"It is a common practice for cell phone companies to lock cell phones and prevent the consumer from being able to use their newly purchased phone with another network. This allows the cell phone companies to guarantee that the phone sold by that provider is only used with their network service. Changing a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card still does not allow the phone to be used with a
. different network, the phone must be unlocked to do so.There are a few different ways to obtain an access code to unlock a specific phone. If the phone is already a couple years old, the cellular phone provider might be willing to provide an access code to release the phone from being locked into that network. This is often done if traveling, especially overseas, to prevent roaming charges by using a local network. If a cell phone company is unwilling to offer the unlock code, either because the phone is too new, or you are not an established customer, or due to some other reason, the access codes can be downloaded (often for free) off the internet. Be careful with such downloads as this is a perfect invitation for computer hackers. In order to be able to unlock a cell phone, the cell phone's serial number, known as a International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number has to be provided. once attained, the access code should be entered into the phone with the SIM card out, if it is successful, a message will appear stating something to the effect of the restriction being removed."
