[jdaws123]

Does anyone know if you can purchase an unlocked phone and take it to your carrier(USCellular) and use it??

[Ultra50]

Yes. It needs to be a CDMA blackberry to work on US cellular.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Xopher]

If you get a CDMA 8130, 8330, or 8830, it should work just fine.

The only questions will be if USCC will accept a phone from another carrier. Only USCC will be able to answer that.

[Motorcycle Mama]

CDMA carriers typically will not activate a device from another carrier.

[medic008]

They won't activate it because it won't work. CDMA phones are programmed to work on specific carrier towers. I posted a link a while back for a great article on why CDMA phones can't be "unlocked". Look that up if you have any more questions.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[method2madness]

Generally speaking, CDMA(USC, Sprint, Verizon, Alltel, etc) phones cannot be "unlocked" and used on other carriers the way GSM(Tmo, ATT, etc) phones can. This is due to the phone, itself, being tied to the carrier via ESN database whereas the main tie to the carrier on the GSM version is via the SIM card. The GSM carriers do utilize an IMEI, which is similar to an ESN, but don't lock the account to that handset serial number. In fact, unless you call in and change the IMEI, for say insurance purposes, there are no notations on the account, if you swap your sim card into another phone.

This being said, each CDMA carrier has a database of activatable(is that a word? lol) ESNs, provided by the manufacturer and generally do not have a way to activate phones not on this list.

I have worked for both CDMA and GSM carriers and learned quite a bit about each technology. On a side note, did you know the actress Heddy Lamar is credited with inventing the spread spectrum technology used in all the CDMA carriers today?