yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Peter Unger:
Just read in a German Blog:

The restriction is really only for a first initial registration - afterwards, the phone may use any SIM. Johannes had a call to Samsung Germany and this was the statement.

Tomorrow Samsung will have an official statement on this topic.

Here is the source:

http://www.newgadgets.de/61475/hat-das-samsung-galaxy-note-3-ein-sim-lock/

Maybe someone can test the following: Setting up the phone with the "correct" SIM with registering the phone at Samsung and afterwards trying to use the phone with the "foreign" SIM. This should work if Samsung talks no rubbish ;)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] coolfreebies:
My message from Samsung UK:

Thank you for contacting Samsung Customer Support.

Please note we do not lock any of our devices to any particular network. Some service providers may lock handsets to their own network, in order to ensure continued usage with them during the length of a user contract for example, which means only the service provider will have any unlock code for the handset.

You will need to contact the original service provider or retailer for Samsung handset to request an unlock code. This is not something that Samsung can do on your behalf.

The UK does not have any laws governing SIM locking, however some service providers may allow you to unlock the handset for a small charge, or for free, whereas others may not allow the handset to be unlocked at all.

Emmmm...

coolfreebies
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Hey OP , could you add [OUTRAGEOUS] to the thread's title?

Otherwise, I will start another thread about it , just to emphasize, what I think it's a SHAME !

I live in Holland but I travel a lot to Brazil, where I have family and many friends, so I always get a local SIM card and that's one of the advantages of having a simlock free device.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] artesea:
This has already been covered over and over again in this thread. Despite someone from Samsung claiming it will "unlock" after using an EU SIM, users are still finding the phone locked out to their Russian ones.

At the moment I'm pretty sure the only way to use a Russian SIM in an EU phone, would be to do a full flash and wipe of the the phone with a Russian ROM through ODIN (which is what the other statement from Samsung appears to be suggesting that a service centre might do).
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
I didn't read all the posts here, and I sincerely hope you are right.

Anyhow, Samsung have not enough , pissing off dev. communities, but now also the general public, those that don't even know what things like mod roms and "root" , are.

Way to go Samsung...
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lucfeenstra:
They're absolutely clueless aren't they..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] grifter9931:
I am of the belief that this is a practice that is backed per the

Telecommunications companies in order to drive profits on thier end..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] seowphm:
Any ideas whether Asian Note 3's (Hong Kong or Singapore) have this SIM lock thingy?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lucfeenstra:
Apparently not.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] M_M_F:
did anyone try these guys:

unlockunit.com/blog/how-to-unlock-samsung-galaxy-note-3-using-unlock-codes

and this one:

puman.ru/imei/productsandservices

1)Samsung Galaxy Europe ALL ( 2-24h )

2)ATT SAMSUNG i997 / i727/ i777 / Note / Note 2 /Note 3 /S4/ ETC

did anyone try them, are they legit or what? i think of asking Samsung or trying switching SIMs, can we try this, i didnt get mine yet so i cant try it.

i bought mine from clove, the n9005 one and will use it in Egypt, they shipped mine already because i used Aramex to forward it to me :/
[Galaxy Note 3 General] mathieulh:
We may need to flash the CSC from an "unlocked" region such as HK or Singapore to get rid of the lock without rooting the device. It's there any such rom or CSC available yet?

---------- Post added at 11:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:19 AM ----------

I can't be 100% sure without actually testing the device with a locked SIM but it seems very likely that it won't unlock after using an authorized SIM.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] KevinsH:
I used this one, it work fine!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] mathieulh:
It asks for a carrier but I bought the device straight from Samsung store so I am not sure what to choose.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] brooon:
Want to know what´s REALLY going on?

[MENTION=535343]all[/MENTION] of you:

Please post somthing to UKmobilereview - they can check ALL the stuff we wanna know as they have a N3, a local simcard and a foreign simcard (they just don´t know that it may work if they check the functionality of the second card again after the unlock!)

And remind them to make a hardreset, too!! I wanna see what happens then...

