I have a new unused lg flip phone with sim card from straight talk. It has never been activated in US and I am visiting UK shortly. What do I have to do to get it to wotk in England?
Thanks:(
You’ll need the IMEI number, usually located underneath the battery of a phone. Once you have that, you’ll need to get in touch with Straight Talk customer service and ask them for the unlock code. If they even allow you to unlock the phone, they’ll give it to you with instructions how to properly put it in.
EDIT: And this is even if the phone works on the same frequencies that are used in Europe. If it doesn’t, you’re out of luck.
If it’s a GSM phone, I’d imagine there won’t be a problem with the bands/frequencies, as it will probably be a dual or tri-band handset (can’t check this without the exact model number - ‘LG Flip’ isn’t precise enough).
If it’s a CDMA handset, forget it. Won’t work.
Assuming you can get the handset unlocked for other networks, I’d recommend waiting until you get to the UK and buying a cheap Pay-as-you-go SIM card (available at any supermarket for the price of the credit you put on it) and use that while you’re in the UK. Obviously it will have its own number.
North America GSM, IIRC, uses 850 and 1900MHz, whereas Europe uses 800 and 1800. (It may be a bit more complicated, but that’s the short version).
A relatively new phone like iPhone can use all 4 bands; whereas phones from 5 or 10 years ago may simply use the local pair of bands, back when 4 bands was an expensive extra feature. Look up the documentation for your phone. If it does not do European bands, or at least one of them, it’s useless outside North America.
If it takes a SIM card, odds are pretty good it’s GSM, not CDMA, the original North American cellular technology.
As pointed out, to take an arbitrary SIM, it needs to be unlocked. A locked phone will only accept SIMs from the carrier that sold it. If it’s not an iPhone, odds are there’s a service that will unlock it if the carrier won’t. If you know which carrier it is supposed to be used for (who sold it originally?) then test unlock by borrowing and putting in an active SIM from a competitor for a few minutes and see if it accepts it and you can make a call.
The other option for getting it unlocked (subject to it being band compatible with UK networks) is to wait until you’re in the UK and get it unlocked in an independent phone accessory shop, or at a market stall or trader stall in a shopping centre. This sounds frighteningly dodgy, but it’s cheap and fairly safe.