yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dxzh:
They look like the same MCCs as set out in the list sent at http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=46018692&postcount=584 except I guess that you missed out four MCCs which I have added identified with asterisks when copying it over (please confirm if guess is right - the number 63 at the top is the number of MCCs there should be - the other combinations consist of the 3 digit county code for the MCC and "BB" is wildcard for MCNs in that country):

460 China

454 Hong Kong

250 Russian Federation

255 Ukraine

401 Kazakhstan

259 Moldova

437 Kyrgyzstan

438 Turkmenistan

436 Tajikistan

428 Mongolia

400 Azerbaijan

282 Georgia

283 Armenia

525 Singapore

452 Vietnam

505 Australia

520 Thailand

515 Philipines

502 Malaysia

510 Indonesia

456 Cambodia

414 Myanmar

457 Laos

404 India

405 India

470 Bangladesh

413 Sri Lanka

429 Nepal

603 Algeria

602 Egypt

432 Iran

425 Israel

604 Morocco

424 United Arab Emirates

[***416 Jordan***]

606 Libya

420 Saudi Arabia

418 Iraq

286 Turkey

[***412 Afghanistan***]

724 Brazil

370 Dominican Republic

338 Bermuda

[***374 Trinidad and Tobago***]

706 El Salvador

734 Venezuela

714 Panama

712 Costa Rica

740 Ecuador

704 Guatemala

708 Honduras

710 Nicaragua

744 Paraguay

[***748 Urugay***]

736 Bolivia

732 Colombia

722 Argentina

730 Chile

716 Peru

621 Nigeria

620 Ghana

639 Kenya

257 Belarus

I note that Australia (MCC 505) is on the MCC block list and from an earlier post that you had an Australian SIM refused.

Please can you confirm:

- what the exact CSC file name is (by dialling *#1234# into the stock telephone dialler to find the CSC file),

- where you bought the phone, and

- also maybe mention the way you accessed the MCC blocked list in the CSC in case helpful for others wishing to do the same.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] munchy_cool:
Just did a small writeup on this fiasco

http://androidfannetwork.com/2013/10/02/the-lies-of-samsunggalaxy-note-3-is-infact-region-locked/
[Galaxy Note 3 General] senectus:
You should note (ha!) that the Australian models are not region locked at all...
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dxzh:
Not yet - though if it works for the rest of the world who knows where it will end up when upgrade to Kitkat ...
[Galaxy Note 3 General] munchy_cool:
done :)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
other ways to go...

A number of people in this thread have mentioned looking for escape routes from Samsung's shenanigans, including phones from Sony, so I looked into Kawaisa's questions. Mingkee is right that Sony supports microSD memory-expansion cards.

I looked into Sony's line of phones with an eye to the replaceable battery feature many of us want.

Sony has 22 phones with replaceable batteries, though only 12 of them have a display with at least 228 ppi. Of those, 10 also have removable microSD cards. 5 of those phones have a minimum of 1.0Gb of RAM: 3 with a CPU running at 1.0GHz and 2 at 1.5GHz. These last two are basically the same 4.55 in./323 ppi phone... the Japanese domestic market Xperia A with 2Gb RAM & 32Gb internal memory and the ZR with 2Gb RAM & 8Gb internal memory.

I'm now joining those who've newly placed Sony's top smartphones on their watchlist... waiting for non-JDM 32Gb internal memory and, someday, a USB 3.O port... but glad to see Sony cross the thresholds of 1080p screens and 64Gb microSD card support with this year's Z1 & Z Ultra. Some of us are hoping Sony's choice not to include battery access in these two Snapdragon 800 powered flagships doesn't mean it's abandoning this convenience.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] DMax99:
They are CHEAPER too compared to importing them from overseas: 799 bucks ;)
[Galaxy Note 3 General] beasty54:
Strange, for whatever reason then i may be lucky with this simple mobile sim card, fingers crossed
[Galaxy Note 3 General] CekMTL:
Pretty much sums up what I think.

