Unlocking Carrier being outside the Carrier's Country

[Chemy JMHT]

Ok, I got a review unit of the LG Wing 5G (Directly from LG USA), great device (sadly LG out of business now), it's locked to AT&T, but I'm not in USA.

Just to clarify, no, it's not stolen, not blacklisted, It's not password locked, works with the AT&T SIM card but not with other Carrier SIM Card (It says "SIM Network Unlock PIN" when you insert another SIM), the Secondary SIM Slot doesn't work (Because it's the AT&T model).

So far I have tried these:

- I Paid the service to unlock with Movical, great service but the code received didn't work, they refunded me.

- Requested the unlock code to AT&T, but I'm not a consumer, I don't have an account on AT&T and also, the phone was never activated in the AT&T network and, because it was a review device, wasn't "sold", therefore, not manually added to the network, so, no code from them because the third party company who runs the Support on AT&T can't add a device or even see this one.

So, my actual options are:

1. Send back the phone to USA to be activated on AT&T and request the code, sounds easy but it's hard these days and also it depends of someone without any problem on AT&T and with more than 60 days in order to request the code no problem and then send it back here, it's expensive, hard and takes a lot of time.

2. Paying another service like Movical and pray to have a code that works, but you have only a certain amount of chances to write the right code or it will be locked for good (3 remaining chances to write the code).

3. Doing some kind of unlocking by USB, not sure how it works, someone suggested me that because DoctorSIM does something of that, I think I can't do it because I don't have the Bootloader unlocked (or I don't know how to do it), I really don't know if it might work.

4. Buying a phone in USA and changing the IMEI to mach this one and activate it in USA as I would do in the 1 option.

5. Finding a way to activate the secondary SIM card slot in order to simply use the AT&T SIM Card to keep the phone unlocked and using the secondary SIM.

I would ask some stuff to the community:

A. what are the options you can see viable?

B. is there another way around you know/suggest?

C. To do the 3 & 4, can you point me out in the right direction to perform any of those tasks?

D. Can you recommend me a service to unlock it? what do you think of DoctorSIM's option? also I know are a lot of similar services like mobileunlocked and UnlockPanda, but I only know the name, not sure of the reputation.

E. Is there a way you can point me out to do the activation of the secondary SIM slot?

Thanks in advance.

 

[smvim]

Instead of beating yourself up trying to get this particular phone to actually work with your own chosen carrier, just accept that it's not worth any more time and effort as a learning experience loss. Buy a phone that does work your carrier, any carrier-locked phone is optimized to work with its original carrier so there's also a good chance feature-wise you could lose out on some functionality (i.e. there are likely to be frequency/band differences between what AT&T relies upon and the ones your carrier uses so there could be issue where you might have no 4G/LTE access but just 3G, or if secondary bands might happen to coincide just spotty bandwidth as a norm. As for 5G it's even less likely for an AT&T 5G phone to be compatible with a 5G cellular network abroad).
Plus, AT&T takes advantage of its own customers as standard practice here in the U.S. so don't be surprised when trying to get one of its branded phones to work for your abroad to be a really involved project.

 

[bkdodger2]

I'd personally sell the phone as AT&T locked.. From what I see it's selling around 550 - 580 range... Then get yourself unlocked for your needs...

 

[Chemy JMHT]

Well, it's a long story, immigrant in the process to get the papers here can't buy almost anything here because of some laws, as I said I'm not in USA, the idea was to upgrade from a 3 years old Android to anything and I got the chance to get this one, that's why I'm giving it some space on my mind, actually using the old phone as a hotspot while using this because the other is not in good shape.

The other option might be just trying to gather enough money to get any new phone, probably low end, but due import taxes everything here is way more expensive, to make a comparison (because I can't find here the LG Wing) a PS5 digital edition here cost is around 900 USD in big stores (Out of Stock), but you can find one or two selling at 1500 US, so the option isn't really an option, so far better simply using the old phone as hotspot and for calls, but it's in really bad shape.

Your option could mean paying 2 or 3 times more for a low tier phone here instead of getting this working.

About the bands and other things, all so far compatible, 5G isn't a mayor concern more than being able to use the device, I like it, not just to be an upgrade but also I discovered it is very useful for my regular uses, like media consumption while doing something in the secondary screen, monitoring on live cameras while sending emails, and so on.

So, maybe not something to consider for all conditions, because this situation would actually be avoided only if before sending me the phone it were turned on with my cousin AT&T SIM card and she asking for the code to AT&T.

Also, I have to say, I would like to do it for sport, I mean, here is something that can be solve somehow, so, using the brain to getting around because if money is higher of certain amounts, it's simply not an option.

Sorry for the long text, but, it could be even longer to set the background.

 

[Chemy JMHT]

If the phone were on USA it might not be a problem, but here I can't sell it because it's locked, it's not even accepted in the trade in option because some documents are not ready for me (I have a temporary visa here, I need residency to update my ID in this country, again, not in USA), so I could ask someone else to do it, but it's only accepted for 150 USD which is pretty low and won't get me into many choices to update to a new phone.

So, maybe I might need to send it back sell it in USA? well if I send it back I could get it Unlocked also and then getting back here for cheaper than buying a low end phone here.

So doing some math, so far I still think I might try some of the previous options if I get some guidance.