It’s cheaper to purchase a phone on contract as it typically comes with subsidies. However the downside is that you will be locked to that carrier even after the contract had ended, unless of course you unlock your device.
If you do have a locked handset and you want to go ahead and unlock it you can thanks to a code that has been going around, which is free to use and which is said to unlock quite a few Samsung handsets.
1. At the dial pad, key in *#197328640#.
2. This will prompt a message.
3. Go to your main menu > [1] UMTS > [1] Debug Screen > [8] Phone Control > [6] Network Lock > Options [3] Perso SHA256 OFF.
4. Select ‘back;’ after leaving the device idle for a minimum of a minute.
5. There will be the network lock prompt.
6. Choose [4] NW Lock NV Data INITIALLIZ.
The number sequence should be like this: Asterisk Pound One Nine Seven Three Two Eight Six Four Zero Pound
Of course now that news of the code is out there is nothing to say that it will get blocked, so we have no idea how much longer the code is going to last.
