Telecommunication

So, tonight, we went to the mall for a girls' evening of shopping/perusing the stores and a movie.  I brought my phone in hopes that I could purchase some minutes on a SIM card, with a new Bulgarian phone number, so I could get in touch with/be contacted more easily here...  A friend of mine had brought her old phone in and said that she bought an 8 leva SIM card, with 200 minutes... which is a great deal (8 leva = about $6).  So, I went to the M-tel store, talked with the woman who was very friendly and helpful, which was pleasant.  I bought the SIM card for 7 leva and 98 stotinki, put the new SIM card in my phone, turned it on, punched in the pin number for the new card, and then my phone asked me for the service password?!  Apparently Cingular has some sort of hold on my phone, which refuses that it is used outside with a new service provider?  Which, makes sense I guess... but is annoying to me because I am still without means of communicating, except through smoke signals, emails, and personal contact... My next course of action, would be to call Cingular, via Skype to talk to them to see what is going on, however I need to purchase a monthly calling plan with Skype.  I tried to do that the other day, but in order to pay with a credit card online, Skype sends a confirmation number to your cell phone, so you can then put the confirmation code into the website.  (do you see where I am going with this?...)  Without a cell phone that can receive messages, the process of using Skype as a means of communicating is difficult too.  Moral/message of the story = I need a cell phone.