Expert: DebiN - 2/1/2011

Question
My sister is sending me the above referenced phone.  I am with AT&T,(since the mid-90's)my blackberry just died. I have corporate discounts and the other two phones have 1.5 yrs more under contract.  I've seen info that indicates there are legitimate companies that "unlock" cell phones to work on other networks.  My question is, 1.  Will that work for this phone?  2.  Is it legal? 3.  Should I have any other concerns?  I am primarily a business user.

Thanks for your help.

Answer
An unlocked MotoBlur will work on the AT&T network. It is not illegal to unlock a phone, but there's no legitimate way to do this unless in this case, T-Mobile unlocks it. You can pay someone to unlock it. You will need to program the phone for AT&T settings and it's going to be a bit of a hassle to use it. You won't be able to get corporate email on the device with a BlackBerry plan and will need to make sure that your company can support non BlackBerry devices for delivering email. If I were you, I would recommend instead just getting a new AT&T device if at all possible. I'm sure the phone is nice, and if you had T-Mobile, then great, but you are always better with a device that has an AT&T image and firmware and was set up to work on the AT&T network. Hope this helps.