Help, no SIM phone works outside of Europe

[leandroqm]

Hello guys,

I live in the Netherlands now and my folks came to visit.
While they were here, they bought an S9+ (SM-965F) for themselves on Belsimpel (on the store) and took it to Brazil.
We asked the guy if the phone was completely unlocked and he said yes, but...
When we were unboxing the phone, it said: "European SIM Only."
We then tried inserting two SIM Cards at the same time, one from Italy (TIM Italia) and another one from Brazil (VIVO Brazil).
In Brazil, we never get asked for PIN/PUK, so when it booted up, we entered the default Italian PIN (0000).
It said it was wrong, so I tried again a couple of times and it did not work at all.
I thought it was weird, but I could call him on the Italian number and that was all I cared for the moment.
Fast forward a few days, they went back to Brazil and..... VIVO does not work.
My father went to a VIVO store and they could not solve it.
He went to a Samsung store, nothing...
He even went to ANATEL (Brazilian Agency of Telecommunications) to see if the IMEI was blocked somehow, it wasn't.

Please help us to get it working with VIVO!

 

[leandroqm]

well... solved!
I got him an european SIM card and made a call over 10 minutes to him, that region-unlocked the phone, according to Samsung.

 

[fkofilee]

So Sammie are still doing the 5 minutes of calls with a particular SIM before itll work overseas... Well that sucks..

 

[Shipoftheline]

Yea I've heard this regards the Indian version, you've got to use an Indian sim before any other works

 

[meyerweb]

It's designed to keep companies from importing large numbers of gray market phones to resell, while still making it possible for individuals to buy a phone in one market and use in another.

 

[belteg]

well... solved!
I got him an european SIM card and made a call over 10 minutes to him, that region-unlocked the phone, according to Samsung.

Quick question... Did you buy a Dutch sim card (prepaid), send it to him in Brazil and then made a 10 minute phone call to this Dutch sim card in Brazil? And that solved the problem? I bought the same phone also from Belsimpel and have the same problem now in Colombia, even though I made two 5 min calls using a KPN sim card before leaving the Netherlands. But so basically I can borrow a European sim card from someone here , put it in my phone and have someone call me from Europe? Thanks for confirming. Best.

 

[leandroqm]

Quick question... Did you buy a Dutch sim card (prepaid), send it to him in Brazil and then made a 10 minute phone call to this Dutch sim card in Brazil? And that solved the problem? I bought the same phone also from Belsimpel and have the same problem now in Colombia, even though I made two 5 min calls using a KPN sim card before leaving the Netherlands. But so basically I can borrow a European sim card from someone here , put it in my phone and have someone call me from Europe? Thanks for confirming. Best.

Hi!

I landed him my old italian sim card.
We spoke for about 30 minutes in that call, so I am not sure for how long you should be on the call, but it worked!

Good luck!

 

[belteg]

Thanks for the reply. As it turned out my phone was not region locked as I had made 12 minutes worth of calls while in the Netherlands, using a local sim card. There might have been an easier solution for you though: I was told by Samsung that they have region unlock codes for such cases. You would simply have to request such code from Samsung in the country where you bought the phone.

My problem was different and had to do with the message "SIM network PIN blocked. Enter SIM network PUK". Unfortunately, neither Samsung nor my Colombian provider could help me. I kept being referred from one to the other. My Colombian sim card would work on other phones so that was not the issue. My phone would not accept any Colombian sim card and it seems it had to do with the registration of phone itself in Colombia. In the end the only solution to unblock my phone was to use an online unblocking service. This worked perfectly. My phone was unblocked and I was then able to register my phone in Colombia without any problems. Shame this has to be so complicated but I am glad to be able to use my phone now.

 

[geebo79]

My phone was bought in the UAE and Samsung Pay app etc doesnt work now that I am based in the UK. Samsung next to useless. Can i resolve this by getting a UAE sim (god knows how i'll do that) and then get someone from within the UAE to call me for say 20 minutes?

 

[AnDroidWoW]

Does anyone know that if we do a factory reset then do we need to do this 5 minutes call again?

 

[GraayFox]

Hi!

I landed him my old italian sim card.
We spoke for about 30 minutes in that call, so I am not sure for how long you should be on the call, but it worked!

Good luck!

You solved this way? Can you lend me a hand?

Thanks for the reply. As it turned out my phone was not region locked as I had made 12 minutes worth of calls while in the Netherlands, using a local sim card. There might have been an easier solution for you though: I was told by Samsung that they have region unlock codes for such cases. You would simply have to request such code from Samsung in the country where you bought the phone.

