As a general rule of thumb, there is a YES and a NO…
by
older mycroft
·
about 17 years, 3 months ago
In reply to cell phone programming
Mobile phones (as we call them in the UK) generally cost an amount of money to manufacture – the profits come generally from the contract that you buy with the phone.
If you buy it without a contract, instead of paying the price over the following 12,24, or 36 months – you pay upfront.
In order to reclaim their costs, the phone company tends to lock the phone into their network at the time of manufacture. Others are manufactured with no particular network built-in at time of manufacture, mainly because they are aimed at the buyer who will choose his network to suit.
Thus you have the question: Can this mobile phone be converted to another network?
There are places you can go, usually in the shade round the back of Greasy Joe’s Cafe, where for a nominal sum – the phone will be ‘unblocked’.
[b]HOWEVER[/b] – and this is the general [u]Rule of Thumb[/u]:
If the mobile phone bears a legend, logo, or motif of the network that it currently works on – IT CANNOT BE UNBLOCKED.
If the mobile phone bears no logo at all, or any marks where the logo has been rubbed off, IT CAN BE UNBLOCKED.
Where ‘Greasy Joe’s’ happens to be, in your neck of the woods, I wouldn’t know.
