How to unlock a gsm phone
How to Unlock a GSM Phone
this is Lisa from mobile tech review and
today we're not reviewing a phone and I
do have a micro sim in my hand right
here that's because we're going to talk
about unlocking phones boys and girls
ladies and gentlemen this happens to be
a samsung galaxy s5 right here it
doesn't really matter so much what phone
we're talking about though in this case
as long as this is a gsm phone and in
the United States that means t-mobile
and AT&T for the big carriers you can
unlock your phone to use it on other
carriers ah it gets to be a complicated
thing though because you also want to
make sure if you're doing that that the
proper bands are supported that you look
at voice and edge to G data remember 2g
yeah a long time ago but on most phones
these days across 18 T and t-mobile
fellas they often even 3G not always LTE
so if you're thinking about getting a
phone that's sold by a competing carrier
from your Kerry in the United States
make sure it has the LTE bands and
usually the specs page on review
certainly will tell you which LTE bands
are supported also the manufacturers but
that's a you people who are on Sprint
and Verizon that uses CDMA not GSM
different kind of network technology
unlocking phones doesn't apply there
that's a whole nother complicated kind
of thing there so this is really for you
people who want to take a phone to use
it on gsm networks overseas have AT&T
have t-mobile or where the MVA knows
which means a virtual operator that uses
one of the big carriers networks or a
subsidiary network for example on Sprint
Boost Mobile virgin also there are some
city areas of Sprint so if you want to
take a sprint phone and use it on
boosting unlocking doesn't apply because
this doesn't apply once again to CDMA
phones but every time an i/o wireless or
Cricket Wireless there envía knows our
subsidiaries on AT&T you can do it
there's also subsidiaries on t-mobile's
network and again like I said if you
want to go overseas of course then well
there you go you unlock the phone and
you'll probably at least get edge for
data 3G and definitely voice on the
phone so why not just call it your
carrier and get the unlock code you can
do that you should do that if you can do
that because that is free the trick is
often when phones come out carriers
don't have the unlock codes for a couple
of months the other thing is you have to
be a customer in good standing that
means
usually around three months of service
you've been paying your bills on time
that kind of thing so if you're buying
the phone off Craigslist if it was your
uncle Pete's phone in the drawer he no
longer has service on that carrier so he
can't call him up an answer yeah lock on
you're gonna need one uh-huh
you can also buy unlock phones too there
are importers who sell unlock phones as
another alternative they're often very
expensive so often is keeper just to go
on Craigslist and say hey I want to pick
up Samsung Galaxy s4 that's now last
year's model it's discounted so where do
you give unlock codes well our logo has
been supplied by cell unlocker debt net
now there's there's another company
that's just sell unlock net this one is
sell unlock ernet they sell codes for
$35 so if you can't get one free from
the carrier you're gonna have to pay
somebody to get that code and there's a
lot of places some of them are reputable
in the net like cell and lock or dotnet
is and there's some iffy ones and
there's some on eBay you never know who
you can trust so if you're going to
share your phone's IMEI number which you
have to do that's the phone serial
number which you can usually find in the
About section of your phone you want to
know it's somebody reputable and well
these folks are so they give us an
unlock code for the new Samsung Galaxy
s5 I happen to have the t-mobile version
here I'm going to unlock and we're going
to see how that goes right now and how
it works okay so here we have the
Samsung Galaxy s5 this one happens to be
like I said on t-mobile they don't brand
the shell on it but trust me it's my
t-mobile phone if we swipe it down
you'll see t-mobile at the bottom right
there
t-mobile us that is now being that this
is a samsung galaxy this brings up one
more interesting point recent Samsung
Galaxy phones are also region lock that
means lock to a region of the world yeah
so that makes a bit more complicated so
what do you have to do if you have a
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 galaxy s3 s4 as
fun is you actually have to use it once
with the actual proper carrier SIM the
one it was meant to come with if you got
one that's not sold unlocked it comes
locked to a carrier after that you can
unlock it so that makes things a little
