Buying a phone from Vodaphone and switching it to O2

MaceFace

Is there anything stopping me buying a phone from Vodafone (new connection), using whatever credit I get with it (E5) and then plugging back in my existing O2 sim and using it as is?
Would I have to unlock it?

Could I switch my number to Vodafone and switch back a few weeks later?

ronano

There is nothing stopping you just remember it may take x amount of hours to port over usually it doesnt but you know just incase :P

ardmacha

I suppose the only thing stopping you is that the phone will be locked to Vodafone, so you'll have to get it unlocked first.

jordainius

MaceFace wrote: »

Is there anything stopping me buying a phone from Vodafone (new connection), using whatever credit I get with it (E5) and then plugging back in my existing O2 sim and using it as is?
Would I have to unlock it?

Could I switch my number to Vodafone and switch back a few weeks later?

It will be locked when you buy it. They wont give you the unlock code until you have topped up by 110-130 euro.

However there are other ways of unlocking phones for a fee of 10-20 euro. Various people do it in most towns/cities.

MaceFace

Mods: I am not sure of the legalities of unlocking a phone - I can only assume it is legal considering many shops openly advertise it

Is unlocking not just a Software issue - get the serial number of some other such number, run it through some software and enter the resulting number through some key combo?
If so, then surely this software is freely available on the net somewhere and with some time and effort to get the correct software, I could do it myself?

Sully

MaceFace wrote: »

Mods: I am not sure of the legalities of unlocking a phone - I can only assume it is legal considering many shops openly advertise it

Is unlocking not just a Software issue - get the serial number of some other such number, run it through some software and enter the resulting number through some key combo?
If so, then surely this software is freely available on the net somewhere and with some time and effort to get the correct software, I could do it myself?

Newer phones need to be hardware unlocked.

Tom Dunne

MaceFace wrote: »

Mods: I am not sure of the legalities of unlocking a phone - I can only assume it is legal considering many shops openly advertise it

It's a gray area, tbh. We allow discussion of it here because we haven't been told otherwise.

I have threads dedicated to unlocking over on the Apple Media Devices forum.

generalpeadar

like jordainius said you will need to spend about €130 on credit (the free credit they give you doesnt count) before vodafone will unlock it for you.

If you were ever on vodafone before then you might have already topped-up by enough so there wouldnt be a problem!

Or if any of your friends are on vodafone, have topped-up by the required amount, and are not planning on porting to another network in the next 6 months or so, then you might be able to use their top-up history to get your unlock codes (thats what I did when I switched from vodafone to meteor a few years ago anyway)

Davy

MaceFace wrote: »

Is there anything stopping me buying a phone from Vodafone (new connection), using whatever credit I get with it (E5) and then plugging back in my existing O2 sim and using it as is?

Phone needs to be unlocked either by code from vodafone or from an unlocking shop.

MaceFace wrote: »

Would I have to unlock it?

Yes as already said.

MaceFace wrote: »

Could I switch my number to Vodafone and switch back a few weeks later?

Yes you can port when you want.


Why are you doing this?
What phone are you thinking of?
Why would you be switching back after a few weeks?
You could buy the phone from adverts/ebay other means unlocked and not have to worry about unlocking it.