yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy Note 3 General] louiscar:
I'm not sure what XME refers to - see the details in my sig - that's the firmware & CSC I have.

I'm interested that Samsung told you you had a worldwide warranty because I've been arguing for days (via email). One guy said it's valid in UK but then the support via my account said no it would have to go back to Malaysia. When I told them of the conflicting information I was then told that they meant my warranty was 2 years but it would still have to go back to origin.

I might try phoning them otherwise I'm going to send this back to Amazon. I'm getting sick of Samsung already and this is my first Samsung device. ~:(

UPDATE: My god what a bunch of numptys!!!! I've just phoned them. "there is no such thing as a worldwide warranty because the parts in each region's phone are different". The guy said no way it has to go back to Malaysia in the event of any service requirement. Whilst at it I decided to quiz him on his perception of the region lock. It was all too obvious that he was stumbling on the question. Initially without mentioning anything about activation he just said all Samsung phones are region locked. When I said that Samsung state that there is an activation process whereby the phone is supposed to release the lock, he ummed and errred and said "that well may be possible". I really had to give up at that point. They really don't know much more than the salesmen who try to sell the phone in the high street shops!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] jetskibill:
Hi ..... whats up with the phone out of interest?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Rickdaddy:
you could always root via de la vega so it won't trip knox.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] louiscar:
Nothing other than I expected a Uk warranty and found out that I'd got a grey import.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] jetskibill:
I understand your concerns however in the unlikely event that you need to claim under warranty I bet you will be ok taking it to a local Samsung service centre and saying it was a gift from aunty Flo for your birthday so you have no receipt. They can see it has 24 months warranty as all of these do so they cannot turn a repair down

As for it being a Malaysian phone believe me when I say you are better off with that one than a UK spec one as a majority of UK ones are region locked. Yours will not be. Malaysia has different laws to the UK and they do not allow SIM locked or region restrictions to be in place therefore its highly likely you have an unlocked region free phone like me

Have a look in the CSC file and see if there is any reference to Network Locked countries

Also check the firmware and see if its XME which will be from Malaysia and let me know out of interest
[Galaxy Note 3 General] louiscar:
Yeah, the problem with this is that I've registered it in my account and there's a whole bunch of logged emails recorded against my account discussing this whole affair. I'm not sure (with my luck) that there won't be any issues and if there are I could be in a fight with them and having to send it to Asia. The alternative would be to hold Amazon to account but as it was a market seller (Amazon fulfilled admittedly) I don't even have the weight of the EU directive to throw at them.

I know and on that point I'd really like to hang on to this although I'm unlikely to travel to a country which would be on the banned list.

I'm not sure how to check the firmware and what XME stands for. The firmware version are in my signature (see below) none of which seem to indicate what you are asking. Can you elaborate ?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] jetskibill:
No worries just type in the following

Go to phone, keypad and type *#1234# and let me know the AP , CP and the CSC
[Galaxy Note 3 General] jetskibill:
Yep same as the one I have so its definitely from Malaysia unlocked and region free on this firmware

If you want to you can update the firmware using Odin to BTU which is the UK version but it maybe region locked after doing so?

It may not as this would depend if the phone has been totally unlocked from the factory or if the region free codes in the CSC file provide the regions / countries that it can be used in

It would be interesting to find out so if you do it can you let me know and ill advise you how to check the CSC file
[Galaxy Note 3 General] louiscar:
As I say they are in my sig which is what I get with *#1234# :

AP: N9005XXUBMJ1

CP: N9005XXUBMJ1

CSC:N9005OLBBMI3

But yes how do I check the CSC file ? I presume it's a text file stored in a folder somewhere.

BTW. As an aside - I sent the Samsung guy a link to this forum thread telling him to look at the nightmare and amount of pissed off users. Maybe he was being patronising but actually thanked me for sending him the link saying he will pass this on to the development team.

The thought had struck me whether Samsung bother to read XDA stuff or not but it might be a good idea for all of us to keep sending them relevant xda thread till either they get sick of it or they actually take some notice. If nothing else pissing them off would give some satisfaction and telling them that this is going to be our last Samsung device might get the message across.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] bubblesmoney:
Anyone considering buying this phone in the UK dont bother buying from amazon or any other store sim free as it will be region locked. Better to buy from network and get network locked phone which they will unlock for a free or for free depending on your network. Then it will be a truly unlocked phone as region lock does not co exist with network lock.

In my case i got the phone cheaper even including cost of 1y contract and unlocking and that was cheaper than any sim free price bonus was 'free' 1y contract. I paid £20 unlocking fee to vodafone.

But you now have Three network offering free unlock codes for all three network phones. But do you math and see where you can get it cheaper if you still want this phone. Three network free unlocking service link
[Galaxy Note 3 General] cassinni:
I am bout to buy an sim unlock code for 24 bucks.

