yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Simon_y7:
Has anybody tried to put a European or any other non-US SIM into a N3 purchased and properly activate in the US?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] ChrisArden:
Agreed. It's also amazing how bad Samsung are at communicating not just with customers but internally because, clearly, most Samsung employees have no idea what is going on or what the intended company policy is.

Of course, most purchasers complaining here are in denial too: they've bought a phone that came with a sticker clearly stating it wouldn't work with SIMs from outside their region. Instead of refusing it and returning the phone unopened they cut through the sticker, start using the phone and are amazed if the warning was true?

Where Samsung won't have a leg to stand on is if they're rolling this out to users who bought phones that didn't have the lock or sticker when originally bought and who suddenly find their phones not working, if that happens.

Personally I wonder if the truth is that the region unlock is supposed to happen after using a local SIM but there's a bug that means it doesn't always function. Difficult to know the truth when samsung pushes out updates without saying what their for.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] avenging:
Im sorry maybe i caused some confusion i talked to the driver again and it seems that it may not have been a region lock at all, he told me his father brought his note 2 from pakistan to the US, and it seems it happened after some carrier did something on his phone (his exact words), so maybe it was not a region lock at all based on his description. sorry for the confusion again
[Galaxy Note 3 General] wetsleet:
Somewhere I read a blog post about that exact bit which said, "Don't serve me **** and tell me it's chocolate", which I think puts it rather well.

Samsung are so completely out of touch, possibly they have even started to believe their own propaganda. They certainly are not listening. Try posting a question/answer on the Samsung UK site Q&A; if there is any hint, even a suggestion, of criticism of Samsung then they censor the question. For example, I asked a question about the contradiction between their own two conflicting answers regarding "activation". I also pointed out that their latest answer was circular, in that it used the term "activated" in the definition of "activated", which I found unhelpful. This is their stock answer:

"Hello Martin,

Your answers are very important to us and the Samsung community. We appreciate you taking the time to answer a question about Galaxy Note 3. Unfortunately your answer did not meet our guidelines for posting on our site.

We encourage you to review our guidelines and resubmit your answer about Galaxy Note 3.

Thanks for being an active member of the Samsung community."
[Galaxy Note 3 General] SlantShadow:
I bought a Galaxy Note 3 megaphone locked. Thanks Puman site, I managed to unlock it spent only half an hour!..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
3rd party unlock services and unlocking apps requiring root should not be the solution.

It's outrageous what Samsung is doing !

Bad policies and false official statements on the top of that .

Shamesung

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
please hold while I confirm...

Don't be so sarcastic, huxflux. What inconsistency? And did you really, wetsleet, expect to be allowed to post on UK Samsung's official site using such inflammatory & accusatory phrases as 'unhelpful circular reasoning?' Who's being unhelpful?

Come on, guys...

All you have to do is first use a sim from the same region as your phone, no I mean country, no make that region...

Then your sim's region-lock will be released so now you can use your phone anywhere, I mean anywhere in your region, no I did mean anywhere in the world, or maybe that's country, let me check on that... what's your postal code, again?

Whatever, I do know that when the lock is released, it will be released immediately, no I mean in 2 days, no make that 10, no I meant 30 calls.

If you're wondering if it's just the phone that that's tracking what you're doing or if it's surreptitiously sending us information about your activities, don't go there... I mean your better interests would be served if you didn't ask such questions. Seriously, do you really think this is “your“ phone? (LOLBYB)

To improve your user experience, give us some more money... we'll give you a code, no take your phone to an authorized service center and for a fee they can unlock it, no they can't, or maybe they can... Hell, just give me the money and I'll see what I can do.

