That's the point I tried to make to the "office of the president," who sounded barely literate when we had our little conversation.

Yes.. I've noticed that.. sorry I didnt acknowledge it in my post.

I guess the are betting on people no knowing what else thet ca
do with their phone.. and expect them to go for a new one every
now and then...

Cingular notorious for not unlocking phones so if you can find third party via google for $25, do it.

Do call Cingular for international roaming, on outside chance you will need US number for emergency.

You should be able to get local prepaid sim card easily - www.prepaidgsm.net will give you all the information needed.

Other option is eBay - get cheap dual band (european band) phone that will work in Europe, Asia, just not North America. Or more expensive tri or quad band that works all worldwide gsm networks. Make sure eBay phone is unlocked.

I use gsmliberty.com which generally seems to be able to unlock just about anything. You can sometimes beat them on prices with an ebay special, but they are reliable, use state of the art technology, have never messed anything up for me, and answer their phones. They also appear to be able to remotely unlock Motorola Razrs.

I have stopped, however, buying my phones from my mobile provider. The couple of extra bucks I spend buying an unlocked phone seem a far better investment. Cell phone companies cripple features, customize the firmware with their own junk, etc. On a Motorola v535 I had from Cingular, I wound up having to get the firmware reflashed with generic firmware because they had so customized the phone.

I have a Nokia E61 now. The Cingular version of the phone pulls the wifi, the 2100mhz band (e.g. Japan and Korean roaming), and the VOIP off the phone. If I tried to buy the phone from them, they would then try to strong arm me into a contract extension. An unlocked E61 goes for $350. Cingular's rack rate is $349 and they only go down from there with a contract extension.

I think I am pretty much done with provider supplied phones.

But not until you've tried to get Cingular to do it for free first. I have had it done on two phones, one, as I mentioned on an earlier post, only a few weeks into my two year contract. The people I spoke with seemed neither phased nor bothered by my request and each time had someone from their phone unlocking division call me back promptly with the codes.