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Those phones will have been unlocked, either officially by the network or unofficially using unlocking tools. eBay isn't a reliable place to get a sense of the

Those phones will have been unlocked, either officially by the network or unofficially using unlocking tools. eBay isn't a reliable place to get a sense of the realities of the retail mobile phone market.

limmeau 16y ago
Judging from their websites, I. Vodafone's unlocking page explicitly mentions their CallYa prepaid offers and an outdated brand of "VPA" mobile phones and an "MCC" starter pack[1]. There is no sign of a page for the millions of people with a 24-month contract. II. The T-Mobile page for old phones [2] lists several models of cellphones; those I recognize look like typical cheap prepaid phones (e.g. the Siemens C35 is there, but not the more expensive S35 of the same era). Their FAQ[3] says that SIM-locks have to be unlocked, but not which phones are locked. It does explicitly say that the iPhone is SIM-locked, which slightly contradicts the premise that all 24-month contract phones are SIM-locked. III. BASE's FAQ[4] on SIM-locks says that SIM-locks are particularly common with prepaid phones. While it may still well be the case that most contract phones come locked, it surprises me to read so little of it anywhere. 1. https://www.vodafone.de/privat/hilfe-support/hardware-entsperren.html https://www.vodafone.de/privat/hilfe-support/hardware-entspe... 2. http://www.t-mobile.de/sim-lock-entsperren/0,20638,23789-_,00.html http://www.t-mobile.de/sim-lock-entsperren/0,20638,23789-_,0... 3. http://www.t-mobile.de/faq/1,1951,18-_,00.html?vgn_form_encoding=ISO-8859-1&q=sim-lock&query=sim-lock http://www.t-mobile.de/faq/1,1951,18-_,00.html?vgn_form_enco... 4. http://www.base.de/Fuer-Kunden/Faq/SIM_Karte/ http://www.base.de/Fuer-Kunden/Faq/SIM_Karte/