Will a T-Mobile UK sim work in a locked T-Mobile US phone

[richcandy]

Hi

My question is just a general one. What I would like to know is would...

a T-Mobile UK sim work in a T-Mobile USA Locked phone or
an O2 UK sim work in an O2 Germany locked phone or
an Orange France sim work in an Orange France phone or
a Vodafone New Zealand sim work in a Vodafone Ireland phone etc

In short do mobile phone operators that have networks in more than one country lock their handsets down to country and the network or just the network.

[jonessn]

From my experience, I would say no. I have a UK Vodafone locked Nokia N73, and am in Hong Kong at the moment, but I cannot put my HK Smartone Vodafone sim in my phone.

It may vary from country to country (and operator to operator), so I would suggest calling your specific network and checking first.

[Sy1441]

Originally Posted by richcandy

Hi

My question is just a general one. What I would like to know is would...

a T-Mobile UK sim work in a T-Mobile USA Locked phone or
an O2 UK sim work in an O2 Germany locked phone or
an Orange France sim work in an Orange France phone or
a Vodafone New Zealand sim work in a Vodafone Ireland phone etc

In short do mobile phone operators that have networks in more than one country lock their handsets down to country and the network or just the network.

Its not quite as simple as the above due to technical differences in the networks.

For example TMUK and TMUS are interchangeable but these two are not interchangeable with other T-Mobile networks in Eastern Europe for example.

[Nextgen]

Originally Posted by richcandy

Hi

My question is just a general one. What I would like to know is would...

a T-Mobile UK sim work in a T-Mobile USA Locked phone or
an O2 UK sim work in an O2 Germany locked phone or
an Orange France sim work in an Orange France phone or
a Vodafone New Zealand sim work in a Vodafone Ireland phone etc

In short do mobile phone operators that have networks in more than one country lock their handsets down to country and the network or just the network.

phones are locked to an MCC & MNC
MCC - Mobile Country Code
MNC - Mobile Network Code

for example some UK codes -

23420 = Hutchinson 3G (3) - United Kingdom
23410 = O2 - United Kingdom
23415 = Vodafone - United Kingdom
23433 = Orange - United Kingdom

french

20820 = Bouygues Telecom - France
20801 = Orange - France
20810 = SFR - France

so no, they will not work