By: Ryan Paulin
There is just one common issue that a vast number of phone users in the US and in Europe all have to suffer through: cellphones and Smartphones that are locked to just one service provider. With a locked Smartphone, the subscriber can only use it with the Sim card that went with the phone upon purchase. This enables the phone to receive content that are limited only to the products and services being promoted by the service provider with which it is tied to. In many cases, subscribers are obliged to shell out huge amounts of cash to pay for a content or service that would have been a lot cheaper with another provider and this is especially true for subscribers who are travelling abroad. With a locked phone, the subscriber would be unable to use a Sim card from a local service provider on the country where he/she is currently located so would then have to pay all the roaming charges that using their US-specific Sim card entails.
If you are planning to go on a tour around the world, then you would need to learn a lot of important points on unlocking a mobile phone so that you would still be able to use your Smartphone with another country's service provider. And if you own a Blackberry phone, you can actually do the unlocking yourself using a special unlocking code that can be obtained from your service provider. However, you would have to prepare yourself for the fee that this unlocking code might entail as well as have a valid reason (since you have a lock-in contract with the service provider) for needing to unlock your mobile phone. Even if you go through a different channel, such as mobile unlocking sites on the internet, to obtain the code, some sort of fee would still be required although it can be a bit cheaper than your service provider's asking price.
Before proceeding with the remote unlocking of your smartphone (Blackberry, HTC, LG, etc), you must first get your phone's IMEI or International Mobile Equipment Identity code. This can easily be done by pressing *#06# on your phone. You would know that you did the correct procedure once you see a 15-digit number displayed on your phone's screen. Write these numbers down and you can then go ahead with mobile unlocking process. For Blackberry phones, you would need to turn off or disable the mobile network before you can key in the MEP or MEP2 codes. There are actually some step by step guides that can be found online with a simple Google search.
You do have the option to have your phone unlocked using the cable method. However, this entails the use of a data cable that would specifically serve the purpose, as well as unlock mobile software. In most instances, you would have to take your phone to a service center or a dedicated mobile un-locker, especially if you do not have enough technical knowledge and have difficulty understanding the intricacies of the software. In contrast to this process, remote unlocking using IMEI and your specific phone unlocking code can be done at the convenience of your own home and it would be very easy to do it yourself.
