Galaxy S9 region lock

[Hazratali]

I brought my S9 plus from saudi arabia. And next day I came to bangladesh. After opening the box, I saw it's written sim card only of middle east and africa. I checked google for solutions and I saw everyone is saying to have a voice call for 5 minutes. But I am already in Bangladesh. Help me.

[MasukaH · Accepted solution]

Hey @Hazratali! All our current Samsung phones come with a regional lock, to undo this you must make or receive a five minute a phone call in the country where the phone was purchased, in this case Saudia Arabia. After doing so, you'll be able to use your phone with another SIM card in any other region. Hope this helps. :womanhappy:

[SithLord]

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@MasukaH wrote:

Hey @Hazratali! All our current Samsung phones come with a regional lock, to undo this you must make or receive a five minute a phone call in the country where the phone was purchased, in this case Bangladesh. After doing so, you'll be able to use your phone with another SIM card in any other region. Hope this helps. :womanhappy:

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Would it work if the user bought a prepay SIM online from the original country and made a call whilst "roaming" in his current location?

[CarlH]

That wouldn't work, @SithLord. The method @MasukaH mentioned is the only way. 

[Damienw1]

Surely the call would need to be made in Saudi Arabia? Why has the Samsung rep advised Bangladesh?

Cant see why that’s been marked as a solution 

[AntS]

Good spot there @Damienw1! Thanks! :robothappy:

As the rest of it was fine I've edited the original post to correct that detail.

[Anonymous User]

Will the trick work if i factory reset the device after the 5 minuite call?

[apv]

Hi MasukaH. I bought a (sim lock free) S9+ in the Netherlands and read this thread before bringing it with me to Colombia. I made two 6-minute phone calls whiles in the Netherlands, using a sim card from a Dutch provider. Theoretically, this should have removed the region lock, correct? However, once I put in my Colombian sim card it did not accept the code. Now I have the message "SIM network PIN blocked. Enter SIM network PUK". Is this because the region lock was never removed? I am in Colombia now: how can I remove the region lock ? Would it work to use a European sim card and receive a call from Europe? Or how do I get the requested sim network PUK? Or an NCK or MCK code? FYI, my Colombian sim card itself is not blocked because it still works in my old S6. Please help! Thanks in advance.

[Ablat]

I'm afraid like me you can't do anything about it. The only solution apparently is to fly back to the Netherlands and use it for "20 mins" I was told by a Samsung Advisor and then return to Columbia. I would have to fly back to the UK from Georgia to unlock mine. Crazy? absolutely!

[apv]

As it turned out my phone was not region locked as I had made 12 minutes worth of calls while in the Netherlands, using a local sim card. However, I was told by Samsung that they have region unlock codes for such cases. You would simply have to request such code from Samsung in the country where you bought the phone.

See also the following thread on XDA for an alternative solution: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s9-plus/help/help-sim-phone-outside-europe-t3780157.

My problem was different and had to do with the message "SIM network PIN blocked. Enter SIM network PUK", see https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S9-S9/S9-region-lock-SIM-network-PIN-blocked/m-p/617160/h...).