[Galaxy Note 3 General] midnite_blue:
Samsung's border between 'Europe' and 'Asia'

Hi, lion_sta.

The first thing I would do, if the previous owner (retailer or private individual) hasn't shipped it yet, is to ask them a) to tell you where they got that phone and b) to text or email some information to you from the phone

before inserting any sim

, specifically, the answers to the first 3 questions in my post #107, above. To answer question 3, they may need to go to the Play Store with a wifi connection and download either ES File Explorer or FX File Explorer... then browse to the system/csc folder and open the customer.xml file.

The second thing I would do -- again, if your phone hasn't shipped -- is to ask them to insert an in-region 'European' sim that has an active account with a network provider and make a voice call or calls lasting at least five minutes. If the firmware CSC build code ends in MJ9 or later, the phone should then register that it has met the criterion for region unlocking. MJ7 & MJ8 are probably OK, too. The criterion in MJ6 and earlier is not as clear.

After that, at some point the phone will try to connect with an attestation server and complete the region-unlocking process. We don't know much yet about how attestation works as it occurs behind the Knox-vault door through which users are not allowed to enter. This part of the process has not even been officially acknowledged by Samsung.

The third thing I would do, if the phone hasn't shipped, is to ask the previous owner to insert a Moldovan sim and confirm to you that it works, that is, that they don't get a screen asking for a region-unlock code. If they do get such a screen...

...the fourth thing I would do is to ask the previous owner to obtain an unlock code -- from one of the various websites that provide this service -- and unlock the phone that way. One has to question the ethics of any seller who would sell someone in Moldova a phone that's still locked to Samsung's 'Europe' ...which is exactly the dilemma Samsung wanted to put them in. This seller is fortunate you'd want to buy a Galaxy phone from them.

Maybe the phone has already shipped and it's headed your way, so let's look at that scenario...

There appear to be 3 factors: the phone, the sim and your location when you activate.

the phone

: in September, Samsung went to extra effort to try to prevent you from using this phone, adding Moldova (and 2 other nearby countries it would consider to be 'Asian') to the 'European' blacklist. Your post suggests you bought this phone new, so there's a very good chance you're blacklisted on it.

the sim

: good plan, using a 'European' sim before your Moldovan one. Any 'European' sim would be a candidate for helping you remove the region lock, but you need to be able to make a phone call with it. Perhaps you could buy a minimum number of pre-paid minutes with a Romanian network provider for this step with your Romanian sim.

Your 'Europe'-stickered phone will a) see that the Romanian sim is not on the blacklist and then b) try to connect with an attestation server to complete the unlocking process. The server will not return the unlock instruction unless it reads that the use criteria have been met, currently the 5 minutes of voice communication.

location

: in addition to needing your Romanian sim to have network-provider service, the location factor could be a hurdle. This is the part we know the least about because a) it has been well Knoxed within our phones, b) we don't know where the servers are and c) we don't know if each phone must link with a server dedicated to the particular country identified in the customer.xml file. It's possible that the biggest problem people have had in unlocking their phones after following the official instructions has been a difficulty connecting and/or communicating with the right attestation server. Other than a couple of customer service reps mentioning something about 'registration,' Samsung has said nothing about attestation... IMO because they do not want to reveal the covert nature of this capability.

With you living so close to Romania and the fact that you're using a Romanian sim, your phone might seek and successfully connect & communicate with the right server, I don't know. I also don't know if GPS is involved.

OK, I know this post has already gotten really long, but you can't blame me for the complexity of the problem! : )

(BTW, if you had sourced your phone from Asia you wouldn't have the region-lock problem, though you might have had to do some research to find the specs you were looking for. If you had sourced it from 'the Americas' -- e.g., Trinidad and Tabago -- it would be region-locked, but Moldova would not have been blacklisted.)

So, if the phone has already shipped and you think you might need more help later on, a) consider finding the answers to questions 1 through 3 in post #107 before doing anything else, except maybe downloading one of those explorer apps I mentioned.

b) Follow your plan to insert the Romanian sim... and perform the minimum 5 minutes of voice calls.

c) Try your Moldovan sim and d) get back to us with your news. If you haven't been able to remove the region lock, I recommend that you not perform an OTA firmware update before reporting back here. Chances are, depending on which model of Note 3 you've purchased, you'll be able to move on to the next step of getting a web-based unlock service to help you regardless of your FW build. But taking it one step at a time may help you protect your investment... and help us to learn from your experience.

Good luck!