Phone SIM Locking

[Gullen]

Remember back in the day, when phones used to lock themselves to a SIM carrier. I am so surprised that used to be a thing ! I find it super interesting. Can you still buy phones that are locked to a carrier ? What happens when you try and put a different SIM in? What is the process of unlocking a phone ?

[Dedayog]

2 minutes ago, Gullen said:

Remember back in the day, when phones used to lock themselves to a SIM carrier. I am so surprised that used to be a thing ! I find it super interesting. Can you still buy phones that are locked to a carrier ? What happens when you try and put a different SIM in? What is the process of unlocking a phone ?

Phones are still locked in the US.  When they are provided as incentive to move to a new carrier, of course they are.  Or when you're on a payment plan for it with the carrier.

 

The carrier has to signal the device to unlock if I recall.  Usually when payment is complete if buying, or when a time period has elapsed per the contract if getting free.

[Gullen]

6 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

Phones are still locked in the US.  When they are provided as incentive to move to a new carrier, of course they are.  Or when you're on a payment plan for it with the carrier.

 

The carrier has to signal the device to unlock if I recall.  Usually when payment is complete if buying, or when a time period has elapsed per the contract if getting free.

Oh really. That's interesting. It's not really a thing anymore in the UK, well at least from what I've seen. I know a handful of people who have changed carriers and they've just popped the new SIM into the phone and it just works.

[Dedayog]

8 minutes ago, Gullen said:

Oh really. That's interesting. It's not really a thing anymore in the UK, well at least from what I've seen. I know a handful of people who have changed carriers and they've just popped the new SIM into the phone and it just works.

Well yeah, that too.  I mean when you buy a phone retail from a store, it's unlocked.  I can put any SIM or an eSIM in my OnePlus 11.

 

But maybe in the UK carriers don't do deals like the US?  

 

If you're TMobile and you give away Samsung Galaxy's to people to switch from Verizon... are you going to leave them unlocked so they can sell them or take them elsewhere?

 

Nope.

[TempestCatto]

Just to add to the conversation here. I have AT&T (USA). If I unlock my phone, they will disable a few key features - one of those being WiFi calling. Why? I don't know, but I have experienced it first hand. So I just bought outright my current phone from the Apple Store, specifically for AT&T. I am not sure if all carriers do this either, but wouldn't be surprised. 

[OddOod]

2 hours ago, Dedayog said:

If you're TMobile and you give away Samsung Galaxy's to people to switch from Verizon... are you going to leave them unlocked so they can sell them or take them elsewhere?

Not exactly a wrong way to think about it, but when they give you that phone, it's on the condition you sign a contract which often has a very steep cancellation clause. These companies will always get their pound of flesh and then some. Always.

[Donut417]

4 hours ago, Gullen said:

Remember back in the day, when phones used to lock themselves to a SIM carrier. I am so surprised that used to be a thing ! I find it super interesting. Can you still buy phones that are locked to a carrier ? What happens when you try and put a different SIM in? What is the process of unlocking a phone ?

This is how the US does it. Most carriers allow people to finance a device. So they lock the device to their network. Generally when a device is locked to a carriers network it will ONLY work on  the carriers network. 

 

As far as unlocking them, the carriers generally will do it as long as the device is paid off. Though they might have other requirements so you should always check with the carrier first. 

 

This is why I buy unlocked devices from the manufacture. For example I bought my iPhone 16 Pro from Apple directly, as its 100% carrier unlocked. 

 

[Nayr438]

This is still very much a thing in the U.S. All Carrier purchased Devices are locked and they have their own unlocking policies.
Pretty much comes down to

• 60 to 120 days after payed in full
• The device isn't under contract, such as getting a free device but signing a 12 month agreement.
• Account is in good standing

US Carrier (NON-MVNO) Policies on Device Unlocking

• ATT
• Verizon
• T-Mobile
• US Cellular

I pretty much never buy carrier devices.
On top of carrier locking they tend to make changes to the devices where they only fully work correctly on their original carrier network and Android Devices tend to have carrier specific roms that have to go through carrier approval which affects what ships on the device and how often you actually get updates. Also oem bootloader unlocking if you are into that, carriers rarely provide it. The only reason we even have sim unlocking here is because of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlocking_Consumer_Choice_and_Wireless_Competition_Act and https://www.fcc.gov/general/cell-phone-unlocking

If you want more fun to add to the mix, U.S. carriers also started adopting whitelists so some Unlocked Devices may not even work on various carriers.