How to Access Internet on an Unlocked Cell Phone With the Wrong Carrier
When you unlock a phone to work on a different wireless carrier, you must provision that device, or change the GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) settings in the device to allow it to access the Internet network of the provider. You need to provision the phone because each provider has its own access point, IP addresses and gateways to the Internet. With the advent of OTA (over the air) updates, getting your device provisioned is as easy as calling your new service provider.
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Things You'll Need
- A phone other than your wireless device
- Internet service package with a service provider
Instructions
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Contact your current service provider via a land line or alternate mobile phone. When you call customer care you must call from a phone other than the one you are updating, but you must have it with you in order to receive the OTA.
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Tell the customer service rep that you are using an unlocked phone that belonged to a different provider and you need the GPRS settings for the device. They will need to know the brand and model of phone you are using before they can send you the OTA. Outside of the GPRS settings, service providers keep very little information on phones they do not sell to their customers, so knowing exactly what device you are using will be helpful in getting the correct OTA settings.
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Accept the OTA download that will be sent to your phone by opening the text message you receive and selecting "Save." If you already have an Internet service package on your phone, you will be able to access the Internet. If you do not have an Internet service package, you must add one.
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Tips & Warnings
In some cases carriers do not have an OTA that can be sent to the phone, but will have specialists that can walk you through the manual process of entering in all of the data you will need. Every phone on the market has a unique process for manually entering the settings, which is why they develop OTA settings. In rare cases, they might advise you that they cannot guarantee that unsupported devices can be provisioned.
References
- Photo Credit mobile phone image by vashistha pathak from Fotolia.com
