unlocking mobiles

[Yellow Fang]

I just bought a cheap mobile off e-bay, which, when it arrived, I thought was great. However, I wanted to swap over the sim card from my old mobile so I could keep my phone number. Annoyingly, it's proving to be a real bugger to unlock and I've already wasted £6 on it. On e-bay it was described as sim-locked to T-Mobile pay-as-you-go, but when it arrived it was locked to Vodafone. I had T-mobile pay-as-you-go on my old mobile, so I wondered if my new mobile had T-mobile pay-as-you-go, I could put my old sim card in it. Otherwise, is there any way I can change the number on my new phone back to the old?

 

[yenrod]

Go down a market stall/mobile fone shop & shell out a tenner and they'll 'open it up for you' to use with T-mobile

 

[Mr Pig]

I would tell the seller you want a refund as he's described it wrongly.

It depends on the phone, some unlock easily, some are harder and some impossible. It's definitely the phone and not just your sim card asking for a pin number?

 

[Yellow Fang]

It mentions a restriction code. I'm pretty sure it's locked, although I'll try it again.

 

[Mr Pig]

Usually if it's looking for a code it's the sim card and not the phone.

I was selling a brand new LG Viewty phone to a guy at work the other week and he gave me it back insisting it was locked. I knew it wasn't, it was his sim cards that required pins, but he was having none of it. My son now has it, his sim has no pin and the phone worked straight away.

The default code is sometimes 0000 but who knows. If the sim came in the phone you may have never bothered to find out what the pin is, having never needed it.

 

[Yellow Fang]

My old mobile has a pin code, but my new mobile doesn't have one yet. When I swapped the sim cards over, it mentioned a restriction code. I expect I tried my old pin number, but I'm not certain. It didn't ask for a pin code.

 

[Yellow Fang]

It looks like the thing to do is to get a PAC code from T-mobile to transfer my old number to my new phone. I wonder if they'll be cooperative.

 

[Mr Pig]

It looks like the thing to do is to get a PAC code from T-mobile to transfer my old number to my new phone.

Right? I don't know what that is.

 

[addictfreak]

Go down a market stall/mobile fone shop & shell out a tenner and they'll 'open it up for you' to use with T-mobile

+1 I have done this and for a tenner it will be open to all networks. Usually as yenrod says its a little market stall, probably at a local mall.
My local is run by a couple of asain lads, there nothing they cant do.

 

[Yellow Fang]

PAC = Port Authorisation Code. You need it for transferring an old number to a new mobile if you can't transfer the sim card.

 

[mad al]

http://davinciteam.co.uk/index.html

 

[Yellow Fang]

Well that was painful. I phoned up T-mobile to ask them for a Phone Authorisation Code, and was put through to an operator who persuaded me not to leave. She told me to talk to Vodaphone to get them to unlock my phone. I didn't really fancy this as I'm sure they'd have tried to twist my arm as well. Meanwhile, the ebay vendor said they'd send me a prepaid envelope to send the mobile back, so when it arrived, that's what I did. Which was a shame because it was a nice phone for the money. Then I ordered another £10 pay-as-you-go mobile directly from t-mobile. When it arrived, I spent most the morning cycling around Reading to get it because the post office depot has moved. Then I found it wouldn't take my old sim-card, as I expected. What I didn't expect was that T-mobile couldn't just transfer my old number over. They said they'd have to charge me another £10 to send me another sim-card. I lost my temper at this point and threw the mobile across the office (there was nobody else in). Today I did what I probably should have done at the beginning and took it down to a market stall and got it unlocked for £8. The other thing I probably should have done was buy a cheap unlocked mobile in the first place. They are about. I looked into getting one of those Skype phones so that I didn't have to pay any network operator, but they all seemed to cost £10 a month, which is probably more than I pay now. Now I just have to run down the voucher on my new sim card, then my old phone will be recycled.

I'm still intrigued by Skype mobiles. If anyone has some opinions of them, I'd be interested to hear them.

 

[Globalti]

What a ball-ache!

I have one of these - the tariff is dead cheap, it doesn't heat up my ear, it doesn't need recharging and it works as soon as you connect it:

 

[ColinJ]

What a ball-ache!

I have one of these - the tariff is dead cheap, it doesn't heat up my ear, it doesn't need recharging and it works as soon as you connect it:

And even better - they have special circuitry which prevents people being able to contact you when you are outdoors enjoying yourself!