Bussiness wise this is one of those stupid stealthy moves big companies do and think their premium customers won't mind.

Me on the other hand dislike very much these kind of sneaky tactics. If I pay premium it is to get over all this tinkering and have the piece of mind that I won't have to bother unlocking or buying a code or whatever the 1337 hack of the moment turns out to be.

Sony did it with the PS3, and from that moment, never again will I buy anything Sony, even if it's a gift (to me they are dead).

Samsung are heading that way too; it is my perception as a customer, and I'm starting to strongly distrust a company that uses such sneaky ploys.

FM, KNOX, and now this makes me rethink my purchase.

Tomorrow will see when I get the 9005 and will have to take some compromising decisions.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] non1oson:
I live in New Zealand, and I ordered from handtec. now I've emailed them to what my options are, but after reading this I'm probably just going to get a refund. I'm pretty pissed off, but I don't know who with, with EU or Samsung? Samsung know and let EU do this, or Samsung did it themselves and it still pisses me off. I am really slutted, I wanted this, now I might have to settle for a G2 or something similar. I'm not happy at all.

even if someone from xda can get around this, are we really prepared to purchase and support Samsung? I certainly don't want to, I'm just like that. I'll tell Samsung to get fcked and I'll take my business elsewhere....
[Galaxy Note 3 General] htc6500uk:
I don't think it's anything to do with the EU/EEC - I think it is to do with Samsung trying to prevent 'grey' imports. The limited "unlocked" nature should have been made quite clear in their marketing/specs. This "feature" is likely to damage Samsung more than they may realise.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] non1oson:
well, what to do then? there is nothing else in note 3 category and size... sony ultra is gigantic and screen size isn't actually THAT big. maybe htc one max if it has a micro sd card slot..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] htc6500uk:
Please post stickers/warnings from other regions and I'll add them at the top of the thread.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] htcplussony:
Oh well I always knew I would stop buying imports from UK at some point. There's always other manufacturers though not HTC as they don't put enough network bands on it.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] @rbiter:
Wonder if this is a Knox thing. But OTOH, if Samsung really wants to try and break enterprise this non sense needs to be lifted. SOON. Guess how many suit and ties are foaming at the mouth on this and may have had special privileges to get it ahead of time. And found out the hard way on a trip it won't accept a sim from another region. Smdh. Nice apple move. revolutionary because you did it first and probably worse than apple making the iPhone 5c. Nice one up.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] shin lucifer:
May be XDA community can save N3. Or there might be Developer Edition that will be up to our standards. If not, then Nexus 5... dang more waiting.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] ppau0822:
buzz kill

Well im not sure what to make of this new development but i just want to say that sammy has definitely turned me off. was def gonna be a note 3 customer now they have me on the fence. we should get a petition going and raise some awareness. what they are doing may be legally fine but their sly hands are very hurtful to loyal customers and they should be aware of that!!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] grifter9931:
Is everyone sure this is a Manufacturer imposed restriction and not a Regional Telecom requirement of the manufacturer?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] hpacura:
Why bother? It's Samsung's job to look after their loyal customers. I'm sure by now Samsung is aware of the noise. Maybe Samsung did it on purpose so that each die hard note user needs to buy at least two notes to meet Samsung's goal to sell ten of millions of this bad boy :D
[Galaxy Note 3 General] misfit2013:
we should start a petition at least
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lucfeenstra:
I will join that petition.. Absolutely gutted that I received my Note 3 (N9005) today and will be in Asia for a year from Saturday onwards and might not be able to use it. The worst part is that this was never mentioned before until the sticker started showing up on the boxes.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] SousukeUK:
Looks like Note 3 going to have a lot of returns and refurbish deals

The way I see, it feel like more of a carrier imposed then Samsung (or maybe both! who knows!).

From what I read on this entire thread it looks like each carrier wanted their stock locked to each network but Samsung went the easy way and made it region locked to save time on production.

Getting your contract phone then traveling to other country and putting local region sim, your network don't want that crap!

You should be doing international roaming with your network sim card!

