pay as you go phones are locked in UK?
 

i'm going to stay for some time in UK, and i'm intrested to buy a mobile world sim from carphone.
if i bought the sim with a phone like the offer at mobile world site (eg. the motorola motofone f3 at 14.95 pounds, if you top-up the sim for 10 pounds minimum), the phone is sim locked, operator locked or unlocked?
can i use the phone with my national sim when i come back home?

an other question: what i need to activate the sim,
money, address in uk, a mobile phone and anything else?
it's mandatory be an uk-resident or not?

thanks.

Pay as you go phones are usually network locked here in the UK, but as far as I know you should be able to get that phone unlocked yourself without too many problems.

Generally you don't need anything to activate the SIM here in the UK. No ID etc. Just the money to pay for it.

Yes, there are lots of shops that will unlock just about any phone. If I recall correctly, most PAYG plans don't support GPRS/UMTS.

PAYG plans do allow data, but it varies on cost. In the UK Orange and T-Mobile both have options to cap the price on using data.

You only need to give an address etc usually if you are registering a credit/debit card to top up automatically.

You can use the address of the hotel you are staying at in those instances where you need to register the card (Orange for one) but you can't get credit card top up as the credit card used is supposed to be keyed to a UK address. This has been an ongoing problem.

It will be interesting to see as the eurotariffs take effect what will happen. Mobile World, of course, does not allow roaming outside the UK making it difficult to keep the card active (although since the sim is free, if you just about use up all the credit, it's no big deal)...Orange call abroad requires one action every six months but since they allow roaming you can send a text message at a very low cost to keep it active and T Mobile UK with its £2 bundle for calls to the USA and Canada also can easily be kept active because they allow roaming.

you can buy cheap sim free phone from places like carphone warehouse etc...and then just put a pay as you go sim in.....

www.carphonewarehouse.com

Not as cheap as they say
 

Carphonewarehouse sim free phones are dearer than their PAYG phones and don't have all the available range of phones. Their Sim free phones are costlier by at least 30£. Are there any other places where such phones are available? Argos doesn't have much variety.

Can I buy a PAYG phone and get it unlocked in a different country? if so what is the method to do so?

Also, will there be a drawback when I unlock such a phone? like a particular phone feature being disabled?

cheers!

A PAYG phone will usually be branded, definitely firmware, but often the case too. A sim free phone doesn't have any branding on, and is always more expensive as the operators in the UK subsidise their phones (contract phones attract a higher subsidy, which is why many phones are free on contract).

As the firmware has been modified, some features may be added/removed. Usually the added part is usually java games and preconfigured web access, custom icons (with possibly some off-line content on the service).
An example of removed features is on the Nokia N95 where the VoIP features have been removed on some networks.

Unlocking a phone will not add/remove any features - it simply turns off the sim-lock. Features may only be disabled if you flash the phones firmware (e.g. to replace the customised with the manufacturers original version).

Some phones can have their sim-lock removed by entering a code, others by a program when the phone is connected by a data cable (e.g. USB one that may come with the phone), and others may require a specialist unlock clip. Most Nokia phones (except the high end newer ones) can simply be code-unlocked and there are a few free websites set up where people can do it themselves.

I've unlocked two of my phones freely by cable (motorola V3 and Samsung E900).

Whenever I visit London and walk down Oxford Street, I see shop after shop (mostly holes in the wall so to speak) with signs they unlock phones for £8 or thereabouts! Shouldn't be a problem getting the phone unlocked.

well there is that but then again you pay £8 get your payg unlocked then it goes tits...the shop who unlocked your phone are gonna say 'dont care' and the shop are going to say...what did you do...oh that voided your warrenty...tough!

That's why I prefer to unlock myself or at least until I've searched the web for the methods/risks.

If you buy a Virgin mobile, if you've topped up with £30 credit then they will give you an unlock code free (http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/gener....us.shop.sm019)

yeah there is that to, but then sometimes you end up paying more for the phone as opposed to buying it sim free...

payg phones are not subsidized as much as contract phones!