With our release of KitKat, a) any use of unauthorized unlocking procedures will, upon your next attempt to use it, result in the unit either (i) exploding, (ii) sending a 20,000-volt charge through your skull (50,000 in select 'top performance' countries) or, if you are a registered member of xdadevelopers, (iii) releasing a weaponized organophosphorus gas from every Samsung phone in your contact list, and b) don't even try to give away, loan, sell, disassemble or otherwise dispose of your device. It will hunt you down and... I am authorized to tell you only that your user experience will be further enhanced with exciting new surprise features in upcoming OTA updates.

For directions to returning to ever trusting us again... wait, I'm now being told... you can't get there from here.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Simon_y7:
I suspect that this is a sign of things to come with other manufacturers, and Samsung is just a pioneer, showing the way. :( Either way, this doesn't excuse the lies and misinformation.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Ryland Johnson:
"Pioneers"? I know what you mean but I have never thought of using that term to illustrate a truly dickensian behaviour. Sort of the pioneer in mass murder? Samsung the Pioneer in............... stupidity?

I cannot believe in this economic climate a company like Samsung would introduce such a hideous and suicidal system of control? Free market economy?

Any lawyers here who can see if this is in fact even legal?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dxzh:
Why does Samsung:

- insist on putting a legalistic label on each box saying that the phone in it was only compatible with SIMs issued by providers within the countries in the home region; AND

- then issue the supposedly clarificatory statement "users ... can use other region's SIM"; AND

- then refuse to clarify to both its staff and customers alike whether (following a mysterious activation process using a home region SIM) a user of a SIM-free phone can expect to be able to:

*** use any SIM from any other region; OR

*** use some SIMs from any other region; OR

*** use other SIMs from the home region only.

How can Samsung be trusted by future BYOD and other customers when it cannot communicate a seemingly straightforward consumer-unfriendly policy? Why should Samsung be trusted given its disdain to communicate accurately, clearly and unambiguously with its staff or customers it seems? Is Samsung really rolling this out to all its new phones and apparently requiring those with existing phones who upgrade to Kitkat to submit to this too?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] wfire:
Oh my gosh, my sides!

This is by far the best post in this thread so far.

I'd be laughing hard if I wasn't crying so much.

This was epic, and tells you everything you need to know about what Samsung is doing.

Too bad about the strikethrough - you'll be removing it next year when your predictions come true!

Thanks for this epic breath of fresh air!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] padlad:
I am no lawyer, but I know that they couldn't country lock the Note 3 here in the EU, because that's against EU trading law. If they could, I bet they would of done! So they've done the next best 'legal' thing. Region locking is nothing new, DVD players?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] wetsleet:
Remember the original Galaxy Note ads? Where the guy impresses the girl with the size of his phone?

And all set in an international airport lounge, oh joy!

"The Ultimate Business Mobile Device".

"The Ultimate On-The-Go Mobile Device"

Wouldn't it be sweet if someone creative (not me!) could 'rework' the ads to show the hero hamstrung by his region-locked equipment, to the consternation of the bemused girl, who ends up having to lend him her phone to make that oh-so-important call? OK, I'll leave the details, but it is such a gift that Samsung set the original ad in an airport setting, and a barbed re-working that went viral might just have some effect?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Just trying to understand Samsung's arrogance and/or stupidity

My guess is that they know the great majority of the Samsung consumers don't even know what the Android community or Android forums are, don't root their phones (don't even know what root access is), the just buy the devices based on the specs and follow trends and that's probably why Samsung don't care about the community.

I just hope that even those consumers, will be aware of the newest Samsung's low, the Region lock, before buying their latest flagship phones, like the Gnote3.

Arrogance makes blind and I hope that Samsung idiotic policies, well eventually backfire on a larger scale...

Don't root your phone if you don't want to...don't go buying unlock codes in obscure sites..

Just demand dealer or Samsung service center to fix the problem (since they claim "normal" simcard activation region unlocks the phone) and if they can't do it, return the phone...

And they better don't bring that s#&@ over to my GNote2 as well ,with an update...

I didn't have any lock or any ridiculous sticker on my phone when I bought it..

They will be law suit for sure ifthat that happens..

