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I think there is a big misunderstanding what locked/unlocked means.

All phones that are made are always assigned to a carrier (yes even the ones that say "Factory GSM Unlocked") to prove that just look up the model of the phone and you will see what carrier it was assigned to.

In order for a phone to have service the company has to know that you want service on this phone.

In the past company's like Sprint and Verizon did not work with a sim card they worked with the id of the phone to recognize what kind of phone / what carrier it was assigned to. This is know as CDMA. Yet company's like att/t-mobile did that too but the service was applied by using a sim.

Once LTE came out for what ever reason all company switched to the "Sim technology". There is still one thing that did not change, each carrier has their assigned bands that they have from the FCC that they are allowed to use.

Being that there are standard bands that every one uses (for international or the like) these are included in every phone. So.... All verizon phones will work on att, BUT will only have the bands for slower internet since those are standard bands.

Now verizon's LTE band is NOT a standard nor is their CDMA a standard so an att or a t-mobile phone will NOT be able to accept a Verizon sim.

Now lets go to sprint phones,

All other company's when they had the phones made for them all they do is have it customized for its own use (Read: their own LTE bands). Sprint on the other hand not only did they have them customize it they put a lock in the software blocking all local USA bands (Verizon ATT and Tmobile).

They even go a step farther and they still do the old way of checking the device ID to see if its a sprint phone or not.

Hope this explains a few things feel free to ask any questions.

Att has an easy way to ask for an unlock https://att.com/deviceunlock

How to check a Sprint iPhone (only): You cannot check it with an american sim you must put in a foreign sim. You DO NOT have to backup and restore as sprint sends in the email! Connect to wifi before starting this procedure.

When you put the sim in one of 3 things will happen.
1. It will say no service in the top right corner = Unlocked
2. It will do a soft restart and ask you for your apple id password = Almost unlocked, after putting in the password its unlocked
3. It will do a soft restart and say "Sim not valid" = Phone is locked

If you got number 2. and you dont know the password just put in your old sim and all will return. When you find out the password repeat the steps.

Willmyphonework.net Can check if the phone will work
« Last edited by yakov116 on June 29, 2016, 01:34:42 PM »

Author Topic: cell phone unlocking  (Read 157900 times)

Offline ual902

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #620 on: April 11, 2019, 01:31:15 PM »
Best freeway or cheap way to unlock an att samsung s7 that still owes money to att? att will not unlock till the phone is paid for.

Offline grodnoking

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #621 on: April 11, 2019, 06:01:42 PM »
I have a Samsung galaxy s8+ that was originally an at&t phone. It since then has been unlocked, worked on multiple carriers in Israel, but now in America refuses to work on Mint Mobile, which runs on T-Mobile. Sim works on a diff phone, but on this phone even when manually setting the APN up nothing works, no calling, texting or data.
Can anyone help?
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Offline Naftuli19

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #622 on: April 11, 2019, 06:18:30 PM »
im not sure if was discussed before but it says in the wiki that t mobile phones wont work on Verizon, but my friend somehow got my t mobile note 8 to work perfectly fine on Verizon. (sad part is he doesn't want to tell me how he did it.)

 
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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #623 on: April 11, 2019, 07:34:56 PM »
The way all these unlocking companies unlock phones is by using special hardware/software. I still haven't figured out exactly how it works. It seems like you need the box plus have to purchase server credits to do certain things like unlocking phones.

You can do a lot of stuff with these boxes (i.e. take off pattern locks, remove iCloud, unlock phones, flashing, changing imei numbers, fix no signal errors...) but there's basically no English instructions available online. It's almost as if the Indians have some sort of agreement not to post instructions in English.

Some of the popular boxes are z3x pro box, octopus box, Chinese miracle 2. Some boxes specialize in different brands. Like z3x is supposedly very good for Samsung phones and IP box v3 is good for apple phones.

A big forum with a ton of information about this is
http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/index.php

@Naftuli19 I'm going to guess he used one of these boxes
« Last Edit: April 11, 2019, 07:40:46 PM by Definitions »
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Offline Naftuli19

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #624 on: April 11, 2019, 07:57:19 PM »
The way all these unlocking companies unlock phones is by using special hardware/software. I still haven't figured out exactly how it works. It seems like you need the box plus have to purchase server credits to do certain things like unlocking phones.

You can do a lot of stuff with these boxes (i.e. take off pattern locks, remove iCloud, unlock phones, flashing, changing imei numbers, fix no signal errors...) but there's basically no English instructions available online. It's almost as if the Indians have some sort of agreement not to post instructions in English.

