i got a question, i just got interested in buying a phone, and lots of people tell me its of a certain brand name, Vodafone for example. I was wondering, what are my limitations with a branded phone? I want to use the phone in a diferent country, and with a diferent company, is there a way to unlock it, and have all its features availible as if it was unbranded??
Your post is very vague. Basically the phone has a little bit to do with how you can use it and ROM or Operating systems has a lot to do with it. For example, I have an AT&T phone which is a HTC Raphael. The brand on it means it originally is only able to work on the AT&T network. It has features only to be used with AT&T and when it is put on the AT&T network it reports to their servers. The fact that it is AT&T also means the hardware is GSM based (the type of radio in it and how it joins the network space). You can flash a customize from onto this phone to allow for use on any GSM carrier or you can unlock the phone to be only used on any network but you would not be able to use some of the AT&T specific features.
I hope this answered your basic questions.
pegun said:
Your post is very vague. Basically the phone has a little bit to do with how you can use it and ROM or Operating systems has a lot to do with it. For example, I have an AT&T phone which is a HTC Raphael. The brand on it means it originally is only able to work on the AT&T network. It has features only to be used with AT&T and when it is put on the AT&T network it reports to their servers. The fact that it is AT&T also means the hardware is GSM based (the type of radio in it and how it joins the network space). You can flash a customize from onto this phone to allow for use on any GSM carrier or you can unlock the phone to be only used on any network but you would not be able to use some of the AT&T specific features.
I hope this answered your basic questions.
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that is exactly what i wanted to know.. where i am from, i use a prepaid sim, of a foreign company, and everytime i travel, i have a diferent companie's prepaid sim in my phone, i dont want to be bound to only 1 company, i want to be able to use the phone's features, and not be obligated to only use AT&T's sim cards for example. So flashing a Rom, of unlocking, maked the phone become just like the rest of the factory unlocked, if i understood correctly?
A branded or carrier phone by default is typically only locked to the carrier's SIM, and typically has carrier specific software on it, like a media store, or internet portal, ect. If you unlock the phone, and flash an unbranded ROM (i.e. an XDA ROM, or an original HTC ROM) then there is no real difference between a branded phone and an unbranded phone besides carrier added labeling on the faceplate.
sonus said:
A branded or carrier phone by default is typically only locked to the carrier's SIM, and typically has carrier specific software on it, like a media store, or internet portal, ect. If you unlock the phone, and flash an unbranded ROM (i.e. an XDA ROM, or an original HTC ROM) then there is no real difference between a branded phone and an unbranded phone besides carrier added labeling on the faceplate.
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THank mate, i got it now.. i didnt understand those things since i never had to deal with branded or company slavery
Related
Hi guys,
Easy questions I hope:
I've never (yet) got into the area of unlocking phones and I would appreciate someone just answering a couple of questions to make sure I've got the general idea of unlocking.
1.
Am I right in thinking that you have to unlock a phone so that you can use a different provider's SIM card - instead of using one that is provided at purchase time?
e.g if I have an XDA supplied by O2, I could unlock the XDA and then use a SIM card from T Mobile?
2.
Do I need to unlock my phone EVERY time I put a SIM card from a different provider in it? Or once the phone is unlocked I do not need to do it again?
e.g. If I unlock my XDA, put in an O2 SIM card, and then go on a flight abroad, can I simply pull out the O2 card and pop in one from a local shop in a different country?
3.
Do I need to keep a record of anything before I unlock it?
e.g. Are any settings needed to be recorded BEFORE YOU START in order to unlock the phone ? Do I need to record information so that in the future I can put things back exactly as they originally were.
4.
Is there any differences between unlocking phones that have PAYG or CONTRACT cards? Are there any issues here?
Thanks for answers
Anne
In the USA a un-locked fone will bring more money used or new. and also has a wider seller/buyer market.
Once unlocked that's it. any sim anytime.
we have 5 fones between the two of us ( me and my better 1/2)
2 nokia's, a palm treo, a behold and a behold II (rooted 12/1/2009)
We have just our personal sim cards from T mobile (one each) we work weird, REALLY wierd hours. Some times our smart fones don't get charged or go dead while we are out. We just pop the sim cad into one that's got enough juice to get one of the "better" fones charged.
