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Optus X Lite phone unlocking

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Computer Nerd Kev

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Oct 27, 2023, 12:34:04 AM10/27/23

I'll need to get a 4G-capable dumb phone to replace the 3G one I've
been using before 3G is turned off mid next year. I just need it
for voice calls and receiving SMSs.

Optus and Telstra are selling the same model phone as their "lite"
model, both normally $59. Coles currently have the Optus one on
special for $19:
https://www.coles.com.au/product/optus-x-lite-4g-1-each-3910840

I want to use it with the Telstra network. Optus' unlocking fee is
too high to make a saving. I looked around the web for unlocking
methods but nothing looked legit except maybe taking it to a repair
store which would be so far away it would cost lots in time and
petrol (there's one local-ish one, but they don't advertise phone
unlocking).

Any unlocking gurus here know whether this is actually really easy?
I unlocked a mobile broadband modem once by flashing a different
firmware image, but I can't see anything like that available for
this phone (actually an Alcatel 3080T).

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Daniel65

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Oct 27, 2023, 3:57:57 AM10/27/23

Computer Nerd Kev wrote on 27/10/23 3:33 pm:

Isn't the phone just a dumb bit of electronics?? If you put your Telstra
sim/chip in it, shouldn't it connect to the Telstra Network??
--
Daniel

Sylvia Else

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Oct 27, 2023, 4:15:19 AM10/27/23

No, manufacturers include the ability for a telco to lock the phone to
their network, to support the cheap-upfront-expensive-later business model.

Sylvia.

Daniel65

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Oct 27, 2023, 6:45:25 AM10/27/23

Sylvia Else wrote on 27/10/23 7:15 pm:

That makes sense, I suppose. ;-(
--
Daniel

Rod Speed

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Oct 27, 2023, 2:11:30 PM10/27/23

On Fri, 27 Oct 2023 18:57:52 +1100, Daniel65 <dani...@nomail.afraid.org>
wrote:

Nope, its much more complicated than that.

I have in fact had to unlock a couple of Alcatel phones for
a mate of mine who had bought them locked to Telstra,
because he wanted to use them on Belong, the cut price
arm of Telstra. Because the phones were so old, Telstra
would unlock them for free, but they did have to be
unlocked, they wouldnt work just with the new Belong sim.

Rod Speed

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Oct 27, 2023, 2:14:25 PM10/27/23

Daniel65 <dani...@nomail.afraid.org> wrote
> Sylvia Else wrote

>> Daniel65 wrote
>>> Computer Nerd Kev

>>>> I'll need to get a 4G-capable dumb phone to replace the 3G one
>>>> I've been using before 3G is turned off mid next year. I just
>>>> need it for voice calls and receiving SMSs.
>>>> Optus and Telstra are selling the same model phone as their
>>>> "lite" model, both normally $59. Coles currently have the Optus
>>>> one on special for $19:
>>>> https://www.coles.com.au/product/optus-x-lite-4g-1-each-3910840
>>>> I want to use it with the Telstra network. Optus' unlocking fee
>>>> is too high to make a saving. I looked around the web for
>>>> unlocking methods but nothing looked legit except maybe taking it
>>>> to a repair store which would be so far away it would cost lots
>>>> in time and petrol (there's one local-ish one, but they don't
>>>> advertise phone unlocking).
>>>> Any unlocking gurus here know whether this is actually really
>>>> easy? I unlocked a mobile broadband modem once by flashing a
>>>> different firmware image, but I can't see anything like that
>>>> available for this phone (actually an Alcatel 3080T).
>>>>
>>> Isn't the phone just a dumb bit of electronics?? If you put your
>>> Telstra sim/chip in it, shouldn't it connect to the Telstra
>>> Network??
>> No, manufacturers include the ability for a telco to lock the phone
>> to their network, to support the cheap-upfront-expensive-later
>> business model.

> That makes sense, I suppose. ;-(

Yeah, they are basically selling the phone to you
for less than it costs them to buy it, so you are
paying a higher monthly fee to use the phone.

Coks Toniy

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Oct 31, 2023, 7:04:08 AM10/31/23

Coks Toniy

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Oct 31, 2023, 7:04:29 AM10/31/23

Computer Nerd Kev

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Nov 8, 2023, 1:13:02 AM11/8/23

In aus.electronics Computer Nerd Kev <n...@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
> I'll need to get a 4G-capable dumb phone to replace the 3G one I've
> been using before 3G is turned off mid next year. I just need it
> for voice calls and receiving SMSs.
>
> Optus and Telstra are selling the same model phone as their "lite"
> model, both normally $59. Coles currently have the Optus one on
> special for $19:
> https://www.coles.com.au/product/optus-x-lite-4g-1-each-3910840
>
> I want to use it with the Telstra network.

It turns out that good things come to those who wait. Coles now
have the Telstra version discounted too, for $29. So I'll get one
of them.

https://www.coles.com.au/product/telstra-lite-3-1-each-5142421

Computer Nerd Kev

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Nov 10, 2023, 3:30:32 PM11/10/23

Well that was a mistake. It turns out that even though old 3G
Telstra-locked phones, and my Telstra 4G USB modem, work fine with
my ALDI Mobile SIM because it uses the Telstra network, this damn
thing won't have a bar of it! So apparantly Telstra have been busy
moving the goalposts since they sold the earlier models, and this
thing's useless to me locked.

I wonder if Optus do the same thing now? I used to use an Optus 3G
USB modem with an Amaysim SIM because again they used the same
physical network.

Sylvia Else

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Nov 10, 2023, 5:33:02 PM11/10/23

On 11-Nov-23 7:30 am, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
> In aus.electronics Computer Nerd Kev <n...@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
>> In aus.electronics Computer Nerd Kev <n...@telling.you.invalid> wrote:
>>> I want to use it with the Telstra network.
>>
>> It turns out that good things come to those who wait. Coles now
>> have the Telstra version discounted too, for $29. So I'll get one
>> of them.
>>
>> https://www.coles.com.au/product/telstra-lite-3-1-each-5142421
>
> Well that was a mistake. It turns out that even though old 3G
> Telstra-locked phones, and my Telstra 4G USB modem, work fine with
> my ALDI Mobile SIM because it uses the Telstra network, this damn
> thing won't have a bar of it! So apparantly Telstra have been busy
> moving the goalposts since they sold the earlier models, and this
> thing's useless to me locked.
>
> I wonder if Optus do the same thing now? I used to use an Optus 3G
> USB modem with an Amaysim SIM because again they used the same
> physical network.
>

In earlier days, telco resellers weren't a thing, so the locking was
probably just to a network. With advent of resellers it's not surprising
that telcos and resellers would want to lock the phone that they'd
subsidised to their specific brand, and no doubt phone manufacturers
cooperated on that.

Sylvia.

Computer Nerd Kev

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Nov 11, 2023, 3:00:31 PM11/11/23

It seems so, although it clearly took them longer to do that
than right after they started accepting resellers (in 2013
according to Wikipedia). I'd assumed that ensuring they made some
money off the phone customer, either directly or via a reseller
buying network capacity off them, was enough. Apparantly they're
too greedy for that.

Rod Speed

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Nov 11, 2023, 3:30:20 PM11/11/23

Fraid not. A mate of mine is such a tech cripple that he still uses
some real antiques like that which were locked to Telstra and
had to be unlocked even to use on Belong, a telstra subsidiary.

They are so old that unlocking is free tho.

> Apparantly they're too greedy for that.

Nothing to do with greedy. It was always about flogging
phones for well under what it cost the telco to buy them
for, to gouge povs like you on usage charges.

Your problem for being a pov.

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