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] iba21:
well, i suppouse one theory..

s800 is only for LTE states

exynos for the others

s800 has region locks

exynos, not all models has it

what it means?

simply, samsung HAS TO USE s800 cpu for one simple things, qualcomm has the monopoly of the wireless chip, yep, ALL wireless chip is builded by qualcomm, why? it has the monopoly, stop.

i know qualcomm solds his LTE chip at more than an half of it solds the s800, what it means? simply, exynos production costs plus LTE chip ARE MORE EXPENCIVE than s800 (witch has soc and wireless modules in the same chip)

as you can understand, if, for example, exynos + lte costs 10$ more than the single s800, 1 milion of note 3 became 10 milions of dollars not earned. Not small change.

so, why apple uses the LTE chip?

probably there could be 2 theoryes

1) qualcomm is a direct competitor of samsung, so, it could sell a too hight cost of the LTE chip only to force the second one to buy its SoCs, and sure, it could give its LTE chips to apple for less money

2) apple is an expancive brand, iphone will not deprize itself until the next generation, so, apple earns more money in the 1 year life of its phone, samsung's simply deprize at an half in about 8 months, so, the situations are completely different, apple earns more money, so, it could spend more to buy the LTE chip

it's only a COMMERCIAL situation, not more or less

and, i suppouse region lock is to force the s800 selling only in LTE states, one big company as samsung couldn't sell newer phone without LTE, so, it has to put it in its newer phones, so, it has to buy a qualcomm chip

but, it's not a good way to sell the s800 all over the world, samsung has a big fondary, it loses the credibility over the world.

so, simply, the situation is this:

if you want an s800 model and you are in an LTE state, you can buy it

if you want the exynos model, you could import it in all the world

so, samsung can sell his exynos cpu in all the world, and have the LTE in LTE states..

and sure.. last theory

exynos doesen't have the hmp, well, mediatek has it in its big.little quadcore chip, so, it's possible to do, it doesen't have heating issues, so, the situation is completely simple, samsung doesen't want to active the hmp tech until s800 will sell a lot of units, why? see benchmarks..

most of the peoples uses benchmarks as it's metrical choice, but only the standard benchmark, not the technical, and, if exy uses the hmp, well you have to increase the benchmark ammount value of the exynos version, witch is little less than s800, so, exynos will have an higher "credibility" for the normal owner.

thats why.. :highfive:

i'm going to buy the exy version, because, it's better the the s800, you'll see it in battery thread, and sure, it has to be used in hmp, so, more performance with less battery usage (less heating)

:D
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Just quoting myself again to put things back on topic, gee

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] beasty54:
I've been away in vegas for over 10 days now so haven't kept up to date with what's going on with the region lock and there's no way i have time to read through 100 pages or so. I got the European model a few days before i went on holiday so was a little bit worried about trying to use the "simple mobile" sim i had ready to go, luckily it worked perfectly fine in the states.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Did you have the Region lock sticker on the box, when you bought it and which version you have ? S800 or Exynos? Country of origin?

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] beasty54:
Yes i had the sticker on the box, UK model from phones 4 you and its the S800
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dxzh:
Very glad to hear your phone worked in the US. Given the US is not included in the MCC block list in the CSC of any European region-locked phones seen so far, it is not so surprising that it did work. Current concerns are more that:

- users will be unable to use SIMs from countries blocklisted in the relevant CSC; and

- the blocklist in the CSC might yet be unilaterally amended or extended in future firmware updates to include other countries such as the US.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] claudioita:
Yes EU note 3 work with USA Sim.

But roaming charges between EU and US are not so much.

They put region lock where is the most expensive combination.

I bought my note 3 in EU. Now travelling to south America.

Data roaming charges would be 30 Euro per MByte (yes you read correctly thats more than 40 USD per MByte).

Given the fact that I use minimum 50Mb per day that would be the price of TWO expensive Note3 PER DAY..