We both rely on our fones for our jobs.
A little know fact: in the USA it's a federal law. IF you bought your fone legitamatly. IE: not stolen. the carrier must provide you with the un-lock code in 24 hours.
The people that pay 15.00 or more to have a fone unlocked are either. Un-aware of that law. In a country where it's illegal to unlock a fone. Or knowingly have a stolen fone.
1: So yes you are right you need to un-lock the fone to use another provides fone with your sim.
2: You un-lock the fone once any sim card will work after that. AGAIN your right. (provided your in a country that has the same GSM 3g 4g network)
3: ALWAYS keep a written log of any "admin" #'s given to you for a fone.
the behold has a admin # that lets you turn on all kinds of things that are "off" out of the box. and you need that # everytime you make a adminastrative change. This maybe true with other fones as well.
4: I don't know about pay as you go. I would think once unlocked you would be able to use the fone pay as you go, so long as you had minutes on the sim installed.
I'm sure there are alot of people here that know alot more than me, and can help you further. I just got back into the cell fone game about a year ago and was out of it for about 10 years.
Things have really changed, then again they really haven't changed.
HTH
Later
Rich
One thing of note is that just because a GSM phone is unlocked, doesn't mean it'll work with every carrier, as carriers will sometimes use different baseband frequencies (there are four, 850, 900, 1800, 1900mHz I think) and some phones only support 2-3 our of 4.
I'm in Canada for example, where Rogers and Fido support GSM networks (phones that use SIM cards), Bell and Telus use CDMA (phones that have ESNs programmed into them). So if I buy a Sony Xperia X1 for example, I have to be sure to buy the American version, as Rogers only supports 850mHz, and the European version of the X1 will only support 900mHz. So even if I unlock the european version of the X1, I can't use it on Rogers in Canada.
I'm guessing you're from the UK, where the market is even more diversified. 3 Mobile for example, can only use phones that support 3G (or HSDPA). A good place to look for such specs, after finding out what frequencies your carrier supports, is GSM Arena.
Hello,
I am new to the WP7 Development and I have recently purchased the elegant Nokia Lumia 800 for a family member. However, I need to Unbrand it from O2 as well as unlocking it.
I have done some reasearch and found that I need to a Qualcomm device in order to carry out these processes, but my phone is Nokia DLOAD and this is where I am stuck, I do not know what to do in order the unbrand/unlock.
Now, I am not a total noob as I have knowledge in Android development, so I am carefull in what I do, and no huge ego for that.
Could someone direct me in what I should do next?
Many thanks!
There is no need, and precious little reason, to unbrand a Windows phone. At best, you'll receive updates a bit earlier (a few months in extreme cases). At worst, you'll receive the *wrong* updates or otherwise mess up the phone's configuration.
If your phone is SIM-locked, you'll probably want to SIM-unlock it, though (I'm not sure if that's what you meant by "unlock" or not). In the USA, I would take a SIM-locked phone to a store of the carrier who it was locked to, or I would call the carrier, or possibly I would call the OEM (Nokia, in your case). If those didn't work, I'd look online for somebody selling unlock services.
Once SIM-unlocked, you can put another network's SIM card in the phone. That should automatically (after a day or so) switch the most important of the phone's carrier-specific configuration - the selection of which Mobile Operator marketplace to use - to your new carrier (although I admit that I haven't tested this personally). The other branding aspecs will remain, since those are locked in the ROM.
It *may* be possible to install a different stock ROM on the Lumia 800 (I haven't checked). Most phones allow installing a stock ROM easily enough; it is the custom ROMs (such as are used to get "full-unlock" for apps) that are blocked.
GoodDayToDie said:
There is no need, and precious little reason, to unbrand a Windows phone. At best, you'll receive updates a bit earlier (a few months in extreme cases). At worst, you'll receive the *wrong* updates or otherwise mess up the phone's configuration.
If your phone is SIM-locked, you'll probably want to SIM-unlock it, though (I'm not sure if that's what you meant by "unlock" or not). In the USA, I would take a SIM-locked phone to a store of the carrier who it was locked to, or I would call the carrier, or possibly I would call the OEM (Nokia, in your case). If those didn't work, I'd look online for somebody selling unlock services.
