[Galaxy Note 3 General] wfire:
Notes on unlocking the USA Variants

So just a few clarifications here for people planning to buy the USA variants of the Note.

At least here in California, it is NOT the case that AT&T will unlock your phone for you if you pay full retail/unsubsidized price. The AT&T stores do not have access to the unlock codes. In order to get an unlock code from AT&T, you have to meet a number of requirements. You can read them all here http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB414532&cv=820 but for most of you from overseas you will not be an existing customer (which AT&T calls "Postpaid"), and so therefore you fall under the prepaid requirements which state "in addition to the general eligibility requirements, your device must have been active for at least six months."

T-Mobile (my carrier of choice) is much less draconian, but still not perfect. As documented here http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1588 , your device must be active for at least 40 days.

By active, both companies mean that your phone has been prepaid for, and in use for, at least the listed length of time, before you can unlock it through them. In no case anywhere in the US can you walk in to a store, pay full-retail (or full-unsubsidized, or anything like that) and walk out with an unlocked phone. I've tried it myself, it does not work that way.

As a T-Mobile customer, I wanted to buy a Note 3, unlock it, and then go use it during a trip to Canada on Wind Mobile's AWS network for a week. No-go. Despite the fact that I have been a T-Mobile postpaid customer for over 3 years, I have 7 lines (5 voice, 2 data) on my account plus another prepaid line separate to that, there is NO WAY T-Mobile will give me the unlock code for my Note 3 unless I actually put a SIM in it and use it for 40 days (or, at least, wait 40 days from first network use.) They were very nice about it, but very clear that that is their policy.

So please don't hang your hopes on coming here and buying a US phone and walking out with it unlocked - it is not going to work out that way for you. You can and should buy from T-Mobile, but be prepared to buy a prepaid SIM, put 2 months of service on it (cheap), and wait 40 days. Then they'll give you the code. (Or use puman or cellunlocker, on your own.)

On a separate note, with regards to Samsung's policy, it seems to me now that what many people are reporting here is leading to the following hypothesis:

(Hypothesis-Opinion) SIM-FREE phones are not SIM-FREE, but REGION-FREE. Or, viewed from the other direction, they are in fact SIM LOCKED... but to a wide variety of carriers in a predefined region. I don't think the activation sequence matters one bit. I think these phones work with any SIM from any carrier in that region, but you cannot go out-of-region regardless of your activation sequence... unless you buy an unlock code. In other words, all these European phones are in fact SIM locked, but just to a very wide scope of (European) SIMs. Once you buy an unlock code, it seems to me that the European locks are fully removed, and you can go global.

The absence of the U.S. from the CSC blacklist to me is irrelevant because the U.S. is in a separate region. I'm guessing that all of those blacklisted countries are in fact in the same "larger" region (as defined by Samsung) allowing them to further refine what "region" means to them. But I do not think the CSC blacklist is exhaustive. Again, this is just my opinion, based only on what we've seen reported so far.(/Hypothesis-Opinion)

In contrast, here in the U.S., all phones are SIM locked to a specific carrier. If I buy a T-Mobile Note 3, I can NOT use it on AT&T, period, unless I buy an unlock code, in which case my phone would be unlocked globally and I can go anywhere. That is per the carriers here. I simply think that European phone are always already locked to a regional group of carriers, whereas US phones are known to be locked to a specific carrier. Unlocking a US phone releases everything, and I would guess that what we're seeing here is that unlocking a Euopean phone also is the only way to release everything.

Anyway, I put in an inquiry to my provider of choice, cellunlocker.net, and they stated that they are aware of the situation, but have not tested yet, and asked me to check back in 2 weeks, which I will do.

Hope this helps...