Unlocking phones and sending to Phill

[andypaul]

I found out recently that you can ask for any phones which are locked to vodafone and the contract is up ie 12 or 18 months. You can request the NUC code for free otherwise you have to pay 20 pounds if still in contract.

We have found that we have in the region of 6 phones just hanging around doing nothing at home. Once we have unlocked them we are hoping to take them to phill when we fly over soon.

I read that there was a 1000 peso charge on importing phones, i think i saw it on one of the phill parcel companies websites.

Does anyone know anymore on this as if its just ten pounds payment its no problem as its cheaper than buying one phone for a realtive while out there.

As we will be taking our own phones i don't think we can get away with stuffing that amount of phones at the bottom of hand luggae nowdays im sure someone will ask what we are doing with them knowing our luck.

[baboyako]

well they don't xray you bag when you go into the phil so I doubt they enforce it.
I usually carry 3 phones.. 6 is a lot if you get questioned - I'd bet you'd be ok with four.

BTW there are plenty of free tools (online or a download) that will unlock your phone for free I have used this http://unlock.nokiafree.org/ to unlock my nokia :sport-smiley-003: thus saving 5quid.

[andypaul]

well they don't xray you bag when you go into the phil so I doubt they enforce it.
I usually carry 3 phones.. 6 is a lot if you get questioned - I'd bet you'd be ok with four.

BTW there are plenty of free tools (online or a download) that will unlock your phone for free I have used this http://unlock.nokiafree.org/ to unlock my nokia :sport-smiley-003: thus saving 5quid.

Yeah we are planing to say ones our uk private number, 2nd voda business, 3rd our smart sim phone and 4th our globe sim phone that four each!!!

We also won't be taking a digtal camera the quality of the phones is good enough for us and you can always buy a cheap disposable camera while there.

[walesrob]

Slightly off topic, but related, seems that Vodafone Pay as You Go now work all over the world, including Hong Kong and the Philippines, whereas Orange don't allow such a thing. I believe O2 and T-Mobile also allow Pay As You Go roaming worldwide.

[andypaul]

Slightly off topic, but related, seems that Vodafone Pay as You Go now work all over the world, including Hong Kong and the Philippines, whereas Orange don't allow such a thing. I believe O2 and T-Mobile also allow Pay As You Go roaming worldwide.

Well we have some test phones if you want us to find out?

Its a shame 3 don't have a sister company in phill as they now allow you to use the mintues you have on a contract in the other country. Also they have made the charges for connecting a call much lower. We are looking at using it for when we have to call italy which also has 3.

Hong kong is where the parent company is based and is one of the countries where the calls are very cheap it seems so might be worth looking at Rob.

[walesrob]

Well we have some test phones if you want us to find out?

Its a shame 3 don't have a sister company in phill as they now allow you to use the mintues you have on a contract in the other country. Also they have made the charges for connecting a call much lower. We are looking at using it for when we have to call italy which also has 3.

Hong kong is where the parent company is based and is one of the countries where the calls are very cheap it seems so might be worth looking at Rob.

If you could find out yeah, that would be great Andy. I just done some more digging, and call charges per minute call PAYG from Phils to UK are:

Vodafone £1.69 /Text 49p
02 - 99p for landlines and 02 phones, £1.49 for other UK mobile networks
TMob - £1.40 / Text 40p
Orange - not a chance, only Europe dear boy.

I'd imagine Virgin and BT Mobile will have same prices as TMobile as these use TMob's infrastructure.

I'm always weary about taking a contract mobile abroad - its easy to run up big bills, and if its lost or stolen, think of the hassle, especially in a remote part of the Philippines.

I did have a SmarTone Hong Kong simcard which was indeed very cheap and had international roaming as standard, but problem is it expires if you don't top up within 180 days, unlike UK networks. If I was travelling East more often, I would certainly get another HK mobile number.

[andypaul]

From what i read on 3 pricelist on its website, its "like home networks" on both contract and payg claims 20 p on a mobile from hongkong and 10 p for messages from hong kong to the uk.

We intrested in using this service as i say for calls between uk and italy so was intrested if anyone knew anymore about this? Ie does it do what it says on the tin or are there a few pitfalls?

[baboyako]

three is a pretty big network in HK. you can pick up a 3network pay&go sim for about 15hkd, and the 100hkd (7quid) top up cards probably work out cheaper than using your uk phone.

one of the odd things I find is that it is cheaper to roam abroad, than call from the uk..

e.g. call phil from here its 1.20/min. call from spain & its 80p/min.

of course I always use the cheapdial number in the uk . but i rememeber running up about 10quid just listening to my voice mail in the singading

[andypaul]

three is a pretty big network in HK. you can pick up a 3network pay&go sim for about 15hkd, and the 100hkd (7quid) top up cards probably work out cheaper than using your uk phone.

one of the odd things I find is that it is cheaper to roam abroad, than call from the uk..

e.g. call phil from here its 1.20/min. call from spain & its 80p/min.

of course I always use the cheapdial number in the uk . but i rememeber running up about 10quid just listening to my voice mail in the singading

Sounds useful the 3 sim might be handy if we get delayed in Hong kong like i did one time spend more than the figures quoted listening to voice maill, messages and calls alone.

[scotsfiancee]

I have Nokia 6280 contract with 3 Network, i tried to go all of the fone shops here to unlock but they can't do as they don't have the codes and programs for it and only 3 can do. So i phone them up and ask how much it would gonna cost me since its still 8 months and they will charge me for £115.

3 - £115 within first 12 months of contract; £15 after 12 months


Am not going to pay that , so i will just wait till July then