My 9005 is simlocked to 1 provider so i need this.

How is this simunlock permanent because i want to later

Flash different firmware. I have a branded austrian fw now but soon i will flash a unbranded german fw?? How does the simlock remain permanent?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dsm52:
Sim unlocking will be retained after FW upgrades or flashing different roms, I.e. you only need to do it once.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] cassinni:
i actually just used regional code away by chainfire and it unlocked my simlock, but i get no signal strength bar or provider info but i called my landline and it rang, weird hehe but seems to work, i will check it out further tomorrow

UPDATE: Actually i do get a signal bar just its unexpectedly on the top righthand side and apparently it naturally does not mention the provider name..
[Galaxy Note 3 General] jharps:
Just to confirm that Philippine Note 3s are not region locked (at least according to the message I received from the official Samsung Mobile Philippines page on Facebook). Here's the pertinent part of the message:

"Hi .... We looked into this with our tech support and there is no region lock that applies in our Note 3."

I haven't yet purchased one so I can't verify if it's true. If I do decide to, I'll let you know what I discover.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] Mustajab Is'haq:
I've read that Root De La Vega does not support MJ7 yet.

I'm going to wait for the S5 and a few more colors for N3. If the S5 is too expensive and or like the S4, I'll close my eyes and order a Note 3!

Are you coming from an iPhone?

Android phones do not have a provider name in the Status bar. Some carriers do put their name but you wont ever see a provider name (in the status bar) in an unlocked android phone.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] louiscar:
I understand that the reason they don't have region lock is that it's illegal in Malaysia (Philippines firmware is same as Malaysia just to be clear).

Meanwhile can anyone confirm that the firmware that their UK phones (sim free) came with. I'm still wondering if I should keep my Malaysian phone and accept the Malaysian warranty - at least I'll be able to root the device but from what I can see (or assume) the UK phones come with MJ4 or MJ7 so rooting isn't possible without tripping knox and it's looking like that will never get solved.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] tmj12:
I thought the Note 3 comes with 12 months warranty only? How did you manage to register with Samsung UK if the phone was bought from Malaysia? Do they not conduct any check or verification that the phone did not originate from the UK?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] jetskibill:
I called Samsung UK and registered it with them after asking a general question.

The rep took my IMEI and serial number, verified it and logged it on their systems confirming a 24 month warranty

The rep confirmed that this had 24 months manufacturers warranty as do all Samsung phones see below from their website:

Product: Mobile phone

General information: Ensure your device is running the latest software update and backup your device before a repair

Warranty service: Same unit repair via pick up / recorded delivery service

Warranty period: 24 months
[Galaxy Note 3 General] louiscar:
same as jetskibill. I registered on the site but via the account which took only the serial number. When speaking to Samsung they said the phone does have a 24 month warranty (standard - there's a list of what products carry a 2 year and which do not) but initially neglected to tell me that the warranty would be handled in Malaysia.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
three points & possibilities... #3

Does anyone else find this possibility interesting?

If Samsung's ''activation'' was designed to unlock region-locked phones via an OTA registration or ''attestation'' process, I wonder a) if it played a significant role in the failure of the official procedure to reliably unlock Region Lock #1 and b) if in an attempt to increase reliability it's been changed with the new (starting with MJ7?) Region Lock #2.

One of the clues to this is a new emphasis -- in official statements on Region Lock #2 -- on performing the activation of the phone in the country it was intended to be sold in.

Anyone know if the ''attestation servers'' Samsung refers to, in the quote dxzh provided, are maintained nationally, regionally or globally?
[Galaxy Note 3 General] akdenizx:
I would like to add picture of Note 3 ' which brought from Germany! They have region sim lock.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] imdogdream:
question

i am in Costa Rica now and got n9005 from amazon, and they sent me european model

and I am not able to use the phone.

Already rooted and tried region lock away by chainfire.

do you know any good site where i can get 'sim network unlock pin'?

this is really annoying.

thank you ahead.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] arkin56:
I think puman.ru do the job for unlocking this phones? Can anyone suggest this site? I myself is in search for unlock code.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] jetskibill:
Still no Network lock in my MJ7 Malaysian firmware

I've just upgraded my firmware to the latest Malaysian MJ7 and it still has no reference to any Network Locks in the CSC file so that's good news

I would suggest that the Malaysian ones are the ones to buy as they have no issues with region lock
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dmitrik:
Easy solution )
[Galaxy Note 3 General] tkwish:
what does that mean ?