That's how carriers make money, they don't want you to do that cheap trick!

With EU roaming charge getting scrap next year it makes no difference to a lot of inter EU travelers and holiday makers but I guess people who travel to other region need to use expensive roaming (which carriers love).

But when you buy the handset full price (not a contract or network purchase pre-paid) you should not have this issue.

I'm guessing Handtec and Negri are selling handsets that were destined for the network contracts (there should be a bunch of angry pre-order customers on carrier forum right now complaining that they didn't get their phone on release day).

So maybe later the proper unlocked handsets going to show up.

If you are in a different region then the phone was intended for, I would say you should not be buying from a EU distributor rather wait for your region stock.

But this is my own analysis and opinion, I won't know until I get mine.

I'm getting my Note 3 in January once my current contract finishes, probably this is sorted by then (still won't make much difference as I use international roaming anyway).
[Galaxy Note 3 General] goodwinod:
It seems weird that this seems to be the only phone anyone has heard of doing this if it is a Telecom requirement. It must be Samsung.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] lucfeenstra:
Did not buy it through a carrier..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] non1oson:
buy from your own network provider? nz always gets arse raped. we always have. I always bought my phones from handtec or clove. it was always 200USD cheaper. we enjoyed getting our phones from EU also because of this. nz way over charges because they bank on noobs not buying internationally.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] ballfire:
anybody got a note 3 from asia pacific region to test whether it is also locked to that region ???
[Galaxy Note 3 General] SousukeUK:
That's what confused me too.

If you look at the bottom part of the post you will see that I did speculate that:

"I'm guessing Handtec and Negri are selling handsets that were destined for the network contracts (there should be a bunch of angry pre-order customers on carrier forum right now complaining that they didn't get their phone on release day).

So maybe later the proper unlocked handsets going to show up."

But end of the day that is all my opinion, maybe there is something else going on but I'm just trying to make a logical reasoning/argument of current situation.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] springer.music:
As far as I know the Snapdragon 800 is 32-bit, not 64
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Vatoe:
Where? kogan?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
You're right, springer.music. It has a 2x32-bit LPDDR3 memory interface, but the Krait cores are 32-bit. Thanks!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Onweel2:
That why i say about............. What Samsung give the reason is for fight with " Grey Market" that is not make sense at all.

If they really want to fight with grey market. Why it is not other way around. Because now Asia phone is not lock. and the price for the phone is cheap if convert to be Euro. Example Thai galaxy Note 3 is 575 Euro. But in Nederland is 699 Euro. If i just order from Thailand or let someone there send it to me it still cheaper.

this lead me to think.....

This is some kinde of conspiracy with the carriers of the world to get traveling people to pay the insane roming fees! Because in couple of years from now. Eu-palement shall force all the network here to stop charge (or pay less)for roaming in Eu country. So they will lose a lot of money that why now they do this.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] wetsleet:
If Samsung wants to stop the "grey" market all it has to do is eliminate the regional price differentials off which the grey market feeds.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] bp328i:
Thanks, I'll do that.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] umi000:
So, I have a Note 3 from a local Philippine carrier (Smart Communications), with CSC N9005OLBBMI3. If I'm reading the customer.xml file right, it's sim-locked to two carriers (the aforementioned Smart, and Sun Cellular, which Smart bought out a while back). However, I don't have that long list of country MCC codes like those I've seen on this thread. So either they've decided not to implement it on carrier-sold phones (which are already sim-locked anyway), or they aren't implementing it at all in the Philippines (and perhaps other South-East Asian countries?).

