Unlocking a phone for all networks.

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Toxin

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A friend of mine bought himself a cheap secondhand Vodafone cell to use as a backup incase his broke. But it doesn't accept his Cell-C simcard since it's locked to Vodacom. Is it possible to unlock it?

PS: I thought cell providers weren't allowed to lock phones to their network?
 
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Which Vodafone.
I've got a Vodafon V345 for backup and it works with Cell C just fine.
 
Maybe the SIM is the problem. Phones sold in SA cannot be network locked.
He did buy it in SA right? Straight from Vodacom?
 
Maddmatt said:
Because I have read that it's not even legal here. Otherwise Vodacom would lock all their phones I'm sure...

Hey I could be wrong...
Click to expand...

No. You absolutely right.
The law came into effect in 2005 already.

SoftDux-Rudi's mother-in-law obviously has either a dodgy sim, or the phone itself is dodgy.
No phone I owned since 2006, has been network locked. I had 4 different phones, all worked fine with the 3 largest networks in SA.
 
iDenTiTy said:
SoftDux-Rudi's mother-in-law obviously has either a dodgy sim, or the phone itself is dodgy.
No phone I owned since 2006, has been network locked. I had 4 different phones, all worked fine with the 3 largest networks in SA.
Click to expand...

The problem lies with the fact that the phone came from AutoPage and they seem todo their own thing regardless. My mom, after getting a new phone and new sim card still can't send or receive MMS on her Autopage number.
 
If you have a phone that works on say, Vodacom and MTN but not Cell C it is more likely that the phone is faulty. Because Cell C uses 1800MHz (Vodacom/MTN in the main use 900MHz) probably the 1800MHz receiver/transmit side isn't working!

No handsets are network locked here now, even it it were a locked handset inserting a SIM from another network would prompt you for a unlock (NCK) code.
 
SoftDux-Rudi said:
The problem lies with the fact that the phone came from AutoPage and they seem todo their own thing regardless. My mom, after getting a new phone and new sim card still can't send or receive MMS on her Autopage number.
Click to expand...

The problem lies with the handset, and perhaps with the service prviders.

@ JimM:

It has almost nothing to do with the operating frequencies of the service providers (in this case).
With regards to the receiver/transmitter not functioning - that's a far more probable scenario.
 
I have a old nokia 3310 that may have been locked on vodacom as it doesn't accept my fnb sim. Does anyone know where or how I can unlock it?
 
Lupus said:
Yup and you replied to a necro with an article that was published waaaaay after the OP of this was posted.
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Quite frankly I'm tired of bothering to look when what was posted, and I did not necro the thread, so whateva :rolleyes:
 
Even though @oros posted here 7 years after the last post, it is a legitimate question they ask.

From what I remember back then is you needed a Nokia cable and some unlock software that was available back then. Many people just took their phones to those little shops and paid a few buck for someone to do it for them.

I would suggest try one of theses stores and see if they still have the cable to do it. You will probably need a new battery anyway, so ask them to unlock it as part of the deal.
 
oros said:
I have a old nokia 3310 that may have been locked on vodacom as it doesn't accept my fnb sim. Does anyone know where or how I can unlock it?
Click to expand...
In all probability that handset has been blacklisted.
 
They can lock it but must provide a facility to unlock it if it's paid off. The problem is the regulations don't state whether or not they can charge you.
 
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