phone swapping q

flogen

ok, i asked a guy in carphone warehouse this, and i got a wierd reply... pretended i understood and then slapped him (last part is a lie).

so can anyone who speaks english help me here?
ok, i understand that if i want to change network i have to buy the sim card etc and phone the companies yadeyada....
anyway, can i buy a vodaphone phone and change over to o2 with a sim i already own?? does it HAVE to be new?? also, whats the chance of me buying a new phone from vodaphone or meteor and them unlocking it for me straight away, or very soon after purchase.
I heard you have to use it for x amount of time before theyll do this. basically my plan is to buy a nice and good priced handset and then just put my old sim into it... problem being o2 are abit lacking the nice and good priced (within my range) handsets at the moment, but meteor/vodaphone aint...

Flogen

BrianD

Ah, you want something for nothing! You seem miffed that the various operators are making this difficult for you!

If you buy a post-pay phone you have to sign a 12 month contract. I am sure there are some T&C's that cover the possibility of you porting to another network.

If you buy a pre-paid phone you have to buy a certain amount of pre-paid credit before you can get it unlocked.

Why not try changing networks with your existing SIM? Usually, if you change over they will give you an upgrade deal of some sort. You will of course have to change SIM's, confirm your ID etc

flogen

oh im not miffed that theyre making it difficult, i understand how it all works (as in, they need money or else they cant operate), but still, itd be nice if it was easy....:)

might do what you said, however i like the o2 tarrif (prepay), then again, because meteor are getting good coverage now they might be worth a try....

Flogen

Celticwarrior

Why not unlock the phone yourself? There are loads of threads on the subject in this forum.

RicardoSmith

Its probably cheaper jsut to buy the prepaid phone on the network you want to use, so why not just do that?

flogen

well obviously theres the momentary hastle of letting people know my new number, but thats not the main issue.
the thing is, at the moment o2 is the best network for me, vodafone are terrible on prepay, and meteor is looking better all the time, but im still not 100% on them just yet.

and doesnt it still cost a bit to get it unlocked yourself?

Flogen

RicardoSmith

Is the phone a lot cheaper on one network than the other? If it isn't theres no point in doing what your talking about .

flogen

well meteor seem to have a better range, and vodaphone have some good stuff that is exclusive to them... although I like O2 i think their choice of speakeasy phones is pretty poor, and the prices are a rip off too....

Flogen

RicardoSmith

They all seem to be rip offs if you ask me.