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!

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!

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!

One of the members at Cellfservices had the opportunity to play around with a Blackberry Pearl 9100 Stratus! The launch is coming soon, but has not been officially announcd by RIM. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to unlock the Blackberry 9100 Stratus only because it was already unlocked. After about 10 minutes with the phone, it seems quiet clear that it will be a big hit to those pearl lovers.

There are however a few things to note before deciding to unlock your WIND Mobile Blackberry Bold 9700. After unlocking your phone, you will NOT be able to use 3G on any of the North American network carriers because WIND runs on 3G-1700 band. Your EDGE and GPRS functions will be fine and you will still be able to use BIS and BES fully. This means you can continue using your Blackberry Messenger, your E-mails will all come in at real time, and you will be able to use all of the features of the phone.

If you would like to have your WIND Mobile Blackberry Bold 9700 unlocked or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! In light of this joyous holiday, we have put all of our Blackberry unlock codes on sale for the entire weekend! It is our way of saying thank you to all of our supporters, valued clients and those just browsing.

Please enjoy 45% off all of our sale priced Blackberry unlock codes.  Have a great holiday season and enjoy your time with your family and friends! You can check out these great prices at our Blackberry Unlock Code Page

Coupon Code: bbturkey

Feel free to post what you are thankful for   We are thankful for YOU

Over the past several years, Rogers Wireless has claimed to be “Canada’s Most Reliable Network” through their marketing campaigns via. Television, Newspapers, Internet and other forms of media.  As Telus and Bell have moved onto the HSDPA network, many Canadian wireless users have been excited to use unlocked GSM phones on these networks.

Telus evidently does not agree with Rogers’ statement as being “Canada’s Most Reliable Network”; so much so that they have filed a law-suit against Rogers Wireless, preventing their rival from continuing to use this statement.  With Christmas season coming up and thousands of shoppers looking for new cell phones, it seems that Telus has stepped up to fight back.

Their argument is based on the premise of “What qualifies you, Rogers Wireless, to be the most reliable and fastest network”?  Makes sense doesn’t it?  Today’s ruling fell largely in favor of Telus Corp.  A court in British Columbia has ruled that Rogers can no longer claim this without qualification.

The judge ordered the two parties to work on the wording for a court order and adjourned the matter until Friday.

Rogers said in a statement issued Tuesday that it will take steps shortly to appeal the decision.

“We are perplexed by the decision. We continue to believe that our network reliability claim is valid,” it said.