Does anyone know where I can get a Virgin Mobile cellphone unlocked? The phone is a Nokia 6275i
Want to use it with Fido.
Thanks!
John
thats not possible my friend, you cant unlock any virgin phones, those phones are under the cdma service if im correct. the only phones you can unlock to go with another company is fido and rogers. and vise versa
whats cdma? what does fido and rogers use? I know telus phones can be unlocked i’ve used them before.
i was under the impression that all of the phones that use a sim card could be unlocked and used with other companies that use sim cards but i dont really know anything about this stuff. this one DOES have a sim card if that helps.
anyhow, does anyone know anywhere that does this regardless, then i can call and ask directly
thx
pmall for the win. bring an asian friend. you probably get 30% off.
hahaha
if there is a sim card put in a sim card from wutecer company…the phone shouldent matter…
Uh, yeah it does. Phone companies lock phones for that reason. You cannot use any sim card on any phone. The phone has to unlocked.
John, CDMA is an older technlogoy used by Telus and some other providers. It uses you serial number to activate you phone. If you have a Sim card, then your phone is a GSM phone, you should be able to unlock it. Your phone is probably able to use 3 or 4 different bands. Fido uses 1900 MHz band. So, if you get it unlocked it should work. Here are some guys you can call to see if they can unlock your phone:
GSMdoctorca
4438 Sheppard Ave East,Oriental Centre,Unit 162
Brimley Rd./Sheppard Ave.
Scarborough ON. M1S 5V9
Cell:416-856-2491
Global Unlock
***** Yonge & Sheppard Area *****
(subway access)
By appointment only, phone #: 416-857-7601 to set a time.
Make an appoint today to quickly have your phone unlocked, call anytime between 7:00 am-10:00 pm EST - 7 days a week (Appointments available Week nights, Saturday & Sunday).
Here’s the website:
http://www.globalunlock.com/toronto.htm
As far as I knew the Virgin phones couldn’t be unlocked as they were CDMA, but call these guys maybe then can help you out.
Thanks Arslan!
I’ll contact these guys to see what they can do for me.
Oh and just for clarification, if Sim Card means GSM then that means Bell is the only provider that isn’t using GSM phones. Telus, Virgin Mobile, Rogers and Fido all use sim cards.
Right from the site:
https://www.virginmobile.ca/site/buyaphoneDetails.do?phoneId=10-00039
This phone is CDMA, it won’t be able to be used on the FIDO or Rogers network. Virgin Mobile resells Bell Mobility bandwidth.
John, you should double check the phone. Either it isn’t a Virgin mobile phone, (and it is GSM) or you are mistaking the MicroSD card for a SIM chip.
PM me if you have any questions.
Straaanngge. It has a sim card slot, but it is definitely virgin mobile. It says it right above the keypad.
Is micro sd identical in size and appearence to a sim card?
I took the battery off of the phone and put a sim card in it and it fits perfectly. It even has the little arrow that points to the corner of the sim card that has the corner cut off. When I turn on the phone with the card in though it just gives some SIM error, doesnt give any detail. I didn’t expect it to work but i tried it anyway.
I don’t know what microSD looks like, but under the battery there is a second smaller clip that I assumed was for a microSD card. it’s probably about 2/3 the size of the sim card clip thing. (or what I thought was the sim card thing).
Good site. Again, someone there said that this phone is CDMA and cannot be used with GSM providers “like rogers” they said.
I’m still confused, is the following statement true?
Sim Card = GSM
???
Because the damn thing takes a sim card, and I’ve already read a few places that seem to imply that having a sim card means the phone is gsm.
please clarify!
thanks,
John
John, you’re correct in assuming that a SIM card means that it is GSM.
If you don’t mind me asking, where did you buy this phone? I forgot about Virgin Mobile in the UK. They use GSM phones in the UK, but in the US and Canada, Virgin Mobile is CDMA (SIM free.)
It is entirely possible that you recieved a phone that originated in the UK. In that case, there is a distinct possibility that it is a Virgin branded phone with a GSM chip.
The SIM is white (from Rogers) with a corner missing, and the chip is rectangular.
A MicroSD card :
Just to add fuel to the mix, check out this article : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subscriber_Identity_Module as it describes a GSM sim. It also makes mention of the R-UIM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RUIM which is basically a SIM for CDMA phones. I’m pretty sure the RUIM chip and phones are only found in East Asia for now, but they make their way over here soon.
Coles notes: If your phone came from the UK, I’m prety sure you are correct, there is a GSM chip. If it wasn’t originally intended for the UK market, and it was intended for here then I don’t know…
Take a picture of the back the phone, case free, if you can.
