So i want a new phone. I'm on Cingular's network, and i want a Sony Ericsson T68i.

I DO NOT want to pay for the phone from Cingular and be locked into their stupid contracts. And i don't want to be locked into Cingulars web/mail settings on the phone.

SO... what do you folks know about these "unlocked" cell phones you can get on ebay and locally? I get the general premise... it's not locked to a network so any SIM card can be used in it. Anyone ever go that route?

My options are to buy a locked phone and figure out how to unlock it... (any of you know how to do this?)... or to risk buying an unlocked one on Ebay or locally and pop the SIM from my current phone in it.

Opinions? Answers?

I want to decide this weekend as i can no longer stand my current phone

Search alt.cellular.ericsson for "t68i unlock" - there's plenty for you to read there.

Bear in mind, if you didn't know already, that there are 2 types of unlocking: One is concerned with switching on a stolen handset that has been locked by a network operator, the other (what you are talking about) is concerned with simply removing ties to a particular network.

An unlocked handset is simply one that you can put any sim card into and make a call. SOME operators lock their handsets so that you can only use their sim card, but not all do this.

Its relatively cheap to get one unlocked - cheapest I've seen for the Ericsson here in UK is £4.99. You can do it yourself, but you'll need software and a data cable - its probaby cheaper to pay someone to do it locally, or just buy it already unlocked.

A brand new handset from anywhere should already be unlocked - if its in an Ericsson box, its probably ready to accept any sim. Be careful buying a phone on Ebay, if it ever gets reported stolen by the seller, the serial number will be blacklisted, and it'll be useless.

Is this at all like e.g. Sprint where the phone has a one-use subsidy lock code and a master subsidy lock code?

I'm not sure how the US and cell phone carriers work, but I think yes, thats the same. A master code from the carrier will unlock the phone to all networks, but they charge about £30 for the privilage. £4.99 is certainly cheaper.

Incidentally, I can do Nokias (remotely), but not Ericssons.

Well, the neat thing about the Sprint deal is the one-time code is just that. If you activate the phone again you get the real code.

So you use their web activation thing. When it gives you the first code, you click the "it didn't work" thing and it gives you the real code.

thanks for the info guys.

PhilipOHare... know anyone that CAN do Ericsson's? Or at least anyone that is trustworthy?

Go to the forums at http://www.howardchui.com. Tons of info there and you can find people & info on unlocking. If you are looking for new unlocked phones, here is a good reputable dealer.

http://www.gsmphonesource.com/index.html[/url]

On a side note; why would you want a T68i? It has the WORST RF. You may want to reconsider...

i have one and the rf does suck. It seems like the t68i is still difficult to unlock. The last I heard you needed a cable and then had to send the output to a person to give you an unlock code. Is it any different now?

If you dont mind switching providers, T-mobile is using cingulars service in CA, and they do have the t68i cheap with only a year contract.

Yes I know a few people. It may be possible to remote unlock it. i.e. you give me the serial number and I get you an unlock code. I'll find out and get back to you.

On a side note; why would you want a T68i? It has the WORST RF. You may want to reconsider...

Thanks for the info. I want a t68i to replace the monstrous T62z i've got. I HATE this phone due to it's size, and i want a smaller color phone that can do email, web, and most importantly bluetooth so i can actually use functions like the calander. I played with a buddy of mine's yesterday and fell in love. I've read a lot of people saying it has bad reception, but so far no one i know personally that has one has any complaints about it. I just read a lot of "don't get that phone, the reception sucks" from people who've never used it.

i have one and the rf does suck

could you elaborate on that a little? do you get lots of dropped calls or just lower reception than normal? What phones are you comparing it against?

Yes I know a few people. It may be possible to remote unlock it. i.e. you give me the serial number and I get you an unlock code. I'll find out and get back to you

Thanks!

I've just checked Ebay - the vast majority are already unlocked. Like I say.. if its out of an ericsson box, it'll most likely be unlocked.