Feel free to post it under their video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hHelbp0XOk&sns=em
[Galaxy Note 3 General] M_M_F:
should we choose any carrier from the UK as most of us bought it from a store or resellers like clove? please advise.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] coolfreebies:
I would go with what ever Sim card you have in your phone...

coolfreebies
[Galaxy Note 3 General] springer.music:
The reviewer at UKMobileReview has now posted the following comment:

This means that the GN3 didn't get unlocked by the Vodafone UK SIM card as inserting the Dubai SIM still﻿ prompts for an unlock code.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Netskyliner:
Yes but first simcard inserted was overseas one
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Mr_President:
They already tried the overseas SIM card AFTER using the UK one and it didn't get unlocked. Hence; "I tested the Dubai sim and the SIM restriction was still in place", as in after using the UK SIM card. I've heard rumors now that you need to make ten phonecalls with the regional SIM card before it gets unlocked... desperate thinking I'd say. Samsung ****ed up biiig time!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] medohussein544:
iam from Egypt i am planning to buy SN3 FRom austria

and bring it back to Egypt

this means it won't work in Egypt

if not

is there any solutions yet ?????
[Galaxy Note 3 General] non1oson:
yeah THAT was pretty lol. when I saw him do that I was like wtf
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lucfeenstra:
Answers!

The answer to the questions that have been asked before:

Please head over to ukmobilereviews.com and have a read!

http://ukmobilereview.com/2013/09/galaxy-note-3-sim-restrictions-full-story-unlock/
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Dumbo53:
Yes, use your old phone...
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Peter Unger:
Complete confusing...please have a look:

http://ukmobilereview.com/2013/09/galaxy-note-3-sim-restrictions-full-story-unlock/

"From our testing, we have found out that if you use a region-specific SIM FIRST, you’ll be able to use any SIM card you want after that. That means for us in the EU, we can use any EU SIM to “unlock” the device before using any other SIM card from around the world.

n our Note 3 (in the video above), we used a UAE SIM first which applied the lock to the device and meant we needed an unlock code before we could use a non-EU SIM. However, Alex from Android Central has found that once he activated his Galaxy Note 3 with a UK SIM first, he was able to use any global SIM card (he tested with T-Mobile USA).

Earlier today, we tested this with two other Galaxy Note 3 smartphones, both of which are EU specific and had been activated with a UK SIM card. Our UAE SIM worked in both of these devices with no issues.

This means:

If you use a region-specific SIM first, your handset will be unlocked for use with any region SIM card. However, if you’ve tried to activate with a non-region SIM card first, you’re stuck but fear not – hit the jump for our advice."

So where is exactly the problem? Has anybody with problems really setup the phone FIRST with a SIM from the region specified for the phone and used another SIM AFTERWARDS and still had a problem?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Mr_President:
Oh YES! That link says it all! Apparently they made the mistake of inserting a overseas SIM card into their Note 3 BEFORE trying a UK one. Now they've tried inserting the UK SIM card into two other Note 3 phones and after that they could use the overseas SIM cards in those phones. If you've made that "mistake" then you can get it unlocked but for a price... follow that link. Would be fun to know how come some ppl claim that this method didn't work :eek:.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] medohussein544:
What if we do fatcory reset?????
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Mr_President:
Argh yeah. I read that just now and posted a reply on that post :laugh:. I have no idea... I haven't actually SEEN anyone that has the phone, make a post, and claim that it DIDN'T work to insert a regional SIM card first and THEN an overseas one. Only seen ppl comment that it didn't work for someone else :p. Total mess...
[Galaxy Note 3 General] vader9000:
This is good news!!!!

I was going to return mine tomorrow. ???
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Wacco001:
To all, I quote some text lucfeenstra is referring to in his link.

Hope all can read it, and hope all understand what it means ...

It is clear what I have to do to unlock my Dutch Note 3 (unlock it at home, thus first in Holland for me) and later use it with a local Thai SIM card once I'm back in BKK

Hopefully we can now stop "assuming" what "might" happen and continue with enjoying a great device ! :)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] vader9000:
Maybe the sites used didn't have the proper codes?

