then take your phone into the store, and say I want to activate an account with my own equipment. You shouldnt have to sign a contract, but if you do it would only be a 1 year contract. Dont let them put you on a 2 year...

What is your opinion as far as which phones have the best reception & reliability?

There is no question on a GSM network Nokia is the best..... I dont care what ANYONE else says, this is true...

Motorola - junk

LG - worse then motorola(though it seems they are getting better)

Sony Erricson - My 2nd choice other then Nokia, Great phones.

Samsung - Decent, not the worst, but noway near compares to Nokia or SE

Go into a corporate store because agents can only do 2 year agreements. Cor stores might only be 2 year as well depending on your market. You WILL have to sign a contract though there isn't a 0 month contract unless you want a non promotional plan in which you would lose mobile to mobile and rollover minutes.

Also, if you end up signing a 2 year agreemtn, you should also request to get a free phone with your service. Then you can put your sim card in wahtever phone you want to use!

Do you know what phone you want to buy unlocked? If not, my advice is to go with sony ericsson or nokia, they both are the easiest to get your mms and internet settings, infact, in most of their newest handsets the settings program themselves automatically! ...
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I like th N76 as far as Nokia's go but I was leaning towards the moto V3XX.

for price vs performance you might as well get the v3xx at&t branded.

Incorrect. I would NEVER get the free phone with a 2 year contract.

My suggestion : If you have your own phone, do some research... Find out which phone would be most profitable by reselling on ebay and make some extra cash to help pay for the unlocked phone(cause we all know unlocked nokias arent cheap)

If you ever just need a phone to use you can always pick up a gophone for 15 bucks at walmart and stick your sim in it.

There are plenty of great deals especially on the at&t website for free phones! Why spend money when you don't have to.

chainsaw said:
Why spend money when you don't have to.

Because you can MAKE money 😁 😁 😁

The free phones typically have a bigger subsidy than the ones you pay for. Which you can also sell for cash.

Well, we could debate this but I dont see it neccessary... He gets the idea I hope.

btw I purchased the SE 580i for 50 bucks which sells for over 250 on ebay =P Ide like to see one of our free phones sell for over 200

why would someone pay 250 on ebay lol. REtail is only 230!

If it was unlocked, then I could see someone paying that premium for it, especially if it was unlocked and didn't come directly from AT&T, maybe if purchased from the MFG (or an employee of the MFG) and had NONE of those little quirks in it that the MFG stipulate can't be disabled. For instance, I had an unlocked Sony Ericsson W300i about 9 months before Cingular did, and I could do EVERYTHING with it, including actually using my own MP3s from my computer as ringtones. My sister just BOUGHT (well, got one free) from AT&T and is pissed because hers doesn't do all of that.
Same rules apply to the Z710i, Z550i, S500 I had after it, and to the W910i and Z770i that I currently have. The lack of those handcuffs are actually valuable to some peopl...
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Yes, I have software to unlock any phone.. So it is unlocked. I also flashed the phone to the factory settings from SE.. Soo it is an "att" branded phone but would have been like buying it from SE

I would not use the upgrade to get a phone to sell cheap. I bought an N82. I would rather use the upgrade when ATT STARTS GETTING PHONES like the N95.s and K series Sonys

I understand that, but he didn't say he was selling one that was unlocked without at&t firmware on it.

I agree, I used to have a k790a, w710i, and w810i all unlocked and I loved those phones! Paid through the teeth but they were all great phones.

I have a Sony Ericsson 580i from Cellular One. I put my AT&T SIM card in it and I can text and make calls. I downloaded the MMS and WAP AT&T settings from the Sony website, but I still cannot access the internet.

Any thoughts?

Hmm, thats strange. I used to have a co-worker who got the s500i which is the same as the w580i and he sent the settings to his phone and had issues at first, but then it started working. Power cycle your phone a few times, then if it still doesn't work, make sure the at&t setting is the access point you have chosen.

By power cycle, you mean
Power off - remove battery - wait one minute - replace battery - power back on, correct?
If so, I have done that at least five times. All I get when trying to access the internet is the little globe at the top, and after about a minute, the connection times out.
I downloaded the AT&T (Cingular) settings from the Sony website.

Make sure your phone has at&t as the default accesspoint.

I have the internet settings as Cingular GPRS

Also, I put in my other SIM card and I could access the internet. I tried it again with my main number SIM card and it will not connect to the internet.

😕

This may seem like a silly question to ask, but you do have a data access feature (even if a pay per use one) on your line that is not accessing, right?

MNay phones automatically find and make all the settings you need to access which ever signal you request. My unlocked Nokia did on ATT and it was previously on T Mobile.