Once SIM-unlocked, you can put another network's SIM card in the phone. That should automatically (after a day or so) switch the most important of the phone's carrier-specific configuration - the selection of which Mobile Operator marketplace to use - to your new carrier (although I admit that I haven't tested this personally). The other branding aspecs will remain, since those are locked in the ROM.
It *may* be possible to install a different stock ROM on the Lumia 800 (I haven't checked). Most phones allow installing a stock ROM easily enough; it is the custom ROMs (such as are used to get "full-unlock" for apps) that are blocked.
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Nevermind, I've unbranded it. Just need to unlock it via Carrier.
I have a noob question regarding this issue. It's very common today for providers (networks) to offer upgrade phones to subscribed members. That has the benefit for people to grab latest devices at lower prices, compared to buying the phone 'undranded', directly from the manufacturer. Under certain circumstances, those contract bound, 'locked' phones could be 'unlocked' for use anywhere.
As far as I understood, 'locked' or 'unlocked' is facilitated by the use of IMEI, right? Or is there any additional mechanism providers use to allow/restrict use of a particular device in their network? Are there any hardware differences whatsoever between a contract phone and a non-contract phone?
jstoner said:
I have a noob question regarding this issue. Its very common today for providers (networks) to offer upgrade phones to subscribed members. That has the benefit for people to grab latest devices at lower prices, compared to buying the phone undranded, directly from the manufacturer. Under certain circumstances, those contract bound, locked phones could be unlocked for use anywhere.
As far as I understood, locked or unlocked is facilitated by the use of IMEI, right? Or is there any additional mechanism providers use to allow/restrict use of a particular device in their network? Are there any hardware differences whatsoever between a contract phone and a non-contract phone?
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AFAIK the Simlock is in the Software of the Device.
Unlocking them is possible AFAIK.
But some Providers lock the bootloader of the Device permanent, so that it cant be unlocked.
As far I picture it in my mind, the software of the device (branded or not) doesn't have to do with the 'lock'. At least not according to this thread. That guy tried flashing with the different ROM, but the lock was still there. So there must be something else that does it. Possibly IMEI (or maybe something else?)
adi2500 said:
AFAIK the Simlock is in the Software of the Device.
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jstoner said:
As far I picture it in my mind, the software of the device (branded or not) doesnt have to do with the lock. At least not according to this thread. That guy tried flashing with the different ROM, but the lock was still there. So there must be something else that does it. Possibly IMEI (or maybe something else?)
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I didnt mean ROM with Software, i meant the Ril software
Oh, right, cheers for that. Haven't even head of RIL before
So you mean that contract phones come out with a modified RIL (compared to that of the unbranded version of the phone)?
So that's the part that get's locked. OK, thanks!
adi2500 said:
I didnt mean ROM with Software, i meant the Ril software
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What I also trying to figure the 'path' that units go through, till they reach the end customer.
For a unbranded phone, that would look like this:
1) Manufactured, put in retail box, sealed
2) Distribution to wholesale
3) Distribution to retailers
4) Customer picks it up (prepaid, pay-as-you-go)
This is phone is 'naturally' sim-free and unlocked to use with any network, worldwide.
Now, how about a contract phone?
1) A network provider, requests 1000 units of a paricular phone model from the manufacturer for use as a contract device
2) Manufactured with whatever options the provider requested. E.g. different firmware, modified RIL (network lock), branding (sticker at the back cover), put in box, sealed
3) Distributed to providers telecom shops
4) Customer picks it up as part of a contract
(Did I got all of this right?)
I am more interested in (2) above. Because I am curious - some of those initially-designated contract phones, somehow become unlocked and offered as unbranded, pay-as-you-go devices. But how all of a sudden do they become unlocked. I have also read somewhere, that even those phones are unlocked, they might be lacking certain features compared to the 'truly' unbranded phones that come directly from the manufacturer. Like for instance been limited to certain bands or traffic classes - which results to a lower QoS under certain conditions (roaming). That's why I m asking if there are any other differences in (2). Hope I clarified things up and not made things more blurry!