As this seems to be different lock situation than previous carrier locks
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Tubgirl:
Wait a minute... didn't someone that looked at the csc file say that US cards wasn't blocked even on EU phones. The test should be done with a non EU/US card to prove that it works.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] springer.music:
They tested it with a sim card from the UAE:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] nirave:
Hey guys,

I'm Nirave (the owner of the website that Luc linked to) - just wanted to pop in and say I'm testing this heavily and will keep updating the article with anything else I find.

Apologies for any confusion but to confirm, with my Note 3, I used the UAE SIM first which applied the lock. It seems that the lock is either applied or disabled the first time you turn the phone on - if it has the correct SIM for that region, the lock is disabled otherwise it's enabled.

Please let me know if you have any questions (I'll be checking back here from time to time but the quickest way to find anything out is to leave a comment on the post in the link above or ask on Twitter!)

Thanks

Nirave
[Galaxy Note 3 General] RogerP:
The test articel is now updated. All works even after a hardreset.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Wacco001:
UAE SIM is non EU/US ..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] nirave:
My testing was done with a UAE SIM card and proves that it works.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Wacco001:
Cheers for all effort .. :)

Hopefully this clears enough to all readers here ...
[Galaxy Note 3 General] tiep:
So assuming this (ukmobilereview.com) to be true (it would be good to get a second confirmation) then this looks like a dirty little grey-importing blocking trick from Samsung. This won't affect me because I want to buy in region to get the warranty but it will be a big problem for others. Vendors might turn to opening boxes and pre-activating... That said we still need to know what happens after a hard reset, and understand the difference (if any) between a first network activation and a hard reset.

Samsung should still be strongly censured for this.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Mr_President:
Oh sorry! I meant that I wonder why some ppl claimed that inserting a regional SIM card first and then an overseas one didn't work :silly:. Must've been a rumour. Nevermind, this thread has been on flames for quite some time now :D. Whew.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] nirave:
More than happy to help! This is what the community is for :)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Wacco001:
Please read the update about hard reset .. :angel:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] nirave:
The article has been updated - it works after the hard reset!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lucfeenstra:
Nirave tested the hard reset as well, still worked fine.

Will be using my EU activated Note 3 in China tomorrow!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Wacco001:
+1 100% agreed!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] mathieulh:
I confirm that UAE MCC is in the CSC network lock list.

So if you import your handset, make sure to start it first with a European SIM. I wonder if it has to connect to the home network. If so importers are out of luck. Otherwise I don't understand the point of this "feature" since anyone importing a prepaid sim from any EU carrier along the phone could unlock it.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] vader9000:
Fingers crossed...

Don't forget to post here the results!!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lucfeenstra:
Sure, I'll keep you guys updated! Should be fine though.. so happy now! Was about to return it to the retailer...
[Galaxy Note 3 General] non1oson:
so do we think sellers will do this for us living outside the EU? then on forward to us?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] tiep:
Sorry a lot happened while I was writing my post (and doing some other stuff) and I didn't check back before posting :silly:. I was not expecting such a surge of activity!

Brilliant work guys! Thanks for all the effort.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Dumbo53:
This still may not be the end of this. If they are checking against a whitelist of approved carriers on boot (as someone suggested looking at code), we'll hear that the unlock is not universal after all.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lucfeenstra:
Multiple local Samsung offices have also said that the devices should be working with foreign sim cards (non-EU/US) once it has been activated in own region though (Samsung CH and DE) Samsung Germany said we can expect a full statement from Samsung Global tomorrow..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] coolfreebies:
I think i will be keeping my Note 3 now if it can be unlock for Sims outside UK/EU...

Well done guys for your great works... :)

This has made me happy... :)

coolfreebies
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Wacco001:
Rumor? Assumption? or Fact?

I, personally hope soon all "what if's" and "speculations" will stop, so we can focus on given (and tested) facts .. :)

Cheers,
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Huxflux:
Ok, so today i went to the store here in sweden where they had preactivated the phone with a swedish simcard, i put my thai simcard in only to see the f...ing unlock screen again. They been told by samsung sweden that i should work... I put the thaisimcard in my S3 just to show that it was working. They offered to send the imei to a samsung center for trying to unlocking it, but i rejected it, want to wait for a official samsung statement thats declare whats what...

