15. Getting an Aussie Mobile Phone

If you have a UK mobile phone contract then your handset is normally locked to the company that is providing your service. Although it’s a minor infringement of the law I was advised that I should unlock my phone before heading to Oz and then purchase a pay-as-you-go SIM card once I arrived.

As usual, there were issues as I wrote on the Oz-Blog…


It seems that if you are moving to Oz (or any other country) then the best option for mobile phone issues is to get your phone unlocked and then buy a sim card out there. Simple enough yes?

No?

Nothing is ever simple in the life of Zain. First I go to this shop on Dumbarton Rd near my flat and two uber-weegies give me some rubbish chat about my phone being too difficult to unlock. You see, I just upgraded from my pretty basic Nokia (I've always loved Nokia phones) to a Motorola KRZR in a moment of weakness. The only other option I had was a Sony Erricson and I've broken 3 of those in one year before so I vowed never to go back to them. That said, the KRZR is actually quite a good phone (for a free upgrade). Then they phoned "the Man" and he said he could do it but it would cost £30 and take 3 days? What???

I told them exactly what they should do with their 3 day £30 "bargain" and went into town to find another shop that could help. There is a place under the bridge on Argyll St that I'd heard tell of and yes the guy could do it.

"Takes 15mins and will cost you £20 but I can definitely do it!" he says. "Go for it," I say.

However, it would appear that after putting all the pieces of the phone together, Motorola then dip the phone into liquid metal to coat all the circuits and make them impervious to tampering. So an hour and a half later all manor of tools, drills, screwdrivers and computer connections have been employed and nothing has happened. The bloke then mutters to me, "I've got to cut this bit of the phone open? You realise that is will invalidate your warranty?" No shit mate.

During this ordeal about half a dozen people come into the shop asking if he can unlock their phones. I kid you not when I tell you that he was able to unlock every one of these within seconds while still footering with mine. For one of them he simply shoved what can only be called a "doofer" into the charge-port of one and 3 seconds later is was unlocked!

No word of a lie, there was sparks coming off my phone as hs filed off metal plates and played about with the electronics. But eventually he proved true to his word and shouted "Your in business mate!". I was quite excited but I couldn't understand why he was so excited until he told me that my KRZR was the first one he'd unlocked!!!

Experiment with my phone will ya? Why I oughta...!

Well, job's a goodun and the phone still works. Australian Vodaphone Simcard here I come!

Despite all this getting my phone activated over here was easy. I just walked into a bunch of phone company shops (they are everywhere in Sydney) and found out which deal suited me best. Then I was given my SIM and stuck it in my phone. Hey presto, I was able to call people. I didn’t even need an address as the girl who served me put down the shop address and told us just to call her once we had a place to stay so she could change the details.

Unfortunately, I didn’t actually know anyone in Oz at that point so it seemed a bit of a pointless exercise.