Sent from Longganisa Talk
[Galaxy Note 3 General] avenging:
boy some of you got so worked up over this and believe me i understand what some of you feel. in one shop here in saudi arabia they had the sim region thingy as well for the middle east which is weird considering that bahrain which is just a few km away doesnot have this limitation (remains to be seen if other shops will sell unlocked ones), so that prevented me from buying one right away. however, this will not deter me in getting the note 3 as I have had the pleasure of owning both iterations and I am a big fan of the note series so i hope when i get around soon ill find unlocked ones :victory:

btw, saudi is selling both snapdragon and exynos and they are definitely more affordable here.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] DEPUIS 60:
This has all the reasons. For example in Russia the recommended Samsung price = 34990rbl=800 Euros!!! There is no reason for such rates because customs duty on it in Russia is almost zero. Here is a conclusion - greed. Yes, and Black list no USA, Israel and other who was going to bomb Syria. Coincidence?http://xdaforums.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif
[Galaxy Note 3 General] DMax99:
No, Kogan is quite expensive.

I got mine from Harvey Norman with a trade in old phone promotion. ;)

---------- Post added at 02:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:24 AM ----------

Why would Samsung want to eliminate the grey market when they themselves supply the stocks to them?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Onweel2:
And this being post by Clove UK the shop for the phone in Netherland and this his last coment

"Josh Bethell says:

October 2, 2013 at 1:48 pm

A quick thank you from everyone at Clove for the level of understanding in this comment thread and the odd customer testimony too!

This is undoubtedly a huge frustration – sure we’ve lost sales which no business enjoys; however it’s the confusion and extra work this has caused which compounds things. There have been industry mutterings reported by some news sites that this type of behaviour could be in the works from major manufacturers. It is pretty upsetting though that it was not communicated to us and other retailers fully until the procedure was finalised, orders had been placed and stock arrived.

We hate disappointing our customers, which in this case we’ve had to do many times over by cancelling and refunding orders, in some cases to long standing and valued international clients.

By the end of this week we should have a definitive update on the situation. We sent a Note 3 to offsite colleague Wardy in Thailand last week. He activated this there with a UK SIM. He could roam on the UK SIM but could not use his local Thai SIM, seeing the unlock SIM screen before he could proceed.

We have since sent UK activated handsets to a few choice customers this week, on the basis that they can return them if they do not work with their local SIMs. These customers are in regions that include Africa, North America and the Middle East.

Regardless of information from Samsung or anecdotes on forums and other blogs, we are conducting our own research on this, at our own costs, to cover all the bases.

Especially now we are also beginning to see other Samsung devices (new stock of the S4 & S4 Mini) with the same restrictions and warning stickers on the packaging. We want to be 100% certain of the message we give out to anyone wanting to purchase a new Samsung device and provide any support we can to legitimate international clients"

http://blog.clove.co.uk/2013/09/25/samsung-galaxy-note-3-sim-limitations/

Can someone please ask the mod or admin to stick this page at front page of the topic? i think this page is usefull
[Galaxy Note 3 General] DEPUIS 60:
Surprising silence Sammi? Messed up air and silent... Maybe they already all a Hara-Kiri've done or what they make in Korea if they did **** in so many people?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] padlad:
Just seen this on clove's blog:

John*says October 2, 2013 at 6:59 pm

Just an update from my last message. I finally received the following by email from Samsung Customer Support:“I am very sorry to hear that you may not purchase a Note 3 due to the regional lock. In this e-mail, I will explain to you the reason for this.The reason for the regional lock is to ensure that devices aren’t being imported between regions illegally. However, this does not mean that you cannot use another SIM card in the phone while abroad.For instance, if you purchase a Note 3 in the UK and put a foreign SIM card in it, then it will lock and will need to be sent to a service centre to get unlocked. However, if you put a UK SIM card into the Note 3 first, then it will recognise that it is a UK SIM card in a UK model and wont lock. Then, if you go abroad, you can still use a foreign SIM card in it.We have seen a steady rise in complaints about people purchasing phones and tablets online and in local retail outlets that aren’t based to their specific region. What this means is that if we receive a call from someone who has a phone that originated in Asia, we have to send them to Samsung Asia as they have different parts for their models.This then leads to the customer having to pay a lot of money to get their device repaired. With the regional lock, we hope to stop this from happening.I hope this information has been of benefit to you and that you understand the regional lock a bit better now. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and we value and appreciate our customers thought and comments on the matter.”I think their excuse is mind boggling and they probably made it up as it bears no relation to the wording on the sticker. However if what they say is now true and Clove do confirm this after tests then I shall order one from Clove.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dxzh:
Two contrasting Samsung stories

