The shape of things to come?

[3GScottishUser]

The new LG U-8180 is now on sale in Australia and amongst the specs it includes "This mobile cannot be unlocked".

Will it be the same in the UK?

Have 3 now taken steps to ensure their handsets cannot be used on other networks?

We shall have to wait until it is launched in the UK to find out.

[Ben]

I think, with the increasingly competitive market looming on the edge of an all-out pricewar, all the networks will take steps to ensure that manufacturers are capable of locking their handsets down permanently. If a handset can be made 99.9% safe from unlocking then the network(s) can take bigger gambles with the tariffs they offer.

With 3G handsets requiring so much customisation to work with each individual networks choice of 3G services and offerings I really don't think unlocking many of the new wave of 3G handsets will even be attractive.

Perhaps it's the way it always should have been, and we've just been having an easy ride? It'll certainly make splashing out on a SIM-Free phone all the more attractive.

[Constantine]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that it is OFCOM's regulation that the handset should be unlocked at the end of the contract, if the customer decides to do so.

Even if this was not the case, I still believe that handsets should be unlockable. It is a device that belongs to the customer, not the network. Therefore the customer has the right to use it in any way he likes. I don't believe that the networks have any right to stop unlocking. They can make life hard for third party unlockers, but at the end of the day they should provide codes to unlock phones.

Friendly, Kostas.

[3g-g]

If there's a way to lock it, there's got to be a way to unlock it.

[Hands0n]

As a part-time unlocker myself I find the prospect of a truly unlockable handset unappealing. So will, I suspect, a number of the customer base who will avoid such handsets like the plague. For sure, the ops can all agree and this become the norm, in which case my activities will be consigned to history (but then I'm not a CB "rig doctor" anymore either!!). We'll find something else to do, I'm sure.

There is a lot of chat on the Unlocker forums about the LG U8180. The entire community is anticipating the unlock mechanism to be released any time soon now. The real experts in cracking the codes are out there and busy at it even as we speak - they will make money on product that can do this, even as Nokia's BB5 has been fully cracked already, within weeks of its release. All these guys need is to get their hands on one of the supposedly uncrackable handsets and it is then only a matter of time. Much of this work is coming out of Russia (gotta do something with all of these ex-nuclear physicists etc) - and the big buyers are not us in the west but much of the far and middle east!

I have begun to read that there are some unscrupulous unlockers out there who are supposedly unlocking the 8180 already. But it is [allegedly] proving to be the case that they are fitting U8138 boards in the handsets and selling them on as U8180s at large profits - don't hold me to the truth behind this, it could be urban legend, but the reports are out there!

Case in point - the LG U8120 with V105+ software cannot be unlocked. So, what do we do? We downgrade the software to V100 or thereabouts, unlock the handset and then restore V105+. Job done! Same is done for the U8138, there is a downgrade version of the OS available.

Originally Posted by 3g-g

If there's a way to lock it, there's got to be a way to unlock it.

My thoughts exactly! Its just like the programs that the developers said were uncrackable, the videos and later dvd's that the producers said were immune from piracy. Its like a red rag to a bull for the people who work out how to circumvent such protection and I think that 3 should not waste money trying to put something in place that is unsustainable. The money would be better spent in improving CS and their network imo.