Factory Unlocking my Phone - How long does it take?

Factory unlocking any mobile device depends on what make and model you have and what network you are locked to in your country.  There are several methods which you can try to safely unlock your mobile phone. They are listed here:

• If the contract period of your phone has expired, your first attempt should be to call your network provider and ask them if they can unlock the phone for you. In many of the cases they will give you the code for free. In some cases, they may charge a small fee for providing this service. When your network carrier does the unlocking for you, your phone will be unlocked within a matter of hours, sometimes instantly.
• If you are still in your contract period with your network, then odds are, your network carrier will NOT provide you this unlocking service in most cases. In some cases, they will do it but it will cost you a lot of money to get this service. Unlocking your mobile device with you network carrier may not be the most cost effective method of getting this done.
• If you are in your contract period with your network, then you will need a 3rd party unlocking service that will unlock your phone for you. This service will most likely be much cheaper than getting it from your network provider. If your phone is locked with AT&T, you can order this service here. For all other networks, click here to order this service. www.jailbreakwizz.com

Time to unlock your phone will depend on the following conditions:

• Make/Model of your phone
• Network that your phone is locked to
• Country in which your phone is locked to that network

 

Phone Make/Model:

Quickest phones to unlock are LG, Pantech, Motorola, Google Nexus series and HTC.  Many a times, it does not even matter which network these phones are locked to because there is a universal service that applies to these phones.

Network Carrier:

Up until 6 months ago, it was very quick, cheap and easy to unlock your phone with AT&T network.  AT&T then made changes on their server end which made it very difficult, costly and painful to get any phones unlocked through them, especially via 3rd parties. For example, cost to unlock a phone on AT&T network before the change was about $10 prior to the change on retail market. That price jumped to over a $100 within a few days. In many cases, suppliers were refunding customers money because the phone unlocks could not be provided in the time promised. Now things are slightly better. Prices have come down to about $40 to $60 range for iPhones and even less for other makes/models.

Country in which your phone is locked to:

Same network carrier will have different unlocking rules in one country as opposed to another. For example, to unlock and iPhone on T-Mobile network is much more costly in the United States than to unlock that same iPhone on T-Mobile network in Germany. You can compare current rates here.