SUMit Roster Software > Nut's > October 2003 > Simlock

Simlock

Monday, 6^rd October 2003

Will my Australian mobile phone work here? It is a question asked by Rob Hendriks. He just arrived in the Netherlands. He just finished his home-cooked Asian breakfast, at a bench close to The Hague central station. Well, I do not know. I'm not an expert on phones.

A mobile phone is a nice example of an object, just like the ones in Object Orientation

identified by number, a kind of core pointer,
which can receive messages,
which are hopefully understood by the receiver.

I do know a phone shop close by. They'll insert a new SIM card into a foreign mobile. And off you go, with an Australian mobile having a Dutch prepaid 06 number.

It works. It keeps amazing me how such a small mobile can be in contact with the whole world. To me the most amazing thins is that such a prepay mobile does not know it's user. A mobile is anonymous, yet has a lot to do with identity. Call a mobile and expect to speak to a person. The SIM card is thus a kind of personal identification.

My own needs replacement. The battery barely lasts a working day. A new battery is much more expensive than a whole new set. Odd that a complete new mobile is the cheapest solution.

It is tricky to find a simple device. Mike Levyssohn (mlict.nl), my respected hardware consultant, recommends a Siemens A50, a simple device, designed to make phone calls. There is a special for a couple of dozen Euros at the Dutch drugstore trekpleister.

It is possible to port my current 06 number, but that seems to cumbersome to me. I hate filling in forms.

If an Australian mobile works with a new Dutch SIM card. then a old Dutch SIM surely works in a new Dutch mobile.

Porting my old SIM card to a new A50 device seems like the easiest solution to maintain my 06 identity.

See Dutch Quote from consumentenbond.nl/... with some jurisprudence about disabling simlocks.

Shit, the mobile fails to work with my old SIM card. It gives a message that the device is locked and asks for a network code.

Grr, a simlock, what a bummer. A phone call to the helpdesk tells me that it costs 200 Euros to remove the simlock in the first year. Odd, as this telcom does welcome other Dutch phone owners with a SIM only subscription.

Grumble, what a setback. The simlock nullifies the value of the new mobile in combination with my current network supplier. It will be also troublesome to insert a foreign SIM card while travelling.

So, what to do? I immediately turn recalcitrant when faced with this kind of linked transactions.

A forced transfer to a new provider goes against my guts, even when I can port my current mobile number.
Return the whole thing back to the shop? No, I won't give up so easily.

Till next nut,
Nut