If going down the ebay route, read the descriptions carefully... if it doesn't say its unlocked, then its probably not. If in doubt, ask them!

Edit: Friend of mine has one and has no problems with RF. It depends on the firmware revision. Early ones will be buggy.

What i think i'm going to end up doing is getting one from Cingular (they come with the camera free) for about $150 with a 1 year renewal contract since i'm not going anywhere soon. That way i don't run the risk of getting a stolen or grey market phone. Then i'll pay to get it unlocked or buy the cable and get the software. If you have hookups in that department, i'd greatly appreciate it! Cingular locks all kinds of crap on their phones and i wanna have full control over it if i pay for the thing.

I've got one, I'm on the AT&T network, some places the reception sucks, some places it's great. I bought it for the bluetooth, I wanted verizon, but those chuckleheads had NO bluetooth phones... unfortunate because their coverage is the best in my area. But I have to say I absolutely love my phone... it's the coolest, associating pictures with rings and what not, bluetooth so when I'm driving I just push the button on my headset wait for the beep, say the persons name and I'm talking to them, no wires, very cool. And I still haven't even figured out how to use all the web features. BTW mine was 45 bucks when I got it through AT&T, some kind of online 100 dollar rebate, the money never left my bank account, I like those kinds of rebates.

Sure, I'm just waiting an email about the remote unlocking. If thats not possible I'll source a reputable unlocker in your area. I know plenty, but they are UK based and you'd need to send your phone which would cost a fair bit. I'll email you with what I find.

Thanks for the review Brett. Do you have the handsfree advanced car kit thing? That looks VERY slick! You just leave the phone in your pocket and it's all done via bluetooth. All sounds go through the stereo and an installed mike. I'm gonna probably pick one of those up when i get the new car... expensive little kit though.

And thanks for checking that out Philip. I really appreciate it!

I've got an AT&T t68i in the bay area, and the reception is far worse than AT&T TDMA. While outside, the coverage is pretty good, the moment you go inside the coverage drops off to nothing. Sometimes I get calls in my appartment, sometimes I don't. I bought a bluetooth headset so I could leave it by the window, but lost the headset within three days. Still haven't brought myself to replace it. The bluetooth is great however, and if I drove every day I'd definitly have a bluetooth car kit.

My real problem with the phone is that it doesn't tell you if you've got reception or not. On my nokia TDMA phone, if I had one bar, the phone would ring. It might not be clear, but I'd know if I was getting a call, and I'd get voicemail notifications. With my t68i with one bar, the phone may but probably won't ring, and voicemail notifications could take hours to arrive even after I've walked around in good reception areas. This is what will come day cause me to throw my phone accross a room and through a window, as an ex-boss of mine once did.

So, I've had issues with mine. I'm not sure if they're AT&T GSM issues, or T68i issues, however. It still is a great phone feature list wise, however, and the features do work.

Matthew

Thanks Matthew. Hrmm... anyone else have problems with reception inside? That's a big downer if it's really that bad. I don't know if the Cingular GSM is any better that ATT's... But the phone i have now is on Cingulars GSM network and i get good reception inside work and home.

Hey, as long as we are on the subject of unlocking phones does anybody know if the Treos are locked? A while back I bought a Treo 180 through Handspring and signed up for service with Cingular at the same time. I'd like to dump Cingular when the contract expires, but keep the phone. Since I bought the phone from Handspring I wonder if they bothered locking it to a carrier?

-Mike

http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:rXS7fbZD7x0C:www.darwinsys.com/theories/treo-blog.html+"Treo+180"+unlock&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Look near the bottom.

Look near the bottom

Thanks! Now all I need is one of the GSM providers to offer an affordable data plan

-Mike

You may want to consider the successor to the T68i. The T610.
http://64.78.31.105/gallery/sonyericssont610new/

You may want to consider the successor to the T68i. The T610

yeah... that't the phone i really want... but i'm just so sick of mine right now. By the time Cingular carries that model i'll probably be ready to get it anyhow. what is the release date on it in the US?

