Are all PAYG phones locked to a network?

h901

@ the saint

hm......
every o2 phone i've had have been unlocked and was branded aswell (with the o2 startup and shutdown animation) and i've had over 5 o2 phones. therefore i thought that o2 never branded phones

and yes 100% of phones that are on orange (meaning they come with orange branding and orange box) are locked to orange
and this was confirmed by orange themselves
same with t-mobile
same with vodafone

and virgin, when i phoned virgin cs they said that new phones which are newly released usually do not get locked straight away but after a few weeks new stock is usually locked. so thats where i got the 95% from.

thesaint

So you are actually talking about phones supplied by the networks directly, and not the numerous other places where a PAYG phone can be purchased.

i.e CPW, phones4u, Argos, Catalogue, independant phone shops etc etc.

h901

thesaint wrote: »

So you are actually talking about phones supplied by the networks directly, and not the numerous other places where a PAYG phone can be purchased.

i.e CPW, phones4u, Argos, Catalogue, independant phone shops etc etc.

i'm talking about when you buy a phone from anywhere
because usually they will give you the one that comes in the network specific box, etc.

but if you get an unbranded phone its most likely to be unlocked

all phones that come in a network branded box i.e. k750i in an orignal sony ericsson box will tend to be unlocked where as a k750i in a black box with orange logo is guranteed to be locked to orange

forget about it
was just trying to help

thesaint

Are all PAYG phones locked to a network?

No. is the short answer

before_hollywood

gaming_guy wrote: »

99% of o2 payg handsets are locked.

you dont have to go through the operator to get the unlock code. a local shop/market stall should be able to unlock the phone

1. true
2. well you can, but it will invalidate your warranty

my d600 was bought from cpw, i haven't tried a non o2 sim in it cos none of my old ones work anymore, i'm on sim only contract with o2 so that'll do for me

before_hollywood

thesaint wrote: »

So you are actually talking about phones supplied by the networks directly, and not the numerous other places where a PAYG phone can be purchased.

i.e CPW, phones4u, Argos, Catalogue, independant phone shops etc etc.

i don't know about cpw stock, they told me my d600 was unlocked, i haven't tried.

argos, catalogues and similar are sourced directly from the networks so the locking reflects this, unlocked payg phones are the exception rather than the rule

thesaint

before_hollywood wrote: »

well you can, but it will invalidate your warranty

The networks tell you this.

dc

h901 wrote: »

hm......
every o2 phone i've had have been unlocked and was branded aswell (with the o2 startup and shutdown animation) and i've had over 5 o2 phones. therefore i thought that o2 never branded phones

Were these payg handsets?

Afaik only the contract phones are not locked, but still branded, well my 4 were.

chuckie79

I have purchased a phone from CPW's clearance section on their website and the phone came unlocked. So although I had to pay for £10 top up with a T-mobile sim card (included in total price) I was able to put my O2 sim card in it.

I have just purchased an O2 branded PAYG phone for my husband from Great Universal catalogue and that was locked to O2.

h901

dc wrote: »

Were these payg handsets?

Afaik only the contract phones are not locked, but still branded, well my 4 were.

3 were on contract
and 2 were payg

but generally contract phones aren't locked with o2 but with other networks they are