'network unlocked'

I made this post on Thursday about how my boss gave me his old Sony Ericsson V600i mobile because he had upgraded! I mentioned that I needed to get the phone unlocked before I could use it!

Now in previous years (I haven't bought a new phone since 99?), whenever someone has given me a phone, they never seem to be on my network (o2) so I always have to get them unlocked. Now I'm tired of spending £10 a time getting my phone unlocked. I'll pay it if I have to, but I'd rather not.

So yesterday, I spend a good hour or so browsing the web trying to find out how I unlock this phone. All I found was the keyboard shortcut to get into the 'unlock' menu (it's joystick left (<), *, *, (<) joystick left again!) but nothing about unlocking the phone. Unless I wanted to pay money. Which I didn't.

I then came across a website, in Australia. The author said that he visited the Vodafone (Aus) website and they had a 'self-service' unlock page on there website, so i checked it out, and sure-enough it was there. Not wanting to brick the phone, i was reluctant to try it out. So i checked the UK website, and it had absolutely no info regarding unlocking the phone!

So I phoned vodafone. I found a phone number which was headed "Non-vodafone customers" (im not a vodafone customer, so i dont have account nubmers etc). The first thing i hear is "Thank you for calling Vodafone, please enter your vodafone account number". Meh! I dont have one.

Anywho, i browsed the web again, and couldn't find any other numbers, so i phoned it again, and simply waited. I then pressed some buttons whilst navigating the stupid phone maze, and ended up speaking to a nice chap by the name of Michael. He told me that they can unlock the phones, but it all depends on the handset. Apparantly, Nokia's can take weeks (not according to this website), but most other manufacturers are fine!

So he asked for the handset details and the IMEI number, which I gave him. He then gave me a code which tapped into the phone and was greeted with a lovely "network unlocked" message!

Woot! So not only did I save myself a tenner, I've also got a tasty little phone too!

Remember, if you don't ask, you don't get!