To bad, cause I was realy looking forward to have this phone
[Galaxy Note 3 General] onyxogen:
Please give us a feedback then :)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Darkjamzi:
out of principle I still wouldn't buy a phone that comes with these kind of restrictions. I don't support manufacturers who block free trade. :angel:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Wacco001:
Thanks for this info ..

Sigh, not so good news, but you've tested it at least, so appreciate your effort and post ..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] TEKHD:
I don't think we will ever see that sticker again on any Samsung device... Lol (I there is another sticker it will be more informative, than the current ****ed oriented sticker)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] ekerbuddyeker:
Simple solution :

If you buy it from abroad ask them to open the box and insert the local SIM to activate it. Then remove that SIM, close it up and send it to you. Voila, an unlocked device.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Wacco001:
Guess you are going to sell your SGS3 now, just out of principle to not support manufacturers who block free trade ..;) :D:D ;)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] @rbiter:
Not foolproof if said importer imports from non native from where they sell. Example is eXpansys/Negri who source from south america but are located in the UK and sell to other regions like usa.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Darkjamzi:
well......I bought it over a year ago and wanted to buy the S4, but as only the quad core was available I didn't. If this was known before I bought the S3, I wouldn't have bought it :p

From now on I'll boycott Samsung and will buy an LG tv instead. :laugh:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] BarryH_GEG:
Voila, if they're an authorized Samsung reseller they won't be any longer. Companies like Clove and Handtec in the UK and others in the EU that sell Samsung products primarily in the countries/regions they are intended to be sold in aren't going to risk their relationships with Samsung by violating Samsung's regional selling policies.

Using Clove as an example, if someone from the U.S. buys a device from them the purchaser is actually making the purchase (even if it's online) in the UK; it's just being shipped elsewhere. That's why phones purchased this way retain their warranty (even though you have to ship them back to the UK for service). Samsung can try and prevent people like Negri from importing foreign Samsung products on their own for sale outside their region but Negri isn't an authorized reseller so Samsung has little leverage short of taking them to court. So I doubt authorized resellers are going to aid and abet the violation of Samsung's region lock policy. I'm sure companies like Negri will because they've got nothing to lose. Quite a bit of Negri's stock comes from Latin America and the Caribbean which is the "America's" so people in the U.S. buying from them shouldn't have an issue with region locking anyway.

Speaking of law suits, here's a case Samsung has in front of the Indian Supreme Court trying to block companies in India from importing Samsung printers from other countries and selling them (as unauthorized resellers) in India. Whether we agree or not Samsung takes this stuff pretty seriously.

http://www.worldipreview.com/news/inta-wades-into-samsung-trademark-battle-in-india
[Galaxy Note 3 General] LinoX:
ohhh...did you lock it?

such a coincidence...I locked my wallet too.

keep it on the shelves, assholes.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] fonejacker:
UK Samsung Galaxy Team advice

UK Samsung Galaxy Team advice

=========================

I have contacted the Galaxy team at Samsung UK Office this morning. A manager of the team has met with a Samsung engineer and they have confirmed the following to me, and said that they would be happy for me to pass this advice to others:

"European models of the Galaxy Note 3 handset handset may not be able to be used with all sim cards from other regions. If you have a European model handset that you can take this to any walk-in Samsung service centre, and provided that you have the original proof of purchase, they will unlock your phone while you wait, and this will unlock the phone so that it can be used with sim cards from other regions for example the United States or South Africa."

I am told the purpose of this restriction was to prevent import of cheaper phones from China which may not be produced to the same specifications of European phones and therefore it would make support on these phones difficult to manage.

The manager advised Samsung would be making an official announcement very soon once it has passed their legal team.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] BarryH_GEG:
Samsung UK's kind of making it up as they go along. What's quoted would prevent an EU phone from being used in China, not a Chinese import from being used in the EU. And so far the Asian N3's haven't been regionally locked which means they can be used anywhere. Hopefully the story gets refined before futher "announcment." Maybe they were using you for practice. ;)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] nirave:
I agree, does sound like Samsung UK are making stuff up. I've approached my PR contact for a response, will update when I have more info.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Now more than ever .....

