Phone Unlocking

arunsohal

I was just wondering whether a sim free phone can be unlocked. ie i brought a phone from business@phones4u on contract but they sent me a sim free phone. If it gets blocked (ie reported stolen) can it be unlocked ?

MarkyMarkD

Eh?

A sim free phone isn't locked - it's sim free for the precise purpose of you being able to put any sim into it.

arunsohal

it was given by phones4u as a contract phone. they have a note of the imei number of the phone. ie when they sent out my phone for o2 contract, they sent me a simfree phone. So if i report it stolen, willl it ever be able to be unlocked?

Smartasss

An unlocked phone will allow you to use any company's SIM card (eg o2 or voda or orange), as well as the SIM from the company it was originally locked to.

You may be thinking of the situation when should your phone be stolen it can be blocked.

This means that it cannot be used by any SIM at all until it has been unblocked.

Unlocking and unblocking are two different things.

Hope this helps.

dahool

you deciding to screw insurance or something ??

Essexdelboy

Don’t get confused guys.

There are barred phones and blocked/network locked phones

Barred phones are illegal to unlock or change the IMEI number (up to five years in prison it caught), check out https://www.unlockme.co.uk for details.

On the other hand these phones are only barred in the U.K, and work perfectly abroad. You will see countless people on Ebay who have found a phone and the original owner have called the service provider and had it barred. The person who found it can sell it for parts (i.e. screen, camera) or sell it to somebody outside the U.K.

When a phone is blocked/network locked this can 9/10's be unlocked (depending on make and model). Mostly all manufacturers apply SP locks (service provider locks) designed to keep you on that network. It is you consumer right to change the SP and you can call your SP but they will charge you (more than a private shop will).

Also some manufacturers (Samsung, siemens etc) put phone and sim locks on the phone, which is designed to stop people putting in the wrong sim card into the phone, even if the two sims are on the same network. However these can all be reversed by either a factory reset (code or cable& software) or doing hardware unlock.

Unlocking a phone does add to its resale value, hence why people do it, and it is also useful when you want to upgrade a PAYG phone but keep the same sim card.

Barred phones are pretty much useless in the U.K without you breaking the law to change their characteristics (imei).

I hope this helps

Ian