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#1
Hi,
I went to order a N97 this week and found out about the N900! Looks like what I am looking for, YEAH LINUX!

I just received 2 Samsung Eternity phones today for an eligible upgrade. I called about Data access plans. Since I was calling on a Treo 680 they gave me a smartphone rate of $35/mo. I asked about if I added data to the Sammy Eternity and was quoted $15/mo.

Can I activate data on the Eternity and switch the sim to the Treo or N900 and have the same functionality?

Is there a way to block the phone type to the phone company?

They also have a data and tether rate which is like $65/mo. I should be able to tether off the N900 anyhow, right?

This is ATT by the way. I won't go T-Mo because how bad their service coverage is. So Edge will be it.

Thanx! Been waiting for a decent Nix phone! Symbian would have been a distant choice #2.
 
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#2
If the SIMs are unlocked you can put them in another phone and indeed use that one instead. However, they can easily find that out because they see exactly what type of phone you use based on IMEI. There is nothing you can do about that. What their response will be, I do not know.

About tethering in the US with your provider ATT I don't know. It should work with any provider, but you will need to activate BlueTooth DUN on N900 which is not officially supported by Nokia.
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#3
because it's a phone from another network, the phone probably won't be in att's system. and they won't usually go out of the way to check it, as long as you don't use extremely high rates of data every month.

just pop the sim in your eternity so it the sim is registered to the eternity, then after it's registed (check online) pop it in your unlocked n900 and you should be fine
 
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#4
Originally Posted by allnameswereout View Post
If the SIMs are unlocked you can put them in another phone and indeed use that one instead. However, they can easily find that out because they see exactly what type of phone you use based on IMEI. There is nothing you can do about that. What their response will be, I do not know.

About tethering in the US with your provider ATT I don't know. It should work with any provider, but you will need to activate BlueTooth DUN on N900 which is not officially supported by Nokia.
Hmm,
You just mentioned something I didn't know. Can the SIM be locked to the phone? I know phones can be locked to service providers. I used the sim from my Treo in the eternity, no problem. They told me when they sent the eternity to activate the new sim that came with the eternity. If I take that "New" sim out and put it in my Treo, what is the chance it won't work? I've never run into that before?

Thanx!
Les
 
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#5
Yes, a phone can be locked to a SIM. It is called SIMlock. If you buy a phone with a subscription ('subsidized' it is apparently called in English) the SIM is locked to the phone.

Legal ability to unlock differs per jurisdiction. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock

There is also something as 'SIM only'. This is simply a subscription for a SIM card which you can put in any phone without SIMlock.

Even then, the telco can see the phone you use.

Originally Posted by bigr3dd0g View Post
because it's a phone from another network, the phone probably won't be in att's system. and they won't usually go out of the way to check it, as long as you don't use extremely high rates of data every month.
Nope, they can see perfectly fine what phone you use on their network.
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#6
Originally Posted by allnameswereout View Post
Yes, a phone can be locked to a SIM. It is called SIMlock. If you buy a phone with a subscription ('subsidized' it is apparently called in English) the SIM is locked to the phone.

Legal ability to unlock differs per jurisdiction. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock

There is also something as 'SIM only'. This is simply a subscription for a SIM card which you can put in any phone without SIMlock.

Even then, the telco can see the phone you use.

Nope, they can see perfectly fine what phone you use on their network.
I think you have mis-interpreted the wiki article you linked. The post you seem to be responding to asked if a SIM could be locked to a phone. In other words, a SIM card that will ONLY work in a particular phone. That is not what SIM_lock provides. SIM_lock provides a "feature" such that a branded phone can only be used with a certain service provider (which was the example the poster provided). A given SIM will work in any unlocked phone (which is kind of the point). There is a small caveat to that in that very old SIMs might have trouble working in new phones after the switch to the new "magic 3G" SIMS was made. The solution to that is just get a new SIM with your number transferred to it.

Last edited by texaslabrat; 2009-09-23 at 20:10.
 
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#7
I know, so he can put the SIM card out of the SIMlocked phone and toss it in an unlocked phone and use that. But then he cannot use the SIMlocked phone anymore... and the provider can find out what he did quite easily. For example, I'm only allowed to switch my SIM card to another phone 2x a month.
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#8
Originally Posted by allnameswereout View Post
I know, so he can put the SIM card out of the SIMlocked phone and toss it in an unlocked phone and use that. But then he cannot use the SIMlocked phone anymore... and the provider can find out what he did quite easily. For example, I'm only allowed to switch my SIM card to another phone 2x a month.
But that's not what SIMlock is about..that's just IMEI checking by the service provider. Completely different issues and has nothing to do with "locking" a SIM to a phone from a technological aspect..it is a policy/billing issue.

For instance, I can switch my SIM from my SIMlocked, subsized phone to my unlocked N95 and back again every day if I wish. My provider doesn't care. That doesn't change the fact that my subsidized phone is SIMlocked and won't work with *another* provider's SIM.
 
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#9
True, but then he cannot use the SIMlocked phones anymore, and his provider can find out he uses a different phone than the one they gave him a subscription for. If they care to sell different data plans for different models of phones they will also care to check to make sure you don't trick them. Else its kinds pointless... so he needs to play nice with his provider, or take risk that they not check IMEI... or just get a new SIM only with data plan and N900.
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#10
Originally Posted by allnameswereout View Post
True, but then he cannot use the SIMlocked phones anymore, and his provider can find out he uses a different phone than the one they gave him a subscription for. If they care to sell different data plans for different models of phones they will also care to check to make sure you don't trick them. Else its kinds pointless... so he needs to play nice with his provider, or take risk that they not check IMEI... or just get a new SIM only with data plan and N900.
Who says he can't use it anymore? He could easily transfer his SIM back into it (if he wanted to for some reason) or put another SIM from the same service provider in it and it will run just fine. Just because YOUR provider imposes some kind of restriction on SIM swapping doesn't make it the norm for the rest of the world

As for "playing nice with the provider else take the risk etc etc"...well, if they are going to check the IMEI as a matter of policy it's going to happen no matter what. Playing "nice" or "naughty" will have the same conclusion since it's not related.

The BEST course of action is to find out what the provider's policies are ahead of time and make a plan around that, rather than relying on theoretical conjecture on what "could" or "might" happen based on the experiences from people who live on different continents
 
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