Unlocking a phone

Ballard

I'm going away in November/December (on holiday rather than at Her Majesty's pleasure!) and am thinking of getting a temporary SIM in Australia, mainly for data use but also the occasional phone call.

Vodaphone Australia have a plan which costs $60/£30 a month and can be cancelled after a month and gives 4GB data (currently 9GB until August), unlimited texts (including international), unlimited domestic calls and 300 minutes of international calls. I'm away for 6 weeks but Aus takes up 3 of those. It's not worth me getting a SIM for other countries as I won't be in them long enough to make it worthwhile.

I'll be mid-way through a 2 year deal with EE so my phone will presumably be locked to them.

I've never swapped SIMs like this before. Are EE obliged to unlock it and is the fee likely to be extortionate? Is it a simple process?

Any other comments on the plan or other options would be welcome.

Thanks.

gjchester

Ballard wrote: »

I'll be mid-way through a 2 year deal with EE so my phone will presumably be locked to them.

I've never swapped SIMs like this before. Are EE obliged to unlock it and is the fee likely to be extortionate? Is it a simple process?

The key may be more where it came from, Its almost certainly locked if it cam from a EE shop as EE tend to lock all phones, however if it came from a non network owned shop they may have used generic stock, so probalby is unlocked. The exception is iPhones which are almost always locked to the network they were supplied on.

There is only one way to be sure and that's swap a sim card, (maybe you can borrow a friends) there no harm in trying and you cannot lock or damage the the phone or SIM by trying them.

If it is locked then it costs £8.99 to get it unlocked and you need to have had it 6 months. Once unlocked it will remain unlocked so I'd suggest doing it sooner than later, so you know its done.

Ballard

Thanks. It's an iPhone and I've had it just over 6 months. For the sake of £8.99 I'll just get it done.

grumbler

Ballard wrote: »

I'm going away in November/December (on holiday rather than at Her Majesty's pleasure!) and am thinking of getting a temporary SIM in Australia, mainly for data use but also the occasional phone call.
Vodaphone Australia have a plan which costs $60/£30 a month and can be cancelled after a month and gives 4GB data (currently 9GB until August), unlimited texts (including international), unlimited domestic calls and 300 minutes of international calls. I'm away for 6 weeks but Aus takes up 3 of those. It's not worth me getting a SIM for other countries as I won't be in them long enough to make it worthwhile.

Have you heard of Three's feel-at-home?
That said, calls to Australian numbers, unlike to UK, will be not included and will cost 16p/min.

Are EE obliged to unlock it and is the fee likely to be extortionate? Is it a simple process?

No, they aren't, but they will for £9: https://myaccount.ee.co.uk/device-unlock/

gjchester

Ballard wrote: »

Thanks. It's an iPhone and I've had it just over 6 months. For the sake of £8.99 I'll just get it done.

iPhones Lock in a different way,you cannot get a code from a market stall or anyone on the internet, the network has to contact Apple who unlock it. Anyone who claims they can do it usually relies on a man at the network doing them on the side.

If you bought it direct from Apple it will be unlocked, but if not as its less than a tenner I'd say get EE to do it and know its done legitimatly.

Ballard

I've filled out a form on the EE website so this should be done fairly shortly.

I hadn't settled on Vodafone, they just happened to be the first firm that I looked at but I shall investigate further before I travel. For the convenience of having data (mostly for maps as I'm hopeless with directions) I'm happy to pay £30-40 for the time that I'm there.

Ballard

grumbler wrote: »

Have you heard of Three's feel-at-home?
That said, calls to Australian numbers, unlike to UK, will be not included and will cost 16p/min.

That would be ideal for this trip as I'm also going to NZ & HK among others but I'm already under contract with EE until November 2016.

grumbler

Ballard wrote: »

That would be ideal for this trip as I'm also going to NZ & HK among others but I'm already under contract with EE until November 2016.

It's available on Three PAYG as well. You just need to buy a £10/£15 bundle.

Ballard

grumbler wrote: »

It's available on Three PAYG as well. You just need to buy a £10/£15 bundle.

Oh. Okay. I'll look into this, thanks a lot.

Ballard

I've unlocked the phone and am waiting for my Three sim to arrive.

On a related subject, I believe that I can forward calls from my actual number to the Three number on my iPhone as there's an option within settings. They're both UK based numbers so would it be as simple as this or would I be charged a fee for every call?

I realise that I could probably find this out for myself but I'm being too lazy for my own good.

Thanks.

in_the_Cotswolds

Settings > Phone > Call Forwarding then enter the number. Suggest you check it works.