Phone unlocking - any free legal ways?

JonathanRyan

JonathanRyan

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The long version: I just bought a Sony Xperia Tipo to use for playing Spotify music while I'm running. If I fell over and hurt myself I'd feel really stupid if I had a phone in my pocket but couldn't call anybody so I'd like to shove a freebie PAYG SIM in it for "emergencies". It's currently locked to O2. I could pay somebody on eBay more than the phone cost to unlock it but that seems dumb. I could get an O2 sim but it's a lot easier to rock into Tesco/Asda and pick up a free one on their network. To do this I believe I need to unlock my phone. How do I do this?

TL;DR: I'm cheap - how do I unlock a Sony Tipo without paying?

Ranty bit: why does it have to take a different size SIM from my other Xperia phone? The one that is MUCH bigger takes a smaller SIM.
 
Or failing Nod's suggestion above, and you really do want to unlock the phone itself then look HERE
Free for contract not for PAYG as far as I can see though.

EDIT - Alistair beat me, and more directly too!
 
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If it's locked to o2 a SIM card from Tesco Mobile or Giffgaff will work in it (both run on o2) and both have cheap PAYG rates. Giffgaff is very reasonable, around 10p per minute and 6p per text on the plain PAYG.
 
JonathanRyan said:
That looks like I have to top up £10 every month though :(

That's all my "real" phone costs.
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I thought they'd dropped that requirement. I know I don't top up a tenner every month but that's on Orange PAYG (or EE or whatever they're called this week!)
 
Dave1 said:
If it's locked to o2 a SIM card from Tesco Mobile or Giffgaff will work in it (both run on o2) and both have cheap PAYG rates. Giffgaff is very reasonable, around 10p per minute and 6p per text on the plain PAYG.
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Oh really? Now I'm even more annoyed about the sim size - I'm on Tesco. It would be great to take the SIM out of my big phone and use it in the little one. But I guess tech isn't that advanced.....
 
Nod said:
I thought they'd dropped that requirement. I know I don't top up a tenner every month but that's on Orange PAYG (or EE or whatever they're called this week!)
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I must dig out my burn phone. Haven't used it in 2 years. If that still has credit then that might be a solution.
 
There used to be a "rule" that if you didn't use your phone for a certain period - possibly 2 months - then you lost your number and any balance standing to it. Phone companies didn't want numbers sitting there doing nothing so they reallocated them.
SWMBO once lost a number this way. Don't know if they still do that but it's worth checking. They don't tell.you that at the beginning.
 
mickledore said:
There used to be a "rule" that if you didn't use your phone for a certain period - possibly 2 months - then you lost your number and any balance standing to it. Phone companies didn't want numbers sitting there doing nothing so they reallocated them.
SWMBO once lost a number this way. Don't know if they still do that but it's worth checking. They don't tell.you that at the beginning.
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It's 6 months of non use, different networks have differing ideas of what constitutes use, but making a call, sending a text or topping up works on all of them (some, like Giffgaff even count incoming calls as use).

They don't always cut them off though, I found an old Orange sim, hadn't been used in around 5 years and it was still live.
 
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6 months is it? Thanks. When SWMBO got her phone back she made a point of booking her hairdo on it so as not to lose it again!
It's worth knowing if you have an "emergency" phone.
 
Apparently Tesco and O2 may use the same network but it's a different flavour or something so if it's locked to one it won't work on the other :(

Also, it appears my phone may be "hard locked" which may make things more complicated.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Apparently Tesco and O2 may use the same network but it's a different flavour or something so if it's locked to one it won't work on the other :(

Also, it appears my phone may be "hard locked" which may make things more complicated.
Click to expand...

I've used both Tesco and Giffgaff sims in phones locked to o2 with 100% success, sometimes a Tesco locked phone won't take an o2 sim though, because Tesco being the sub-network use an extra lock (doesn't apply to Giffgaff as they don't lock their phones).

You'll have no problem using a Giffgaff/Tesco sim in o2 phones.
 
Most town centres have places that will unlock a phone for about £10, which isn't expensive. Can't see any problems with legality if it's your phone.
 
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