Contrast this Samsung Customer Support email with following report in The Register (http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/3/2013/09/27/samsung_galaxy_regionlocking_saga_gets_murky/):

"One of my friends, a British citizen, bought a Note 3 from the Samsung Store at the launch event in London last week. He activated the phone with the guy in the store (who made no mention of this region lock) using his UK Three sim card and everything was fine. I saw the phone and it looked lovely and worked perfectly. Then on Saturday, he travelled to Hong Kong on business, as he often does, and put his HK sim card in the phone. It wouldn't work and required a password." and

"He tried the UK sim in again and yes it does work. Upon calling the London store, he was told that he needs to visit a Samsung Service Centre in the UK with his device for them to unlock the phone. The CSR on the phone was apparently very insistent about this as he was in HK and using a phone bought in the UK. Although he can use his UK sim card in HK, his local number is the one all his colleagues and clients expect to be able to reach him on so this is a very inelegant solution..."
[Galaxy Note 3 General] joe_dude:
All I know is that this will do nothing, except have people import all their phones from Asia to bypass this BS. Anyone heading to Singapore or Hong Kong shortly?

:cowboy:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dovid:
Region Lock - Now on Samsung Galaxy S4, too

B"H

We purchased some Samsung Galaxy S4 recently (Latin American stock), and they arrived with the Region Lock sticker on the box (photos attached).

Went through the process of "Activating" with an AT&T sim - no problem.

Then, we inserted a Vodaphone UK sim card - "Please enter network unlock code" was the message we received.

Looks like the disease is spreading ....

Oh well, guess we will only be buying HK stock from now on.

Dovid Feldman

On The Go Solutions, Inc
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dovid:
Really?

Joe, only a small percentage of end-users will ever really figure this out before it's too late.

Imagine how many phone calls Samsung will now receive, when the Italian businessman steps off the plane in Singapore, fires up his "unlocked" Galaxy S4, and the phone is locked.

Samsung: Get ready for a customer-service nightmare!

-Dovid Feldman

On The Go Solutions, Inc
[Galaxy Note 3 General] leo0888:
Galaxy S4 I9505 EU Version

hi,

I received my S4 yesterday with such a sticker on the box. today I tried to use my EU Sim first and then I triedy my Israel SIM. No chance. Network PIN is needed.

I'll call Samsung tomorrow is there is any chance to get it unlocked. Otherwise I will return it immediately.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dxzh:
Is there any chance you might be able to update us with the CSC file name (dial *#1234#) and, even better, the contents of the MCC block list in the /system/csc/customer.xml file (perhaps using ES file explorer)? Not to date had any details from an Americas region locked Note 3.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] wetsleet:
Since when is it illegal to trade products around the globe? Has Samsung notified the proper authorities of this 'illegal' activity? No, because it is not illegal.

As to the pathetic excuse about only being able to service products within their local region owing to different local parts, pull the other one. These phones are the product of a global supply chain (actually, isn't that illegal, you know, importing stuff), Samsung will have the channels to source, supply and deliver thousands of components and parts around their global networks. It is all a tissue of lies. They just want to take the profit being made by the enterprising 'grey' importers.

They could stop the whole 'grey' market at a stroke if they dismantled the inter-regional price differentials which feed the grey market.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Vatoe:
They have a 32GB for $799. How do you know yours is definitely unlocked out of interest? I was thinking of getting a Note 3 before this fiasco.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] BullHorn7:
30% of the Israeli population consists of Russian immigrants, nice conspiracy theory though.

And that whole 'can't service different phones in different regions due to spare parts' is bull****. They have model numbers. N9000 is N9000 no matter where you are in the world. When a model is different (for example the Nexus S came in like 5 different variations), it has a different name-code.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] s2kdriver80:
I'm sure people on this forum are more tech savvy than the average user. Why not just root the phone and purge that file of all the blacklist entries?