Over a year ago, I purchased one of the $29 Mobal phones. It is a Nokia 3410.

I intented to use it in Europe with Callbackworld, but then my brother gave me his old Australian phone and I never did take it out of the box. I didn't have the energy to unlock it at the time.

Tonight, I decided to try the phone with a SIM that my son sent me left over from a trip to Ireland.

Lo and behold, the display says enter pin number.

Does this mean that this phone is actually unlocked?

It does and it is....but something you should be aware of, if it was the cheapest Mobal phone it might only have the 900 frequency which might not work all over Europe everywhere with some sims...that is something that somebody here had a problem with a couple of years ago (although I don't know all the Nokia models and just what frequency or frequencies this one has).

Thanks xyz123. I still have the original box and book and it says that this wireless phone described in this guide is approved for use on the EGSM 900 and GSM 1800 network.

The original SIM, an O2 that came with it, does not work at all. The number has expired since it is too old.

I purchased a Riiing SIM at the same time but now they have merged and are really the same company. So I knew that SIM should work. I wrote United Mobile and had that number extended.

The Meteor SIM from Ireland is the only other SIM available to me to try and my son never did send the PIN number.

So, now I have two phones.

Thanks again.

Sherry

ttt

I've had this happen. The unlock code could be 0000. Is there an owner's manual to go with the phone? It usually should say something in there about an unlock code.

Have to be careful with this....the phone itself can be locked or the sim card can be locked.

For the most part the phone usually arrives not needing a pin code to unlock it (unlock the phone as opposed to unlocking the sim carrier)...there is no danger in this...you can enter the wrong pin code as many times as you wish and yes often times this unlock code is 0000.

However, this is different than needed a pin code for the sim card....use the wrong pin code 3 times for the sim card and it is locked and you need the password unlocking key (PUK) to unlock the sim card...the PUK usually comes with the little cardboard that you detach the sim card from.

This is important to note, enter the wrong PUK code 10 times and your sim card is permanently forever fried kaput....

All this is different than whether the phone is sim locked...when a phone is sim locked which is usually referred to as locked it means that the phone will only recognize the sim card of the carrier to which it is locked...so for example if you have a phone sold by Orange in the UK, and buy if from them, chances are the phone is sim locked and will only recognize an Orange UK sim card...when the phone is first turned on, the first thing it checks is whether the phone is sim locked and whether there is an authorized sim card, if not you get a message to that effect...the next step will see if the sim card requires a pin...this is security that may come with the sim card or you may put it on yourself....at this point the phone will ask for your pin code although if the phone is pin locked (as opposed to sim locked)you might not know the difference.

...although this kind of locking will ask for the security code as opposed to the pin code...the security code on many Nokia phones is 12345 when the phone leaves the factory and some carriers have a generic pin code of 0000 but again the security code is not a big problem in terms of permanently locking the phone, the pin code on the sim could be.