Questions about alltel/unlocking.
 

I recently decided that I want to try and sell my Alltel amethyst pearl 8130 and get the new flip 8230. I'm not eligible for upgrade, so selling my phone is a must since I'll have to pay full price on the flip. With Alltel, would I need to unlock my phone or do anything else to it prior to selling? If so, how do you unlock an 8130?

Also, my fiance has a brand new Alltel silver 8130 on a new smart plan, but she just downgraded to a regular plan and dumbphone...they took her 8130 because one of the keys broke and are sending her a new one, but she won't be using it...so it's going to me. Do you think Alltel will send this phone unlocked or will I have to unlock it?

Last question...my 8130/my line is under contract on a friend's contract, with a year left. Will I have to buy the new phone first and switch over to it before I can sell my 8130 since I'm on a 2year agreement, or will Alltel allow me to sell my phone first, then get the new one a week or two down the road? Or can I not sell my phone at all because it's part of the agreement/contract?

Thanks in advance!

Can't really unlock a CDMA phone, but if you could, it wouldn't serve any purpose. US CDMA carriers (Verizon and Sprint) will not allow a device from another carrier on their networks, meaning you cannot put an Alltel device on Sprint or a Sprint device on Verizon, etc. Not sure the impact of Verizon's purchase of Alltel however. Time will tell.

Wirelessly posted

Ok I'll try to help you with what I know.

You don't have to unlock your phone prior to selling it. Since you still are under contract you do however have to have another phone to activate before someone else can activate the phone you have now. get what I'm saying. Someone else can not activate the phone you have now until you activate another phone for your account.

I was just wondering because I notice when people buy phones from like, ebay or here for example, they tend to want unlocked phones. I wasn't sure if this applied to my alltel 8130s or not. Basically I just want to make sure that these don't sell to someone that can't end up using them, I'd feel pretty crappy about that. :?

From the looks of it I just wipe the data/restore the OS, and they're good to go?

EDIT: Just seen the last post. That's what I figured would happen. On the bright side I have my fiance's brand new silver alltel 8130 I can sell first, she just left the alltel store where they disconnected/canceled her smart phone plan and she downgraded to a new dumbphone / dumbphone plan / number. Sell that 8130, buy my flip, sell my 8130 or keep it as a spare. Not too bad.

Wirelessly posted

Well there ya go do that. Problem solved. People tend to want the unlocked phones because they can use them on more than one network. Your alltel phone will sell just maybe for not as much. But nontheless there is still a big demand for cdma phones.

GSM phones can be unlocked and most GSM carriers (Rogers in Canada, ATT & T-Mo in the US) don't really care whose phone is on their network.

Plus you cannot put a CDMA phone on a GSM network and vice versa. The 9530 is both US GSM and CDMA so unlocking the GSM side would allow it. The 8830 is GSM outside of North America so unlocking it would allow you to use a SIM from another country when you are traveling.

So basically, my 8130s are really only useful to those that have alltel or plan on switching to alltel? That, combined with those third party retailers selling refurbished phones, really hurts the amount I can get out of these...it's looking like these are going for $130-140 on ebay from those sellers. I'd have to sell both and still come up with another $200ish to buy a flip, ew @ that.

I always thought alltel phones could be used on verizon, and vice versa. I had numerous verizon phones 4-5 years ago that I used on my alltel plans. I was always told "The phone must be one that is currently sold by the carrier you want to use it on, or was previously sold by the carrier you want to use it on" when it came to alltel/verizon phones.

If the ESN is in the database, then the carriers might activate. Alltel tended to have a much looser policy on which devices to allow. Verizon and Sprint are pretty strict. Not their phone, can't get on.

And Alltel belongs to Verizon now, so that looser policy might change...

Pretty much. Changes in polices, changes in prices, new measures to find and stop non-paying tetherers that already pay monthly for unlimited data, monthly bandwidth limits for those that pay for unlimited data...wow, who wouldn't be excited about this takeover?

This reminds me of a war that took place about 65-70 years ago...specifically one of the parties involved in said war. Hmm. :-(