Is Phone locked or not?

[Anonymous]

Bought a phone (Huawei Ascend Y300) 4 months ago from carphone warehouse.

Paid cash and had bought it using my o2 pay as you go sim to upgrade thereby getting it cheaper. I later purchased a monthly o2 contract sim online and swapped it with the payg one.

I was under the impression the phone was unlocked and would take any sim however today 2 new sims arrived from '3'. I popped one in and ther's no signal at all despite being in a good signal area.

Has inserting an o2 sim locked the phone to that network?

Strangely I popped in an old T-mobile sim ive had for years and got a good signal strength from that.

[Anonymous]

If the t mobile sim works it should be unlocked I would say its a problem with the 3 sim

[Anonymous]

Had 2 of the '3' sims delivered today direct from '3' so they should be fine.

I was checking for signal strength first before putting any credit on them. I should still be able to get a signal shouldnt I even without any credit on the sims?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I would have thought so have a look at this

Activating your Pay As You Go SIM.
Follow these steps to activate your new Pay As You Go on Three SIM card:
If you bought your Three phone and SIM from us you can skip this step. If you're using a non-Three phone, make sure it is 3G and that it's unlocked.
Check that you've fully charged your phone’s battery
Insert your SIM into your phone and switch it on
We'll text you to let you know we've started activating your SIM. Make sure you keep your phone switched on while we connect you to the Three network. This should only take about 30 minutes but during busy periods it make take longer
When we're nearly finished we'll send you another text asking you turn your phone off and on again
Your SIM will now be activated but we’ll send you another text just to confirm.
If you're having any problems activating your SIM call us on 0843 373 3333 from any phone (5p per minute from a BT landline, other networks may vary) and we'll get it sorted for you.

[Anonymous]

Thats handy thanks. I'll leave the sim in and see if it gets activated or if I recieve any messages from '3'

Thanks for that.

[Anonymous]

No problem your welcome let us know how you get on

[MI5]

Make sure you haven't got "use 2G networks only" ticked in settings.
Three sims don't usually need activating - They work immediately but won't work if the phone is restricted to 2G only.

Also, your phone is certainly unlocked - All CPW phones are (except iPhones).

[Anonymous]

That info from the three site is obviously wrong then

[MI5]

Never had one that wasn't activated as soon as it went in the phone. Only time I had to activate one was when I did a sim swap and I had to go online and type in my sim number to verify it was to be used on my account.....
Of course things can always change......!!

[Anonymous]

Got this working now guys thanks.

The phone was set for 3g but for some reason it wasnt automatically detecting the '3' network when I inserted the new sim even though that option was ticked in the settings.

I had to manually search all networks and then select the '3' 3g option.

Got a good full signal now which I'm really pleased about. I did get a txt saying theres something wrong with the sim and I needed to go into the shop thou. Least I know ive got a good signal