Every once in a while, we get customers requesting BlackBerry Unlock Codes only to find out that their phone was hard-locked to begin.  They become upset because they cannot unlock their phones and a great burden is pressed on us as well.

We decided to blog on this to ensure that you double check that your BlackBerry is NOT hard-locked before purchasing a code.  This is the most prevalent on BlackBerries purchased from E-bay, Craigslist and other third party markets.  The instructions are listed below and requires no technical savvy.

1.) Go to the Options Menu (it is represented by a picture of a wrench)
2.) Go to Advanced Options
3.) Go to SIM Card
4.) Type MEPD (they do not have to be caps) – You will not see any text appear as you type it
5.) A new menu will appear with SIM, Network, Network Subset, Service Provider and Corporate.
PLEASE NOTE:
If all fields are “disabled” or “inactive”, your phone is already unlocked.
6.) Type in MEP2 – Again, you will not see any text appear.
7.) A new Box will appear like the image above.

The number in Brackets represents the number of tries you have remaining before your phone is hard-locked. All BlackBerries come with MEP (10 Left).   If your phone is hard-locked, it will say MEP (0 Left).  In this case, your phone cannot be unlocked and is permanently locked to its Network Carrier.

Hopefully this answers the questions to those searching!

The long awaited Apple iPhone 4 is to be sold online factory unlocked according to the Apple Store.  Unlike the USA where AT&T has exclusive dealership to the Apple iPhone, Canada has 3 network carriers providing the iPhone 3Gs – Rogers Wireless, Telus Mobility and Bell Mobility.  Carriers will still continue to sell their branded and locked iPhone 4, however, users will still be able to purchase them outright from apple “commitment free”.

When you purchase your iPhone from the Apple Online Store, you’ll get it commitment-free. So you can sign up for service with the carrier of your choice and change your carrier at any time.

This will give users the freedom to use their iPhone on any network of their choice without any obligations to their network carrier.  Further, it will allow users to use their beloved iPhone with international travel, avoiding paying up the roof roaming fees.

We’re not exactly sure when the iPhone 4 will be released in Canada, but please hold off on buying your AT&T iPhone 4s Canadian residents!  They’re going for about $900+ USD on e-bay at the moment, but I’m sure Apple will be selling them cheaper when it arrives in Canada.  Buying the unlocked iPhones on e-bay won’t allow you to update to the latest firmwares, where the new iPhones should have absolutely no problems doing so!

After horrible reviews on the BlackBerry Storm 1, and then some mixed reviews on the Storm 2, from the looks of this, it looks like the Storm 3 will eventually be on its way.  The design genius’ of BlackBerry themes at Elecite have blogged about this beautiful prototype and have not strictly stated that this is a definite release.  Some features that they put in their post include…

16GB of internal memory via propriety SSD/Flash hybrid technology, 10 hour+ talk time on 3G and a whopping 300 ppi screen resolution

If this is real, it’s definitely a phone that we’d have to scope out! Or would it end up like another failed BlackBerry Storm? What do you think?

We’re now unlocking the BlackBerry Bold 9650 that Sprint has just recently released!  If you’ve been keeping up with our Blog, we posted back in January our first successful unlocking of the Verizon Blackberry Bold 9650 (before code-named the Essex Tour II 9650).   The good news for you Sprint junkies is that just as they do for most of their World phones, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 should come unlocked before it hits the shipping trucks and the store floors! Just like when the Tour 9630 was released, I’m sure there will be the occasional BlackBerry Bold 9650s that are NOT unlocked.  In that case, please feel free to check out our BlackBerry Bold 9650 unlock code checkout page.  You can find out if your BlackBerry is unlocked by following the steps in our previous entry “How do I know if my Blackberry is Unlocked?“

From our previous entry on unlocking the BlackBerry Bold 9650, I think it is safe to say that the Verizon BlackBerry Bold 9650 will NOT come unlocked.

As for the BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105, although it hasn’t hit the floors yet, we are so confident that we’ll be able to unlock this phone that we’ve launched it on our unlock code store as well.  The checkout page can be found here for your BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9105 Unlock Code!

The Good:

Rogers has brought Canadian wireless users an excellent data roaming package which far exceeds any data roaming package we’ve seen from any of the US wireless carriers.  Initially they had launched this roaming package with the following rate plans.

• $20 Personal Email on BB CDN/US
• $35 Consumer/Small business BB (BIS) 500MB CDN/US Plan
• $35 Consumer/Small business 500MB CDN & US Data Plan
• $40 Consumer/Small business BB (BIS) 1GB CDN & US Plan
• $40 Consumer/Small business 1GB CDN & US Data Plan
• $45 500MB CDN & US Mobile Internet Flex Rate Plan
• $50 DAP (for MSD customers) 1.5GB CDN & US Data Plan
• $55 Corporate BB (BES) 1GB CDN & US Plan
• $55 Corporate BB (BES) 500 MB CDN & US Flex Rate Plan

If you take a look at their website now, they have simplified those odd looking plans by saying “Add $10 and use your data plan freely in both Canada and the USA”.

“With a One Rate Data Plan you have the convenience of using a single allotment of
data that can be used anywhere in Canada and the U.S. for one low fixed rate. This
means worry-free data for checking email, using the mobile internet or location based
services such as Google Maps.”

