Locked phone and Intl roaming

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Locked phone and Intl roaming

old3eyes

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#175516 2-Jul-2015 12:32

I have a friend that who against my advice bought an elcheapo Samsung candy bar from Spark earlier this year that because of it's low price is SIM locked. Yesterday while at Manukau Mall went to the Spark store and asked about roaming and was told that her phone would not work overseas.. Now she's worried. My understanding is that SIM lock just means you can't put a non Spark SIM into it and will not stop you from roaming when overseas..

Correct??

TIA.

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Old3eyes

Behodar

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#1335701 2-Jul-2015 12:49

I believe that you're correct.

littleheaven

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#1335735 2-Jul-2015 13:48

The only reason I can think of that the phone wouldn't roam is that either it's not operating on the same frequencies as the country the person is visiting, or that Spark don't have a partner carrier over there. Otherwise, being SIM locked should only restrict the person to using Spark services with that device, AFAIK.

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old3eyes

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#1335743 2-Jul-2015 14:00

littleheaven: The only reason I can think of that the phone wouldn't roam is that either it's not operating on the same frequencies as the country the person is visiting, or that Spark don't have a partner carrier over there. Otherwise, being SIM locked should only restrict the person to using Spark services with that device, AFAIK.

Thanx. frequencies should be an issue because it will fall back to GSM in the worse case is the 3G band is not available.. She's going on a cruse around Europe..

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Old3eyes

joff_nz

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#1335969 2-Jul-2015 17:27

That is assuming your friend does not think that roaming = swapping local sims in and out.

old3eyes

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#1336016 2-Jul-2015 18:42

joff_nz: That is assuming your friend does not think that roaming = swapping local sims in and out.

No . She not that techo that's why she bought a cheap candy bar..

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Old3eyes

firefuze

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#1336035 2-Jul-2015 19:58

It will be SIM locked to Spark, If she has been using it for at least 9 months she can get Spark to unlock it for free. Or if using it less than 9 Months then she can pay $30 to have it unlocked early.

But if she plans on using her Spark SIM & phone overseas she will have no issue, locked or unlocked.