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General discussion

Changing or unlocking a cell phone

Apr 12, 2005 8:29AM PDT

I recieved someone's old cell phone. It is a Nokia CDMA2000 and the person had gotten a new phone. The original phone was set up via Alltel. I don't want a contract, only about 60 prepaid minutes a month. Is it ok to use one of the "unlocking" sites? If I do get the phone unlocked, is there a company in the US that sells pre-paid minutes that could be used on the phone? Is it really true that the only thing to do with old cell phones is to throw them away or donate them? How can charities get the cells unlocked and get minutes? Thanks

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Yes
Apr 12, 2005 12:30PM PDT

If it is a CDMA phone, then you have to go with sprint or verizon for prepaid minutes. I think Verizon's prepaid minutes plan sucks, it is too expensive. They charge you 99 cents a day whether you make calls or not. I don't know anything about sprint.
You also have Virgin Mobile which uses sprint's CDMA network and their prepaid minutes are pretty good.
On the GSM networks the best prepaid is with T-mobile, but you would need an unlocked GSM phone for that.

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charity
Apr 14, 2005 6:36AM PDT

YEs, you can donate the old phones with out service because any cell phone that you have can be used without provider service activated. All you need is a full battery in order for the 911 to work.