Hie There Everyone !!!
So this question is about cellphone companies and 3rd party companies being able to lock/unlock a cellphone to/from a particular network. My question is how do they do it especially/given that the mobile handset is located in a particular country ?? Also given that a phone is Network locked, what exactly is locked ?? Is it the firmware or it's software that basically prevents you from using another SIM Card ?? Is there any hardware available to unlock your mobile device on your own and at what cost ??
Thanks Very Much, I hope I made myself clear in this question.
Locking a phone on a particular network is up to recently a matter of sim locking the phone. This means the firmware does a test on startup is the inserted sim belongs to a specific operator. Most of the time there is an official procedure to unlock the phone you can ask to your operator if yous had been a subscriber "long enough". The ere are also unofficial procedures which can be applied if you have the right software you have to buy. In Africa it's a real business people do in the street.
Some spartphone vendors can also lock their phones is they have specific commercial agreements with the operator. They do it on their centralized servers. Unlocking in this case is tricky, or even impossible.