Irish Phone companies and locking?

jogdish

Hello,
Do any of the irish phone companies ( O2, vodafone, meteor, emobile, Three, tesco ) lock their pre pay phones.?
I intend to buy one here and use my UK sim while i'm in the UK ( its an O2 uk bill pay SIM )
Basically i am looking to pick up a pre pay phone in ireland that I can pop my uk SIM into.

Thanks:

cookie1977

jogdish wrote: »

Hello,
Do any of the irish phone companies ( O2, vodafone, meteor, emobile, Three, tesco ) lock their pre pay phones.?
I intend to buy one here and use my UK sim while i'm in the UK ( its an O2 uk bill pay SIM )
Basically i am looking to pick up a pre pay phone in ireland that I can pop my uk SIM into.

Thanks:

They pretty much all lock their pre pay phones. They usually unlock them if you've spent enough credit on them. As a guide, around 150 euro In credit.

kirving

They lock pretty much all their phones, yes.

In certain circumstances, people who buy a newly released phone get away without it being locked as the network are just tryint to release the handset as soon as possible.

If you spen a certain amount(depends ont he price of the handset) on credit however, you'll be given the code on request.

Ha, beaten to it by pretty much the exact same first line!

JohnDigital

All do lock them, pretty exceptional to manage to find one unlocked at time of purchase. Unlocking is easy and relatively cheap though.

Redshift

They all lock their prepay phones. You can usually pick up a basic sim free phone for fairly small money anyway.

Example: http://www.carphonewarehouse.ie/category/SIM-Free%20Phone%20Listings/1.8

jogdish

Ok lets say i pick up an irish O2 pre-pay, will that work with a UK O2 bill pay SIM?

cookie1977

I've heard of people bringing O2uk phones back to Ireland and they work with Irish O2 Sims. I haven't heard of it working the other way. It's a gamble.

ardmacha

Ok lets say i pick up an irish O2 pre-pay, will that work with a UK O2 bill pay SIM?

If it is unlocked it will work, if not it won't. It is very unlikely to be unlocked unless you unlock it.

Kristopherus

Tesco do a range of sim-free phones, as distinct from their regular range.