While on vacation in the US our daughter bought a phone for us to use through Cricket. It's a model A410, blackberry style phone, with a label on the back that says "qualcomm 3g CDMA". It did what we needed while on vacation.....but now that we're back here, I'm wondering whether it can be ?cracked? to use locally. We live in Udon. If it's not doable, I'll just break down and buy a newer phone to replace my antique 7year old Nokia. Does anyone out there know if it's worth the effort/expense/or is it even possible?

That's a very good question. From my experience, CDMA phone by Cricket inc. would not be a good candidate for use outside the United States. CMDA phones are built around a spectrum very popular for efficiency. Cricket and MetroPCS lacks Sims cards making it less attractive for the Asian market where sims enabled phones are vibrant. There's more on the topic but I hope that helps you out. Feel free to ask any more questions.