The Bad:

They have yet to provide a solution for voice plans.  This is where they’ll make their money! Here are the rate plans they have for voice usage.

By using prepaid/pay as you go services in the USA, the “One-Time_fee” of $15 that Rogers would charge on their lowest rate plan would give you 150 minutes of talk-time at a rate of $0.10/minute.

The Ugly:

Voicemail is probably one of the most standard features that wireless users add on to their wireless packages.  In fact, it is so standard, that 99% of prepaid plans in almost all countries provide voicemail as a free feature along with caller id, call conferencing, and call waiting.  The Ugly News is that Rogers is infamously known for charging wireless users their roaming rate for NOT picking up their phone.  That’s right! for NOT picking up your phone.  Since your phone is technically ‘connecting’ with Rogers communication towers, you will be charged your roaming rate of $1.45 for travel to the USA.  This not only effects Canadian travellers, but all of you AT&T, T-mobile and any other US carrier that has Rogers Wireless as a roaming partner.  You will be charged 1 minute of roaming for NOT picking up your phone and allowing it to go to Voice Mail.

The Solution:

Prepaid/Pay as you Go solutions are always the best! Most carriers around the world offer several different price plans.  A couple examples of US carriers include T-mobile ($0.10/min) and AT&T ($0.25/min).  Of course you would need to unlock your phone before using one of those SIM cards.  Now a second problem arises… How do I use this Rogers data pack, maintain my phone number, and NOT pay $1.45/min?

That answer will be posted here by the end of May

We’re here to provide you with the lowest rate solutions possible.  Stay tuned with Cellfservices Blog!

Congratulations to our first Win a Blackberry Prize Winner – William Hoban of Prince George, British Columbia. From the Cellfservices team, enjoy your new BlackBerry Bold 9000!

To our valued March customers, please enjoy your chance to win a BlackBerry 8220 Pearl Flip. The draw date will be on April 5, 2010. All details can be found on our Win a BlackBerry homepage.

Cellfservices is proud to offer our new “Win a Blackberry” contest. As a thank you gift, we are now offering all Cellfservices customers a chance to win a free unlocked Blackberry every month! This contest runs every month from the 1st to the end of each month. Winners will be drawn on the 5th of each month and announced when the free unlocked Blackberry is claimed. For the Month of February, we will be drawing an order number for a free unlocked Blackberry Bold 9000. For full contest details, please visit us here.

We’d like to thank all of our valued customers and blog subscribers at Cellfservices for making us who we are today. We have had the privilege to service all of you fine ladies and gentlemen including professional athletes, big name Movie stars, tech savvy individuals as well as those who have just begun to understand the power and savings of unlocking your phone.

Our primary goal at Cellfservices is to ensure that your needs are met. We strive to find the most affordable ways to assist individuals and businesses become economically efficient with their wireless bills. We wish you all good luck in our upcoming contests and would love for all of you to win a free Blackberry for simply doing what you were already going to do.

Today, we received a phone call from “Company A” who happened to get their hands on a Blackberry Tour 2 9650 Essex.  They asked if we could unlock the Verizon Tour 2 9650.

Here’s how our conversation went….

COMP-A: Can you unlock our Tour 2 9650?
CS: It hasn’t been released yet.

COMP-A: I know.  We have one for __________.
CS: We’ve never unlocked one before, but we’ll figure it out NOW.

As Company A threw out the challenge, we had to accept! After doing some tests, and some troubles with Windows Vista 64 bit, we finally found a way to find out how to calculate these codes. And here’s the solution…

SOLUTION:

It’s the same as the Tour 1 code.  Now, after all that trouble, at least we found out an answer!  The same 8 digit code unique to its IMEI.

If anyone else has ‘unreleased’ phones, we’d be more than happy to tackle these with you to get them unlocked.  Give us a shout!

Our wholesale program is now up and running! The Cellfservices Affiliates Program acts as an incredible source for cell phone wholesalers, cell phone store owners as well as those needing unlock codes in wholesale quantity.

Features:

• Cell Phone Unlock Codes at great discounted prices
• Easy to Track System for all IMEI Submissions – Real-Time tracking
• Fast Processing times for unlock codes
• Access to any Carrier & Manufacturer unlock codes in one place
• Ability to request new services to be added to the dealer’s terminal
• Networking opportunites for Cell Phone Wholesalers (B2B)

Requirements:

Applicants must meet one or all of the requirements:

• Involved in the Cell Phone Wholesale industry
• Own a Cell Phone Shop/Store
• Require Cell Phone Unlock Codes in Wholesale Quantity

More information can be found on our Cell Phone Unlock Codes Wholesale Site.

Our website has been updated again! We’ve added a few more convenience pieces for you all!

#1.) “Latest Mobile News” – 2 of the sites we read religiously are Blackberry Cool and Boygenius report. In my opinion, they are amongst the most credible mobile bloggers the WWW has to offer. All of their entries can now be tracked on our site in ‘real-time’.

#2.) Click to Call – With our new 888 number, we’ve added the “Click to Call” feature which allows our customers to request a phone call instead of dialing out. Beyond the convenience factor, we are all about helping others save money on their wireless bills. Have free incoming calls? Hate long distance? Feel free to give us a call Monday-Friday 10:00am – 5:00pm EST and a member of the Cellfservices team will be more than happy to help you out!