Unlocking?

[washi]

I'm new to the world of Treo and have no idea how anything works. My boyfriend has had a Treo for a year or so now, and I finally decided I would like one for myself. I decided, at his direction, on the Treo 380, but I have run into a new problem.

My wireless carrier is T-Mobile, and I like them (I've had them for years now, and I get the service I need). If I want to buy a phone directly from Treo, or from one of their local sellers, I have to get it through AT&T, and it won't be unlocked.

Is there a way for me to unlock the phone on my own? How do I do that? Or do I need to buy an unlocked phone?

[irishgoaltender22]

To start off with I am assuming you meant you want a Treo 680 not 380.

I am/was in the same boat as you... I am on Tmobile but wanted a Treo... to answer your question you will have to buy an unlocked phone.

There is a catch to this though. You will want to make sure that the phone you buy is Factory Unlocked and Unbranded. You can buy a phone that was meant for use on AT&T and unlock it, but many times some of the apps will not run properly on Tmobile (and whenever there is a hard reset you will have to re-unlock the phone).

Along with that Palm stopped selling unlocked 680s through their site about 3-4 weeks ago. However, do not be discouraged. There are still places you can go to get Palm Unlocked/Unbranded 680s. I bought mine from eBay that came new in its sealed box with a 1 year Palm warranty from HERE.

I bought it Tuesday night, it shipping Wed. morning and arrived Friday morning.

There are some other sellers selling them at auction (vs Buy It Now) for $10-30 cheaper, but I know 2 people from the treonauts forum who bought from this guy and had a good experience, as did I.

You can also go through Amazon.com where they are currently selling for $250ish, a bit more but you get the comfort of buying from a store if eBay bothers you.

After you buy the unlocked/unbranded 680 all you need to do is condition the battery, insert your SIM card and go nuts.