What is unlocking?

Phones are generally sold by a wireless carrier for much less than their actual retail value. The wireless carrier often subsidizes the cost of the phone with the expectation that they can recover more than this amount throughout the subscriber's contract. They will try to make sure that the phone can only be used on their particular network, and thus, locks the phone's software to their wireless network.

e.g. T-mobile supplied phones only work on T-mobile wireless networks.

Unlocking means clearing the phone's software setting so that the phone can be used on any network.

What is flashing?

Every mobile phone uses software that is programmed into the phone by its manufacturer. It is usually refereed to as firmware. Just like anything in this world it's not perfect and is followed by other releases that improve or add certain features or fix software bugs found in previous versions.
The process of changing main phone's software is called flashing. Besides that by flashing you can change phone's supported languages, its appearance, remove provider's branding and even convert your handset into another model with more features and improved functionality.

e.g. Sony Ericsson V800->Z800, K750->W800 conversion

Why unlock a phone?

Unlocking increases the resale value of your phone as it's not bound to a particular carrier any more.

Unlocked phone is convenient to travel with, it can work with almost any ¹ provider in the world - just swap the SIM cards. Often, a subscriber can benefit from purchasing a prepaid SIM in the visiting country/region as it might be less expensive than international roaming, if applicable.

Unlocking is absolutely legal and safe for your phone and doesn't void its warranty.

Wireless providers charge from 40 to 100 Dollars for this procedure.

¹ The carrier you are switching to must support phone's operational frequencies.

How to unlock?

We offer several types of unlocking for our customers

Ship-in unlocking
You send your phone to us, we unlock it and send it back within 1 to 3 days. We use insured mail so that to guarantee the speedy and safe return of your handset. Express handling is also available, in that case the phone is processed and shipped back by express mail on the same day we receive it from you.

Currently we offer ship-in service for almost any phone such as Siemens, Samsung, Motorola, LG, NEC, Nokia, Sendo, Mitsubishi, Alcatel, Toshiba, etc.
Note that we CAN unlock hardlocked Nokia phones after 5 wrong unlock attempts ("CAN NOT UNDO RESTRICTIONS" message).
Often we can upgrade phone's firmware, decustomise it (remove provider's branding) or perform other repair tasks with no charge to you. Email us to see if your model is supported.

Remote unlocking
Available for selected models. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, some models of NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Philips can qualify for remote unlocking.

Self unlocking
A variety of cables and unlocking equipment is available at our store. In many cases free unlocking software is provided along with these items.