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What is unlocking / a simlock?

WHAT IS LOCKED?
A gsm can be locked the SIM is NEVER locked!!
The SIM itself is NEVER locked: you can use it in any compatible cellular phone.

HOW TO KNOW IF PHONE IS LOCKED?
Only phones bought in a "package", together with a SIM, can be locked. If the phone is locked, it is always written on the box (legal reasons)! If you have to sign a contract before they let you take the phone home, it is likely to be NOT locked. But if you don't have to legitimate yourself at all, it is probably locked.

A phone is likely to be locked if:
- it is really cheap
- you didn't even have to tell your name in the shop (e.g. prepaid).

A phone is likely NOT to be locked if:
- it is really old (Nokia 2110 etc.)
- you signed a contract to pay for at least a year (and it is not a special network provided phone)
- if you buy a loose phone without a sim.
But only by trying with a different SIM you can be sure. The simcard or the phones won't damage from this.

WHAT SORTS OF LOCK ARE THERE?
- lock phone to SIM
- lock phone to OPERATOR (network lock)
- lock phone to CODE (product lock = offer lock)

If your phone is locked to the sim you can not use any other sim than the one you have: when the simcard is broken it makes phone useless.

If your phone is locked to an operator, you can use any SIM from this operator in your phone. You can switch between contract and prepaid as you wish, but not to a different operator.

If your phone is locked to a code, the phone checks a special "password" (GID) on the SIM that must match your phone. Providers often use different passwords for contract and prepaid.

Note: a phone can have more than 1 lock active at the same time! (BUT Never 4 locks locked this only happens after wrong unlocking (bad software) or entering wrong unlock code to many times; >5)

So unlocking is:
Removing the simlocks on the phone so you can use the phone with any compatible simcard.

Thus unlocking is tampering with the phone's software?
-It can be, a lot of free unlock software on the internet change data in the phone's firmware (and by this sometimes also damage the phone), others (more professional solution) read data from the phone and then calculate the unlock code / data to send this back to the phone.

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