SHAMESUNG..... :eek:

.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] daniver:
What form does the SIM/region take; i.e. is there a dialog box or something displayed on the phone when you use an out of region SIM?

The reason I ask is that I have a European Galaxy Note 3 (arrived yesterday); it had the warning sticker on the box. I've used it with the supplied T-Mobile SIM, but if I take it out and use an Africell SIM (bought in Gambia) it seems to register on the Network, no complaints of being region locked or anything. The Africell SIM doesn't have international roaming enabled so I can't actually test send or receive a text or call to be 100% sure.

Maybe the coment from Samsung Switzerland is true - as long as you activate a European model with a European SIM then you can use SIMs from other regions without restriction?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] fonejacker:
I appreciate your skepticism. Their justification is likely to be a public relations exercise for Samsung. At least if their advice is correct it appears that the region lock is software based and not hardware.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lucfeenstra:
Sounds like you're okay, normally you get a screen asking for unlock code (see page 3 or 4 of this thread) if it hasn't been unlocked by local sim yet
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
delete

.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] PierreTech:
What if for example my note3 is region locked to usa or europe then i am in asia. I have a us/europe sim then i used it to unlock the note 3 (i am in asia) will it work? Or should you be in the home country of the certain sim(us or europe)??
[Galaxy Note 3 General] nirave:
So now I have received official word from a Samsung spokesperson who gave me a full statement and they are locking them but allowing them to be unlocked.

http://ukmobilereview.com/2013/09/samsung-statement-galaxy-note-3-region-locking/
[Galaxy Note 3 General] @rbiter:
Cough cough. Bs. Cough.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] gfung:
After reading the tests from ukmobilereviews, I went to a local phone4u shop, showing it to the sales .

He was kind enough to open a brand new jet black note 3 , put his vodaphone sim card in it and make a phone called with it.

Afterward put my Hong Kong sim card which have roaming services in the note 3, the phone is still locked, asking for unlock code.

Very frustrated
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Sorry I just saw this thread today and didn't read many posts so, would somebody confirm that the info on how to unlock( as long as you activate it with a SIM from that specific region, you’ll be able to use it as your normally would) .... is crap?

Does anybody have "official" statements NOT from UK ? :rolleyes:

.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] BarryH_GEG:
Were you guys planning on buying a N3 grey market (in one region for use in another region)? If so, Samsung clearly didn't want your business anyway which is why they've always voided warranties on grey market phones and now instituted regional locking.

If you were going to buy a N3 in the country/region your primary wireless carrier operates in region lock doesn't (and never did) apply to you. Once you activated it with your SIM from your N3's specified region your device would be fully SIM unlocked like every Samsung device ever produced.

Now that this has been explained it's meaningless to 95% of people that buy and activate their devices in a single region. In fact, if no one read this thread and activated their "hometown" N3 the way they always have they wouldn't have even known region lock was in place.

And while I’m fairly accepting of this policy, I’m personally affected because I’ll be importing a 3G Note 10.1-2014 from somewhere overseas to the U.S. and will now have to work around its region lock. But my imported 3G Note 10.1 came with no warranty because it was grey market so I don’t really consider myself worse off. There’s just another hoop I’ll have to jump through. Samsung didn’t want me to use my last three grey market devices in the U.S. and I did anyway. Nothing’s really changed.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] AcostaJA:
Ok, so I Have simcards from Europe, USA, SouthAmerica (asia soon), So I can buy it anywhere... LOL:cyclops:

SAMSUNG DUMBEST IDEA SO FAR.

So, SIMPLE Why not an INTERNATIONAL VERSION, Build an model with all 7 LTE bands and all 5 GSM/HSDPA bands and sell worldwide. (As the iPhone 5s/5c.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lucfeenstra:
I will be testing my NL Note 3 activated with Dutch sim card in China tomorrow.