Do you Know how to Unlock this Phone for Free?

[Zalo]

I have a ZTE Z431 phone:

http://rogerscodes.com/mobiles/m_ZTE-z431-network-unlock-code.jpg

I'd like to switch its carrier from money grubbin' At&T to Airvoice Wireless Pre-paid, and also port the new service to Google Voice.

To do this I'm going to need to unlock the phone. I'm trying to find a free way to do this as the phone isn't worth much to start with!

Any ideas, leads, or links would be appreciated!

[Daley]

It depends. If you have an active account in good standing with AT&T and you've either completed your contract or you're on their prepaid service and had it active for at least six months uninterrupted, they should be willing to carrier unlock it for you. Just contact a CSR.

www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB414532

If you bought it after January 20-something-ish 2013, the only people that can legally carrier unlock it is AT&T. Even still, if you could even find anyone who could unlock it, you'll likely pay more to do so than it's worth at this point due to the changes in the law.

[fodder69]

If you were super technical you could most likely do it for free, but probably not. Just contact ATT and see what happens there.

If not, your best bet is to get a phone from Airvoice for $60 or so. AIO (which is ATT) has a wider variety and some nice smart phones if that is what you want.

[Daley]

If not, your best bet is to get a phone from Airvoice for $60 or so. AIO (which is ATT) has a wider variety and some nice smart phones if that is what you want.

Cheaper and easier to just shop for carrier unlocked GSM handsets off Amazon. Airvoice handsets don't make financial sense, and Aio has the same vendor lock-in policy nightmare, which stands to reason given who they really are (prices aren't that great anyway unless you're a colossal data hog).

[fodder69]

All very true, I was going to suggest ebay but I didn't realize they were so cheap on amazon, the Z431 is only $36.99 there.

Unfortunately I am a colossal data hog which is why AIO makes sense for me! I have an iphone 5 which makes no sense at this point but it is paid for and unlocked. I have my old iphone 3g as backup if the 5 ever dies. AIO's big draw for me is even their cheap plan offers unlimited data. You just get 250MB at 'high speed' and then after that you are throttled to a low speed. But that low speed is more than enough for email, occasional surfing, maps and pandora so $40 for me works out really well. Especially since I get a $50 a month supplement from work for the cell phone since I am required to be in contact.