[Janetto]

I purchased a Sprint 8830 which I was told was unlocked for a friend in the Philippines. When you insert the local SIM, it continues to require activation although it will find the date and time and the bars are good. I put in my US AT&T SIM and it works no problem. The only reason I got the phone for him was because it was unlocked. Any ideas? Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

[coolrat33]

Hi! I'm having exactly the same problem. I bought a Sprint 8830 from the US market to use in Canada on a local CDMA network and on a GSM network in China. Sprint USA *insisted* that the phone was unlocked and that the CDMA could be used in Canada and the GSM would work abroad.

Well, the GSM band is locked out here in China. The phone receives a good signal and you can make a call, but a message from China Unicom says "You have not applied for this service" which seems to mean that the phone is locked.

What can I do about this? I tried to have it unlocked here, but the various unlocking shops say that the 8830 is the ONLY one that they can't unlock..

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[JRSCCivic98]

Well, the GSM band is locked out here in China. The phone receives a good signal and you can make a call, but a message from China Unicom says "You have not applied for this service" which seems to mean that the phone is locked.

If the SIM was locked, you wouldn't be able to make a call. The SIM in unlocked, trust me. The service they are talking about in the error is probably for Blackberry services. Why don't you call the carrier and ask them what the error means in their case?

As for CDMA in Canada, Sprint uses unique MSL codes on their phones, which means that the code to get into the programming of the CDMA portion of the phone is unique. You'll need to get that from Sprint and then possibly change it to match up with whatever your local CDMA carrier needs it to be. (not all carriers do this the same, for instance, Verizon uses all zeros for their codes). The problem is that the ESN of the CDMA portion of the phone must be available to be used on your Canada carrier's network. If it is, then the next thing is that the MSL code must match to whatever that carrier needs it to be (you'll have to find out from them and then if needed change it with QPST on the phone), then the OTA programming can take place on the CDMA radio and everything should work then. It's not a difficult process, but all things have to happen correctly and you need to know what you're doing to make it work. Honestly, from the sound of your post, it probably would have just been easier to get an 8830 from your perticular carrier in Canada to begin with.

[bikedogrun]

Hi! I'm having exactly the same problem. I bought a Sprint 8830 from the US market to use in Canada on a local CDMA network and on a GSM network in China. Sprint USA *insisted* that the phone was unlocked and that the CDMA could be used in Canada and the GSM would work abroad.

Well, the GSM band is locked out here in China. The phone receives a good signal and you can make a call, but a message from China Unicom says "You have not applied for this service" which seems to mean that the phone is locked.

What can I do about this? I tried to have it unlocked here, but the various unlocking shops say that the 8830 is the ONLY one that they can't unlock..

The Sprint 8830s are DEFINITELY unlocked.

First; are you using a local SIM or the Sprint SIM? If Sprint's, did you have the phone provisioned by Sprint "before" leaving the US?

Are you sure you have set your 8830 for GSM, rather than Global or 1XEV in Mobile Network settings? Leaving it set to "Global" will definitely default to CDMA as China Unicom's network offers both GSM & CDMA services.

Hope this helps...

/BD

[bikedogrun]

I purchased a Sprint 8830 which I was told was unlocked for a friend in the Philippines. When you insert the local SIM, it continues to require activation although it will find the date and time and the bars are good. I put in my US AT&T SIM and it works no problem. The only reason I got the phone for him was because it was unlocked. Any ideas? Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

If a USA AT&T SIM works in the 8830 while in the Phillipines, the phone is clearly unlocked. More likely an issue with whatever local SIM you are trying to use (are you sure the local SIM is activated and has minutes still available on it)?

/BD