My business partner recently had her phone literally break apart in her hands. Since communication between us is pretty crucial I decided to give her a backup Blackberry Curve I had as a replacement for my Blackberry Bold. Problem was that the Curve was bought through AT&T and she uses T-mobile. The phone would have to be unlocked.

Initially, I was a little nervous about the process of  unlocking the Blackberry. I’d never personally tried anything like this and my direct experience with the process was that a 3rd party company would have to be brought into the mix. I didn’t relish the idea of paying someone to handle what seemed to be a simple exercise when I’m capable of pushing buttons on a freaking phone.

Turns out it’s actually extremely easy to handle this yourself though it does require a phone call to AT&T support. Simply call them up and they’ll ask you for your IMEI code; it’s under the battery on the serial number label. They’ll send you an email, like the below, that’ll walk you through the process.

Your device unlock request was received and processed, see below for details:

IMEI: YOUR_IMEI_NUMBER

Unlock Code: YOUR_UNLOCK_CODE

Caution: If this process is unsuccessful ten times in a row, the phone will be permanently locked to the at&t network. Do not attempt to enter the code more than one (1) time total.  Instructions below will assist you in unlocking your device, if these steps are unsuccessful please contact us at 1-800-331-0500 or (916) 843-4685 from overseas.

Blackberry 8310

Follow these steps to unlock device:

1. Turn off the radio! VERY IMPORTANT

2. Go to “Options”

3. Scroll to and select “Advanced Options”

4. Click on “SIM Card”

5. Type “MEPD” (You will not see on display what is being typed. To obtain a “P” double tap “OP” key)

6. Type “MEP2” (To obtain a “P” double tap “OP” key. Press “ALT “key to obtain a “2”)

7. Enter the unlock code

8. Press enter

9. Reboot device. Device is now unlocked.

Note: To verify the IMEI, dial *#06# on device’s keypad, 15 digit # IMEI will display on the screen.  If this sequence does not work, pull the back/battery off the phone and the IMEI will be listed on the back of the phone.

All told the total time invested was only about 5 minutes. Seriously, 5 minutes. So why would I want to pay someone for this again?