do you have an easy solution? if so care to share

also does anyone have any experience with the pullman site or whatever its called as i have a phone from carphone warehouse UK and will be going to India for 2 months and don't particularly want to root just yet (missus will give me earache
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dmitrik:
ohh sorry dont know, I was wrong, know only unlock by imei if have locked to carrier can test
[Galaxy Note 3 General] imdogdream:
yeah i felt crap when i got the phone cuz at amazon it said it was UNLOCKED.

guy who was selling it didn't specified anything about region lock and i wasn't aware of it.

in costa rica they don't sell note 3 officially, you only can buy through re-sellers which cost me about $1000 around.

and they only selll n9000 exynos one, and i wanted snapdragon quad-core.

although i met GOD named puman.ru and he gave me code for $24 bucks and it's working great!

what i can guarantee is if Samsung keeps this stupid region lock thing my next phone will NOT BE SAMSUNG DEFINITELY.

ps. thanks for all xda guys who gave me reference to puman.ru website

ps2. i recommend highly puman.ru guys.

ps3. happy holidays~

ps4. I WANNA BUY PS4!!!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
Glad it worked... and happy holidays to you, too! I guess Santa moved to Moscow. : )

I bought a car thru the Internet some years ago. I would have been royally ticked off if it had arrived without the key.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dajumper:
First I have a note3 from UK! My Belgium SIM didn't work! Yes sort of, call was working! But when I try to send a sms, then my signal was gone! I try to call my voicemail and get a voice that my phone was blocked for security reasons! I have now a German note3 and everything works fine! Strange!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] koyanishi:
Your analysis has to be right on.

When I first heard of this region lock I thought that it would soon be sorted out - but it hasn't been and the mysterious opacity coming from Samsung where none of the representatives of the company have come up with a consistent or clear explanation on the nature of region lock or how to eliminate the region lock points to the truth of your analysis.

I have probably sold a few of these phones for Samsung through showing off the many cool features of this phone to friends, but now I feel bad having done so.

I love this phone but Samsung is acting piggish here and even though I am not affected by region lock as I have the SM-N900T I am so disgusted by this anti customer policy that I will not again buy Samsung.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
an unusual report...

Yeah, really strange... but good news that the phone you have now is working! I remember from back in October you wanted a German phone in first place. : )

I assume you used the same Belgian sim & network provider with both phones.

Do you know from your customer.xml file if your first phone was actually built for the UK?

It's probably too late to pull info about the firmware version codes and manufacture date from your first phone, but I'm guessing your German-sourced phone came with a later firmware build. Moving from your first phone to your second one, you may have actually transitioned from Region Lock 1 to Region Lock 2.

If you wouldn't mind looking up (*#12580*369# on your stock phone dialer) the AP, CP & CSC firmware version codes and your RF Cal date of manufacture , it would be interesting if you could share that here. It would also be valuable if you a) looked inside your customer.xml file to see if you have any lines of code there that include the term 'NetworkLock' and, if so, b) found out what would happen if you tried using a non-European sim.

Some Samsung reps have said you have to be in the same country the phone was manufactured for when you conduct the activation process. Some of us believe that, at the time your in-region sim is pairing with your phone, there's also a registration process... that your phone has to connect with a Samsung server in order to complete the match and allow your sim to function. Given your proximity to Germany, it's possible that Belgians and Germans are connecting to the same server, while your earlier phone's attempt to connect with a UK server was incomplete.

This is just speculation, but I wonder if your original phone connected with the UK's server adequately enough to complete part but not all of the registration process.

Hmm... I'd be interested in hearing other people's ideas about what caused your strange findings!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] akdenizx:
That is true! I bought my phone from Germany, at the beginning it was locked for NON EU SIM Cards like Turkey. Later i made phone calls with my EU Sim card, approximately 20 minutes. In a nut shell, its region lock has disappeared after phone calls. Now it is accepting non-eu sim cards.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
Intentional frustration... part 2

Let's suspend for the time being the real possibility that many of the positive reviews of the Note 3 on the Internet -- for example, in Amazon's various national websites -- were written by reviewers paid by Samsung (see abc news and the verge). That said, we can look at the range of reactions there.

Some have expressed indifference toward higher prices, buying into Samsung's crock that purchasing phones at lower prices, driven by freemarket pressures, is somehow cheating or even illegal, calling it a 'grey area' or a 'grey market.'

Others have expressed indifference toward region locking since they personally have no travel plans.

Many have expressed the urgent desire for Samsung to fix the official unlocking process so that they can move on with their lives.

Many others have called out Samsung for their heavy handedness and the lack of regard for consumers, which it has demonstrated by putting us in the middle of their dispute with freemarket resellers.

Some have questioned the legality of the region-locking tactic.

Several have said they'll never buy Samsung products again... like you, koyanishi & imdogdream.

One of the most interesting posts was from someone asking Samsung to leave the Android space altogether, inviting them to create their own closed and controlling operating system and leave open-source coding to the community that engendered it.

