Samsung’s regional lock policy caused quite a stir when it was first discovered. The policy was first rolled out alongside the Galaxy Note 3 back in October. There was a lot of confusion about why it was put in place and how it actually works, and Samsung is trying to clear the air. A lot of customers were angered and turned off by it, but it’s not as bad as you think.
First of all, Samsung’s regional lock policy isn’t changing and it’s not going away. The policy remains, and Samsung’s explanation is the same as previous statements they’ve given about the situation. The policy is simple: if you buy a Samsung device from a country in Europe, the first SIM card that is used in the device has to be from a wireless carrier that is in one of the countries from that region. The device needs to be powered up with the appropriate SIM card in it, just the first time. After that the SIM can be changed and the regional lock should be disabled. Apparently this was not working properly for some users so Samsung is also going to be fixing their process to so it works the way it should. Every Samsung device from here on out will be regionally locked, as well as all Samsung devices that get updated to Android 4.3.
Samsung isn’t giving up on their regional device locking. If you own a GS3, GS4, or an S4 Mini, or other current generation Samsung device, once it receives an update to Android 4.3 it will be locked as well. Samsung is calling this “protection” but we don’t see how it can be anything other than Samsung and wireless carriers trying to protect their interests. Samsung is attempting to clear up the confusion surrounding the process, though. It is a bit of a pain to deal with if you happen to purchase a Samsung device and then try to activate it with a SIM card from outside its original region. It’s not all bad only because there is an official work around in place.
The new Samsung announcement was in German and can be found here. We first saw this news on the German site All About Samsung. Below is Samsung’s statement, translated into English.
Statement to simplify the “Regional Lock” at current Samsung products
Samsung has implemented regional SIM lock feature in current device to your respective region to provide customers the best possible mobile experience and customer service to the different needs in different regions to adapt.Samsung the feedback of its customers has taken to heart and improves the activation of regional SIM lock and simplified. The first activation of a device with regional SIM lock feature should be used with a SIM card from a provider from the European region. A device from the Europe region * is immediately ready when dialing the SIM card from the Europe region in a network within the European region and is used to make phone calls as normal. In practice this means that customers in Germany have the phone with a SIM card of a provider from the European region after the first use of your device only five minutes in the German mobile network to deactivate the regional SIM lock feature. It does not matter if the usage time of five minutes is achieved actively or passively as a caller callee. Then, the regional SIM Lock is permanently disabled. The new solution is part of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update that note 3 is already available for the Samsung GALAXY. More updates for the Samsung Galaxy S4, S4 mini, S III and Mark II will be available in the coming weeks via FOTA system update (Firmware Over The Air). If a user device to be from the Europe region with a SIM card from a provider who is not from the Europe, in operation and the device does not accept a SIM card, he can unlock his device from Samsung Customer Service.
If customer questions regarding the “regional lock” function of their product, they can contact customer service.
Samsung Customer Service can be reached by phone: 0180 667 267 864 (* 0,20 € / call from a landline and a maximum of 0,60 € / call from a mobile phone, from the International delivery service hours: Monday to Friday: 08:00. -20:00 clock, Saturday: 09:00-17:00 clock) or at: * To http://www.samsung.com/de/info/contactus.html Region Europe include
countries of the European Economic Area (EEA) :Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania , Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK, Switzerland, Croatia
non-EU/EEA:
Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia, Vatican City