A United Kingdom Retailer Clove has a presented us with a really surprising piece of information regarding the Samsung smartphones. The whole issue came up when the retailer received the company’s latest Galaxy Note 3 unit with a with a warning that they are locked regionally. This will not be good move from Samsung though as it will cause problems for many individuals who travel on work visas and change their SIM Cards accordingly as their precious smartphones will not work on other continents SIM’s anymore. The method for the SIM lock uses an MCC (Mobile Country Code) and is done through the CSC’s (Customer Software Customization) white-list of countries. Samsung Germany issued an official statement, which shines some light on the new policy. Only devices produced after the end of July 2013 are SIM locked to their region and it refers to the Samsung Galaxy S III, S II, S4, S4 mini, Note 2 and Note 3. The lock lets you freely travel across the whole continent – a device purchased in Europe will work in all European countries, for example. However, according to the warning stickers you can’t use those with a SIM card issued from an Asian, African, Australian or American carrier. If a device is purchased in one region but hasn’t being activated before being exported, you will be able to get it unlocked through a Samsung service partner. Have a look on the retail tags on the devices packaging below in the snaps.
Well as full-proof as it sounds we might be able to see the unlocking methods coming up for this really soon as Samsung devices power the android army to more than a 30-40% in the global market but for now its a Sad day for all Samsung users. Let us know what you think about this move from Samsung in the comments section below.