We don't know yet whether or not Samsung's plan to drive independent resellers out of business is working. What we do know is that your inconvenience & annoyance, imdogdream, is part of the plan. You were supposed to return that phone and buy one from within Samson's authorized distribution network at a higher price. (Looks like your new friends at puman spoiled that!)

What wasn't part of the plan was the breakdown of their official unlocking process, which caused many people -- even those who bought phones built for their region -- to join the ranks of those frustrated over how Samsung has used a strategy of maintaining control over our phones for the purpose of an anticompetitive manipulation of global pricing.

We might remember that not only does Samsung benefit generally from higher international prices, in several countries the authorized distributor is a Samsung telecommunications subsidiary.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] samaliset:
Feedback

Hi there,

This is just to give you my very new feedback regarding sim regional unlock. I am I French and I bought my note back 3 around mid October from Amazon France with the famous sticker on it as region locked.

I am in Canada today and I just tried a Canadian sim. First I did not get any unlock request secondly I gave a call out without any particular issue.

I hope this can help some ones in case if.

Cheers.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] samaliset:
Hi midnite_blue

Many thanks for your message and yes indeed I am very glad to discover my phone is unlocked, at least here in Canada. For the time being I don't need to use it else where except Bak in my country.

Thanks you too for all the effort you did provide through your detailed explanations. It is very appreciable and helpful. I'll keep following this thread to learn more and be informed too.

Thanks again.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
Understanding what's going on...

Each of us knows something. Combine them, and all the answers are there!
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
Knox can harbor an untrustworthy manufacturer's malware, part 1

Samsung can speak

.

Samsung Electronics's statement here about Knox is pretty clear. Why couldn't they have said at least something about the region-lock unlocking process? They even wrote a 12-page white paper about Knox... but they won't answer the simplest questions about region locking?

With Knox, they at least have something they can offer as value to the enterprise customer. Could it be that they don't want any attention to how, with region locking, we have a blatant example of Samsung using the keys they now have to our phones for a purpose that not only benefits Samsung alone, it's actually a detriment to the functionality and resale value of our property?

In its documentation on Knox, Samsung clearly describes:

1. a 'Quality Assurance' process where user activity, such as the installation of an app (or a sim card?), is reported to a Samsung server ''to be tested for device compatibility'' and

2. the ability of Samsung to push an app (or an unlock code?) to the Knox container without user involvement.

This process and this capability could easily be abused by a manufacturer... which I believe Samsung has done in the lock/unlock protocol of region locking for the purpose of supporting high prices.
[Galaxy Note 3 General] dajumper:
Hi the phone from UK I can nor see anymore I have the phone anymore but this in the picture is the phone that I now have
[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
Knox can harbor an trustworthy manufacturers malware, part 2

The simultaneous introduction of region locking and Knox -- which brings Security Enhancements for Android, Internet Key Exchange, Secure Boot, Trusted Boot, Root-of-Trust, Suite B Cryptography and the TrustZone -- isn't coincidental. Adam Outler, in a XDA article on the Knox-carried TrustZone, states that ''[TrustZone's] primary mission is to block direct access to hardware.''

The TrustZone acts as a buffer between the kernel and the hardware. It prevents the kernel from directly interfacing with the hardware, but it also does so much more....

It does so by operating at a higher privilege level than the operating system, running applications and preventing access to certain information.

Think of a TrustZone like a cloaking shield, when you make certain system calls they appear invisible and bounce off with an error. The TrustZone specifies what memory locations, addresses, and registers are available and unavailable to the kernel. It also provides basic, proprietary APIs that allow restricted calls to this information or run privileged tasks....

There is also another method of Trust Zone implementation, which is known as the “Trusted Execution Environment.” In the Trusted Execution Environment lives an entirely separate operating system with its own kernel. The TEE may have more control over the system than the standard kernel.

When used properly, there is no reason for a manufacturer to wish to lock down the kernel of a Trusted Execution Environment device....

This dual-OS concept should leave you with questions. What is to prevent the manufacturer and carrier from spying on you...? Nothing, except a trusted relationship between you and your carrier [and manufacturer].

...there is no reason for a manufacturer or carrier to lock down a device in the traditional sense....​

The focus of this article is on how TrustZone needn't be used to deny user customization and that, if manufacturers & carriers would work with the hacker/modder community instead of against it, access to the TrustZone could actually be an aid to users in the recovery process:

Most devices today can support up to three storage devices, but only use two. It’s entirely possible for a device to have a 1 gig internal sdcard for system recovery hidden behind the TrustZone shield....

...and on a personal note, I’m tired of playing these cat-and-mouse games with manufacturers and carriers...​

I assume the third storage device referenced above need not be a physical card but could be emulated in a SiP.