"The model is holding a T610. The screen inside is her face."

Ouch

Should be out May 15th......You should be able to buy it unlocked....

Place to buy:
http://www.expansys.us/product.asp?code=T610

I got the t68i this morning. it's sweet! I talked to the rep and he said i could just call Cingular and tell them i'm going out of the country and they'll give me the unlock code for the phone no problem. Only cavaet was that i'd have to wait 3 weeks to do so.

Sooo.. bluetooth. Is there a simple bluetooth adaptor for PC's so i can sync this puppy? Anyone have one or could recommend one?

Yeah - I got mine from eBay. They mostly call them USB Bluetooth 'dongles'.

I don't really use much of the calendar functions, etc but I can get pictures across just fine. I waited around and picked one up for about £12 - much cheaper than the £70 for the same thing in The Link!

With regards to unlocking... I can find pleny of people willing to do it, but its a case of "send it to me with cash and I'll send it right back to you". Yeah, right, where do I sign up!

I seem to be having problems finding a reputable shop, but if singular will do it for free in 3 weeks, I'd go for that. Let me know!

actually any bluetooth headset will do the trick... I got a plantronic with a basestation before I got the phone for use with my xbox... mated nicely with the t68i my only complaint with that one was that the volume was a bit too low and couldn't really use it while on the highway... then I upgraded to the nokia HDW-2, (btw you can definately find that cheaper on ebay got mine for around 70 bucks?) that works nicely although you have to be VERY careful removing the little earpiece thing or it will break... but once it's fitted its sturdy works well, looks cool and everything..

the way both headsets work is they ship with a code, you use the code to mate it with your cell phone. if the headset is on, your phone knows it. both (most) devices have a button, basically you set your phone for bluetooth hands free. When the phone rings, you push the button on the headset to answer it. If you want to make a call, when the phone isn't in use, you push the button, you will hear a tone, you then say the name (you have to set that up) it will then send another tone (if your contact has more then one phone number... work, mobile, home) you say either "work" "mobile" or "phone" (or what ever you set your commands for) and whalla... your speaking in seconds. Once you get it all set up it's truly a beautiful thing.

I haven't used the kit so I have no idea what extra functionality that would give you. All I know is what I have works and works well...

Also, my reception varies, it's never dropped a call however it has gotten very garbled but move somewhere else and it's good (I know that kind of sucks, but it happens rarley) with bluetooth when I'm in the house I normally leave the phone someplace with good reception and as long as I'm within 15ft or so... I'm good. Actually did my laundry last night while having a real conversation, it was great!

I seem to be having problems finding a reputable shop, but if singular will do it for free in 3 weeks, I'd go for that. Let me know!

Thanks again for checking it out man. i really appreciate it. I'll post when/if Cingular lets me unlock this puppy. I think i'm gonna try tonight just for the hell of it. =]

On another note... does anyone know of any windows bluetooth integration type apps (he says without searching yet). Some of the stuff they have for macs is amazing. you can remote control music apps and all kinds of crazyness. oh, and anyway to manage contacts other than the freakin' Outlook sync. I can't stand Outlooks contact manager.

Bemused works with Windows. Comes with source code as well if you want to change anything. Only for UIQ (SonyEricsson P800) and Series 60 (Nokia 7650, 3650) currently though.

- Trevor

So far, AT&T is the only company that I have ran into that won't give unlock codes. And I found myself stuck with one of their T68i phones. So I bought the cable and unlocking services online from Virtual Dynamix. I'm tempted to use them again to do a remote firmware upgrade, though that tends to be a bit riskier.

For the record, I got the AT&T phone when my Nokia 8290 broke. I have a Best Buy PSP on it, and at the time all their T-Mobile phones sucked. So I talked the tech into giving me the T68i as a replacement. I got the PSP so I would never be without a cell phone if mine broke. I then found out T-Mobile has loaner phones from their stores, and I got one while I waited on the cable. In the future, I'll just get my phones right from T-Mobile again.

