide a link to the Optus cab?
I'm with Vodafone on a $79 cap. The cap value includes data ($1/5min), but the billing by time rather than downloads might not suit most people.
As for configuring the phone - I just downloaded the operator settings CAB file from clubimate.com. Sets up everything perfectly!
AFIK, Vodafone and Optus are the only ones that will offer Sim-only 3G plans. Of course, you can go with Three, and just discard the phone (you can get a free phone on a $29 cap!)
JJ on Three network
JJ on Three network.
I'm going to check this post and report in the near future:
http://aussie3g.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=16121&highlight=jasjar+3netaccess
telstra also offer 3g plans, but I use their phone network and sim card as part of our corporate plan.
I have sent the customer the std cab file on my imate rom, which he reports was not beneficial for him.
I am not on optus so don't actually have the configuration settings.
spludge said:
Don't bother with Three if you go overseas - there's no data coverage outside Australia for Australian customers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i never tried data, but videocalls worked fine...the only limitation being it only works on the overseas 3 network (3 - Hong Kong in my case, this was 2 years ago when i still lived in brisbane)
It's okay guys, Optus were giving him wrong details. He found the right ones -- they're all over Google

UK T Mobile phone in Orlando - GSM OK??

I have a UK T Mobile Vario, and am taking it with me on my Orlando holiday in a couple of weeks time. I am really wanting to use it to send / receive quick emails.
The plan is to connect to my email, pull down the mail headers and then disconnect. With the mail items I want to read, I go back online and pull the full message down.
I want to drop quick mail messages to friends and family back home, and give certain updates to people on items I have been asked to buy, make sure they are OK with prices etc etc.
There appears to be various mobile cariers in Florida, and am not sure which my phone will connect to when I turn it on, but I know how to manually select a network.
The question is this, the villa is in the Indian Ridge development in Kissimmee, so should I select a specific carrier to get data features, or will any of the available ones allow it?
Vario is Triband so USA is not a problem.
You may be better ringing Tmobile UK and asking them which carrier is cheaper for roaming data in the area you will be travelling to. If you add international option to your account before you go ?3quid or thereabouts, you can get cheaper roaming. It may be cheaper buying a sim in the US and connecting on the local sim.
Maybe our American forum users could suggest the cheapest PAYG options. including data.
I had no coverage problems with tmobile around Orlando earlier this year.
If all else fails, most of the hotels in the area seem to have free, open WiFi
and plenty of parking ;-)
i lived in orlando with t-mobile, and never had any problems with coverage

T-mobile UK htc hermes

Hi all,
Will a HTC Hermes purchased in UK work with T-MO USA
Yes as long as it is SIM unlocked.
Info is here http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Hermes_SimUnlock
S.K.
Yes
I'm just back from Florida and it worked fine - without unlocking. It picked up T-Mobile USA as soon as I stepped off the plane.
That's very interesting. Do you have any idea yet on charges? Did you use calls and data? It would be handy to know.
My hotel had wi-fi so I used that 99% of the time. I did occasionally use a data connection for e-mail (3G in Orlando area, GPRS some other places, nothing down south!) and the odd text message. No phone calls. Cost me around £5 when my bill came in.
Please note that I have an unlimited data plan in the UK but this does not work abroad. Also, I could not use my BT Zone account (even with partner sites such as t-Mobile) when in the US (my BT Mobilezone or whatever it is called) did not work outside of the UK either).
Still, £5 not bad at all really. Definitely a plus for t-mobile there.
Sorry to burst your bubles but...
1.) MDA Vario II is TOTALLY locked! however Pof's unlocker v3 works great.
2.) T-Mobile USa has Nothing to do with T-Mobile UK, or Germany, or any other T-moblie. None of your plans or minutes cross over, this is true all networks, Orange, Voda, etc.
This is how they screw us to the walls, imagin if they give that up? All those 1.50 GBP per minute roaming fees and 40P texts?
And data, forget about it! Even worse.
(The guy above must have sent like 3.5 texts and mad 1 call)
We may get a break with the EU next summer in Europe, (lower roaming fees, Check out O2 for this)
But you will not get b orderless roaming in your lifetimes, you may get reduced fees, which is a start. But NEVER in the US, there you will get screwed.
The best solutions is to BUY PayGo sim cards, in the US T-mobile is the best for that.

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