Question about porting to T-Mobile

[jalmirall]

I'm very much interested in purchasing an OBi100 but have a question about the process of porting my number to Google Voice.  The steps on the website say I need an unlocked phone and I wonder why that is.  I have a prepaid SIM that's been activated with T-Mobile and I can place and receive calls with it but the phone is locked.  What is the reason the phone needs to be unlocked?

[Rick]

I'm very much interested in purchasing an OBi100 but have a question about the process of porting my number to Google Voice.  The steps on the website say I need an unlocked phone and I wonder why that is.  I have a prepaid SIM that's been activated with T-Mobile and I can place and receive calls with it but the phone is locked.  What is the reason the phone needs to be unlocked?

It does NOT have to be unlocked if it's a T-Mobile phone with a working SIM card in it.  Apparently if you have a T-Mobile phone on a contract plan, you can't easily use a prepaid SIM in it.  Similarly, you can't put a T-Mobile SIM in a locked AT&T phone.  You should be fine, the SIM and it's balance will go dead and net zero when you are done.

[jalmirall]

Thanks!  I was hoping that was the case but everywhere I found a discussion about the porting process mentioned an unlocked phone.  Not being a previous T-Mobile customer meant it was going to be a pain (cost money) to get the phone unlocked.  That was my last roadblock to pulling the trigger.  Thanks again.

[carl]

I'm very much interested in purchasing an OBi100 but have a question about the process of porting my number to Google Voice.  The steps on the website say I need an unlocked phone and I wonder why that is.  I have a prepaid SIM that's been activated with T-Mobile and I can place and receive calls with it but the phone is locked.  What is the reason the phone needs to be unlocked?

It does NOT have to be unlocked if it's a T-Mobile phone with a working SIM card in it.  Apparently if you have a T-Mobile phone on a contract plan, you can't easily use a prepaid SIM in it.  Similarly, you can't put a T-Mobile SIM in an unlocked AT&T phone.  You should be fine, the SIM and it's balance will go dead and net zero when you are done.

Not true. You can use any T mobile locked phone for any t- mobile plan prepaid or postpaid. You can use any unlocked GSM phone( incl. ATT ) on T-mobile ( except cheap dual band foreign GSM phones which do not have North American frequencies)

[Rick]

Typo on the AT&T phone, should have been locked AT&Twon't take T-Mobile SIM.