Cell phone not reprogrammable

[LenS]

My wife and I both have Cingular service on our cell phones. Hers is
an Ericksson and mine's Nokia.

A member of our family passed away recently and left a later model
Nokia than my phone. I called Cingular to ask if my service could be
transferred to the later model Nokia, and was told that it couldn't
because the new Nokia had been programmed for AT&T service. There was
no way, I was told, that the phone once programmed for AT&T could be
used for Cingular. The person couldn't explain why that was so, but
just said it couldn't be done. But, she said, if I cared to sign a new
contract (I'm not contracted right now) I'd be eligible for a new
phone.

I don't know much about cell phones but I'd sure like to know from
some disinterested party why this phone can't be set up for Cingular.

-Len

 

On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 02:16:16 GMT, LenS
<lenston@nospam.worldnet.att.net> wrote:

My wife and I both have Cingular service on our cell phones. Hers is
an Ericksson and mine's Nokia.

A member of our family passed away recently and left a later model
Nokia than my phone. I called Cingular to ask if my service could be
transferred to the later model Nokia, and was told that it couldn't
because the new Nokia had been programmed for AT&T service. There was
no way, I was told, that the phone once programmed for AT&T could be
used for Cingular. The person couldn't explain why that was so, but
just said it couldn't be done. But, she said, if I cared to sign a new
contract (I'm not contracted right now) I'd be eligible for a new
phone.

I don't know much about cell phones but I'd sure like to know from
some disinterested party why this phone can't be set up for Cingular.

-Len

Cell phones have an internal eeprom (rewriteable memory) which hold
the important info such as the phone id and homing. Normally a data
cable and software is needed to change the contents.

I suspect that the AT&T software on the phone needs a password to
alter the phone. This is a security feature to prevent any schmuck
with a cable from reprogramming his phone to impersonate another
phone. I doubt Cingular has this info.

-Chris

 

[Andrew Rossmann]

In article <pq8itv04piogq0ar4pbv5145lgv3q686iv@4ax.com>,
lenston@nospam.worldnet.att.net says...

My wife and I both have Cingular service on our cell phones. Hers is
an Ericksson and mine's Nokia.

A member of our family passed away recently and left a later model
Nokia than my phone. I called Cingular to ask if my service could be
transferred to the later model Nokia, and was told that it couldn't
because the new Nokia had been programmed for AT&T service. There was
no way, I was told, that the phone once programmed for AT&T could be
used for Cingular. The person couldn't explain why that was so, but
just said it couldn't be done. But, she said, if I cared to sign a new
contract (I'm not contracted right now) I'd be eligible for a new
phone.

I don't know much about cell phones but I'd sure like to know from
some disinterested party why this phone can't be set up for Cingular.

In order to help 'lock-in' customers, and to subsidize the low phone
prices, phones are now often locked to a particular network. This is often
done in the factory now. This is one of the dark secrets many people will
be finding out if they try and change carriers, but want to keep their
number.

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