Legallity of unlocking a mobile phone in the UK

I am changing network but my phone is locked. Orange want £20 for it to be unlocked (bollocks to that). I have a site that says they do it for free, and they have links on there forum saying that it is legal to do this, but some others have said it is illegal.

I dont wana pay £20 to leave a crap network when it only cost me £5 to join a new one. Any help appreciated

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AFAIK it is different legal situations for individual phones and contracts, so far as if they don't say you can't unlock it, then it's not really illegal. In this situation, it may be that it's only legal if they do it for you - i'd read the warranty

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Dam it. I wud if i had the warrenty, or any related info here with me

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I don't have the slightest idea about legality of phone unlocking in UK, but do you really have to pay for joining to some operators network?


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I pay £5 to Virgin for joining (£10 but they give you £5 worth of calls to start with). But my phone is locked so the new sim card wont work. I asked Orange (my old network) about unlocking it and they want £20 for it, which i cant afford and i need my mobile working asap

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I actually didn't know that you have to pay to joining operators network. I just tought that it's always free.. :s Here you don't have to pay anything to join operators network, + they give you up to 500


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if its not an orange phone then i wud say its legal, its ur property :P

Sim

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Dunno about the UK, but in DK, it is not illegal to unlock a phone. I don't think that it ever has been.

You can have a contractual commitment to stay on a subscription for a certain period (oftest 6 months after starting it), and would need to pay a compensatory fee for being released, but apart from that, there should be no way a phone company can keep you in their fold.

Some years back, phone companies would charge money to unlock a phone, but now I think they are only allowed to do that, within the period that you are forced to stay with their contract. Once that period is over, they have to do it for free. At least thats how I remember it is.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

right. i know this i think. about 88% sure this is correct. IF the phone is on orange for example and the other networks have been BLOCKED then its totally pointless unblocking it bcos it will only last a week and then it will be blocked again. if however the phone is on orange and you want to unlock (notice the difference between UNBLOCKING and UNLOCKING) onto another network which hasnt been specifically BLOCKED by that that network then you can do it. take it to any asian phone shop and theyll do it for you for a fiver.

if you wanna be 100% sure then give a solicitor a fiver, hell tell you, then spend another fiver doing it.

bear in mind that not all phones can be unlocked onto another network (only really applies to older phones like the nokia 702). im also presuming you are on pay as you go ellis. if youre on contract then you will have to pay the monthly charge for the remaining months on your contract.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2004 09:42PM by rapid_f1.

Thanks for the info guys

im also presuming you are on pay as you go ellis.

Yup.

When i turn it on with the orange sim card it starts fine obviously. When i start with the new virgin one it says "PHONE RESTRICTED" and then asks for the restriction code.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/2004 11:29PM by DaveEllis.

Should invest in a sim-free phone. I got a sim-free Nokia 7250i last year sometime and I can use any simcard in it i want. Even contract sim-cards work in it :S


"No it's not a skirt"

As far as I know, it's totally legal to unlock the phone. If Orange will do it for £20, then it's surely legal.

HaGGiS Wrote:
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> Should invest in a sim-free phone. I got a
> sim-free Nokia 7250i last year sometime and I can
> use any simcard in it i want. Even contract
> sim-cards work in it :S


so u got a sim free-free phone, that works with all sim-cards?

Here in australia, most of the phone companies lock there phones so u cant use any other network but the one you sign up with, (pre-paid or pay as you go.. whatever) but with contracts i dont think they can be locked.

i got my orange phone unlocked for 10 quid at a local mobile phone shop. he plugged a cable in and did something on his pc.

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Got it unlocked.

If you do it via orange, the warrenty stays intact, but they charge

If you do it 3rd party then the warrenty is invalid (mine was 1 year and the phones 2 years old anyway, so that didnt matter). 3rd party prices range from £20 down to nothing, so i chose nothing and it worked perfectly

Now that i saved that cash, i have to use it to pay custom charges on a skateboard deck £20!!!). Why is it what is essentially a speciallfy designed peice of wood costs me £20 to get into the country whilst PC monitors, motherboards, CPUss, games consoles, countless model cars, clothing, DVDs and CDs have all come in without a fuss

Bloody stupid laws!

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meh stiupd uk laws
here you can change network when you whant none of this locking crap

You can change network whenever you want here too, but if you buy the phone from orange then it is "locked" to orange sim cards. you can unlock it for free and then put in another one. The reason they wanted £20 is they consider this a service and charge for it. Virgin would do it for £10, the shop down the road does it for £5 and this website does it for free (and you dont need to hand over any personal information either, so its not like they can charge anything to your phone).

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Also, if its a contract phone, you may only have say a 6 month contract, and if you're paying 20 quid a month that's 120 altogether, and most camera phones retail at around 200 - 250, so they would have a case for keeping you on their network i guess!

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i know that but even that is free here for exmaple i got my mobile from Vodafone but it works on other networks np no need to ask them 2 unlock it

not all networks lock the phone either, infact i think most dont

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