I bought an AT&T Samsung Focus on eBay with no contract and will probably be getting a plan for it in the future, but I am in Canada. Rogers has Samsung Focuses, but I really hate Rogers, so I would rather get a plan with Bell or Telus.
My question is: If I were to put in a SIM card from Bell or Telus and get a smartphone plan, both of which do not have Samsung Focuses, would I be able to fully utilize all of the features that either company would offer with their smartphone plans even though I would not be able to have a ROM for my phone from them?
In particular, I do not know if the ROMs that they have for the Windows Phones that they offer have any special software that enables certain features to be used. For instance, Bell plans are supposed to come with tethering, but there is no built-in way to handle tethering in Windows Phone 7.
My phone came with some preinstalled AT&T apps, but they all required extra subscriptions for them anyway. If those are the only unique things that ROMs from Bell or Telus would provide, I can do without those.
Thanks.
Well, you won't be able to access Bell/Telus exclusive apps (mostly paid services), but nothing else is really missing.
Further advice.
Make sure your Samsung Focus is unlocked. If not, call AT&T and have your phone's IMEI number in hand.
Go to Marketplace > Samsung Zone and install the Network Profile application.
Related
Hey all,
I have the Bell unlimited mobile browser with my Samsung Impact. I used to have an HTC Touch that was older, but had much better capabilities with the umb but unfortunately was damaged. If I were to get, say an unlocked Samsung Galaxy and put my sim card and and enter the proper asn settings, would Bell know I'm not using my Impact and charge me data rates? Thank you
Amazing, I am literally in the exact same scenario. I had an HTC touch, it broke, bought an impact because I was told it was the highest level of phone that could still use the Unlimited Browser.
I am looking at a Samsung wave. I talked to customer service, and the woman told me that I could use my wave by simply switching the sim card, and still access the browser. She said she uses a blackberry smartphone, and it works that way. But I havent bought the wave yet, so I havent verified this. I guess I will find out once I attempt it. Have you gotten any info back on your question?
The way carriers know which phone your using, in general, is they have a database of IMEI numbers. But only the phones that they sell you directly (the ones with their branding) are in their database. So if you, for example, took an unlocked Roger's phone and put a Bell SIM card into it, they wouldn't know what phone you're using. But if you put your Bell SIM into a Bell Galaxy S (even if it's unlocked), they would know and probably alert you that you need to change your plan. This is how AT&T caught iPhone users on the cheaper feature-phone data plans over here in the states.
tl;dr: As long as the phone you want to use doesn't have Bell branding on it, they won't know.
I have a completely stock Verizon S3 and am planning to travel to Europe this summer. Wondering what my options are?
When I was on ATT, it was simply a matter of unlocking the phone (called ATT to get unlock code) and inserting a local SIM card.
Can the same thing be done with Verizon? I know that they have international data plans, but they seem expensive, and I think I would prefer to just insert a local SIM card.
My needs will be mostly checking e-mails, possibly some web surfing.
I would prefer not to Root my phone if possible.
Thanks!
This article from February says you can swap the SIM for voice but Verizon blocked the ability to change the APN to allow data.
http://m.cnet.com/news/turns-out-verizons-galaxy-s3-isnt-global-ready-after-all/57569438?ds=1
There are instructions in the Development section (not the one with Original in the title) to make it fully international, but does require root.
Have a nice trip.
I have a Galaxy S III from AT&T and am considering moving to T-Mobile, I know several people who have it in my area and have good service, also I can have my phone and wife's phone with unlimited everything for roughly what I am paying for one phone on AT&T with limits, so seems like a good idea.
T-Mobile lets you bring phones from other GSM services and their website says the GS3 is supported, but I am curious to hear from anyone who has done this and if they had any issues when they did it. Also once switched over would I be able to get OTA updates from T-Mobile (like the 4.1.2 update) or would there be some hangup because it was originally an AT&T phone?
*Mods, please move if there is a better place. I normally hang out on the development forums so I'm not exactly sure where to post*
I have a phone that I bought from Verizon and I have kept the unlimited data. I know all about my phone but next to nothing about my service.
My question is specifically about phablets (for example, this) which is basically a big ass phone, or a tablet with cell service, however you want to word it. I'd use it exclusively with bluetooth instead of holding the thing up to my head, don't worry.
I travel internationally and see them A LOT in other countries (they cannot help me though since I need one to use in the US). I am under the impression that VZ will not activate anything I did not buy from them. I don't know how solid this is but every VZ employee I have asked has confirmed this so far. I know in the past that it used to be as simple as switching out the SIM card but doubt this is still the case.
I'm sure there are some hardware specs that I need to look at that would determine the LTE/3G whatever compatibility, but I don't know the terminology. Can you help me out?
Also, I am hesitant to leave VZ because of the unlimited data and the service coverage. I live in mildly populated CT, USA and would welcome a prepaid plan if it was comparable but don't even know where to begin looking.
Thank you in advance - I really don't have anyone else to ask about this stuff.
You will want to look for international versions of the devices you are looking for. These versions carry multiple antennas that allows them to be used in different countries. As far as I know, these phones use SIM cards, which allows you to purchase an international SIM or a SIM in the country you are in, and it should work when you plug it into your device.
Is there a way to check for the antennas in the specifications instead of relying on the seller to accurately sell me the int'l version? How would you go about buying a SIM card?
I got an att gear s2 but I don't have att service so I wanted to know if I can use it to connect to let's say T-Mobile since its an esim.
Unfortunately this is why American carriers, at least that's what my knowledge covers, f&#king suck! Out comes this new technology that for the first time will allow people to have the potential to use any carrier with the same hardware, and then carriers like AT&T refuse to unlock them.
Yes, I called AT&T and T-Mobile and AT&T doesn't unlock watches. I hope someone finds a way to somehow port the T-Mobile software over to the AT&T hardware.
The esim should be universal right? Like it should work for any carriers. If so wouldn't it work if we pay for an unlock code? Even tho we wouldn't be inserting another sim, the imei would be released to be used by other carriers. Does it make sense at all? Lol
My n6 was like that. It couldn't be used by other carrier until I unlocked it and its imei was released from att to be used by others.
brainburnerco said:
The esim should be universal right? Like it should work for any carriers. If so wouldn't it work if we pay for an unlock code? Even tho we wouldn't be inserting another sim, the imei would be released to be used by other carriers. Does it make sense at all? Lol
My n6 was like that. It couldn't be used by other carrier until I unlocked it and its imei was released from att to be used by others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem I noticed is the fact that there are custom settings for AT&T and so even if you unlocked it, I think you would need to still flash the appropriate software. I'm just guessing though.
It's really frustrating that I've got the first big consumer device using an eSIM and I can't take advantage of it's most basic and essential feature.
Any updates on this? The AT&T watch is like half the price as T-mo and I'm interested in using AT&T watch on T-mobile if possible
Any updates? I just switched mobile carriers from ATT to TMobile and would like to use my watch on their network
I have the S2 Classic SM-R735AZKAATT (for AT&T obviously) but I'd like to have it set up with T-Mobile.
Can I take this into T-Mobile and set up service? If so, anyone know how much?