What do they smoke when they put these policies?

No more samsung no more companies with such brutal behaviour
[Galaxy Note 3 General] AABXDA:
After installation periodically restarts "INDEX SERVICE". ROM was installed over both TPL I7 and DBT J1, with the same results. Probably the reason is the not wiping mem.

Thanks, Alex
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dxzh:
The European Note 3 block list with:

- 63 MCCs includes: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela

- 38 MCCs includes: Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uraguay, Venezuela

In case the region lock in your Note 3 is switched on it may be worth checking which version of the list you have in your CSC.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] claudioita:
My phone is italian version and activated in Italy with Italian sim. Now I am in Chile with my phone and put a chilean sim I got a region block.

I immediately rooted and region unlocked and is working.

Of course I lost my warranty
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dxzh:
That is clearly not ideal situation to be faced with. I can understand why this would upset you. Hopefully you will never need the warranty.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] claudioita:
I was and I still am in shock.

I understand the sim lock because phone operators are subsidising the phone and need to recover the expense.

But I bought the phone at full price, no right to lock anything.

To me samsung is over. And will always find a way to f@@k the telco: with routing, or simply buying a local phone (still much cheaper than their crazy roaming charges). Now I understand why Carlos Slim is the richest man on earth ahah.

P.s. if my other Italian phone with Italian sim RINGS (without me answering) I get charged 2 Euro.

Believe it or not.

Of course the phone is now off.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] wetsleet:
We just accept the recieved wisdom that Samsung has the power to void the warranty. But in the EU the warranty is not even provided by the manufacturer, it is the legal responsibility of the retailer (at least that is the situation in the UK, I assume also in EU since they make all our laws these days). Moreover, since the warranty is a statutory responsibility, it is not subject to company T&Cs. They can write all the T&Cs they like, the law remains sovereign over them.

I suspect the situation is that if customer modification causes the fault, then no cover. But if the fault is not caused by the modification then the warranty holds good.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] ozzyspain:
Hey guys I want to buy a note3 but after read all posts I felt a little bit afraid because I use to travel to south america and I usually use regional SIMs in order to avoid extra costs, so I decided to call Samsung service customer in Spain (where I live) and they informed me that I just need to give them IMEI number and then they will contact me in order to let me know the unlock code, this is completely FREE and once the code is introduced the phone is completely unlocked, what do you think about this?, somebody has this same info?

Enviado desde mi GT-N7100 usando Tapatalk
[Galaxy Note 3 General] bogdan1980:
They lie to you. You need to go to an sammy service in your country, not abroad, pay for that code. And if you go abroad and use another sim you lock down the phone again.

Best advice, stay away from Samsung devices, of any kind, tv, tableta, phones, air-conditioned, dvd, etc
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
If you have a foreign sim card in your possession you can try I it right away with the code they give you and if doesn't work return your phone and ask your money back...

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] ozzyspain:
Thank you bogdan1980 , it's a pity what samsung is doing to their customers I've been using samsung devices for years but if they don't change their new policies I'm not gonna buy any more samsung gadgets. Rgds

Enviado desde mi GT-N7100 usando Tapatalk
[Galaxy Note 3 General] fade2black101:
Blimey... this is almost a mirror image of my situation right down to the plan to use a three sim instead.

The difference being I didn't go through with it in the end and chose to stick with my Note II.

Disappointed to hear it comes network locked :(
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dxzh:
If this information is correct, then it would be a positive approach from Samsung. I suggest that you ask them to send you an email confirming this in writing, and then let this thread know the outcome. If they are prepared to put what they say in writing, then you will be in a much better position to give them the benefit of the doubt.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] claudioita:
Do not update the firmware. The region lock is coming to the Note 2 too
[Galaxy Note 3 General] ozzyspain:
Unfortunately I don't have a write confirmation, but I have received a response from twitter indicating something a little bit different I hereby attached a print screen with the information, even though is a different answer I think it's a possitive answer too

Enviado desde mi GT-N7100 usando Tapatalk
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
SamsungNL posted a similar tweeter about the "normal activation" thing. (EDIT - you should read at least the last 10 pages of this thread)

That could be enough for you to return your device for a full refund, in case your phone remains region locked after this procedure.

