Ducati Sporting Club UK > General > Idle Chat > Mobile phones - advice required please

[antonye]

Most phones can be locked to a particular network, to protect their revenues. Obviously when you sign up for a 12-month contract and get the phone free, they are giving you a £400-odd phone in the hope you'll stay with them. By locking the phone to their network, it makes it harder for people to network hop every 12 months for a free new phone and all the jazzy deals you get.

However, O2 and Vodafone hardly ever lock their phones, so you can stick your new Orange sim card in your expensive (but free) phone you got from O2.

Orange and T-Mobile are a bit more clever and lock their phones, but as always you can get round this and get them unlocked (usually just by entering codes) so they will work with any SIM card.

The networks are getting wise to this now, and are pushing for 18 month contracts to try and recoup the lost amount of the phone for new subscribers.

I always find that my batteries start to get really bad after a year, so you need to change phones anyway!

It's always worth trying any SIM card you have in an old phone, just in case. Most Nokia phones can be unlocked FOC if you search on the web for the free unlock programs. I've unlocked a load of phones over the last few years, so let me know if you need any help.