Can used cellphones be reprogrammed or reactivated?

Question

Say I find a cellphone. It charges up and works, but it's one that someone lost and had shut off. Is there a way to clear everything and put a new number on it? Perhaps a new SIM card? or is it useless now?

Answer 1

http://hellomotomail.com/

Answer 2

nope.its pretty much usless.  

Answer 3

It depends upon the phone and where you are. If the phone uses a sim card, it will most likely work if you put in a compatible sim card. Once, it's turned on, you can clear all the previous data off of it and it's good to go. Sim card phones are registered to the network via the sim card not the phone itself so a valid sim card will get you service. But the phone has to be unlocked or the sim has to match the service provider name on the phone.

If the phone doesn't use a sim card, then using it is more problematical because those phones can be reported as either stolen or lost and a provider can refuse to activate it.