OT: Unrestricting a restricted phone

[Steve]

Posted this to uk.telecom.mobile yesterday but it's a bit quiet in there and this is rather urgent.

Wife has an old Nokia 6136 that's currently on Asda PAYG, who are in the process of moving from Voda to EE. She wants to stay with Asda so we sent for a new SIM for the new network and followed the instructions to keep her own number. The instructions take you through a process of obtaining a unique 16-digit number.

When new SIM arrives (which it did today), the instructions say to insert it in handset, turn on the device, then text VOUCHER#(16-digit number) to 2732, which initiates the process of porting your existing number to the new SIM and it can take up to five working days.

Unfortunately, after inserting the new SIM and turning on the handset, a message immediately comes onscreen saying "Phone restricted" and it only allows you to do one of two things - either power down or press the button to "Undo". Pressing the "Undo" button then brings up a screen to input the "Restriction Code".

The phone is definitely already 'network unlocked' because it used to be on BT Fusion a long time ago and we had the phones unlocked when we left Fusion and went on Asda PAYG. She's been using it throughout the day, the last time probably only about five minutes before I swapped SIMs, so I'm at a complete loss to understand what's going on.

How do we "Unrestrict" a phone that shouldn't be "Restricted" in the first place? And what does "Restricted" mean anyway?

Thanks

[Andrew Gabriel]

Many phones can be configured to request the phone's security code when a SIM they haven't seen before is inserted (or sometimes on any change of SIM). Nokia used to supply this in the box on a piece of yellow paper with a peel-off backing. This is not the SIM code, but specific to the phone. I don't know if this is what it is asking for, as my recollection is that the question was more specific, but it might be worth a go.

[Steve]

Andrew Gabriel formulated on Friday :

Thanks for the info Andrew. Unfortunately, it may well be 'worth a go' but the phone must be about eight years old, possibly even older, and all boxes/papers to do with it will have been chucked out long ago. We keep boxes for the 12 month warranty period, possibly longer if we think we may sell an item, but certainly not as long as we've had this phone.

Anything else I can do to find out what 'code' it wants or bypass it somehow?

[John Williamson]

Your current network provider may be able to provide you with the unlock code.

Or:-

mastercode.nokiafree.org/

Claims to be able to generate an unlock code from the IMEI number. I've not used it, so no guarantees. It may even brick your phone for all I know.

[John Williamson]

unlock.nokiafree.org/

The homepage of the site I linked to just now. It's got a nicer interface.

[Steve]

Thanks John - I'll give it a try because to all intents and purposes, it's bricked now anyway. Thing is though, it's already network unlocked

- used to be on BT Fusion contract and was unlocked to go on Asda PAYG, so if that site is just a network unlocker I don't think it'll work. But hey, nowt to lose, so thanks for the suggestion and I'll let you know if it works.

[John Williamson]

It seems to generate what is known as the PUK, or Phone Unlock Code, which should remove all restrictions.

[Steve]

Oh well that was quick, they don't list a 6136 anyway :'(

[Andy Burns]

I'd be pretty wary about giving your IMEI out (at all, but especially to an untrusted site) the phone could end up being cloned, and a large bill rung up to your account ...

[Mathew Newton]

Whilst an IMEI could be used by someone for nefarious means it could not in any way affect the billing of your account.

The reason for this is that the IMEI only identifies the handset, whereas billing is tied solely to the SIM and identified by its IMSI.

Mathew

[Andy Burns]

Duh! you're right. I suppose the phone could get blacklisted if the network sees it's been cloned, but given it's not usable at the moment anyway, not much to lose.

[Steve]

And not much to lose anyway really, as it's PAYG and a £10 top up lasts her about 4 months - the most they'd get away with is a tenner.

But it's all academic at the moment as none of these unlocking things (either live website or downloaded programs) are actually helping.

[airsmoothed]

This does indeed sound like someone has enabled the security lock - page 68 or thereabouts of the user manual here:-

so that the security code is demanded on SIM change. Maybe worth guessing t he code, IIRC defaults were 0000 or 1234 or possibly 00000 or 12345. Nowt t o do with PUK codes or operator lock-ins.

[Steve]

Thanks, I'll give it a try later on :-)