Question about unlocked cell phones

[thowe21]

My wife has a Moto Razr with Cingular/AT&T and seems to text message more than she actually talks on it (easier to text at work I guess). She wants to upgrade to something with a keyboard for easier texting, but after looking at the cingular website, the only thing that was of interest to her was the blackberry pearl. The problem is she doesn't need all of the other smart phone functions of the phone which is a little too much for her. She's actually interested in the sidekick with t-mobile but we don't want to switch providers just because of a phone. I know you can unlock a phone and use it on any carrier, but I'm not sure about the smart phones (i.e. the iphone I know you can't).

Is the sidekick unlockable to the cingular service?? What about other smart phones??

 

[TheForce]

When I was interested in this I did a search in Google and found services that do this on different levels. In addition, they had lists where you could look up the phone and tell if it was able to be unlocked. Not all SIM phones can be unlocked. In all cases the charge to unlock a phone ranged from %20 for do it yourself to $80 send it in and they do it.