Locking a phone

mxfun

mxfun

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Probably a silly question but here goes .... Can a mobile phone be locked by .. ie (vodafone,02, orange ) whilst there's no sim card in the phone ,i would go into details ,but it's a long story . Lets just say there's been a difference of opinions and i don't like losing :D:p
 
mxfun said:
Probably a silly question but here goes .... Can a mobile phone be locked by .. ie (vodafone,02, orange ) whilst there's no sim card in the phone ,i would go into details ,but it's a long story . Lets just say there's been a difference of opinions and i don't like losing :D:p
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As far as I know mobile phones can be blocked by the mobile companies if they have been stolen, for any other reason I don`t know.
 
I can't see how they could possibly lock a phone with no SIM card in it :shrug:

Without the SIM card in there's no way anybody can communicate with the device.

Someone shoot me down in flames if I'm wrong :p
 
Grendel said:
I can't see how they could possibly lock a phone with no SIM card in it :shrug:

Without the SIM card in there's no way anybody can communicate with the device.

Someone shoot me down in flames if I'm wrong :p
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You cant 'Lock' the physical phone but you can deny that phone access to the phone network (all providers) regardless of the sim card fitted to the phone
 
I think they lock a phone via the IMEI Number, yeah the sim can be deactivated, but the phone can be also LOCKED via this method.....I believe.
 
The mobile companies share IMEI numbers of stolen phones, once on the list the phone will not work on any network.
I have never heard of IMEI's being blocked by a single network though, really it'd be counter productive for them to make the phone unusable on their own network in this way.
 
They cannot block the phone without a sim card in, but as previously stated if a phone is reported stolen all the phone companies share the stolen IMEI numbers and block any network connecting to them via that IMEI number.

So technically it's still unlocked untill a sim card is put in it.
Also I dont know if you know if u take the phone abroad, it can be used on non-UK sim cards as they dont share IMEI numbers with companies outside of their country.
 
As someone who works in engineering for a mobile phone company...

No. A phone cannot be locked whilst there is no SIM in it.

There is a central register of all the EIN (Equipment Identity Number) numbers (it'll be printed on a label close to the battery compartment) of phones that have been reported stolen or that have been blacklisted for whatever reason. It's updated by various network customer care people as phones are stolen, lost or whatever.

When you try and register on a network (O2, Skodafone, Orange etc) then the first registration message checks your handset's EIN against that database. If that EIN is "black listed" then the phone won't register on that network. it's likely that it won't register on any UK network (and probably EU too, but I'm not sure if that functionality is available to all networks or just some)

I am not a handset expert, but I doubt whether there is also a function to somehow disable the handset. It'll simply not allow you to register on that network, and hence make (and receive) no calls/data/SMS/MMS apart from calls to 999 (which don't require a SIM anyway).

Essentially, you're left with a camera/mp3 player that makes an average use calculator.

-H
 
Harlequin565 said:
Essentially, you're left with a camera/mp3 player that makes an average use calculator.

-H
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And a phone that can be used abroad which where a lot of stolen phones
end up via Ebay.
 
Having had this issue kind of.

My phone was being pranked 24/7 so I switched SIM card from an old phone. But the SIM was inactive.. leaving me with everything on the phone, but being unable to contact anyone or be contacted.

In layman terms, the SIM can be inactive and you can have full use of the phone other than the phone side of it. But thats it.
 
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