Whilst people talk about a SIM lock, there are several different locks that can be in place:
| Country Lock |
This lock would mean that a phone will only work with SIM cards from networks in the country to which the SIM is locked. |
| Network Lock |
This will lock a SIM to the particular network specified |
| Service Provider Lock |
In this case, the SIM is locked to the specific service provider (who has no network of their own). |
| SIM Card Lock |
This locks the SIM card to the specific phone. If the SIM card should have a problem, it is necessary to return both phone and SIM. |
Looking across borders, there really is a confusing situation with regard to SIM locking. Locking is banned in Finland and Belgium, but phones are locked for life in Hungary. In between are countries which only allow SIMs to be locked during the life of a service contract. There are few countries where the removal of a SIM lock is illegal, as long as the phone's IMEI is not changed, but removing the SIM lock will usually result in the loss of the phone's warranty.
The simplest way to get your GSM phone unlocked is to call your mobile phone service provider and ask them about this. If you have had your phone for a while, they may do it for a modest fee.
For those phones, where an unlock code can be generated based on the phone's IMEI, the model, and the network, there is minimal risk for people who wish to unlock their GSM mobile phone to avoid the high cost of mobile roaming by using either a roaming SIM card or a prepaid SIM card from that country.
To get your phone unlocked, you will need to collect the following information: the make and model of the phone, its IMEI, and the network that the phone was locked to. If you are not sure of the model number, you can get the IMEI code analysed to find out. The IMEI code is normally on the information "plate" or label but you can obtain the IMEI via the phone keypad on most mobile phones by typing *#06#
Get your phone unlocked now
As an alternative to getting your GSM phone unlocked, if you want to be able to use a different SIM card, we offer the following alternatives: we stock a range of more than 50 different international prepaid SIM cards for different countries, a prepaid global roaming SIM card and a selection of SIM free phones for travel purposes.
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