Need some help with phones

[AnnabellActress]

i know most of these questiong will come as pretty lame to everyone but i just have a few questions about purchasing a new phone
1- I currently have AT&T or cingular, and i want to upgrade to a qwerty phone, but not purchase through the cingular store, so i wanna buy from ebay, and some of them say that they are AT&T ....then phone name, are those the ones i would just be able to plop my sim card in and run away, and also what is this unlocked businiess all these phones online say??
2- With blackberrys and other smartphones, since they seem to be all thats out there with qwerty, do you HAVE to purchase the extra 30 dollars/month bundle of online capabilites, or would you be able to use that phone without paying for those extra fees
3- any suggestions of a good qwerty phone kinda like the env for cingular?
thanks for any help

 

[therapy]

1. Buy a phone that is GSM with the 850mhz band and is either at&t compatible or sim unlocked
2. If you want to access the web, yes, if you just want to use the phone, no. (my wife uses a blackberry pearl with no data)
3. No such thing, unless you look on Ebay for an LG 9100, Nokia 6820 or 3300. If you go through Cingular, then you are looking at a Blackberry, Palm, or HTC phone.

 

[TinkerToes]

alright cool, because i was looking at an older blackberry model but dont want the web. so ill be able to fly with that

 

[ButchQuique]

yep, it will work just fine if it's GSM. Just pop in your sim and go!