My problem was different and had to do with the message "SIM network PIN blocked. Enter SIM network PUK". Unfortunately, neither Samsung nor my Colombian provider could help me. I kept being referred from one to the other. My Colombian sim card would work on other phones so that was not the issue. My phone would not accept any Colombian sim card and it seems it had to do with the registration of phone itself in Colombia. In the end the only solution to unblock my phone was to use an online unblocking service. This worked perfectly. My phone was unblocked and I was then able to register my phone in Colombia without any problems. Shame this has to be so complicated but I am glad to be able to use my phone now.

Wich unlocking services you used? I have the same problem, I live in Argentina

 

[belteg]

...

I wrote to about 10 of them, some did not reply, some did not come over as trustworthy and some said they could not unlock dual sim phones. In the end I used UnlockBoot. You can chat with them via their site or write to them via. I cannot post links but you will find them after a quick Google search. It cost a bit more than some others (USD 49) but they did it via TeamViewer and it was well worth it. Just a tip: once you get the code I had a long delay when entering each digit: enter a digit, wait, listen for the click, then enter the next. Best of luck!

 

[GraayFox]

I wrote to about 10 of them, some did not reply, some did not come over as trustworthy and some said they could not unlock dual sim phones. In the end I used UnlockBoot. You can chat with them via their site or write to them via. I cannot post links but you will find them after a quick Google search. It cost a bit more than some others (USD 49) but they did it via TeamViewer and it was well worth it. Just a tip: once you get the code I had a long delay when entering each digit: enter a digit, wait, listen for the click, then enter the next. Best of luck!

I will send a quick DM to you! thanks in advice

 

[leandroqm]

It did solve it for me, yes.
All I needed to do is call my father while he had an European SIM on his phone for 30m.

 

[GraayFox]

It did solve it for me, yes.
All I needed to do is call my father while he had an European SIM on his phone for 30m.

Sorry for being a pain in the ass. But, He put the sim and.. connected to Roaming for receiving your call? Or not? And so, I can pay you for you to call me? I can give you paypal or anyway you want. I just want this phone to work </3

 

[leandroqm]

Sorry for being a pain in the ass. But, He put the sim and.. connected to Roaming for receiving your call? Or not? And so, I can pay you for you to call me? I can give you paypal or anyway you want. I just want this phone to work </3

You are not being a pain in the ass, mate.
You do not need roaming for this as roaming is just for data.
You just need to have enough credits to receive a 30-minute phone call.
I imagine you can get away with a lot less than 30, but we did 30 to make sure we would not have to start over.

Good luck!

 

[GraayFox]

You are not being a pain in the ass, mate.
You do not need roaming for this as roaming is just for data.
You just need to have enough credits to receive a 30-minute phone call.
I imagine you can get away with a lot less than 30, but we did 30 to make sure we would not have to start over.

Good luck!

I dunno how European sim cards work but, here in LatAm we dont need credit to receive calls. I hope this Simcard doesnt requiere credit haha. Thanks!

 

[GraayFox]

You are not being a pain in the ass, mate.
You do not need roaming for this as roaming is just for data.
You just need to have enough credits to receive a 30-minute phone call.
I imagine you can get away with a lot less than 30, but we did 30 to make sure we would not have to start over.

Good luck!

I've just received a Sim Card from Europe! A friend of mine give me one that its working from his last travel to UK. if you could lend me a hand I would pay it!

 

[leandroqm]

I've just received a Sim Card from Europe! A friend of mine give me one that its working from his last travel to UK. if you could lend me a hand I would pay it!

There is no need for payments.
All you have to do is receive a call in that number for a number of minutes.
My guess is that 20 minutes would work, but I have done it with 30.
I would talk for 30 minutes with someone on the phone just to make sure it works.

Now... for the call to work, you need to have credits in the UK SIM Card because, even if you are RECEIVING a phone call, you will spend credits because you are receiving a call outside of the country of origin of the SIM card.
If you use your Argentinian SIM card in Europe, you will pay per minute to receive calls too... its just how it works.
So make sure you got around 25-30 pounds (i know, kinda expensive but it is worth it) on the SIM's account and then someone have to call that number.
I would use VoIP to make the call, since it the number is in the UK.

After that, you can shut down the phone and put the Argentinian SIM in.
My father could not believe we cracked this problem after the call.. it is an amazing feeling to finally being able to use your phone like a normal phone.

Good luck, man!
Let me know how it goes!

 

[DreamDancer87]

I'm not sure if it would help somebody. I was also facing this problem with region lock.

I bought a Samsung M30s 128GB (SM-M307F/DS) in India and used just the Wifi while in India. Then I went to Dubai and put in a local SIM card from du.ae and it clearly said region locked. I was not able to call.
After I went back home to Germany, I was leaving the phone switched on without a SIM card inside for a few days and then inserted my local T-Mobile contract SIM and it just works. Was doing several calls yesterday and today without issues. I found it weird because I never removed the region lock.

Maybe it can help someone try something.