An ordinary cell phone service (CDMA/TMDA) works so that the unique Electronic Serial Number of your phone (its ESN) is used by the cell phone service provider to identify who you are. The wireless carrier provider ‘identifies’ your hardware device’s serial number on their network and with a quick database lookup knows how and where to transmit the signal to your device whenever a caller dials your phone number.
A GSM phone is not directly linked to your hardware (phone/device). Instead, it has a removable account card, called a SIM (subscriber information module) and this SIM has a unique serial number on it as well. This is what identifies you, the subscriber to the wireless provider.
The important difference about this is that you can put your SIM into any compatible phone (and pretty much all modern GSM phones are compatible with all modern SIMs) and that phone will now act as your phone, because the wireless company sees your SIM inside it. It doesn't care that you've changed phones. All it cares is where to find your SIM.
And now for the really exciting part of this; just as, in theory, you can put any SIM in any phone, the opposite is also true. Any GSM phone can work with any SIM. So, if you've already bought an expensive phone that you like and have learned how to use, if you change from one GSM wireless company to another one, you don't have to change phones. You can keep the phone you've grown to like, and all you need to do is replace the first company's SIM with your new service provider's SIM.
But, some wireless providers 'lock' their phones, meaning that their phones have been programmed to only work with SIMs issued by their company. Reversing that programming - unlocking your phone so it can work with any SIM on any wireless network - is what this is all about. Welcome to our world!
The unlocking service we offer allows you to use any network providers SIM card in your phone. Typically this involves unlock codes which are a series of numbers which can be entered into your mobile phone via the phones key pad to remove the network restriction and allow the use of other SIM cards. There are also other solutions which involve software and other ways to unlock your phone, so check that you are ordering the right solution for you.
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The biggest advantage of getting your phone unlocked is choice. With your phone unlocked you can swap SIM cards at different times to get the best value of the different tariffs from the providers, you can choose which network and which tariff you want at various times.
Mobile phones which are unlocked tend to have a greater second hand value, the value of your handset could be increased. Many people will unlock their mobiles so they can use a local prepaid SIM card when in a different country instead of using the costly 'roaming' feature provided by their current network provider.
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There are hundreds of network operators around the world that lock their phones to their own networks. So we un-lock the SIM locks these carriers place on the phone so that it can be used on any network, worldwide.
Unlocking your phone will give you freedom to purchase or use a SIM card from another network in your own country or even worldwide. Unlocking your phone will give you the opportunity to change the SIM card to a local provider when abroad, allowing much cheaper calls (and no roaming fees applied by your local wireless provider). It will also increase the value of your phone if you sell it.
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To find out if your phone is locked, simply place a different SIM card in the phone and turn the phone on. Ensure you use a different SIM and not the SIM that the phone was supplied with. If the phone does not allow you to view the menu and displays an error message such as "SIM not valid", "Phone Restricted", "SIM not accepted" then your phone is most likely to be locked. If the phone does allow you to view the menu then the phone in unlocked.
If you found this information useful and would like more of it, then feel free to donate to my subway token fund to commute back and forth to the public library.
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