Thinking about going on an international trip or changing GSM carriers?  Well you'll need to unlock your phone to use it with compatible carriers.  Now there are many shady sites that will supposedly give you a subsidy unlock code for your phone.  Most of them have a small fee from five to ten dollars, but I don't understand why you would trust such a site.  For all you know the company may give you a fake code, and I wouldn't want to take that chance.  What most people don't know is that their wireless carrier will give you the code for no cost.  Just as long as you have had an active line for at least 90 days and you have your phone's IMEI number.  The IMEI number is normally found on the back of your phone under the battery.  If not found there you can obtain it by typing *#06# in your phone.

          Next if you are a T-Mobile user you just call the customer service number (1-800-937-8997) and request for the subsidy unlock code.  They will normally ask if you will be using the phone internationally and you just agree (even if you aren't hehe).  And that is it, they will ask for an email address so they can send you the unlock code and you should receive it within 24 hours.  Once you have your code, the quickest way to unlock your phone is to put in a sim card from a different carrier and when it starts up it will ask for the subsidy code then.

          Now if you have an AT&T phone that you want unlocked the process is very similar.  But one thing is that they suggest you have an international roaming feature on your account, to obtain the code.  But other than that you just call their customer service (1-800-331-0500) and ask for the subsidy unlock code.  I am not experienced with their process, but here is a site where one person explains it in detail: Unlock AT&T Phone.  Now if for some reason you are not able to obtain an unlock code for your AT&T phone, I've heard that T-Mobile sometimes unlocks AT&T phones as well, I'm not sure if it is free, but it's worth a try.  

          I am a T-Mobile customer and just recently unlocked my Razr 2, and the process took around 12 minutes on the phone.  I really like this process much better than entrusting a site i've never heard of with my money and maybe even my phone number.  I suggest that you try this process before any other one.  Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them.

Ever gaze at a person who is checking their email on their blackberry and think how nice that must be? If I had that I would be more efficient with my work, or would be able to communicate to more people. The only thing that is stopping you from getting email for your phone is that it's is not worth the money (that is my reason) or maybe your phone doesn't support it. Now, there is a free solution for it. The only requirements you'll need is a phone with a text messaging plan (preferably unlimited Texting plan) and an email account with email forwarding. There are many email services with free forwarding such as Gmail. As of recent Yahoo does not allow you to use email forwarding for free, so unless you want to pay $20 a year for it, I suggest you use a free email forwarding provider. Now after you have an email account with email forwarding, you need to set it to forward your emails to your phone. Your address depends on your wireless service provider, here is a list:

T-Mobile: phonenumber@tmomail.net
Virgin Mobile: phonenumber@vmobl.com
Cingular: phonenumber@cingularme.com
Sprint: phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
Verizon: phonenumber@vtext.com
Nextel: phonenumber@messaging.nextel.com

Where it says "phonenumber" you put your 10 digit phone number (including area code). And after you set your email to forward to your phone's email address your are done! The great part about this is that you can even reply to emails as well. So with an unlimited texting plan, feel free to email as much as you want, right from your phone.
Have any more questions about setting your phone up? Feel free to leave a comment and I will respond as soon as I can. I hope you enjoyed this post.