How to get my cell phone unlocked?

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Tom Hoffman

Tom Hoffman

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Have any of you had the occasion to try and get your cell phone unlocked so you can switch from a carrier and keep your old device and not get hooked in to a new phone purchase & or contract.  We tried all morning to get our Motorola Moto G (Only 6 months old and only used 3 months).  unlocked to no avail.  We have all the numbers needed, but everyone wants to hook for $$$ to you show you how to do it.  They advertise "FREE" nothing more expensive than free.  We own the phone and have no contract on it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Tom...
 
The carrier that currently "owns" your phone has to do the unlocking. Most have their requirements and instructions listed somewhere on their website.
 
Dutch,  I am not sure you are correct.  The law says that phones are to be unlocked, however the old carrier who we had to drop, because we had no signal where we were all summer are not willing to do it since we have no acct active now.  There is suppose to be work arounds,  you should get it done before you leave a provider,  we had to leave back in May,  the law didn't pass until August 2014.

We had Consumer Cellular and their site is not helpful, nor is their customer service.
 
Google search for unlocking/jail breaking your brand of phone.  Fairly simple procedure if your willing to risk it
 
Some smart phones are proprietary and can't be switched from one carrier to another. My wife's Verizon I phone 4 couldn't be switched to AT&T.

Bill
 
donn said:
Google search for unlocking/jail breaking your brand of phone.  Fairly simple procedure if your willing to risk it
Click to expand...

Don as of Aug 14' it is legal to unlock your phone as long as it is not in contract.
 
driftless shifter said:
Some smart phones are proprietary and can't be switched from one carrier to another. My wife's Verizon I phone 4 couldn't be switched to AT&T.
Click to expand...
Bill,
Not so much proprietary as incompatible. AT&T uses  GSM technology for their cellular network (Same as many countries overseas).Verizon uses CDMA technology which is actually older and some say not as good (AT&T). Also AT&T uses SIM cards, Verizon only uses SIM cards in a few LTE compatible phones. Check here for some info.
Bob
 
You can fool with it for a long time or just go to fastsgm.com (or a service like it) and they will get you the codes within 24 hours.  I just did one for a client and got the codes in 6 hours. This is my background and trust me when I say this is the easiest way though maybe not the cheapest.  They charged $29.95 for the service but saved me many hours on the phone or waiting for email responses from providers.  This phone had been on a Canadian carrier.
 
Sr Fox said:
You can fool with it for a long time or just go to fastsgm.com (or a service like it) and they will get you the codes within 24 hours.  I just did one for a client and got the codes in 6 hours. This is my background and trust me when I say this is the easiest way though maybe not the cheapest.  They charged $29.95 for the service but saved me many hours on the phone or waiting for email responses from providers.  This phone had been on a Canadian carrier.
Click to expand...

Fox,  We went to one of those services yesterday early AM and it seemed to be slow or non responsive, that was the reason for my post, we thought we had been scammed after we paid the money, we got no response until last night telling us that it could be one to two days, which I took to mean M-W this coming week.  Maybe they will get it done.  We will see.  My wife is the one who wants a smart phone, I am perfectly comfortable with a Stupid one.

Cheers,

Tom...
 
I have used different ones (mostly because I forget who I used last) quite a number of times and have never been ripped off yet.  I know that it can take more time for them to get the codes from some providers especially on weekends. Be patient.  I am betting you will get the codes. I try to find one that takes PayPal so I have some sort of recourse.
I have a Smart Phone... it is the operator (me) that is stupid.  :)
 
Will this work on a phone purchased from Walmart? 

I broke the crystal in an old LG phone a few years ago while on a trip.  Not wanting to wait until we were back in town, went to a Walmart and purchased a $30.00 phone.  They told me I could use it on my Verizon account.  Not true.  First tried the Internet and then called Verizon.  I could not unlock the phone without a new two year contract.  Went to Costco and purchased a phone and while I still had to renew the Verizon service, I got the phone I wanted at a very good price.     
 
I was recently told that if I had my own phone, I could use it on my current acct with no contract.  This was from Verizon.  Or you can buy Unlocked phones which will work on most all carriers now.  Or you can buy used refurbished phones that are compatible with the carrier.

Here is a source.  http://www.cellularcountry.com/

I have bought from these folks in the past and was satisfied.

Tom...
 
bobsharon said:
Verizon only uses SIM cards in a few LTE compatible phones.
Click to expand...

Verizon uses SIM cards, I believe, in all 4G/LTE phones, but I don't think even that means that every phone with a SIM is compatible with every other. 
 
We have 2 iPhone 5 units and our contract is up. We want to go to the monthly card thingy you can buy at Wal Mart or Walgreens, since its much cheaper, but it would still have Verizon service like we have now. Everyone I talk to says the iPhone 5 has no SIM card, so it can't be unlocked. Is that true?
 
parttymer said:
Does that mean it can't be unlocked?
Click to expand...

I don't think so. At one time only GSM phones (ATT and T-Mobile) had sim cards but CDMA phones (all the other carriers) did not. Both types were locked by their carriers and both could be unlocked. Today's smart phones seem to have sim cards  or micro and nano (very small) sim cards regardless of the transmission system employed by the carrier. With the current regulations regarding unlocking, if the phone cannot be unlocked, I think that any phone manufacturer/carrier without that ability will be out of the market very quickly.
 
Another definition for "unlocked" is to hack into the phone's root menu, to expose the lowest level of the phone's operating system and let you delete programs that came with the phone to free up memory space or add features like tethering or other programs that aren't approved by the original vendor.  This has nothing to do with transferring a phone that's "locked" under a contract from one from one carrier to another.

Some phones use a SIM card, which can be transferred to another device like a hotspot once it's set up.  The hotspot then interfaces with the network as if it was your phone.  But more and more phones have gone away from SIM cards and burn the ID information directly into the phone's RAM.

Have you tried using StraightTalk's BYOP online worksheet?  Enter your phone's IMSI, MEID or ESN number and it will tell you if it can be used on their service.

http://stbyop.com/straighttalk/

Then you purchase the appropriate Activation Kit and either swap the SIM card (for AT&T or T-Mobile GSM phones) or enter the Network Activation Code directly into your phone and you're good to go.


 
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