Galaxy S8 Sim region lock

[rajkmohan]

Hi, 

I am staying in Switzerland. I am planning to buy S8 for my wife. But I came to know that S8 which I buy in Swiss will work only with European sim alone. but my wife will be travelling back to India in a some time so she need to use with indian Sim also. can someone sugges an option to buy S8 in switzerland that can work with any sim irrespective of region or suggest me options to overcoem this problem. 

[KevYou]

why would there be high costs? you are calling a local number at a local rate using a forign sim, no roaming involved, just local call rate.

And yes, that is the only thing that actually managed to 'activate' the sim free status for me.

[Rew]

But SIM card is German, using a Turkish GSM provider to provide calls in Turkey. Turkish GSM provider charges German provider for the service, and German provider will reflect it on customer. As far as I know it has additional costs (It definitely has if you're using Turkish SIM Card in Germany calling a German number, not so sure for German Cards in Turkey).

However, as it is the only option I got until now, so I will try it tonight. Thank you very much for the tip. Hopefully it will solve the situation.

[Rew]

In another related topic I found the information from a modoerator, that the call has to be made from the country of purchase:

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S9-S9/Galaxy-S9-region-lock/m-p/531869#M3089

That I already did, and it didn't work.

Hopefully call from Turkey will unlock it.

[Rew]

Short update:

As stated before, I already tried the official statement of Samsung, "phoning 5 minutes call with valid card to unlock", it it did not work.

Samsung Turkey does not care or give any support, just say "I don' t care, not our problem"

Here, official moderator responses were also only pointing out the same rule, what the box said,:"5 minute call with EU sim card". Well, it did not work. I'm aware that they also have limited power to assist, but perhaps an escalation or directing me on another channel could be possible.

To try again from my country I tried and found out my Sim Card was not useable in my country, I'm searching for alternative SIM cards.

I am clearly upset of paying for a phone that I still cannot use, and definitely very disappointed with current level of assistance I tried to get from various channels/contacts. If what a manufacturer officially says does not work, It's something a manufacturer should attend to. Still, a problem can always happen, but I hoped for a better customer service and experience, obviously.  😞

Anyway, thanks to everyone, who tried to help me.

[Madf]

I quote: "using a SIM from the same regional origin as the phone for at least 5 minutes of total talk time will disable the regional lock and allow you to use a SIM from any other region from then on".

I live in Spain and my question is; If I buy an S8 plus from the USA (Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus 64GB - Verizon + GSM Factory Unlocked 4G LTE - Midnight Black (Certified Refurbished)), where do I have to make the 5 min. call,  in the USA before they send the phone or when I get it in Spain?

Thanks.

[Rew]

Hello, just a quick update on my situation: the problem is solved.

I don't know in which part it was already solved, so I will tell the whole part.

As I have written, I bought S8 from EU, used a EU sim card, done about 1 hour talking in total via the card (all above 5 minutes) and when I returned home, I was surprised to see that the sim lock was still there.

Last week I had another trip to EU. I used the EU sim card again. My phone was turned on with this EU card for about 4-5 days. I used two different EU sim cards, called multiple EU phone nummers, texted repeatedly with one, used wifi. I used my phone very actively in 3 different cities. When I returned home, I still kept the EU sim card in the phone until I recieved the "pricing in use abroad" texts from my EU operator in order to ensure the "abroad use" to be registered in phone as well. Afterwards I changed to may regional sim card, and ta-daaa there was no sim lock anymore. So anywhere inbetween the lock went off. 

Long story short:

- 5 minutes call is not a guarantee to unlock the phone, official statement is not true

- However do not give up when it doesn't. As seen in my case, it may unlock eventually at least in a few days.

- If you're not lucky to have a chance to use your phone for a few days, you may be in trouble.

- To unlock the phone you have to use the phone actively, well above the limit given by Samsung.

I hope it helps to other customers as well.

[Anrrew]

Hi.

I bought s8 from spain, sim lock but then unlock via 5min call. So now it's working here in Philippines, but then i wanted to factory reset my s8. Is it going to be simlock again after resetting?

Thanks.

[Paddie37]

If I buy Samsung s10 simfree from Carphone Warehouse, it says  on there site...

“SIM free phones are sold without any SIM card or network attached to them. Normally, people buy the phone and then choose a SIM only deal for their calls and data. All of our SIM free phones come unlocked, so you can choose whichever network you like – while Samsung Galaxy phones have to be used in the UK. “

So does this mean if I go abroad for example to Europe and. using my 3 uk network sim still in the phone will it not won’t work? 

[mashallen]

Thanks for the suggestions, I just helped my folks sort their issue out. They travelled to Japan from the uk and got local sims no problem then went onto Australia and had the locked phone problem. I get the impression that as long as you have your home sim in when you arrive in another country and get the text about how much it will cost to call and text etc and then insert a local sim you'll be ok. But to be safe i got them to put their home sim in, turn on mobile data and roaming, they got the text about costs and then I got them to call me in the UK about for 10 mins and we did a few texts back and forth and they did a little web browsing. Left it half an hour and put the local sim in and voila, sorted.

[Kurteduard]

I sent my Regional locked Note 9 back to the vendor and bought an IPhone, Iphone don’t do BS like Samsung does to avoid warranty coverage when using you phone internationally.