Cell Phone Locking / UnLocking

To Request a Locked Phone To Be UnLocked

If your commitment has expired, you can call your carrier and request the "subsidy code" removal code. They'll provide you with the code you need to enter into the phone. You need to figure out how to apply it. It's easy to apply for some phones, less so for others. The Razr is probably easier than the iPhone for example.

By the way, removing the subsidy code is the legal mechanism for unlocking the phone.

And if for some reason your carrier refuses to unlock your phone these guys: http://shop. mobilekangaroo. com/ will do it for a fee. They have several locations throughout the Bay Area. They also sell unlocked phones.

How Cell Phone Locking Works

Just to be clear what's going on here...

Firstly,  this discussion is only relevant for GSM phones (e.g. AT&T and TMobile in the US).

In return for the carrier subsidizing the cost of the phone, you agree to a period of time that you will only use that phone as one of theirs - i.e. all usage costs go back through them at the rates established for your account

Enforcement of that agreement is by means of the "subsidy code" programmed into the phone. While the code is there, the phone is programmed to reject use of any SIM not issued by that carrier. Since the SIM (Subscriber Information Module) holds ALL the information needed to identify the device as "your phone" and to allow the carrier to confirm that "your phone" should be allowed access to the network (which happens every time you try to make a call), that locks the phone to the carrier.

At the end of the agreement period, the customer is entitled to remove the subsidy code. The carrier will not (should not) refuse your request for a removal key. Each phone has its own way of using the key to remove the code. I recently did it with a Samsung phone and it was as easy as entering a magic keystroke sequence which included the removal key. I believe, for the Razr, you need to run an application on the PC with the phone tethered to the USB. For others, I don't know. There are prominent warnings that illegal unlocking of iPhones can cause them to stop working permanently.

Any SIM is "global" in principle. Any SIM is issued by a particular carrier and subject to the terms of the account you have with them. Any SIM also has a particular phone number associated with it. Use of the phone outside of the "local calling area" of that number will incur roaming charges in accordance with the account terms.

Is it worth buying an unlocked phone? Not if you can remove the subsidy code from your current phone. Is it worth buying a "local" SIM? Depends on your expected usage. The SIM will have a purchase price higher than the value of the air time included with it. You might pay $25 for a SIM that has $5 of airtime included in the price. If you're just going to be away for a week or two and plan to use the phone only for "emergencies", you might well be better off just paying the US carrier's roaming charges.

While any multiband phone is capable of operating pretty much anywhere in the world, at least in the case of AT&T, you need to call them to enable foreign roaming on your *account*, i.e. this has nothing to do with physically enabling the device, its a business transaction. They forward that request to their roaming partners to get their agreement to that request. That's why it takes a day or two.