Samsung phones locked abroad?

[Proplus]

I've briefly read a few articles about this over the last few months, but Ive never really paid much attention to it. In the last few weeks, within my family and friends, this locking seems to have reared its ugly head.

- best friend from UK comes to HK for a visit. He brings with him an S3, bought via O2. It turns out that its locked, and no HK sim card will work in it. It asks a code (name escapes me now).

- aunt goes to HK to visit my father in UK. Brings with a her a Note 3. Not sure if she purchased the phone via carrier or handset only, but no UK sim card will work in it.

- another aunt goes to Paris for a holiday, then hops over to UK, she's from HK. Brings with her an S4. Same as the 2 cases above, no French or UK sim card will work on her phone.

All 3 had to either borrow a local phone for the duration of visit, or had to use their original sim cards and switch on international data roaming ($$$$$$).


Does anyone have any more info on this? Is it when bought through carrier only? Or even when handset only as well?

I'm planning to pop back to the UK in April, so will need to decide whether to bring my current Note 2, or a worn-battery cracked unlocked iPhone4 with me.

[bibbju]

Phones bought in the UK are locked to the network provider unless you specifically buy an unlocked phone i.e. SIM free - which is usually much more expensive. The network provider will usually unlock them after a fixed period (used to be 12 months but not sure if it still is) but ONLY if you ask them to.

So I guess this explains your UK visitor's problem. Can't comment on the HK bought phones as I've only bought a Samsung in the UK.

EDIT: The majority of UK phones are bought through a network provider as they heavily subsidise the cost of the phones. It's unusual to buy a phone only/SIM free in the UK. Quite a different approach from the HK market.

I've found it's cheaper sometimes to take out a UK mobile contract and get the phone free than it is to buy phone only in HK. It's how I got my Samsung S3. I asked for it to be unlocked when I bought it (I explained I moved between UK and HK) so they did it and I had no problem using my HK SIM in it when back in HK. But I hated the S3 and bought another iPhone in HK after a couple of weeks. Now I just use the S3 when I'm back in the UK.

[Proplus]

Phones bought in the UK are locked to the network provider unless you specifically buy an unlocked phone i.e. SIM free - which is usually much more expensive. The network provider will usually unlock them after a fixed period (used to be 12 months but not sure if it still is) but ONLY if you ask them to.

So I guess this explains your UK visitor's problem. Can't comment on the HK bought phones as I've only bought a Samsung in the UK.

I knew that was the case with iPhones, as I'm from UK and had my iPhone unlocked with O2 before coming over, but I didn't know that was the case with Samsung phones. All to do with the carrier subsidising the cost of the phone.

[bibbju]

I knew that was the case with iPhones, as I'm from UK and had my iPhone unlocked with O2 before coming over, but I didn't know that was the case with Samsung phones. All to do with the carrier subsidising the cost of the phone.

Yes, I did the same with my iPhone before I moved to France.

I've been told (but don't know if it's true) that UK iPhones can no longer be unlocked at all. They lock to the network provider the first time they're used and that's it. Only way round it is buying unlocked from Apple. I've had several UK visitors who've bought iPhones here (cheaper than Apple UK) for that reason.

I was told the same thing by Carphone Warehouse which is why I picked the S3 rather than getting a newer iPhone in the UK as I would have been bloody annoyed when I brought it back to HK and couldn't use it.

[kimwy66]

It's not a phone operator issue, it is a samsung issue, they have started region locking their phones during manufacture.

http://www.talkandroid.com/184123-sa...l-lock-policy/