Phones barred in UK, will they definitely work in other countries?

declanmcc

Hi folks,

This message is probably of more interest to residents of Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland.

I see quite regularly that there are phones for sale on eBay for a lot less than their usual sale price, maybe even a Nokia 6230 for as little as 40 quid, solely because they are barred from UK networks. The reason why they are barred is of no odds to me, but the sellers always claim that the phone will work in other countries, but how true is this?

Not 100% true.

I just spoke to O2 Ireland, and because O2 and Vodafone are both network providers in Republic of Ireland, they work in tandem with O2 UK and Vodafone UK. Therefore if a phone was originally on one of these UK networks and is barred in the UK, it is barred in Republic of Ireland too. The same applies for phones barred in Republic of Ireland ..... they'll not work in the UK.

If the phone was originally on Orange UK, then who knows, it may well work in Ireland!

So, just a warning to any Irish (North or South) eBayers that may be reading this, if you think you're getting yourself a bargain by buying a UK barred phone for use or resale in Republic of Ireland..... you're not getting a bargain, you're just buying yourself a lot of bother!

pje1979

My girlfriend lost her Orange phone. When she phoned Orange to tell them it was missing they said they would bar it and the phone wouldn't work in any European countrys

zakony

for some of you who have tried, if the phone is barred, do you need to remove the barring, or the phone will just work normally while not in europe? I was planning to buy a barred phone to use outside europe as it is cheap on ebay
thanks

andy88_2

zakony wrote:

I was planning to buy a barred phone to use outside europe as it is cheap on ebay
thanks

Surely it would be cheaper to steal one yourself instead of paying somebody else to do it?

zakony

not all barred phone are stolen

andy88_2

Losing the phone, reporting it as such, getting it replaced under insurance, then attempting to use it after the phone company has barred it is still theft. If the owner reported it but did not claim a replacement, why don't they use it themself?

zakony

i didn't think about that, but how come there are so amnyof them on ebay, does that mean there are a lot of stolen/reported stolen phone every single day?

andy88_2

I don't know. If they're described as barred or blocked I'm not interested.