Help Will T-mo unlock if I buy full retail?

[ajdroidx]

Just wondered if I strolled into the local t-mobile store (official one), plunked down my hard earned cash all 708.99 + tax on the counter, will they unlock the thing or would they still make me wait what, 6 months!?

The only reason I would do this is so I can have access to the bootloader and AT&Ts network.

 

[LilianTepes]

Here are T-Mobiles unlocking requirements, hope it's of help:
Seems like you have to be active on their network for 40 days.

http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1588

 

[chong67]

$709 + tax. It should be around $750.

I been thinking hard too.

 

[jptsr1]

Yes.

 

[dynomot]

So if you go into an AT&T store and buy a Note 3 outright with no contract it is still SIM locked to AT&T for forty days? Are all phones in the US no matter where you buy them from bought SIM locked?

I'm just trying to get my head around the US market that's all. You have CDMA networks, bizarre (to us in the UK if not EU) contracts and now I learn if you buy a phone outright from a carrier it is locked to them, at least at first.

 

[jhawkkw]

So if you go into an AT&T store and buy a Note 3 outright with no contract it is still SIM locked to AT&T for forty days? Are all phones in the US no matter where you buy them from bought SIM locked?

I'm just trying to get my head around the US market that's all. You have CDMA networks, bizarre (to us in the UK if not EU) contracts and now I learn if you buy a phone outright from a carrier it is locked to them, at least at first.

It really is a strange market here. Buying carrier phones from AT&T & T-Mobile come SIM locked. Though Sprint is a CDMA carrier, they carry many phones that also have GSM radios but are SIM locked as well. Verizon also sells phones with GSM radios as a CDMA carrier, but a majority of their newer devices do actually come SIM unlocked. Some of their older global phones came SIM locked or were sold SIM unlocked with a secondary lock to block AT&T or T-Mobile SIMs only.

There are a couple of exceptions though. The Nexus 4 and LTE Nexus 7 is sold by T-Mobile and the Nexus 5 is currently sold by T-Mobile and Sprint and that comes SIM unlocked. Also, buying any Nexus device or Google Play device on the Google Play store will come SIM unlocked. Sony has also started selling SIM unlocked versions of their phones on their website as well.

 

[dynomot]

Here in the UK all networks (Vodafone, O2, "3", EE) use similar frequencies and are all GSM based. All phones bought outright from any where are unlocked and can be used with any SIM from any of the networks (Tesco use O2, Virgin use Orange, EE or T - mobile, EE are Orange and T - mobile's LTE). If you go get yourself a contract the phone is unlocked (didn't used to be in the past) and usually "free" if the contract is purchased direct from a network the phone usually runs carrier branded firmware, which for all intents and purposes is stock with network added bloat ware. A contract from a third party the phone is stock (usually).

The phone is legally not yours until the contract is up, but keep paying the monthly bill and you can do what you like with it in reality.

Contracts are over 12, 18 or 24 months a typical one for say a Samsung Galaxy S4 would cost around

 

[Joshuah22a]

i can offer my feedback..i went into a Tmobile store and bought the note3 in November.. I paid it off 2 weeks ago.. I called tmo and asked them for my unlock code... they asked me for my imei number and put in a request and Samsung emailed me a day later with my unlock code for when I put in a simcard into the device!

 

[ajdroidx]

I was thinking about doing it "off the radar" via chainfires app but I am kind of wondering if it is going to be worth the headache just so I can have root.

I mean, I had the note 3 from at&t before and it was a damn nice device but it got kicked from my microcell and thus was useless so I returned it. I kind of miss it.