And on the Mac Bluetooth side, get the Salling Clicker app. It's well worth it just to amaze your coworkers with a proximity sensor that locks and unlocks your workstation. Beyond that, it's useful for the practical purposes of not having to manually unlock your station, and having a nice and secure way of ensuring it is locked when you are not around.

I have found absolutly no use for my bluteooth card so far. Admitedly, the drivers are so poor that I can't even get it to pair at the moment, but I figure that'll sort itself out in good time. All anyone has really tried to do is syncing which isn't that exciting. I'm looking for caller ID and remote pc controll and the like, but havn't found anything that even tries.

As to unlocking, there are ads on craigslist for people that will unlock them for about $20. I know I've seen listings for stores both in oakland and san francisco. http://www.esato.com/ had some fairly active forums a few months ago with some good information and explanations of what was involved in unlocking among other things.

Matthew

There are a few good pc apps that ive used for synchronization, playing music, and transferring files, i cant remember their names though right now. You should try out the animated gifs and themes that are out there.

I called last night and after about 50 menus i got to a person (for future reference... the good old Zero button works wonders). There's a 30 day moratorium before they'll unlock your phone for you. I asked to speak to a manager so he could push it through early, and i got cut off.... since i was on the line after their freakin' support hours i'm guessing. Anyhow... i'll try again tonight. He made it sound like it wouldn't be a problem at all. They DO ask what country you are traveling to so they can check it they have GSM compatability (almost all European countries do).

Damn... i need to get a Mac. I never should have sold my soul... especially now that Maya is on OSX.

Here is a sync manager for linux, don't know about any other sync managers I'm sure there are.... this website has an enormous amount of info. Here is a link witha bunch of small apps for the t68i, one that lets you control winamp.

So i've wasted most of my day reading through Esato.com (great resource by the way... thanks!). After hours of reading through repeat posts (why can't everyone have a FAQmaster?!)... it looks like the MSI USB bluetooth key (MS-6967) is the one to get for reliability and software. Problem is it's impossible to source in the US. I've spent hours searching online and i can't find anything. It looks like it's readily available in the EU. Anyone coming to the US from the EU anytime soon? Anyone wanna trade for a couple of LucasArts games? =]

Or if anyone more resourcefull than I could find one i'd be grateful. Why the hell isn't this model abailable in the US? Grrr.

Could post one to you if you want. Shouldn't cost that much for shipping since the actual dongle is tiny. It's best to use TDK drivers than the MSI ones.

- Trevor

That would rock! I'd really appreciate it. I could paypal you the $$ or figure out another way. PM me if you really wanna go through with it and it's not too much trouble.

Cool stuff. This thread motivated me to actually get my bluetooth card that arrived last week to work. So far it's great. The christersson.org remote program is pretty neat. The winamp integration isn't quite perfect, but scrolling through songs on my phone and picking them out is sweet.

Now I'm on to "floAt's Mobile Agen" ("fma" on sourceforge) which aside from the obnoxious capitalization seems to be a good program. It has a nice phone book management interface which is great for those of us who use our phone as our difinitive address book. It can also pop up a window with the caller ID information when people call. There seems to be some scriping interface with some sort of winamp script, so I'm on to that next.

Matthew

Floats is exactly why i want the USB Bluetooth dongle. That looks like what i've been wanting for years!

Yup, it's by far the best thing that i've run into so far. The winamp controlls are pretty good now that I've got them working. I've never done any VB scripting, but I might need to learn so I can get everything working just how I'd like. It does seem like it's going to kill my battery quickly however.

Now, reading the expansys web site for the tdk bluetooth dongle says that it supports audio functions? My $15 belkin card has no mention of audio, so i'll definitly have to reasearch that some more. I can't imagine actually using my PC as a headset would be any more convenient than holding the phone, but...

Matthew

I have the Iogear usb bluetooth adaptor, it works great and supports all the functions of the t68i.

