Cingular Treo 650 Unlock Hack

I do not believe that this procedure actually unlocks a locked phone, that is, allows you to use a non-Cingular SIM in a Cingular branded phone.

My understanding is that this is a means of getting (1) the Palm NVFS update on a Cingular phone and (2) getting Bluetooth DUN and whatever bugfixes are present in this ROM, i.e. the OS v5.4.7. In essence, you are simply running the ROM of an unlocked GSM phone on your locked GSM phone. Note that as a consequence, you lose the Cingular ROM customizations.

Thanks Ronin - I'm double-checking this issue about the unlocked SIM now and will update the post accordingly if not correct.

Cheers, A.

Interesting. I read something similar in the posts/comments over at Engadget. In short, I don't have a solid answer for you. I do see the difference between having "features unlocked" and having the "SIM unlocked". Personally, I don't care about an unlocked SIM. I care more about having all my features unlocked and being able to use my phone to the fullest. I also care about using PalmOne's ROM updates moving forward as they release them much earlier and more frequently than the carriers (Sprint, Cingular, etc) do. Also, PalmOne is more likely to release one update per fix than a carrier which is going to wait for multiple fixes and roll them out in a single update (and make us wait longer as a result).

As for the ROM customizations... I can't comment on these either. My phone still works after the update. I have BT DUN now and I didn't before. I also have the NVFS fixes without having to wait for Cingular to drag their feet some more. I'd very much like a better explanation of the "ROM customizations". Do they provide any benefit? If my GSM and GPRS/EDGE connections still work, and all my apps still work, I don't see that I've lost anything. If I'm wrong, please tell me how.

As for the unlocked SIM, sometime this week I'll pick up a prepaid SIM from a carrier other than AT&T/Cingular and test it out. I guess that'll give the final answer. From my experience, the only way you could have "an unlocked GSM ROM on a locked phone" is if they burned the carrier's ID into a chip on the phone. I don't think PalmOne would do this as it costs more money in manufacturing. I believe (and I may be completely wrong) that the carrier locking is in the firmware and once you put the unlocked f/w on the phone you are essentially completely unlocked.

As an aside, I'm very glad I have an AT&T provided 650 instead of a Cingular one. The AT&T ones have blue around the screen, but don't say AT&T or Cingular anywhere. The Cingular ones, however, say Cingular on them. So now, my h/w doesn't say a carrier and my s/w doesn't say a carrier either. :)

I have actually performed this procedure myself and there are rather substantial threads on both mytreo.net and treocentral.com about the procedure and many statements that is does not unlock a Cingular phone.

The install of the Unlocked GSM does not deprive you of any features (as far as I can tell) and the only ROM customization that I am aware of that is special to the Cingular specific ROM is the stub program for XpressMail, the Cingular screens for phone on/off and the disabling of DUN. With the Unlock GSM ROM, you can still get and use XpressMail without the stub in ROM by doing a desktop install, I doubt anyone is really going to miss the Cingular screens and the enabling of DUN is a good thing.

I have not delved into the ROM customizations myself, however, the primary reason to do so is to free up RAM. If you make a custom ROM which removes the various languages and replaces VersaMail with SnapperMail and includes DateBk5 you won't have to store these programs in RAM taking up the precious and limited space (the update certainly makes this less of an issue but can you ever have too much RAM). I have not seriously considered making a custom ROM primarily for time reasons and also because I have the Treo to use it and if I fried it, I would be lost. :)

As to locked versus unlocked - in my opinion there is value to an unlocked GSM phone only if you are traveling abroad. In this case you can buy a pre-paid SIM in the country you are in and avoid international roaming charges. On the other hand, this dovetails into your statement about having all of the features of your phone available for you to use.

On the Cingular phone the Bluetooth DUN can be described as feature locked (it is there but the user do not have access to it). I understand how, even if you never will use DUN that this could bother an owner of a Treo and how the fact that you are also locked out of using other SIMs even if you don't travel often would also be bothersome as well. After all life is all about options.

Well i tried it and it worked! Wohoo!! and i thought i would have to wait for cingular....

It does not SIM unlock phone.... But it does Unbrand phone!!! Awesome...

Ronin - I agree on the carrier agnostic SIM card capabilities for intl travel. However, I'll wager that most Treo users have both voiceplans and unlimited data plans. If you use a different SIM, you can avoid the LD charges, but you also lose data. I've yet to find a SIM that provided data. To me, I don't see the point in saving on the LD charges only to be barred from my email cause I have no data access.

Also, for what its worth, my service plan w/ AT&T Business Wireless provides my voice, unlimited data, and for an extra $30/month, unlimited intl LD & roaming within my base voice plan's minutes. Not bad if you travel frequently. And for an extra $5/month, my data plan works internationally w/ any partnered carrier.

I just tried SIMs from Verizon (they now have a worldphone that operates in both CDMA and GSM via a Vodaphone partnership) and from a T-Mobile phone. Both came up with the standard "You can't use this SIM in this phone" message and allowed only for 911/SOS calls. So, it is confirmed, the unlock hack only unlocks features and removes branding, but doesn't unlock the carrier aspect of the phone.

On the plus side, however, I now have BT DUN and I can get future updates whenever PalmOne releases them which is more often than not a lot more frequently than the carriers themselves do.

need help for unlock my treo 650 i recently bought it but it comes locked i live in costa rica and i can´t return it please neeedds help ....i need the codes

Now see, after reading this, I really feel like there needs to be an update for my T5, and or, Treonauts needs to run a contest for an unlocked 650 that I can win. I feel so much like I am on the outside looking in. But I know that for me, the 650 doesnt meet all of my needs. If it had about 215 more megs of RAM, then I'd be all over it (even without a camera).

Mine (att 650) went into a reset loop during the final stage.
Pulling the battery did nothing. I did a hard re-set.
It shows 1.23 firmware, but bluetooth dun is now there.
I set it up to my laptop and went to dsl reports and ran a speed test.
I got 115.2 down and 21 up.
Not too shabby.

Here is the link to the Palm One pdf that describes setting up dun:
http://www.palmone.com/us/support/handbooks/treo/Treo650_GSM_DUN_UG.pdf

Is it possible to get sprint service with an unlocked treo 650 phone?

lyle - you can't get Sprint service on the Unlocked Treo 650 because Sprint service operates on a CDMA wireless network (also Verizon) while the Unlocked Treo 650 can only run on GSM networks (Cingular/T-Mobile).

It is expected that future versions of the Treo will have dual CDMA/GSM antennas built-in but at present you can't do this.

Cheers, A.

is it possible to run into problems in the future after doing this update?

Some similar discussion at mytreo, looks like there are keys now for unlocking Treo 650.
http://mytreo.net/forum/index.php/topic,7196.255.html

Lately we just found out that again this will not unlock the phone but only unbrand the phone. The only problem about these are the risk of the phone might not work and also void your warranty. Fortunatelty mine worked but started thinking what if Cingular came up with a better update. Well I tihnks it's to late for that. Anyways another good trick to unlock the phone is by calling Cingular and ask them the code directly. Going out of town will work and tell them you have to be there for a while and want to use your phone there. They gave mine right away. To do it, type *#*# (the code) # and press the center in the D-pad button. Hope this works. Mine did.. thanks

Cingular unlocks Phone forum

http://www.howardforums.com/archive/topic/575563-1.html

What about future updates? Would the unlock GSM updates work? or Would it even be possible?

Thanks,
Matt

Treo 650 unlocking now available here. Unlock from any network for use on any network! Simple online unlock method.
http://www.phunlock.com/palm.html

I tried to update and used the SD card as described and I got a localazation error. It took about 2 hours to get my phone back to its origanal state. Thank goodness I backed it up. Any help would be appericated as I really want to update this 650

So. I was about to do this and then got to thinking, "Do I realy want to take the risk?" Well, here is the question, I've had the problem that many users have, echoing of the remote caller's voice back to them. This is NOT due to the volume level, etc. It happens regardless of whether I am on speaker phone, regular or via my bluetooth headset. I have found other posts that say it is common with Cingular (which I have) and not other phones. Has anyone with a Cingular service had this issue, applied the update and found that the problem went away. This is my ONLY gripe about this phone other than DUN not being enabled but that has a fix even if it isn't free. A caller hearing their own echo makes this phone almost unusable though. I've replaced the phone once and the SIM 2 times for rebooting issues. Man this thing is a love hate relationship. I've also noticed my versamail settings and accounts periodically dissappear. Anyone else?

Chris

We unlock treo 650s
in the states.
Our pricing is upfront
no need to sign up to unlock. You just email us
[email protected]
and we will email you info for unlock. Pricing is $45 USD Quick Simple and easy. This is a actual sim unlock remotely. Done right on your computer in front of you.
http://www.4321media.com/unlock.html

Has anyone used any of the pay services for unlocking the 650?

Did it work?

YES it does. i read a threat here guy name SHAWN who is unlocking TREO 650 . he does remote method you do not have to send your treo any where. he charge me 30 USD and it did unlocked my treo 650 from cingular. i treid this method of upgrading to new version. i was not successful. i was kept getting SIM error. email shawn at [email protected]

I had no problems at FastTutorial, but I realized I had to be first plug-in and then put it in "test mode". This is the Treo 650 unlock tutorial if you using GSM server method. http://www.fasttutorial.com/treo650/