I have a mobile phone. But I don’t use it so much. So part of the reason for returning my iPhone, I must admit, was that the thought of a £36 a month contract over 18 months suddenly worked out to make bad financial sense. I’ve been on pay as you go for a long while now, and actually, it suits me very well, especially as, for some unknown reason, Cable & Wireless now give their PAYG subscribers free texts. Bizarre, but I’m not complaining.
But that didn’t solve the problem of my existing phone being shagged. I moreorless knew what phone I wanted - the Nokia 6500 Slide - pretty much the N95’s little brother - but at nearly £200 new from the shop, it was more than I wanted to pay. Obvious solution? eBay!
My mistake was that I naively assumed that phones were phones were phones and that a locked (to a network) phone could easily be unlocked. Emphasis on the “naive” and the “assume” though, because when I received the Nokia 6500 Slide I won from eBay, that was tied to 3, unlocking it was not a straightforward task. Unlock codes? No. (Try unlocking it with a cheap code you bought off a dodgy website locks it up even tighter? Check. Don’t whatever you do, think that an unlock code, such as one you might buy from MrUnlock will work. On the Nokia 6500 Slide (and Classic), it won’t. It won’t, it won’t, it won’t, no way no how. Seriously.)
Now, after some research, it seems that certain high end mobile phones are incredibly hard to unlock.
It also seems that phones that are tied to 3 (Hutchison Telecom) are incredibly hard to unlock.
So, combine high end Nokia phone and the 3 network - and you got yourself some issues.
So the only solution? Have it professionally unlocked with a DM3. Does anyone in Guernsey have one of those gizmos? Hahaha. Only solution? Send it away for the princely sum of thirty squids.
Will update when (if?) I get the phone back. Fingers crossed.
On a similar note, whilst trying to figure this all out, I found some very useful software over at B-Phreaks. If you just want to check the status of your phone, or remove certain lock restrictions, then they have the software and service to help. But don’t expect any decent support from them - when the .ask to .rpl service failed for an “unknown reason”, I heard diddly squat from them. Fortunately it was only 2 euro, but one does wonder if it always fails, and they just coin in the 2 euros.
My advice (other than the usual buyer beware pish associated with buying from eBay) - if you’re buying a mobile phone that is not yet unlocked - do some research and make damn sure you can unlock it before you buy.
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