Facts About Unlocked PDA Cell Phones

    The PDA, or Personal Digital Assistant, is a coined name give to handheld computers. Many of these PDA devices are being combined with cell phones and sold as single units. The PDA/cell phone combines all of the characteristics of a mini-computer with a state of the art GSM cell phone to give you the best of both worlds in the palm of your hand. Unfortunately, the PDA cell phones also come with a common and controversial problem common to GSM phones. The cell phone service provider often locks the cell phone with an internal blocking program that does not allow a SIM card from another service provider to be used. This prevents the owner of the phone from exercising his free choice to change providers or to purchase pre-paid SIM cards for use in traveling. This especially restricts the use of your phone when traveling in another country.

    The good news is that the PDA cell phone can be easily unlocked to allow the use of alternate SIM cards. It is going to be necessary to engage the services of a cell phone unlock service to do this correctly. The unlock service can be located on the Internet. They will be able to assist in the unlock process in two different ways. The first is to send you via email a software program that can perform the unlock process. You will need the USB cable that connects your PDA cell phone to your personal computer and is usually provided when the cell phone is purchased. You will also need the software CD that was provided with the PDA phone. How to unlock a cell phone if you do not have this equipment is not a major problem. The unlock service provider will be able to perform the unlock for you if you send the phone directly to them.

    It is interesting that most unlock services will actually charge less to physically unlock the phone and send it back to you than they will charge for the email containing the code. This is because they must pay a royalty fee every time they send a code and this cost is passed on to you. The only advantage to doing the unlock your self is that it can be done quicker if you do not have to send the phone in to the unlock service. The unlock service does not need your SIM card to perform the unlocking procedure. You can remove the SIM card and use it in a back up cell phone until your unit is returned.