[Galaxy S 4 General] difyel:
Updated for relevant information on 10/11/2013

I have been reading the galaxy note thread about sim restriction, and I came by a couple of posts which I believe are good to resume here.

To check your MCC (mobile country code) block list, by using es file explorer or any other file manager , go to :

/device -> system -> csc -> customer.xml

Under security you will see something like this which I was quite surprised to see in my galaxy s4 since I know my phone didn’t contain any sticker on the box:

<Security>
<NbNetworkLock>38</NbNetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>460BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>250BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>255BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>502BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>510BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>401BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>525BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>452BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>505BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>515BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>470BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>404BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>405BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>603BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>602BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>432BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>604BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>416BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>424BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>425BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>724BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>370BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>338BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>374BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>706BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>734BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>714BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>712BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>740BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>704BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>708BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>710BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>744BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>748BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>736BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>621BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>620BB</NetworkLock>
<NetworkLock>639BB</NetworkLock>
</Security>
<Network>

Please note that having the Mcc list does not directly means that your phone is regionally locked. Region lock requires BOTH the MCC list and a specific Network level lock set in the EFS (Exynos variant) or the NVM (Qualcomm variant).

Samsung has stated that all phone which are produced starting July 2013 will have the network level Lock enabled . To Check The production Date of your phone type this in the phone *#12580*369# and check RF Cal. It's the date of manufacture. If it's anything before July you should not be affected by this block list but we need some people to confirm this.

To explain the xml file , the first entry in this list NbNetworkLock specifies the number of countries that you have blocked , so in my instance i have 38 countries . The rest is the list of countries where you cannot use your device in, to get the name of the countries you can use this Wikipedia article. Like 740 is Ecuador .

So now that you know that you cannot use your phone in certain countries what is the solution? Well according to this post :

Concerning the first option many users have reported that while contacting Samsung uk and I believe Samsung Switzerland , they were told that they couldn’t unlock the device .

Concerning the second option , many people have reported that actually it’s not working , and it seems that those who reported that it was , they used a sim card which was not on the blacklist .

Concerning the third option , some people have reported that it’s working but further research should be done to ensure that it’s not because they are using a sim card which is not on the black list .

Concerning the 4th option , well you could always void your warranty if you want to , but basically i'm wondering till when the csc trick will work before Samsung force down something like Knox .

Concerning the 4th option , the region lock requires BOTH the MCC list and a specific Network level lock set in the EFS (Exynos variant) or the NVM (Qualcomm variant). so editing the customer.xml file is not sufficient to lock unlock the phone , and this is why despite the fact that all new firmwares now have the MCC list, only newly produced devices - after July 2013 - have the lock .

The developer Chainfire has released an app to region unlock the

Galaxy Note 3

:

you can get either from The google Play Store :

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.regionlockaway&hl=en

or from here :

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2470551