Can I Use a PC Mobile or Virgin Mobile Phone On the Bell Network?

[Rinconns]

My son lost his bell phone, I was hoping to buy a cheap prepaid virgin or pc mobile phone and activate it on my mtm, since virgin and pc mobile both use the bell network. Can this be done? Or are these phones hard coded to thier carriers?

[jonnypage]

a quick search, or reading the sticky would have pulled up this thread: http://howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1107437

[Old Faithful]

The CDMA phones are not hardcoded to Bell. I know it is stupid and purely based on greed, it has generated a lot of hot debates when it was implemented a couple of years ago, but it is simply policy to refuse any phones that were not acquired through Bell.

Do like I did: just get him a Koodo phone, much cheaper for the same thing, no contract, no early termination fees and much friendlier plans. If he's not stuck with Bell, that is

[olografix]

The answer to your question is "no" (http://howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1107437).

If you want cheap, try Craigslist or the BST section but in both cases you'll need to check the ESN. Cheepest non-contract on Bell goes for 99$ I think... which may be 50$ more than you're willing to spend, I undersand.

[Rinconns]

ok thanks for the help

one further question, I know in the past you could activate a bell prepaid on a mtm term, is this still possible with cdma and hspa handsets?

[MacD]

Yes, as long as you remove the phone from your prepaid line before hand.