Buying a "bad ESN" phone on Ebay...

[dontworrybehappy]

This is totally new to me. I build, rebuild and fix computers but have always bucked the idea of "smartphones." Well, finally I convinced my boss to buy me one because my old work phone was slowly dying. So I started looking around and found one with a bad ESN. For those of you not in the know, an ESN is a number assigned to a phone, like an identifier, with a particular carrier, in this case Verizon. While usually bad ESN's come from phones reported lost or stolen, they can occur when someone doesn't pay their bill and their phone is cut off. A bad ESN for a carrier means that the phone is usually locked to that carrier and cannot be used with that carrier. Does that mean the phone is useless? Nope! Actually, a phone can be unlocked (or jailbroken if it's an iPhone) to use with any carrier out there. Contrary to popular belief, this is not immoral, unethical or illegal in any way, shape or form. I bought this phone for 150 bucks, new it sells for 599.00 It looks brand new, not a cosmetic scratch or blemish on it. It just needs to be unlocked. Well I found out that you can get the unlock code for free or very cheap and unlock the phone. I'll go ahead and do that, put in a Straight talk SIM card, and use it unlimited talk text and data for 45 a month.

I wanted to let everyone here know that this is an option for most phones. Now, not all phones will work with all carriers, but most modern smartphones are capable of being unlocked to any carrier. I have not received the SIM card yet as it's on order, but from what I've read, I'm almost ready to switch over my phone to the new one.

Anyone have any experience unlocking Android phones to use with other service providers?

[eric]

No experience here. I just get a discounted phone whenever my upgrade is available (which it is now, can't wait for the new iPhone as long as it isn't shit).

[dontworrybehappy]

Yea I know what you mean. It's really not a good deal if you think about it. If you get very limited data, why pay 80 dollars a month for that when you can get unlimited data, talk and text for a 45 a month? Even if you pay 150 for a phone vs say 99, you make that up in one month of service, at most 2. Even if you pay 300 for a phone, still, in just a few months you make it up.

And not to mention that 45 a month is no contract. Not tied to anyone.

[eric]

Eh, contract doesn't bother me because no matter what I'll always have that phone service. It's the last thing I'd give up. I have unlimited too atm so I don't mind about that either.

[PoS]

[dontworrybehappy]

Yes it is. It's not illegal at all. For some reason people think it's illegal, it's not.

[dontworrybehappy]

I would like to update this and say that I was able to get my phone to work with Straight talk, and I didn't even need to unlock it, apparently it was unlocked already. All I did was buy a straight talk sim card, install it into the phone, select the preferred network as DSM and that was it. For data, I set up a new APN according to the instructions and everything worked perfectly the first time. I'm still in shock!