In the last decade, mobile phones have stopped being juts a device for voice calls but have become a gadget for data communications. First, there was SMS or Short Message Service, a service that allowed people to send alphanumeric messages to mobile phones using the GSM network. Now the mobile phones have been packed with so many features including full keyboards, multi-media support capacity, internet connectivity and other mobile applications.

Palm Inc. was among the first to introduce Smart phones with emailing and internet connectivity and full keyboards that made it easy to use the mobile phone as an extension of one’s office. Today, the Treo Smart Phones from Palm Inc. are among the top choices of business executives and other professionals because of the mobile applications that allow people to use their phones for a variety of purposes. All high technology features of the Treo Smart phones would be for naught if it weren’t for its ease of use. The latest Treo Smart Phones with Windows OS are even more easy to use than the first Smart phones introduced years ago. The Windows OS also allow the Treo Smart phones to handle Windows documents better allowing you to work seamlessly between your PC and your mobile phone. Both the Windows OS and the Palm OS also make the Treo phones among the fastest mobiles in the market, allowing for a great computing experience and a seamless internet connection. One of the most popular PDA phones from Treo is the Treo 650.

If you bought a Treo 650 Smartphone locked to a specific GSM provider and you prefer to use with another service provider, then there is a way to unlock your mobile phone. You can even do it remotely without the need to ship your mobile phone to the unlocking company. There are remote unlock codes that you can get from websites and you can just use the code to unlock the phone at home.

The first step you should do is to sync all your data with your PC. The phone comes with a hot sync cable for this purpose. This is important because you might delete some information from your phone without meaning to. This will save you the hassles of losing any important data.

After you have complete backed-up your data, you can already start unlocking your phone. Insert a SIM from a different service provider in your mobile phone. When you turn the Treo 650 on, a message saying ‘SIM NOT ALLOWED’ will be displayed on the phone’s screen. Just click OK and use the stylus to enter the code that was provided to you by the ‘unlocking company’. To enter the code press * # * # (CODE provided by the unlocking company) #. After you have entered the code, the message ‘SIM LOCK REMOVED’ should appear on your screen. You are now free to use any SIM from other service providers and even use foreign pre-paid cards on your phone when you travel to other countries.

There are also unlocking processes that include the use of software. Usually, you will be provided by a step-by-step guide on how to unlock your phone when you acquire an unlocking code. The whole process should take less than 5 minutes.

Ahmed Foaud is the author of this article on Palm Treo Smart Phone. Find more information about How To Unlock The Palm Treo [http://www.treoexpress.com/2007/09/18/how-to-unlock-the-palm-treo] here.

Unlocking the Palm Treo FAQ:

Question: How can I unlock my Palm Treo 650 Alltel Cell Phone to work on other carriers?

Answer: A unit designed to run on Alltel will not work on all other carriers. It will work only on those carriers using the same frequency as Alltel. If your new carrier meets this criteria, they can do the conversion for you.

Question: How do I unlock my Treo Palm?
I have my mothers old phone, and I was going to put my Orange SIM card into it, but its saying “Network Locked, Please put in Unlock Code” and I don’t have one and I was wondering if there was something I could do to find it

Answer: All SIM unlock codes are tied to the particular device IMEI and are carrier specific. The request for that code would need to be made from the carrier that the phone was originally manufactured for. Each carrier has their own guidelines as far as what requirements have to be met before that code will be given out. This is a free process in the US.

Question: Can I unlock my Sprint palm treo so that it works on other networks?

Answer: No CDMA phones are locked to a specific network and cannot be unlocked.

Question: How to unlock a palm treo 700p?
Does anyone knows how to unlock a palm treo 700p? Is not SIM is CDMA technology. I want to use it for Verizon. Used it for Sprint before. No unlocking code available from Sprint.

Answer: Sorry, but CDMA phones can’t be unlocked. You MIGHT be able to find someone who can flash it to work with Verizon, but it’s very unlikely. Even then, its ESN number will not be in Verizon’s database, so they will most likely not activate it.

Question: Can I still do regular text messaging on a palm treo 650 with cingular? Or do I have to do SMS?
I’m looking into buying an unlocked Palm Treo 650. I noticed it has many great features, but if it can’t do regular texting maybe I should reconsider!

Answer: Regular text messaging on a cell phone is SMS. It might not be called that on all phones, but that’s the industry standard format for sending text messages over the cellular networks.

Question: How do you unlock a Palm Treo (Sprint) phone?
I have At&t, but I got a Palm Treo given to me. Is there any way to unlock it so I can use my sim card or something on it…not sure how it works but is it possible?

Answer: No, it’s not possible. Sprint and Verizon use entirely different mobile phone technologies that are not compatible with each other.

Question: Can anyone help me unlock a palm 650 treo?
I can’t seem to figure it out online.

Answer: If you are AT&T/Cingular customer, you can login to your at&t online account and go to your current device and it should ask you if you want to unlock your phone. (It asks for most of the phones) Follow the instruction and you should be able to do so. I had SonyErricson and I did that last year for FREE. If you can’t find that call customer service and tell them you need the unlock code and they will ask few details to make sure that you are doing it for right account and will email you the code and instruction on how to unlock.

Question: I exceeded the 5 times you can use to unlock the palm treo 650? What should I do!?
I bought the phone off ebay and tried to unlock it from some sites that claimed it was the last digits of the imei number and stuff but it didn’t work and they say that you can only try 5x. So what should I do now because I really need to unlock the phone.

Answer: I would suggest a ‘hard reboot or reset’. This is done by holding down the red key while punching in the small hole to the left of the battery (take the back off but hold the battery in.)

If this does not work, then I would suggest you take it to a local phone store and see if they can get it to work.

Too often these are sold on the Internet because they are stolen. If your is one of these, then you will most likely never get it to work.