Network locked cell phone

[semiautomatix]

My secretary has bought a CellC contract with a Samsung phone. A call to Samsung and they have told me that the phone is network-locked to CellC and it will cost R150 to unlock it.

I thought this was illegal? Is this even possible?

 

[PsyWulf]

It is possible and they definitely do it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock

A quick search on astalavista.box.sk will avail you to the software required to break the network-lock yourself if you have a data cable

 

[semiautomatix]

But is it legal in South Africa?

 

[PeterCH]

At least local co's use simple means of locking the phones. The Japanese co's
simlock phones AND encrypt multimedia functions seperately too, requiring
a permanently soldered hypersim often.

 

[Devill]

But is it legal in South Africa?

No, it is illegal.

 

[semiautomatix]

No, it is illegal.

Thats what I thought. No how do I go about giving these buggers a piece of my mind?

 

[dotnerd]

Just go tell ICASA

 

[warwickw]

What Samsung model is it? I'd like to double check this.

This is very odd, I haven't seen a network locked phone in years.

 

[fonefreak]

Also with number portability around, its definitley illegal to have phones locked.

 

[warwickw]

Also with number portability around, its definitley illegal to have phones locked.

Number portability has nothing to with network or sim locking phones.

A persons MSISDN or cell phone number, lives on the network not on the sim card, when you port your number to another network, the network just updates the HLR (Home location Registrar) to point to the correct sim card in their range. So if you port your number from MTN to Cell C, then you throw away your old MTN sim card, and you start using a new Cell C sim card, that the network is pointing your number too.