Anyone had a phone unlocked?

[swee'pea99]

My daughter wants a new phone and she's seen one she likes, PAYG, from Tesco..but of course it's on Tesco (T-Mobile), but she wants to use her existing Orange SIM/number. Could I just take it to one of those local shops that have phone unocking, hand over a fiver, and bob's your uncle? Anyone done this?

 

[gbb]

Yes...and no. We've done a couple and usually its no problem...unless its a newly released phone.
In some cases they dont have the software yet to unlock them.
Have you tried Carphone warehouse ?...they're already unlocked. What you do is tell them you want it on the cheapest supplier, which IIRC is O2. when i got the wife one of her phones...it was IRO £50 cheaper than buying it for TMobile. You have to buy a £10 topup for O2...but you're still quids in.
I assume it still works that way.
Thats assuming Carphone Warehouse have the phone she wants...at the price she wants.

 

[Yellow Fang]

I did something similar. I wanted the cheapest mobile I could get, but found it wouldn't take my old sim card. I tried a couple of websites, but they couldn't unlock it. It's legal to unlock a mobile, but the manufacturers often don't make it very easy. Calls to the help desks usually result in fobbing off or attempts to persuade you to stay with them. Getting the number transferred is a pain. In the end, I just did what I should have done to start with: I took it to a stall in the market. It cost me £8, but if you're prepared to haggle you could get it cheaper, no doubt. Some mobiles can be unlocked by inputting a special code, but others require a special lead and equipment.

 

[Piemaster]

Yes. Local 2nd hand games/phone/dvd/etc. shop.
It was a software upgrade at same time to walkman software making it a W800 from a K-something or other

 

[citybabe]

I've had a phones unlocked in the past and they've been fine. I live in an area where I can only recieve the Orange network signal so in theory I'm limited to whatever phones Orange have so I've bought phones on other networks and had them unlocked for a fiver..... you should have no problem

 

[woohoo]

It depends. IIRC, some of the newer phones have to be unlocked by the network provider and can't be unlocked by the local shops or even Nokia service centres. Even if the phone is unlocked, you'll probably still have the (crap) original network firmware on it e.g. an unlocked Orange phone will still have the Orange web site as its home web address. If it's an older style phone, you should be OK with the unlock but will still have the original firmware. (You can sometimes get round this by, in effect, changing the country code of the phone to get new generic firmware but this can go horribly wrong.)

As for

PAYG, from Tesco..but of course it's on Tesco (T-Mobile)

If it's sold as a phone on Tesco's network then it will actually be on O2. It's only if Tesco is selling a T-Mobile branded phone that it will be on the T-Mobile network.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks all. Guess what, she's changed her mind.

*sigh*

One step forward, two steps back....