In Reply to: a few questions posted by jenny1 on Thursday, 17. March 2005 at 17:15 Bali Time:
Ok here we go. Not ALL phones are locked, however, Telstra, Optus, Virgin prepaid mobiles are either sim or network locked which means you can only either use the sim card you received with the mobile [sim-locked] or only use Optus / Telstra etc. sim cards in the mobile you purchased [network locked].
you will need to pay a fee to have the carrier remove the locking and this varies. Carriers will unlock the phones free either after a period of time has expired 6 - 12 months or if you have recharge to a certain value using their sim card. You need to contact them to ascertain if you are eligible for this.
Vodafone prepaid mobiles are NOT sim or network locked. You can put any sim in their phones and it will work. [The only time you may encounter a problem is if you purchase a mobile from vodafone which is linked to their Vodafone Live network, for mms and wap] Sorry I dont want to confuse the you too much.
hope that helps....