First things first...What exactly is unlocking? Unlocking your phone (AKA: SP unlocking, subsidy unlocking, or service provider unlocking) allows you to use a sim card from a carrier other than the carrier you bought the phone from. For example: you have a Sony Ericsson S710a that you bought from Cingular, or maybe you bought it from someone off of ebay but it was originally from Cingular and is still locked to their network. Maybe you have T-mobile or some other GSM provider. If you want to use your Sim card in the S710a it has to be unlocked first. So how do you unlock your Sony Ericsson phone? There are a few ways to do it. One way you can unlock your phone is to contact the carrier it's locked to and try to get an unlock code from them. This method almost never works unless you have an account with the carrier the phone is locked to or you paid full price for the phone, have proof of that, and live in a state (like California) where by law the Carrier has to unlock the phone for you. So, let’s assume you cannot get the carrier to unlock the phone. What now? You basically have two choices: unlock the phone yourself by getting a special service data cable, or find a professional to unlock your phone for you. I personally recommend unlocking the phone yourself because you can get the cables very cheaply and the software should either be included with the cable or you can find it online fairly easily. How to find a professional to unlock your phone for you: Do a search on Google, craigslist.org, or on ebay. I've found that craigslist is best for finding someone locally, while ebay is best if you don't mind sending in your phone. So now let’s cover unbranding. What exactly is unbranding? Unbranding (AKA: Debranding, Un-branding, De-branding, Un-customizing, or De-customizing) is simply flashing the phone with firmware that's not branded by any specific carrier. This is mostly done to remove annoying carrier customizations and logos. The best example of annoying branding made by carriers is on the Sony Ericsson T637 from what used to be ATT wireless. If any of you have come across one of these T637's you'll notice that there is a mMode button in place of the "more" button. This tiny little customization is a huge annoyance as the mMode/more button also serves as the "end call" button when you are on a call. A lot of us are in the habit of hitting that "end call" button more than once at the end of a call. I know I hit it at least 2 times to make sure my call has ended. On the SE T637 this would end your call and then immediately connect you to mMode...and then charge you for it if you didn't have some sort of mMode feature. By unbranding the phone it get's rid of annoying little customizations like this and changes the phone to a state as if it came direct from Sony Ericsson! This also makes configuring your phone to use other service providers much easier as you don't have to contend with all of the carriers preset internet settings and defaults! And how do you "flash" or "unbrand" your Sony Ericsson phone. Again you need a special service data cable (not one that's used for ring tones/pictures), you need software, and when you flash your phone you also need the required flash files. Or of course you can have someone else do it and simply pay them. Finding all this stuff can be extremely easy or extremely frustrating depending on your budget and you’re savvy. My personal recommendation is a product I created called: The Deluxe Sony Ericsson Service kit. This kit includes the cables you need and instant access to a huge private online archive that I've compiled so you don't have to scour the internet for day trying to find the software, and the flash files you need flash or unlock most popular Sony Ericsson phones. I'd highly suggest you visit TerminatorDongle.com if you want more info on this easy to use and safe Sony Ericsson unlocking solution.
Article Source: http://www.kokkada.com
I'm Corey Lewis and I'm a cell phone unlocking professional who's been unlocking Sony Ericsson phones for years. To stay up to date with what's going on in the world of Sony Ericsson unlocking and flashing visit my blog at: www.terminatordongle.com/blog
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