Which Phones Will Work On Bell Mobility? The Top 4 Ways To Identify a Bell Cell Phone

Are you curious if a certain phone will work on Bell Mobility?  In this short article, you will learn why it is important to know if a phone will work on Bell before you purchase it.  You will also learn how to identify a Bell phone.

Unlike other Canadian cellular carriers like Rogers and Fido, Bell Mobility will not allow any phone to be activated on their network.  Bell Mobility only activates phones that are originally purchased by Bell from the manufacturer.  How does Bell accomplish this?  I’m glad you asked… Every CDMA cell phone comes with an ESN (electronic serial number), this number uniquely identifies every phone produced by the manufacturer.  When Bell purchases new phones they store each individual ESN to a database called the ESN Database, and whenever someone takes a phone to Bell to be activated, Bell checks their ESN Database to make sure the ESN is in there.  If your phone’s ESN does not have a matching ESN in Bell’s database, your phone will not be activated.

Cell phone manufacturers like Samsung, Motorola and others rarely make a cell phone model for a specific mobile carrier, so the same phone model can be found on many different mobile carriers.  Often Bell will sell the same phone models as Sprint and Verizon in the US.  But even identical cell phone models sold by Sprint and Verizon will cannot be activated by Bell.   When looking for replacement Bell Mobility cell phone (new, used, or refurbished) it is important to know that the phone you are considering is indeed a Bell phone.

Here are the top 4 ways to identify a Bell cellular phone:

• Bell spends money to brand their phones.  Most phones will have a Bell logo stamped somewhere on the phone’s housing.  If you find the Bell logo on a cellular phone, there is a very good chance that the phone is a Bell phone.
• The second way to identify a Bell Mobility cell phone is in the start-up software.  Just like when you turn on your PC, you will see the Microsoft logo on your monitor during the computer start-up most Bell phones will display the Bell logo during the phone’s start-up.
• Another way to know if your phone is a Bell phone is to see if the phone you are interested in is on the list of phones that Bell has released.  This is an effective way to eliminate phones that cannot be activated on Bell Mobility because if a certain model was not released by Bell, then there is almost no way that the phone is from Bell.  For example, up until the date this article was written Bell has never released a phone by manufacturer Sony-Ericsson, so any Sony-Ericsson phone is definitely not a Bell unit.  This list is extensive and is accurate through the time this article is written.
• The most effective way to determine if the phone you are considering is a Bell phone and can be activated on the Bell network is to locate the ESN, or ask the seller for the electronic serial number on the phone.  Then contact your local Bell store (or Bell Mobility Customer Service), give the representative the ESN, and they can let you know if the phone can be activated.

Follow these simple instructions and you can be sure that the cellular phone you are considering is actually a Bell cellular phone and can be activated by Bell Mobility.