Travel Technology - Mobil Phone Question

I bought a Motorola V180 from the internet to use in Africa. The phone said it was able to be used as 900/1800/1900. I know where I am going I need the phone to be 1900. I am planning on buying a card for my phone once I get to Africa. Is this phone unlocked?

I just want to make sure this phone will work once I get to Africa. Any ideas.

Is this phone unlocked?

The information you provided is insufficient to determine that. When you buy a phone other than through a carrier, it is critical to determine in advance if it is either unlocked or if it was locked to your carrier.

If it didn't say unlocked wherever you purchased it, it may not be.

The phone said World Phone, and it had 1900 which is what I needed. So I thought that is what I should get. I looked at the rental website for phones in Africa and they were renting these phones. I am just not sure about this phone working.

The phone can be a "world phone" but that doesn't mean that the entity selling it to you has unlocked the phone....this is a trick done by some carriers to "lock" you into their service plans by locking the phone from use with SIM cards from other carriers...so the easiest test before leaving the USA is to get a a SIM card from someone, fire up the phone, and if it doesn't ask for a code of some kind you are OK

If you bought it from a non-carrier source there is a better chance of it being unlocked but it's not a guarantee

Thanks for that infomation. I am new at this being that I have Verizon, and that will not work for my stay. I will try that out, I heard you can put in a code of 000007, maybe that will work. If not I will have to buy another phone.

I wouldn't count on the 000007 working. If that's supposed to be an unlock code, each phone has a unique code.

Try to find out from where you bought the phone if it's unlocked, or as CVO 1K 2 Million suggested, put in another carrier's SIM card and see if it works.

I wouldn't count on the 000007 working. If that's supposed to be an unlock code, each phone has a unique code.

Try to find out from where you bought the phone if it's unlocked, or as CVO 1K 2 Million suggested, put in another carrier's SIM card and see if it works.
If it doesn't work, bring the phone to Africa and find a local dealer who can unlock it for you. They should be able to unlock a motorola no problem.. the phone's an older one and anyone can pretty much unlock them with some of the commerical programs available.

Worst comes to worst.. buy one there.. it probably won't be as cheap as in the states by Africa's undergoing a major cellular revolution and phones are becoming fairly common there as well.

I have a V180 I was able to unlock with my PC, a USB cable, and some software I found on the internet. See my post (#160) here (http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=569462&page=11&highlight=phone+unlock+software) for details of where to get the software.

It took some trial and error, and I'm not exactly sure the order I did things in, but it worked. It worked great with a prepaid SIM in Prague.

Before you try unlocking, get a SIM from someone who has Cingular, T-Mobil or another GSM carrier and see if it is already unlocked.

If you don't want to mess with it yourself, call around to local cell phone stores. I think it was a Wireless Toyz that said they would do it for $20. Don't bother with a Cingular store as they will just tell you they can't do it.

Thanks for the infomation. I am going to Wireless Toyz, I called them and they said it would not be an issue.