Renny
Hey John, another thing. Not all phones that are GSM can be unlocked. There has the be unlocking software/codes for the phone. My borther picked up a Nokia 6630 but every place he went to get it unlocked says they cannot do it. So even though you might have a phone that takes a SIM card, it might not have the codes/software. Hence, you may not be able to use it.
lol okay jammin is still confused…any wayz here is the rundown on all the service providers
Bell - CDMA - no sim card, cannot be unlocked for another company(however the new phones that are coming out from 2006, 2007 do have the sim card slot but i think that is for other use i forgot what, but it cant be used in canada, us…)
Telus - CDMA - no sim card, cannot be unlocked for another company
Virgin - CDMA - no sim card, cannot be unlocked for another company
Fido - GSM - sim card, can be unlocked to work with Rogers.
Rogers - GSM - sim card, can be unlocked to work with Fido
GSM is just a type of service, and CDMA is the other type of service
CDMA is where they program your plan straight onto your phone by serial number as someone stated before
GSM is is where they program your plan on to your sim card so you can transfer your plan to another phone without paying close to 20 if you have to transfer your number to another phone like bell and telus charge you.
John where is this phone from, Canada or over seas
Telus is CDMA becasue they use the Bell towers as well as vergin,.
if you have any more quesitons John just call me up, I can tell you pretty much how everything works.
There are phones that are CDMA that are GSM running on a G3 high speed dual network also but not in north america.
again, umm just call me
OK, Maybe this phone came from the UK! Thanks for that awesome post Renny.
Also, Benson and lovemys14 - you guys are both incorrect about Telus. At work we have 10 or so Telus phones and every single one of them with the exception of the blackberries have a sim card. I know this for a fact because we often trade the sim cards around when we want to change phone numbers to different phones.
Also, whenever I get a few work phone I just put the old sim card in my new phone and it works right away.
I’m going to take a picture of under the battery of this Virgin phone to show you guys… my sister is bringing it back for me shortly - she’s got it with her atm and shes out.
Thanks again for the input guys.
Alright, so here’s the deal. I was 100% wrong about the phone being branded as virgin mobile above the keypad. However, it is branded virgin in the software. ( I took a pic )
Check out the under battery pics. You’ll see the sim card and micro sd slots very clearly. If you guys are still unsure i’ll put a simcard in there just for you to see that it’s definitely a sim card slot.
http://jammin.jshost.ca/nokia/01.jpg
http://jammin.jshost.ca/nokia/02.jpg
http://jammin.jshost.ca/nokia/03.jpg
Hey John, I think your phone is not a GSM phone. Also, even though it might be a GSM phone, doesn’t mean you can unlock it. As I mentioned before, you need to have the software and/or codes to unlock it. I looked around but I don’t think they have the software and/or codes for you phone. The following site states all the phones they can unlock but I don’t see your model.
http://www.globalunlock.com/toronto.htm#Nokia:_
Like mentioned previously, Virgin Mobile only offers GSM phones in UK. In the states they use the Sprint network (CDMA) and in Canada they use the Bell network (CDMA).
I think your phone is like the new Telus phones. It does have a SIM card slot but I think that is only for holding info like phone #s, memos etc. It does not hold all info in regards to connections and the carrier. Telus is still using CDMA technology, they have not starting using GSM, even on their new phones. That is why you can switch SIM cards between Telus phones but you cannot unlock a Telus phone to work on Rogers or Fido.
This is messed up, I have completely conflicting info from every source I read and just about every post I read too haha.
Arslan, our Telus phone’s SIM cards hold the info like you say, but they also WILL NOT work without a sim card in them. Also, if I take the sim card out of my telus phone and put it in a differnt telus phone and you call my cell number - that NEW telus phone will ring, not my old one. the sim stores the information for the carrier on telus phones. I’m not saying they use GSM, but as someone here stated. SIM CARD = GSM.
So, I’m totally lost.
Basically I don’t think I’m going to find someone that knows that I can put 100% faith in beacuse there are too many conflicting things being said. I’ll just need to try to get the phone unlocked at a couple of places and if not - no biggie I’ll throw it in the garbage 
for one thing I am not wrong I never said that CDMA can not have sim cards 
I beleve you have a sim card with you account info Jon, the peopler here is that people are saying GMS means you have a sim card and that is totally wrong. GSM represents how the singnal is sent from the phone to the tower and back. Cdma phones can have sim cards they just never did before. Here is a good Idea, go to a Telus dealer and give them the phone, then say " can I please get my account transfered to this phone, it is unlocked". that should let you know if it can be done.