When you buy a new mobile phone, it is usually locked. This means that it can be only be used with SIM cards from the network that the phone was originally on. However, you can unlock your phone easily.

Finding out if your phone is locked
Some network providers (particularly O2) do not lock their phones so you need to check whether it is locked or not. Do this by inserting a SIM card from a different UK mobile phone network into your phone. If it logs on to the network and you can make a call then your phone is already unlocked! If you cannot make a call, then you will need unlock your phone - see below.

Unlocking your phone
There are a number of different ways to unlock your phone and we have listed some of the better ones we have found below:

Trycktill - this is a free unlocking service and doesn’t offer any technical support.

Unlock123 - this service costs £4.99, but it’s easy and they offer technical support.

You can also ask your mobile operator to unlock your mobile phone. They will charge for this service, but if you are a good customer, they will usually do a good price. Here are the contact details for most UK networks:

Orange: 0800 0792288 or 150 from your handset
Vodafone: 01635 33251 or 191 from your handset
T-mobile: 0808 1214104 or 150 from your handset
O2: 0800 005005 or 202/402 from your handset
3: 01628 765000 or 333 from your handset

You can also take your phone to your local independent (i.e. not Carphone Warehouse, Phones4u et al) mobile phone shop.

Benefits

- Save around 80% - Keep your UK mobile number - You get a local number too - Cheap domestic calls - Voicemail and more...

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