[Feedback] UNLOCKING- could giffgaff become a one-stop-shop for all unlocking needs?

[bwfcmadrid]

I bought my phone unlocked at Carphone Warehouse. I had a choice of Sims (and stupidly chose Orange as opposed to O2 - force of habit!) In my mind, the 10 quid I had to pay for the sim was equivalent to the cost of unlocking my other phone and I'll use it up on doing stuff I wouldn't normally do like internet access. I'm not going to give it to anyone as that would remove the opportunity for a giffgaff conversion

My other phone is an HTC Smartphone which it seems cannot, under any circumstances, be unlocked other than through BT. I still have to phone them yet. I believe they do it for free (info gleaned from this community) once the phone is out of contract.

[planeman]

NCK codes is a very good unlocking site, some phones are really cheap, others aren't.

Used them a few times and they have always given superb service.

The Turbo SIM things are hit and miss, at best. Unless you can get one VERY cheap (under £2 delivered) don't bother. Save your money and get a proper unlock.

[_jdawes]

For all Android users who aren't afraid to get your hands dirty, there is a method known as "rooting" your phone. This ultimately gives you complete control of the state of your phones OS and what ROM you use. One after effect of rooting is that your handset will be completely free of all network locks. XDA developers or theunlockr.com have easy to follow steps for most android phones.

I successfully rooted several handsets to change networks and give myself the OS upgrade that my network had said would never be possible.

[james3uk]

I always get my phones unlocked using http://www.foneszone.co.uk. They give you the unlock code very quickly and I've never had a problem. 

[paul_shirley]

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_jdawes wrote:
This ultimately gives you complete control of the state of your phones OS and what ROM you use. One after effect of rooting is that your handset will be completely free of all network locks.

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Rooting does NOT unlock the phone. Rooting and unlocking are completely separate things on Android, neither will help with the other. The network locks are in the heavily protected and encrypted radio ROM, not the Android ROM that rooting affects.

Yes, I know a few people have made this claim. People post all sorts of nonsense every day. If there is a phone out there with security so badly botched this works you probably don't want that shoddy firmware on your phone.

[kenya pathfinder]

I would love to see this implemented. And personally i judge whether its reliable or not by what other people say. whether they have a pleasing experiance or not.

Please implement this

[matt1111 maestro]

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james3uk wrote:

I always get my phones unlocked using http://www.foneszone.co.uk. They give you the unlock code very quickly and I've never had a problem. 

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Hello james3uk, thanks for your post

i tried that link and ive gotten my phone unlocked for gg

[amaruv]

Thank you everyone for your contributions, we're trying to get to the root of the unlocking business and trying to understand how to make it as cheap and accessible as possible.... your experiences are worth more than anything we can learn from exploring options and solutions without actually going through the whole process!

I know a couple of people posted comments about using Unlocking Sims (ie Turbo SIM). Does anyone else have experiences with these? Did you have to cut your SIM card for this to work? How easy/complicated was the process? Did it work with your device?

All comments welcome

[andy0]

Sometimes with those unlock SIMs it is necessary to modify it slightly for some phones, according to instructions that come with it, which involves something like cutting off a contact right at the edge which goes through the PCB, or something like that

But I think the point you are getting at is does the original SIM card need cutting. Yes, I think this is usually the case, as most of the unlock device is pretty thin but it does have one integrated circuit which sticks up a bit and needs a hole cut through the main SIM to accommodate it.

This required hole is in the plain plastic area of the SIM of course, at the opposite end from the gold contacts. If the main SIM was just plain cut across the end to shorten it, there would be no guarantee of alignment, so the thing to do seems to be to use a small circular hole punch so that the original length and corners are preserved

I actually have one of these things, which I got free a couple of years ago after helping persuade someone to buy 100 of them, but I still haven't got round to trying it out. I originally got it in case of use abroad of a probably locked 3g plug-in data card I got an eBay for £1, but since then USB modems dropped a lot in price

[jamesd2010 prophet]

In my honest opinion I think we should stick to what giffgaff knows best, running a fantastic network. Instead of providing an unlocking service perhaps make a sticky thread with commonly found unlock codes to allow users to unlock phones easily, I think there is just to many variations in the unlocking business for giffgaff to include, many companies use different techniques. All which probably add more cost for an unlocking solution.

Fantastic idea, just like I said not every phone is the same. I think we should just stick to how we do it now but of course it's my opinion, so if someone can improve it.. Be my guest

James,