Unlocking a Gallaxy S3 idea..

[koolken123]

Hi guys! Im a newbi to android phones...i bought a S3 locked to U.S. Cellular off Ebay and I asked around on how to unlock the phone.I got these instructions and was wondering if anyone has tried them.I havent recieved my phone yet to try them soo im jusy looking around on ideas on unlocking orr "rooting" my phone.Im really new to this all soo any tips are apreciated!

Hidden sub-menu and safe, easy etc. With phone on, turn OFF WiFi Direct (Settings>More Settings>WiFi Direct). Return to Home Screen and tap HOME button "3" times-1,2,3, hold it when pressing for 3rd time and then keep holding while pressing Power button. Hold for "1" minute. Ignore what screen shows/does, when minute is up, you'll see. A sub-menu will appear and it will definitely be self-explanatory for choice of carrier, region etc.
If you pause too much etc. and it fails, just do it all over again. Just wait for the sub-menu to show up as it does take a minute to scan and boot through. Minute seems like a long time but it is not, maybe have a watch, timer etc.nearby to satisfy yourself that it really hasn't been that long. DO NOT PAY anyone to do any unlocking etc. You'll get quite a few bozos telling you it'll cost ya to unlock etc, IT IS FREE! PATIENCE and simply following these instructions will bring you success. This DOES NOT reset the phone in any way, that is always done in the full Settings Menu otherwise people would wipe out their phones (even iPhones too) if a reset could be done from a Home/Power button. Cheers

 

[EndlessDissent]

I'm confused. Are you trying to use the phone on another carrier or just trying to root and unlock the bootloader? If you just want to root and unlock the bootloader, you can find lots of easy instructions in these forums. All you'd have to do is flash custom recovery in Odin, then flash a root zip. The bootloader comes unlocked out of the box.

If you want to unlock the phone to use on another carrier, which it sounds like those instructions are for, it's completely different. I have no experience with unlocking phones, but I have to wonder how useful it is to unlock a US Cellular phone. It's not like a GSM phone on AT&T or T-Mobile where you just pop in a new SIM. US Cellular phones are CDMA. They may work with Sprint or Verizon, but it depends on the frequencies supported by the radios. And even then, getting either Sprint or Verizon to activate it is even harder. Maybe Boost or Virgin could do it, but it still depends on the phone's supported frequencies.

 

[funkylogik]

in the uk anyway, carrier unlocking any phone requires a code thats generated from the IMEI code by an algorhythm.
you can pay a lil phone shop to do it or get the code from the carrier for a price.
it doesnt change the phone to a different carrier, it unlocks it to any sim/carrier.
when you put a new sim in for the 1st time it asks for a 16didgit code and thats it... unlocked for any sim.

i know the US is different but what ur sayin just doesnt sound right mate sorry

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

 

[koolken123]

I want to "unlock" the phone from U.S. Cellular so i can hook it up to my phone provider MTS here in Canada.Like i said im totally new to the stuff that you guys can do with the phone..like flash custom recovery in Odin, then flash a root zip.Im reading and learing soo....bear with me.. thanx

 

[EndlessDissent]

I've never personally carrier-unlocked my phone, so I can't help with that. Sorry.

This is kind of off-topic, but it seems odd to me that MTS has both a CDMA and HSPA (GSM) network operating concurrently. It sounds a lot like what may happen with T-Mobile and MetroPCS here in the US.

Honestly, if you can still take the phone back to where you got it, you may be able to get an AT&T or T-Mobile version and use it on the HSPA network. I think those carriers' phones are easier to unlock (again, I have no experience, so I could be wrong). But I honestly have no idea how MTS is operating the dual network, so that may not work either.

I hope someone more familiar with MTS, or at least Canadian carriers, can help you out.

 

[bassmig]

I'm not sure what tower technology MTS uses (I'm in Eastern Canada) but it will depend on the type of radios it has. There are 2 types of devices in Canada, the ones that use GSM (Rogers towers) and the ones that use HSPA+ (Bell, Telus) You can't switch a phone from GSM to HSPA since they operate on a totally different technology, but if you have a device using the same technology as your carrier you may be able to have it unlocked by your carrier (if it's not locked by the old carrier)?

 

[Tkbredx]

Someone else posted something like this. Changing it involves root and changing the IMEI code or something which taking about is breaking a forum rule. This thread might be locked. Just a warning. Idk

 

[funkylogik]

changin imei is illegal mate yeah like ringing a car

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess