Unlocking a mobile phone

Ximian

My cousin has a Tesco pay as you go sim in an old Nokia which has had problems with the battery no longer holding a charge and decided that it''s time to buy a new phone. Thinking that the Tesco sim will work in a Tesco PAYG phone, she bought a new LG S310 Tesco phone and got home and tried her old sim in the new phone and it didn't work. While she was in Tesco she also decided to top up with £20 credit on the old sim, so to use the new sim and phone number would mean using the old number until all the credit is used up and an inconvenience to let all her contacts know that she has a new number. I said that one of the options would be to unlock the phone. I searched and found some eBay sellers selling unlock codes and was wondering if anyone has used eBay before to unlock their phone .... and is there an alternative method where I can do this instead ... preferably for free. :cool:

debitcardmayhem

Take them to the Tesco's where she bought it and explain it to them.

RosieBee_2

Hello,

As mentioned above, I would go to Tesco and explain the situation to them. They might be able to offer you an unlock (at a cost). Otherwise I would go to a trusted retailer to get my phone unlocked. As for eBay, I would tend to avoid buying that kind of service from an auction site, as you'd probably get no guarantee that the phone will be unlocked

Hope this helps

Bowling_4_Gold

It's unlikely the phone needs unlocking if she is on Tesco and the phone that was bought is on Tesco.

You say it's an old Nokia. What is more likely to have happened is that Tesco have updated their SIM cards in the time between your friend getting the Nokia and getting this new phone and therefore it is outdated and the new phone isn't recognizing it. Best solution is to phone Tesco Mobile and ask them for a replacement SIM. It will have the same number and be for the same account (therefore will still have the credit on) but will hopefully be updated enough to be recognisable and usable by the phone. Won't cost anything.

Of course there are other possibilities, but from experience I know this happens.

lady2012

I have a LG S310 and looking for a code for free to unlock so its sim free can anyone please help me ? IMEI NUMBER 35414204347266300 OR 354142043472663

pogofish

Much better to post this in the Phone unlock threads in the Mobile Phone Forum.

Buzby

The difference is in the SIM voltage, the new SIMs use considerably less, and will not be read by old handsets (and vice versa).