Does anyone know what happens if a unit that is destined as an upgrade phone (e.g. EE) gets unlocked to be sim free (therefore breaking the rules of the contract that state that this phone needs to be used for at least a period of 6 months prior unlocking becomes an option)? Is the provider taking any action? Like locking the phone again or any other potential consequences?
Otherwise, any phone is sim-free for like 10-20 quid...?
Hello all, I have an HTC One M8 that I bought while working in the US for a year. I am back in Canada and want to use it with Rogers or Bell doesn't matter who. I thought it was unlocked so I could use with anything but apparently I was miss-guided.
When I put in a Rogers SIM card it says SIM from Unknown Source or something along those lines. When I go into about in settings I can see that it picks up the signal for rogers and also shows my cell phone number. I'm guessing there is some sort of way I can make this thing work here?
Can I overwrite the ROM and put a Rogers ROM in? I have no clue. This is about as far as I get with phone tech.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Hi!
Verizon M8 is sold "internationally unlocked", so Verizon customers can use it everywhere in the world: not just the CDMA networks (Verizon's) but also in GSM networks (most widely spread standard). I live in Spain and mine works in a GSM/LTE network perfectly and it does too in France, Germany or Italy.
For your mobile to work in Canada, you have to make sure your phone is sim unlocked. If you purchased it to verizon you can ask them to remotely unlock it, as you've paid for it, and they will. They may take some time, but they will. Once it is sim unlocked, you will be able to use it with any other operator's sim.
Note that, even when it is sim unlocked (and functional), you may be receiving a notification of "unknown sim" when the phone starts and an icon in the tray. It's just a software issue, as it will work, but to make it dissapear you have to do much more complicated things (unlock the bootloader, get root privileges) and i'm not sure it is worth if you're not familiarized with these sort of things.
So like the title says I have a brand new never started/updated t-mobile s7 and I'm looking to use the phone on the Verizon network where I currently have a plan.
I've never unlocked SIMs before so I figured I'd check here first, I don't want to brick the phone obviously..
So my question is how do I go about doing this? I see t-mobile has an app that unblocks the SIM for customers, however I'm not a customer and do not plan on using t-mobile network.
I found some dodgy websites that claim to be able to do it but I'm not sure how I feel about handling over my information to them especially without at least some third party confirmation that the service actually works and is not a scam.
Does anyone have some input on what to do?
Flash the 930U firmware to it. This should allow it to be SIM unlocked.
Try calling tm you just never know they may just give you the unlock codes. I had a phone lock to att once, gave them a ring and they gave me the codes, just be nice.
I used the tmobile unlock app on device. The app checks if you qualify same as a rep would.
Sent from my SM-G930T using XDA-Developers mobile app
So I got the phone unlocked but only to find out the T-Mobile s7 is GSM, Verizon runs on CDMA which is not compatible.
Now that I have it unlocked, would it be possible to flash the Verizon s7 software and have it connect?
I assume I'll need to root the phone in order to do that but will the hardware interact properly with the Verizon software?
2003WRB said:
So I got the phone unlocked but only to find out the T-Mobile s7 is GSM, Verizon runs on CDMA which is not compatible.
Now that I have it unlocked, would it be possible to flash the Verizon s7 software and have it connect?
I assume I'll need to root the phone in order to do that but will the hardware interact properly with the Verizon software?
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CDMA and GSM are two different frequency bands, and use separate hardware. Meaning, they are physically not compatible.
2003WRB said:
So I got the phone unlocked but only to find out the T-Mobile s7 is GSM, Verizon runs on CDMA which is not compatible.
Now that I have it unlocked, would it be possible to flash the Verizon s7 software and have it connect?
I assume I'll need to root the phone in order to do that but will the hardware interact properly with the Verizon software?
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The good news for you is that the S7 sold in the United States all contain the same hardware, the same actual components, so they all physically are capable of handling both GSM and CDMA networks. Also good for you is that now that the phone is unlocked, you can either flash the Verizon firmware or flash the "U" firmware on your device. Normally speaking, this would be really bad advice for any other device, but for the S7 it is possible.
I have the T-Mo S7 flat, and I am running the latest U firmware on AT&T, though I have flashed many and sold them for Verizon.
Don't fret, be happy, and Merry Christmas!
will this allow lte+,in order words can I make a call and still browse the internet on verizon?