Handset Locking..

karatedragon

Handset Locking should be banned.

What's the point anyway? You have to pay the airtime contract anyway.

People just take them to the local market and undo the locking anyway. Or find codes on the web. Just got my T-Mobile N73 unlocked for £5 - T-Mobile wanted £15.

Bowling_4_Gold

karatedragon wrote: »

Handset Locking should be banned.

Why? It's not illegal. Normally very luicrative for the networks.

What's the point anyway? You have to pay the airtime contract anyway.

Not sure what you mean. If you mean in terms of a contract, then at the end of a contract term, the network have a greater chance of keeping you if they make it difficult to change networks.

People just take them to the local market and undo the locking anyway. Or find codes on the web. Just got my T-Mobile N73 unlocked for £5 - T-Mobile wanted £15.

And if it's got any warranty remaining, you've just lost it. Simply pay £10 more and it would've been different.

Why would any network say, 'Here you go... Have a highly subsidised (by us) handset, and use it on whichever network you want. We won't get offended, promise!'. It makes business sense to do all that's legal to ensure you keep your customer base. By not locking handsets, you're pretty much shooting yourself in the foot.

Some providers don't lock their handsets anyways.

karatedragon

Heavily Subsidised. That's a laugh. Take a look at the Desire on an 18 Month, £30 a month contract with T-Mobile. They want £380 for the handset. You can buy it SIM free for £387 from Handtec. £380. That's really subsidised that is - by £7.

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/pay-monthly/htc/desire/price-plans/

And if a company offered a decent service then they would not need to lock their kit because people would stay.

BillScarab

karatedragon wrote: »

Heavily Subsidised. That's a laugh. Take a look at the Desire on an 18 Month, £30 a month contract with T-Mobile. They want £380 for the handset. You can buy it SIM free for £387 from Handtec. £380. That's really subsidised that is - by £7.

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/pay-monthly/htc/desire/price-plans/

And then you've got to pay for a monthly contract or regular top ups on PAYG as well. So it's not £380 is it? You needto compare like with like to get the true cost.

karatedragon

LOL - That T-Mobile "Deal" costs £920 across the life of the contract. It's laughable.

gjchester

karatedragon wrote: »

Handset Locking should be banned.

What's the point anyway? You have to pay the airtime contract anyway.

People just take them to the local market and undo the locking anyway. Or find codes on the web. Just got my T-Mobile N73 unlocked for £5 - T-Mobile wanted £15.

OFCOM disagree with you, it's been raised and been rejected before.

I agree that it has little point for some handsets. Hpowever some cannot be unlocked on a market stall as only the provider can give you the unlock code. Bearing in mind many operators modify the firmware it's almost a mute point as it may be unlocked but still looking ofr one companys services.

It's more historical, Back in the early says some proiders (orange especially) sold a contract phone in a box, you went home, charged it and then the phone would initially only connect to Orange so you could set up a contract. These were subsidised and people took the phone and sold them on so the mobile co's lost money. They soon shifted to a state where you need to sign up before you get the phone.

The Sim Lock is there to help the provider know you will stay with them, and as such it's especialy common on pay as you go. You may have bought the phone for a tenner but it's still subsidised and the idea is you need to spend so much with the provider to make it worth them subsidising the phone. The fact you need to buy airtime with a phone is also to try and stop you buying a cheap PAYG phone throwing the sim out and selling the phone on, effectivly you have to pay something to the network to start the recovery of the amount on the subsidised phone

In Contract phones it stops you putting in a local sim if you travel outsside the UK, so you should be making more revenue for yout provider. SIM locks are becoming less common on contract phones, as you have a contract in place to hold you to the network, but still common where the phone is a network exclusive, (ie the iPhone was on o2)

I can see the point about sim locks being valid, without them phones would become less subsidised, But rather is should be made a law that at the end of your contract (or a set amount of credit being put on the phone) you can get the unlock code for free.

Bowling_4_Gold

karatedragon wrote: »

Heavily Subsidised. That's a laugh. Take a look at the Desire on an 18 Month, £30 a month contract with T-Mobile. They want £380 for the handset. You can buy it SIM free for £387 from Handtec. £380. That's really subsidised that is - by £7.

If you widen you're perspective, you will soon see my point. Take, for example, the Toshiba TG01 sold by Orange. The phone was worth around £400, and coudn't have cost the network a lot less than £175 each, yet they sold it for £120 - very heavily subsidised.

And if a company offered a decent service then they would not need to lock their kit because people would stay

Most netwoks offer an outstanding service. Where else can you talk to someone 400 miles away instantly for less than 50p a minute? Most of the time you can get reception, and I've never experienced network 'down time'.

I think you're having a grumble 'cause you've had to part with £5 to leave the network you're on. If you hate the network soooo much, buy the phone from a different network. Simples.

Bowling_4_Gold

karatedragon wrote: »

LOL - That T-Mobile "Deal" costs £920 across the life of the contract. It's laughable.

If you bought just the mins and texts with Asda Mobile (the cheapest rate in the country - 8p calls, 4p texts) you get with the particular 'deal', it would cost you £1224, so T-Mobile offering all those minutes and texts, and a £400 phone for £920, is outstanding. This gives a result of 2.7p per call/text. Beat that rate!

Comparing this to T-Mobile's basic SIM only contract, across 18 months it would work out as 2.3p per call/text. This excludes the £400 initial cost of the phone.

karatedragon

Well I got the same handset with Vodafone for £25 a month on 18 months and the handset was free. This is for 600 mins, unlimited texts and unlimited landline and internet browsing. Also Vodafone told me the Desire is unlocked on arrival and if it isn't would unlock it for free. In fact their website boasts free unlocking.

I think that is pretty good value. And if I have used my calculator right - does beat that

Ohh and with £150 back from Quidco not only makes this good value but outstanding value!!!

gjchester

karatedragon wrote: »

Well I got the same handset with Vodafone for £25 a month on 18 months and the handset was free. This is for 600 mins, unlimited texts and unlimited landline and internet browsing. Also Vodafone told me the Desire is unlocked on arrival and if it isn't would unlock it for free. In fact their website boasts free unlocking.

Couple of points.

Are you just not showing why SIMlocks are needed given the subsidy you got. As I said more towards PAYG than contract but you can surely see how the operators need to protect there subsidy so they get it back.

Secondly is the Desire branded by Vodafone, I'd like one but I don't want them to screw it up by putting their "value added feature" and the other crap branding andWAP portal on it.

karatedragon

gjchester wrote: »

Couple of points.

Are you just not showing why SIMlocks are needed given the subsidy you got. As I said more towards PAYG than contract but you can surely see how the operators need to protect there subsidy so they get it back.

Secondly is the Desire branded by Vodafone, I'd like one but I don't want them to screw it up by putting their "value added feature" and the other crap branding andWAP portal on it.

The point about branding has been raised on the Vodafone eForum. Apparently it isn't tinkered with.

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/topic/58298-htc-desire-does-vodafone-customise-the-interface/