Mobile Phone Unlocking

Ofcom do come in for a lot of stick, but this article is concise, yet detailed, and well worth a read ....

Mobile phone locking and unlocking

Mobile handsets are sometimes 'locked' to the network from which the handset is purchased. This means the handset will usually only work when used with that particular provider.......

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PHONE on CONSUMERS.OFCOM.ORG.UK
02-Jun-2015 @ 11:57

Not mentioned is Mobile by Sainsbury's who don't lock their phones. I suppose Virgin and Tesco Mobile were added to the list as they're the two largest MVNO's?

It fails to mention that MVNO SIMs will usually work in a 'parent' network locked phone (and vice versa)

For instance a Virgin SIM will work in an EE locked phone, and GiffGaff in an O2 phone

Also, it's not necessarily correct that a network will unlock a phone after the contract has expired. EE refused to do so for my son's iphone.

However, 8/10 for the article

iD Mobile, which is the new MVNO from the Carphone Warehouse works in 3 handsets as they are the backbone of the network. But as it states, all of 3's handsets these days are unlocked as standard.