My girlfriend wants to buy cheap Android phones for whatsapp for her relatives back in her home country which we'll be taking when we fly there.
I noticed Coles have the Huawei Y3II for $54.50 or even the Prepaid Smart Plus White (ZTE T816) for $29
I also noticed the unlock codes are being sold for $2.50-$3
Will this actually work as planned? I've never purchased unlock codes before.
It's an older code sir, but it checks out…
Surely by now the law of averages has to suggest that at least one of these old codes must have not checked out.
Would it be cheaper to buy os already unlocked?
Not in Colombia its not.
All electronics are more expensive and a $100 phone becomes $200 just because they can and also probably taxes.
Going over to see Cocaine Cassie are ya!
She used headphones which was a bad idea.
Eneloops are perfect!
I unlock phones all the time with random eBay account and I've never had an issue.
But that was for use in Australia and some Asian countries. I don't know the current situation with network-locked phones but in the past Optus would remove frequencies they didn't use themselves (e.g. 850). The Americas were notorious for using different frequencies to the rest of the world but there's normally a carrier these days that supports one of our frequencies (e.g. 2100). It's hard to find the network specifications of locked phones online. The network your girlfriend's relatives use is another issue…
Thanks for the tip, I checked the frequencies and it looks fine assuming they haven't removed any frequencies.
I have a feeling most of it will be on wifi anyway.
Will this actually work as planned?
Yes, just pop a sim that isn't related to the prepaid telco in and it'll ask for the unlock code. Enter it and away you go.
Damn I just realised I'm with Virgin which probably means an Optus phone won't ask for an unlock code..
Have to find someone with Telstra I guess.
Just borrow a friend non optus/virgin sim or pickup a $2 sim when buying the phone and use that to force it to prompt.
Or get one of these https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/367011
or one of these https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/367214 (they're now telstra too)
Thanks
It doesn't look like the Huawei model will support 4G in Colombia, if your question is to include using it in that country.
4G probably won't be needed but at least from what I can tell, it will probably work?
https://www.frequencycheck.com/countries/colombia
says 2100 and 2600, which the phone supports according to gsmarena.
I went off Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_operato…
which lists 1700MHz LTE for 3 out of 4 carriers, but I would trust your link more.
You could also try https://willmyphonework.net/
Useful in lots of circumstances - the problem is knowing exactly what sub-model of phone you have.
The unlock codes do work!
MORE IMPORTANTLY
You need to make sure the phone is compatible with the region it is to be used.
To do this…
1. Select which carrier you wish to use
2. Check which bands they use
3. Compare with the bands which the phone has
The more bands can be matched, the better
NB The cheap prepaid phones sold in supermarkets are specifically designed to be used only with the carrier so BE CAREFUL!
I've bought plenty of unlock codes off eBay before & never had a problem.