Unlocking Phones – Does It Harm Warranty?

By Author: Vijay K Shetty
Total Articles: 2542
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Are you looking to unlock your dream mobile phone? You must understand that unlocking phones can cost anything from £0 (nothing, zero, nada, zilch) to almost a hundred pounds. Of course, how much you pay depends on a number of factors such as what your phone is, what network it is locked to, what method you use, and how quickly you need your phone unlocked. As a rule of thumb, unlocking your phone from a network operator will cost up to £20.

But here’s the thing about unlocking your phone. Meddling with the technology does bring with it some downsides – the warranty for instance. Will unlocking your phone affect the phone’s warranty? Almost certainly.
Unlocking itself is not illegal or criminal. However, unlocking and boxbreaking can be an issue in the world of contracts and agreements.

What this means is that, you may be breaching a contract or service agreement by tampering with your phone, especially if you haven’t yet fully paid it off. As an example, Three’s Terms and Conditions state:
“During the term of your Agreement for the supply of 3 Services, you must not permit your Handset ...
... to be unlocked via any unauthorised manner (ie. by anyone other than us or the Handset manufacturer). You must contact us if you want your Handset to be unlocked from our network”

When you buy a phone from a network or service provider and use their services, you are agreeing to their terms and conditions of service. It seems the consequence for unlocking your phone could result in your being in breach of your terms of service. Will they stop providing you with a service? Will they take your phone away? Many contracts don’t say and we don’t know. What we do know is that mobile operators have been known to refuse to fix phones that have been unlocked.

So if you do choose to unlock your phone, ensure that you are doing it for the right reasons.

Vijay K Shetty,
Get more information on Mobile Phones Unlocking, Unlock Sony Phones