Unlocking code is another thing and that's why you should ask a confirmation of that in writing...

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] fade2black101:
Lol Whooohoooo!

This update was well worth the several several several months of waiting!!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
What a sad irony, you eagerly awaiting your next refresh of Android while Samsung's busy loading it up with the region-lock code.

At least now we know why it took so long... they had to finish reading 1984 first.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] hifonicy:
Yes that's right... I will never update my note 2 if it will region lock with the next update * 4.3

galaxy s4
[Galaxy Note 3 General] claudioita:
I think they read "Psycho"
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
...and Nightmare on Sim Street.

I wonder what else is on the required reading list for Samsung's upper management...? :rolleyes:

---------- Post added at 12:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:42 PM ----------

And how about your S4?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] hifonicy:
With my s4 its to late... Bc I updated it before I knowed anything about knox and so on :( I will play with some official firmware with different csc to see if one of them is not region locked...

sent from my nexus 7 v2 now Free
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
I am already running the leaked 4.3 on my Note 2....feels good

Of course I have my phone rooted and modded

Right now installing some GNote3 features

Fingers crossed

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
where there's a will...

Nice idea! :cool:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] hifonicy:
;)

sent from my nexus 7 v2
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Ficob:
Today i do my payment to puman.ru, now i have unlocked in Argentina, 22U$S, in 20 minutes!!!, lol i9005 i bougth it in el corte ingles free unlocked...

Thx to this guys i was waiting from samsung spain almost 20 days the sey to me they will send me the F@@@king code..they lie..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] bilal1979:
Good news Ficob .... from where orginally you purchased you device ? And now is it unlocked only in argentina or the code provided you unlock your phone all over the world ?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Ficob:
I bougth in Spain, in el corte ingles region locked to europe, now is free to the world!!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
Would you translate this to English for us, ozzyspain?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
the proof's in the arroz con leche

Did you decide to ask Samsung Spain, ozzyspain, for their promise in writing? If you do, you might ask them to commit to a time frame. I agree with dxzh that even if only one division of Samsung Global would take this stand and follow through, it would be a very positive sign. But as bogdan1980 suggested, they just might lie to get a sale.

Did I say, '

might

lie?' OK, that could have been too generous.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] ozzyspain:
Samsung response

midnite_blue Basically they said that once the phone is activated with the correct regional SIM the phone is automatically unlocked, of course after reading all the posts I do not trust in this explanation
[Galaxy Note 3 General] iba21:
http://negrielectronics.com/samsung-n900-galaxy-note-3-32gb-lta-unlocked-white.html

does this sould have the sim restrictions? if yes, is possible to delete it by rooting the phone?

many thanks
[Galaxy Note 3 General] bonganza:
Phone unlocked itself

Purchased my phone from Phones4u a couple of weeks ago, immediately tried sims for Thai, Malaysia and Indonesia - sims all locked. Tried them today - NO SIMLOCK!

Seems that the unlocking takes time as already reported above. Much happier now, though still annoyed that Samsung put this in place.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Read first post

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] iba21:
i red it.. and the situation is simple.. it's an lta.. so.. it has the region lock of american's operators.. well.. is possible to unclok it by russian site? yes, no? anyone has the n900 LTA model and unlocked it by russian site?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] betoNL:
Well, you asked about root before, not about that Russian site

If you are willing to root you phone, just install Chainfire's region LockAwayapp and you"re done..

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[Galaxy Note 3 General] iba21:
delete the sim restriction (aka unlock the phone) BY using root..

lock away app works only on n9005 devices.. i'd want to buy an n900

only russian site could unlock it.. but.. they could?