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3:43 am
January 18, 2009
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I got the Alcatel with my latest voucher and thought it would be good to unlock it and keep it for spare for both Speakout and for T-Mobile in the US, just if required in emergency(drop main phone or something).
Got the codes but the instructions I have and saw on the 'net don't work with this phone. With no SIM it does not prompt as they say it should and with a different provider SIM I enter the suggested *#0000*CODE# CODE being the code of course, and nothing happens.
Any ideas?
Not simple like it was when I got the unlock code from T-Mobile to use my Nokia on Speakout!
5:50 am
December 14, 2010
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The phone is already unlocked. I just took mine to Michigan this week, stopped at T-Mobile, bought a $10 start up kit, put the sim in and was texting right away. Mind you it is a pretty crappy phone, but it works. I never powered the phone up with the Speakout sim in it, the first sim it ever saw was from T-Mobile.
12:23 pm
July 29, 2011
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Glad to hear the phone works in the USA with T-Mobile, which is the main use I was hoping to put the Alcatel phone to!
I was only able to test the Alcatel 356 so far in Canada with a Bell SIM card, and it says that it is an invalid card. The security and network settings did not even come up in the menus with a Bell SIM.
Conversely with a Speakout SIM you cannot even "see" the Bell GSM network, all it displays is either Speakout or CAN Rogers Wireless Inc. as an option depending what mood it is in.
Hopefully, the phone is only "locked" in Canada, perhaps only the Belus networks (and their other brands) are locked out.
7:51 pm
November 17, 2008
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It's definitely not unlocked. I put in an active virgin mobile and telus sim, and I get invalid sim.
10:42 pm
December 30, 2010
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you do realize only rogers compatible SIM works for this phone as it is GSM only.
10:43 pm
January 18, 2009
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This might explain what is happening with my trials.
Using ekit sim which is now associated with Bell and Telus does not work.
Using a t-mobile sim in Canada seems to roam on Rogers.
Hopefully the ekit sim I use will work on T-mobile and att when I head down for short trips.
5:13 am
December 14, 2010
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Yep the t-mobile sim roams on Rogers now that I am back home, but it said t-mobile in the States and worked fine.
5:31 pm
September 1, 2011
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Dunno if it's just a "GSM phone" -- if so, it won't work with Bell or Telus (or Koodo or Virgin) in Canada, because those carriers don't do plain vanilla GSM. They just do HSPA.
Just like if you have a smart phone on Rogers, it can use GPRS, EDGE, 3G, etc. But on Bell & Telus it's just 3G or LTE.
I know that's the case with the cheap Nokias -- they don't do 3G/HSPA, so won't work on Telus and Bell, even when unlocked.
7:22 pm
July 29, 2011
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Thanks MiG, that makes sense.
10:36 pm
January 18, 2009
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So I was sure dumb. Here I am in Wenatchee, WA and it works perfectly with a Ekit passport sim on ATT and Tmobile!!!!
Unlocked it is!
Too bad it isn't more of a smartphone.
5:03 pm
January 3, 2011
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The phone is GSM 850/-1900 only according to the specs.
5:38 pm
June 6, 2009
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[edited]
Hi,
I have an Alcatel 356 speak out phone and plan on using it in the US with a sim card from AirVoice wireless. I'm encouraged by DennisMiller's and HoneyLager's experiences, that the Alcatel 356 works on ATT and T-mobile (without modification or unlocking). I put the SIM from my Telus phone in the Alcatel and the phone sits there with bars and looks like it's ready to go. When dialing it comes up with an error, But this may be what MiG is talking about--HSPA, which I don't really understand but it's more an incompatibility question and less of the Alcatel being locked/unlocked.
Can someone definitively say whether or not the Alcatel 356 purchased from 7-eleven is unlocked out of the box? And that I can just take it to the US and pop in an AirVoice sim? Air Voice runs off ATT (850/1900).
thanks
8:30 pm
September 1, 2011
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My understanding is that Telus & Bell's network in Canada is HSPA and LTE only. It doesn't support 'normal' GSM, Edge, GPRS, etc. Only the Rogers network does.
So while the Alcatel is accepting the Telus SIM, it can't really connect to Telus's network, since the phone doesn't do HSPA.
I've tried a T-Mobile SIM in my Alcatel 356, and it accepted it (and connected to the Rogers network).
Photos of it working here: http://themainframe.ca/2012/12.....-unlocked/
The Alcatel 356 I have is definitely unlocked, anyway, as that very same T-Mobile SIM doesn't work in other 'locked' phones I have.
11:03 pm
June 6, 2009
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Thanks MiG
That's great. I'm set then for the US, I'll use the Alcatel with a AirVoice SIM. At $15 it's the least expensive low minutes, short term option. I've been using Net10 up to now at $20/trip. Both cheap options to have a cell phone in the US. Another contender I've seen in my search is H20.