Some of the popular boxes are z3x pro box, octopus box, Chinese miracle 2. Some boxes specialize in different brands. Like z3x is supposedly very good for Samsung phones and IP box v3 is good for apple phones.

A big forum with a ton of information about this is
http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/index.php

@Naftuli19 I'm going to guess he used one of these boxes
are they expensive i dont think he would get 1 just for 1 phone, but its really good to know about this thanks!
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Offline Definitions

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #625 on: April 11, 2019, 08:07:26 PM »
are they expensive i dont think he would get 1 just for 1 phone, but its really good to know about this thanks!
I don't think they're too expensive. around $100-$150
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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #626 on: April 14, 2019, 05:23:18 PM »
Hi I bought an iphone x on ebay that said "unlocked"

Tried to sign up with verizon and I am getting error that is carrier locked with xfinity mobile.


Xfinity is not letting us unlock it because they said we need an account number of owner.

ANY ADVICE ?

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #627 on: April 14, 2019, 05:27:19 PM »
Return to seller

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #628 on: April 14, 2019, 05:27:43 PM »
Hi I bought an iphone x on ebay that said "unlocked"

Tried to sign up with verizon and I am getting error that is carrier locked with xfinity mobile.


Xfinity is not letting us unlock it because they said we need an account number of owner.

ANY ADVICE ?
Follow up with seller, if he can't help in unlocking just return it after contacting ebay with the issue.
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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #629 on: April 30, 2019, 04:42:55 AM »
Hi I bought an iphone x on ebay that said "unlocked"

Tried to sign up with verizon and I am getting error that is carrier locked with xfinity mobile.


Xfinity is not letting us unlock it because they said we need an account number of owner.

ANY ADVICE ?
Sometimes you can find these people on eBay who can get you an unlock code for a few dollars and solve the crisis and save you time.
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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #630 on: June 11, 2019, 09:16:28 AM »
I'm hoping someone can help!

I have a Verizon iPhone 6, and my service provider is Page Plus (TracFone Wireless) - on a monthly prepaid plan.

I'm in Israel now and rented a SIM card to use here, but it seems my iPhone is locked (which I had no clue about), so the SIM card is useless and I don't have a phone!

I spoke to a couple of cell phone stores here and they told me it costs ~$250 to unlock it, because that's how much Verizon will charge. They're basically just passing on the charge.

Page Plus customer service says they can't unlock it, because the phone isn't one of theirs.

Verizon Wireless customer service says the show it's unlocked, but it's only unlocked in the US, and since I'm overseas, I have to bring the phone to a local Israeli location for it to be physically unlocked.

I'm working remotely from here for the next 10 days and need a phone.

Does anyone know how to get around this? I'm pretty desperate. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

TIA

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #631 on: September 25, 2019, 02:54:47 PM »
how can I flash a kyocera phone's imei that was blacklisted so it work it again?

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #632 on: May 25, 2020, 11:29:10 AM »
How can I get an Alcatel Smartflip 4052C from Cricket unlocked (to be able to use on T-Mobile)?
How much should I expect to pay?
Thanks.

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #633 on: May 25, 2020, 01:21:01 PM »
How can I get an Alcatel Smartflip 4052C from Cricket unlocked (to be able to use on T-Mobile)?
How much should I expect to pay?
Thanks.
On eBay there's guys selling a unlock service for ~$5. It requires them to use TeamViewer on your computer. Never saw that before I don't know how comfortable I'd be
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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #634 on: May 25, 2020, 01:33:34 PM »
On eBay there's guys selling a unlock service for ~$5. It requires them to use TeamViewer on your computer. Never saw that before I don't know how comfortable I'd be
I worry about them stealing info or installing spyware.....

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #635 on: July 01, 2020, 06:07:40 PM »
43 threads later are there any reliable unlocking people or sites?
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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #636 on: July 01, 2020, 06:21:02 PM »
43 threads later are there any reliable unlocking people or sites?
Do you mean 43 pages?
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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #637 on: July 01, 2020, 06:49:02 PM »
Do you mean 43 pages?
Indeed! Thanks for the correction 👍.

 Better question did anyone go through one of these sites and get a successful unlocking code?

 Lots of the codes are not that expensive I'm sure some of you guys have tried?
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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #638 on: July 01, 2020, 08:20:15 PM »
Indeed! Thanks for the correction 👍.

 Better question did anyone go through one of these sites and get a successful unlocking code?

 Lots of the codes are not that expensive I'm sure some of you guys have tried?

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #639 on: July 01, 2020, 08:24:36 PM »
I can unlock it for you
Whats your pricing?
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