bit more complicated and a cell phone on
Locker dotnet actually has an
explanation of how it works with the
Galaxy phones and telling you you better
do that first or have the original owner
if they're selling it to you make sure
to actually put their proper SIM card in
there once to do that so easy enough to
do after you prefer I the IMEI of the
phone
most on lockers will provide you some
instructions in the email about how to
do it but almost all phones are going to
work the same way first will be nice
turn the phone off before we yank out
its battery and swap it SIM card did I
have my little unlock code right here
that I got via email from them so take
out the SIM card and put in the SIM card
you wish to use let's take out the
t-mobile SIM card here which is not the
easiest thing to get to because it's
underneath the micro SD card alright so
I finally gotten the SIM card out kind
of a pain to get out here it's not a
spring-loaded SIM slot so I actually
used a little piece of tape on the end
to kind of grab it and pull it out of
here but that's just the way the Galaxy
s5 is and we're going to put in our
active AT&T SIM card right here also
micro SIM so it fits in the hole just
fine thank you very much put my micro SD
card back in there put the battery back
in you'll put back back on so it doesn't
complain about the waterproofing not
being sealed up and will boot her up now
when you boot it up again this works
this way most phones is going to say aha
wrong carrier SIM card and your unlock
code
now you usually get three tries if you
flunk three times trying so you get a
bad unlock code or you're drunk when
you're trying to do this then you'll
have to get an unfreeze code which is a
little bit hard to find sell and lock or
dotnet also can provide those to you but
those try not to make mistakes in other
words and that's why you should use
somebody reputable so you're not
monkeying around with the wrong unlock
codes and first it's going to ask for my
fingerprint verification and see there
it is so now I'm going to punch in my
code and it says network lock is very
quick kind of miss out there network
unlock successful so and we're going to
turn off Wi-Fi thanks so we make sure
we're using data and right now it's
searching now let's see if we have any
compatible bands on this phone to work
with AT&T for data alright so we had
good old edge we didn't even have 3G
advice and that has to do
the APN so this gets a little bit more
geeky a twits an APN it's some of your
techie settings right here we go into
settings we go into more networks now
this will depend on the phone to some
phones automatically pick up and have a
lot of ApS which is basically server
connection list built in others
especially with galaxy s5 they really
would carries would prefer if you don't
buy it on one network and then swap it
to the other so they don't make it too
easy on you so the basic one was just
for edge to G and voice so what I did is
add in the APN for LTE under access
point names there I created this one now
the important thing right here though
they have to enter in is the APN name
which is PTA in the case of a TLT and 4G
network meaning 4G HSPA+ also I didn't
bother putting in the MMS field you can
find that online you can Google on ATT
APN settings if that's the carrier
particularly want to move to and for APN
type you have to type in all that stuff
in that field if you type tap on any
field you can actually edit so that's
how we got the 4G showing up here so
let's give a data test now and see how
it works and we've got speed test off
the net installed here
hey let's run a test and see what we get
and those are HSPA speeds I don't
believe this has LTE bands for AT&T this
t-mobile version so again you're going
to check it depends on the phone as to
what LTE bands is going to have it's not
uncommon for LTE bands to be pretty
limited with HSPA which is usually
called 3G some carriers still call it 4G
you'll see up to Penta band commonly
these days that means five different
bands so you get a lot of coverage for
overseas networks and for the major US
networks as well don't read on the
upload speed there but anyway obviously
it works and again it's going to depend
on the network on the phone on the
carrier that you're choosing as to what
speed you get but it's all good it's all
working so there you go that's how to
unlock your phone get an unlock code
unlock your GSM phone again
not for CDMA phones just for GSM phones
but really and if you want to travel
overseas if you're picking up a used
phone that sort of thing I'm Lisa from
mobile tech review be sure to visit our
website for more interesting articles on
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