Using a French phone in the UK HELP AND ADVICE NEEDED!!

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dawson_mp_1982@yahoo.co.uk - 21 Mar 2008 18:14 GMT

Hi,

I've recently purchased a supposedly unlocked French phone assuming I
could use my current UK sim-card with said phone. However when I
inserted the sim all I got was a message translated as 'Insert Valid
Sim' rather than the usual 'Insert Sim'.

The phone I purchased was a new in the box sim free model so I
thinking maybe it's sim free in France only? Do I need to get it
unlocked properly for use in the UK?? Alternatively is there any off
the shelf Sim-card I could buy from eBay or some other such place
which is compatible with my phone and will allow me to make calls to
UK handsets minus the sky-high roaming charges?? Or is my only option
to install a French sim-card??

I haven't yet flashed the firmware on it to install a UK language pack
either btw? Will installing the firmware for my native country
automatically 'unlock' my phone??

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Stanley Naimon - 22 Mar 2008 03:19 GMT

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> either btw? Will installing the firmware for my native country
> automatically 'unlock' my phone??

Your UK sim works in other phones, right?

Sounds as if the phone is locked to the French carrier. Doubt the new
firmware will help.

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dawson_mp_1982@yahoo.co.uk - 22 Mar 2008 20:55 GMT

> dawson_mp_1...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> > Hi,
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
> Sounds as if the phone is locked to the French carrier. Doubt the new
> firmware will help.

Well the French website where I bought it from said it was unlocked.
Also the by the looks of the box it's not tied down to any carrier
(one of the bullet points on the back of the box just said sold
without a sim card) so I doubt it's locked to any French carrier.
Still it refuses to recognise my T-Mobile Sim Card.

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B. Wright - 24 Mar 2008 01:42 GMT

In alt.cellular.gsm dawson_mp_1982@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> Well the French website where I bought it from said it was unlocked.
> Also the by the looks of the box it's not tied down to any carrier
> (one of the bullet points on the back of the box just said sold
> without a sim card) so I doubt it's locked to any French carrier.
> Still it refuses to recognise my T-Mobile Sim Card.

I may be wrong, but aren't there some phones that need a "3G"
capable SIM to work? Maybe you have a very old T-Mobile SIM and that's the
problem. You never mentioned what type of phone it was.

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dawson_mp_1982@yahoo.co.uk - 24 Mar 2008 12:36 GMT

> In alt.cellular.gsm dawson_mp_1...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> > Well the French website where I bought it from said it was unlocked.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> capable SIM to work? Maybe you have a very old T-Mobile SIM and that's the
> problem. You never mentioned what type of phone it was.

The phone is a Sony Ericsson z710i [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Sony_Ericsson_Z710]. The phone where my current sim card resides is a
Motorola V3i [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_RAZR_V3#V3i].
Since my current phone is a 3G phone and the sim is fairly recent
(bought in the last 6 months or so) I don't think this is the problem.

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Andreas Wenzel - 24 Mar 2008 13:20 GMT

dawson_mp_1982@yahoo.co.uk schrieb:

> [...] The phone where my current sim card resides is a
> Motorola V3i [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_RAZR_V3#V3i].
> Since my current phone is a 3G phone [...]

The V3i is a 2G only phone.

Andreas

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dawson_mp_1982@yahoo.co.uk - 24 Mar 2008 15:22 GMT

> dawson_mp_1...@yahoo.co.uk schrieb:
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Andreas

Yeah you're correct actually. My mistake! However the z710i only uses
GPRS and Edge and Edge is technically only 2G also (though faster than
GPRS and is sometimes labeled as 2 and a half G). Unless you need a
new sim card for Edge handsets?? Can't see it though.

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dawson_mp_1982@yahoo.co.uk - 24 Mar 2008 15:37 GMT

On 24 Mar, 14:22, dawson_mp_1...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> > dawson_mp_1...@yahoo.co.uk schrieb:
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> GPRS and is sometimes labeled as 2 and a half G). Unless you need a
> new sim card for Edge handsets?? Can't see it though.

Yeah done more research and it looks like T-Mobile doesn't support
Edge in the UK (Orange and O2 are do though). Having said that, the
z710i should support bog standard GPRS?? I'll try an O2 SIM card but
I'm not holding my breath.

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dawson_mp_1982@yahoo.co.uk - 24 Mar 2008 22:58 GMT

On 24 Mar, 14:37, dawson_mp_1...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> On 24 Mar, 14:22, dawson_mp_1...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> z710i should support bog standard GPRS?? I'll try an O2 SIM card but
> I'm not holding my breath.

OK, tried an O2 SIM card, same problem... Gonna try unlocking it via
shady bloke @ local market stall..

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