Cell phone purchase from Inet?
 

Ah once again I search and search for answers to life's questions and end up back here at good old Pelican OT BBS. Anyway, I want to get my wife a new cell phone for Christmas. I have purchased a lot of things from Ebay over the years and every single experience has been positive. For instance, I just purchased a pair of Spy Optics sunglasses that cost over $100 in store and from the manufacturer's web site. On Ebay I paid $59 + 2.50 shipping and it got to me in 2 days in perfect condition. So I see that I can buy my wife a V3 Razor for $83 on Ebay that has a regular cost of $249 at BestBuy. Hard one to pass up. Here is my question to those of you who know cell phones and wireless service. Will I be able to just literally pluck the wife's sim card out of the 2+ year old phone she has now and stick it in the new one and it will start working? Am I missing a pitfall here like: will need to call your service provider and upgrade/jack up the price of or service for it to work, will it possible not be compatible with her present service, sim card, or our region of operation? Thanks !

Who is here current provider?

Sprint and Verizon do not use SIMS.

AT&T and T-mobile are interchangeable IF you buy an UNLOCKED phone.

Otherwise buy one that is known to work with your current provider.

She is with AT&T formerly Cingulair. The adds I have seen do use the work "unlocked" I am guessing that means it has never been used with any service provider.

I have T-Mobile which uses SIM cards. I bought the wife a Treo 650 that was unlocked from ebay a couple of years ago. It worked fine. I've also purchased 3 other inexpensive Nokias off of ebay that have worked fine.

It's important that the phone that you purchase is either for your provider, or uses the same frequencies/technology and is unlocked to work with any provider.

If the phone is unlocked, then it should work fine. Yes, pluck the sim card out and stick it in the new phone and you'll be up and running (other than maybe reprogramming the phone book).

Cool!

I have bought several cell phones off of Ebay and if they are unlocked, they should work with any GSM/GPRS system out there. Only if you are on a Verison or other non-GSM system will it not work.

Should be no problem with the V3 series if she is with ATT. I am on ATT and my phone and blackberry works fine from here. In the last 4 days have been in 6 countries in Europe and no issues what so ever in any country.