how much does it cost to unlock a phone

thebourke

how much does it cost to unlock a phone?
i am thinking of buying a phone on ebay but its locked to a network? (3)

slfcarro5

Depends on what phone it is.

thebourke

htc wildfire

Davy

€15-€20 in most places

slfcarro5

Yep would cost 15-20 for that phone. I got my HTC desire HD unlocked here http://www.htccode.com/. Cost me a bit more than that cause the desire hd is hard to unlock.

srsly78

No phone is hard to unlock. You just pay the carrier for the code. Those websites are just middlemen, you could have saved money by going direct.

Some phones have exploitable bugs tho, these can be unlocked with software. This is the exception tho.

dr ro

was told 28e for an e51. How much for an n8.

Davy

dr ro wrote: »

was told 28e for an e51. How much for an n8.

€28 sounds a little rich for an E51 tbh, should be closer to €20 in my eyes. N8 would be about €40 going rate

Needler

srsly78 wrote: »

No phone is hard to unlock. You just pay the carrier for the code. Those websites are just middlemen, you could have saved money by going direct.

Some phones have exploitable bugs tho, these can be unlocked with software. This is the exception tho.

[citation needed]

srsly78

You won't find any citation about proprietary code embedded in non-standard closed sourcecode. Carriers do this stuff do lock people in to their network, it's not in their interest for it to be easily hackable. When it IS easily hackable it means somebody made a big ****up.

Network locking is also nothing to do with Android/OS, it's embedded in the low-level radio software usually. Sure you can use an android app to unlock the galaxy, but this just runs a known exploit against the radio software (a massive security problem).

In general: just contact the carrier. Often it's just a small e10 fee for the unlock code! This was the case with my t-mobile g1 several years ago. Websites wanted twice the price for the code, they are just middlemen. You will give them your IMEI/serial, then they will ring up the carrier. You could save money by doing it yourself.

Note: Some very generic models do have exploits available, like some common Nokias. So yeah sometimes you can get a phone unlocked with a hack. But for most modern handsets it's not so easy (galaxy aside). And yes I worked for a major carrier as a software engineer.

Needler

srsly78 wrote: »

You won't find any citation about proprietary code embedded in non-standard closed sourcecode. Carriers do this stuff do lock people in to their network, it's not in their interest for it to be easily hackable. When it IS easily hackable it means somebody made a big ****up.

Network locking is also nothing to do with Android/OS, it's embedded in the low-level radio software usually. Sure you can use an android app to unlock the galaxy, but this just runs a known exploit against the radio software (a massive security problem).

In general: just contact the carrier. Often it's just a small e10 fee for the unlock code! This was the case with my t-mobile g1 several years ago. Websites wanted twice the price for the code, they are just middlemen. You will give them your IMEI/serial, then they will ring up the carrier. You could save money by doing it yourself.

Note: Some very generic models do have exploits available, like some common Nokias. So yeah sometimes you can get a phone unlocked with a hack. But for most modern handsets it's not so easy (galaxy aside). And yes I worked for a major carrier as a software engineer.

I dunno which carriers you are talking about but very few will give a code for 10e. Vodafone want you to buy 127e of credit in 6 months before they'll give it even if the phone was used by a live dinosour.

Loads of nokias can be unlocked using a JAF box or similar device, I never heard of unlocking shops contacting a carrier for codes, it was all those type of unlocking devices they used. Also some networks down right refuse to unlock mobile phones, like 3 in the UK

srsly78

How do you think those websites work? The ones where you input your serial number and pay a small fee, then you get mailed the unlock code several hours later.

There are so many different types of phone it's hard to give specifics. Go ask one of the guys that run the little phone shops, they will tell you a lot of the time they just ring up the carrier!

3 refusing to unlock phones? That's only if they are under contract. Once out of contract they are obliged by law to give you unlock code.

seanybiker

The HTC desire HD is simple to unlock so I can't imagine the wildfire being any different to unlock

amyco7

i have a phone its a nokia xpress music and its locked to o2 but i want to get it unlocked to vodafone. does anyone know how much it would be or how to do it?