Nordy Mobile phones..

Max Headroom

Just back from Newry..looking to get wifey a new phone but O2 are out of stock...was wondering if i bought one up the north (half the price btw) will it work down here..??

Xzen

Max Headroom wrote: »

if i bought one up the north (half the price btw) will it work down here..??

Yes, any physical phone itself bought anywhere in Europe will work pretty much anywhere else in Europe. NI and the UK use the same phone frequencies we do in the republic

However, network locks are a different story. If you're buying a phone that's SIM locked (like most pre-pay phones), it will only work on that network in that country - until it's unlocked at least.

* If you're buying a pre-pay UK O2, you'll need to unlock it to use an Irish O2 SIM. Usually you can pay O2 a fee and they'll unlock it for you, or you can take it to a third-party unlock shop to have it done.

* If you're planning on buying a bill pay on O2 UK, you need to have a UK/NI address, so that's probably not going to work out for you.

Solair

In short, no.

While the networks may have the same logo, brand name and parent companies in the cases of Vodafone, O2, 3 and Tesco Mobile and use exactly the same technology, they are actually totally separate entities.

You'll have as much luck getting a Vodafone phone from NI to work on Vodafone in the Republic of Ireland as you would Vodafone España.

If you're buying a phone that is not SIM locked, as pointed out above, they're the same all over Europe (and in quite a few other places too).

So, a UK phone, an Irish phone, a French phone, a German phone etc are all identical other than which language they're set to and the charger adaptor has different pins on the continent

The prices of the phones vary because of the amount of subsidy the mobile network is putting into it.
The subsidy for pre-pay phones in the Republic of Ireland is quite low, but it can vary depending on the network and what offers they're running. Same in the UK. It varies enormously from time to time.

Getting your phone unlocked and porting networks in the UK is also MUCH more of a pain than it is in the Republic, where on prepay the whole process takes a few seconds!

Max Headroom

Tanx for the swift replies lads.....lookin at one on adverts at the moment..its b/n and unlocked..is this ok to get and just put the o2 sim into..i'm a numpty on this sort of thing..soz...:o

tallaghtmick

Check in shop,last time I was in Newry the salesman told me that all phones where unlocked to work in the South.

moonshadow

What phone is it?

dudara

Moved to Mobiles & PDAs

dudara