Have you used it with Float's mobile agent and been able to send stuff from the phone TO the PC? I'm just hesitant because there seem to be a large number of folks on esato that have had a lot of problems with the IOGears as far as connectivity and software. Are you using the drivers that come with it?

never used float, I can do the outlook sync, and send pictures and such... I can try it though and let you know...

Cool, i'd appreciate it if you try it out. I'd much rather get something locally if i know it works. Thanks again for the help everyone!

The USB dongles all should be pretty similar actually. Nearly all of them actually use the same chipset but just have a different USB manufacturer/product ID. So if you edit the .inf file that comes with the TDK drivers you can use the better and updated drivers.

I've got a TDK Bluetooth PCMCIA card and a Mitsui Bluetooth USB dongle and they both work fine.

- Trevor

not the microsoft dongle... stay away from that one... I bought it at first cause it came with the mouse... the mouse and keyboard are the only thing that microsoft POS works with. Then again... It's microsoft right?

yup works with IOgear, actually works better then the outlook sync stuff... Once I put my phone in "discoverable" mode, it connected in less then 2 seconds which is awesome. The IOgear does the virtual serial ports which is how I connected.

Okay. Good point. Most of the other cheap dongles are identical apart from the Microsoft one

- Trevor

on a side note... i spent about 16 hours on airplanes this weekend and i discovered the game "Q" on my t68i... holy crap... i'm addicted. I got to level 49 just while on the planes. Anyone else playing that? I NEVER play games on my cell phones... but that one just hooked me. I love that type of puzzle game.

I've made it to 11 or 12, but not past that. It's the one I play the most, though that's not too surprising considering I havn't looked up the rules for any of the card games. I'm not a big fan of it though, and really feel cheated that it doesn't have tetris on it. Tetris is a game I can spend hours and hours playing. On seccond thought, it might be a good thing my phoen doesn't have tetris.

Matthew

Yeah, Q is great! I do a level a week when I'm on the train. Got really stuck on level 49 tho - took about three weeks maybe (hey, I'm only only the train 1/2 an hour a week). The T68 used to have tetris AND defender AND snake, then I upgraded the firmware - oh great battleships

I'm stuck on 49 too! heheh. I just need to stare at it for an hour, and it'll probably just hit me.

As for tetris et al, can't you just download them to your phone from your provider or one of the other pay per game type sites? Or can the t68i not recieve games...

Does the T68 have a "power up but don't activate the RF section" option? I didn't think you were supposed to power phones up on planes, mainly because it confuses the hell out of the cells that can your your phone (and maybe partially because of dodgy plane electrics which are very susceptible to RF)

Hugo

Yeah, i didn't think about that 'til today when i was reading about the Nokia N-Gage and an argument over whether it had that option. The t68i doesn't that i've found.... doh.

You're lucky that nobody noticed! Some guy got arrested for playing games on his mobile. Although the main problem was that he refused to turn it off even after a stewardess told him to.

- Trevor

That's messed up! It would really be a hit for combination PDA/phone devices if that happens. I wonder how understanding a flight crew would be if you promised that the phone was off and you were just using it as a PDA. The article doesn't mention if the man's phone had this capability, but it was still kind of dumb to continue to refuse to put it away. I'd be pissed as hell, but I'd put it away.

The issue with phones on a plane just seems to be overloading cells. There is a limited number of frequencies available and the system relies on the fact that you shouldn't ever be seen by more than a couple cells and thats during handover.

He had an Ericsson T68 I believe. Can't remember exactly as it was on the news so long ago.
Most of the PDA/phone ones can have the radio turned off but I've yet to find a normal phone that can. There is some software for my 7650 which does alledgely turn off the radio portion but I doubt the flight crew would trust it/me.

- Trevor

Nah - it's got no capability for any additions as far as I'm aware; you're stuck with what they give you. You'd need a Java enabled phone or other equivalents for that kinda thing