new phone

[buddy22]

Hi, my brother got a new samsung s3 mini yesterday, an unlocked one from power city.  He is with 48 already and has his sim in a samsung s2 and having no problems with it, problem starts when he put the sim card into the new unlocked phone, it says SIM network unlock PIN    what is it looking for?   what unlock pin?????????????????????   HELP

[dalyer]

Is it looking for the SIM PIN?

I forgot my PIN..... What now?

If so enter the PIN1 for the SIM and then maybe disable SIM PIN locking via system settings.

Or did he update the software on the new phone and it caused it to become locked? That seems to be a general issue with some Samsung phones (i.e. software update can cause them to become locked) but I don't fully understand it to be honest...

Edit: a quick Google suggests that "SIM network unlock PIN" means that the phone is not unlocked for use on any network. Either that's how it came from the shop or a software update caused it to lock (to some other network?). All I can suggest is to Google for ways to unlock the phone or bring it back.

Edit 2: this is just one link about the issue whereby an unlocked S3 can become locked after a software update so it might be of interest here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1904704

Hope this helps.

[1amcn]

Might be off centre with what about to add...

Could this be similar to the iphone issue...(where apple only activate the unlock for certain carriers?)

Suggestion above applies if NO software
updates etc, have taken place since purchase.

If so, would love to know WHY its technically still Network locked (& it is)

I dunno for sure,but i wonder if its the case!

Please post back after a visit to where you purchased the handset (dependant on the above) & let us know outcome.

🙂

[dalyer]

I didn't think that any Android based phone had any equivalent of that iPhone/iOS carrier "activation" issue but I could be wrong and maybe Samsung's customized Android software has something like that...? 

[1amcn]

Hi buddy22

Really keen to know what way things turned out with the handset...did you check it out?

🙂