Phone locked to EE

jagorcevina

Hi

I am planning to buy a mobile phone locked to EE, and I wondering can I use some other mobile provider which piggybacking on EE, for example : white mobile, virgin mobile, asda mobile etc.

Does anyone have some experience with such a thing? Its not a Iphone.

Thank you

AndyPK

Buy some sims and see.

Virgin & Vectone

flashg67

Should work fine in my experience.

gjchester

jagorcevina wrote: »

Hi

I am planning to buy a mobile phone locked to EE, and I wondering can I use some other mobile provider which piggybacking on EE, for example : white mobile, virgin mobile, asda mobile etc.

Does anyone have some experience with such a thing? Its not a Iphone.

Thank you

There is no way to tell other than trying.

If you buy from a 3rd party such as Carphone Warehouse it may even be unlocked. Its also possible that the phone will only take a EE sim until unlocked, it all depends what the locking was done to.

Collabora

gjchester wrote: »

There is no way to tell other than trying.

If you buy from a 3rd party such as Carphone Warehouse it may even be unlocked. Its also possible that the phone will only take a EE sim until unlocked, it all depends what the locking was done to.

get from CPW they are all unlocked, but an EE locked phone will work with orange/mobile sim. i got a EE locked phone as a second phone and my Orange sim works fine.
not sure on an Asda sim, but cant see why not as they use the EE network

gjchester

Collabora wrote: »

get from CPW they are all unlocked,

Not that simple....


First for iPhones all stock except from Apple (and reportedly GiffGaff) will lock to the first network you use. So put in a O2 sim card and the phone locks to O2 and so on.


CPW (and any other 3rd party) tends to buy unlocked generic stock as that way they need to keep a smaller stock level in the shop, so if you want a XYZ phone they give you the unlocked stock, and the appropriate networks sim card. That way they can keep say 5 units of each model phone, rather than 5 unit of each model locked to each network. Just considering the big networks that could be be difference of holding a stock level of 5 Vs. 25 and that's a lot less money tied up in stock.


However when your buying thousands of phones in one go a few pound difference per phone can mean a large difference overall, so where they get a better deal from the network, or if the phone is an exclusive to any network then they will buy from the network, and in this case the phones may be locked or not.


I've had phones supplied by CPW that were network locked, and even one that had TMobile onscreen branding (and locked to TM) with an Orange SIM card supplied when they got them mixed up before dispatch.


While you are likely to get an unlocked phone there is no way to know in advance if you will get one.

grumbler

gjchester wrote: »

I've had phones supplied by CPW that were network locked, ....

In my memory you are the first one reporting this - except "exclusive to network" phones that they usually make very clear if it is the case, like they do for iPhones.

mobilejunkie

Then here's another. I had one locked to Orange (still use it on one of my contracts). However, I've had scores from them over the years and none of the others were locked.

Collabora

gjchester wrote: »

Not that simple....


First for iPhones all stock except from Apple (and reportedly GiffGaff) will lock to the first network you use. So put in a O2 sim card and the phone locks to O2 and so on.


CPW (and any other 3rd party) tends to buy unlocked generic stock as that way they need to keep a smaller stock level in the shop, so if you want a XYZ phone they give you the unlocked stock, and the appropriate networks sim card. That way they can keep say 5 units of each model phone, rather than 5 unit of each model locked to each network. Just considering the big networks that could be be difference of holding a stock level of 5 Vs. 25 and that's a lot less money tied up in stock.


However when your buying thousands of phones in one go a few pound difference per phone can mean a large difference overall, so where they get a better deal from the network, or if the phone is an exclusive to any network then they will buy from the network, and in this case the phones may be locked or not.


I've had phones supplied by CPW that were network locked, and even one that had TMobile onscreen branding (and locked to TM) with an Orange SIM card supplied when they got them mixed up before dispatch.


While you are likely to get an unlocked phone there is no way to know in advance if you will get one.

both me and my family have orange contract phones from CPW and all these work with o2, tesco, three and vodafone sims without issue.

i have a GIFFGAFF purchased iPhone and yes these are not locked to first sim installed.

Collabora

gjchester wrote: »

While you are likely to get an unlocked phone there is no way to know in advance if you will get one.

Yes their is. a phone locked to a specific network will have on the box the logo of the locked network and above the barcode it will have something like ' EE (phone name and model)'

gjchester

grumbler wrote: »

In my memory you are the first one reporting this - except "exclusive to network" phones that they usually make very clear if it is the case, like they do for iPhones.

I suspect it happens more on older phones and also refurbished phones they want to clear stock of, but I've had it happen. As I said you are more likely to get unlocked stock, but its not guaranteed.

Collabora wrote: »

Yes their is. a phone locked to a specific network will have on the box the logo of the locked network and above the barcode it will have something like ' EE (phone name and model)'

My point is you cannot tell in advance of phone arriving or being supplied to you that its locked, and I agree it should be on the barcode, but often that's the only indicator. Networks often supply the phone in the makers box as it lets them shave a little more off the costs to them not making an exclusive box.


CPW themselves say phone say most are unlocked not all are..


http://selfhelp.carphonewarehouse.com/SelfHelp/request.do?view()=c%7Bede583e0-1fa9-11df-4872-f20203001e3d%7D