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Phone fan
I have 2 tracfones for my kids.
1 is a hand me down galaxy note 8 from verizon that I used on BYOP.
The second is a Tracfone Samsung Galaxy A13 5G (locked).
We are travelling to Spain, France and Italy in a few weeks. I want to buy my kids a sim for emergency use. For the note 8 I do not need to unlock correct? I looked up the A13 and it says it is eligible for unlocking. How long does this process take. If I unlock it and use my own sim. When we come back and put the tracfone sim in will it still work?
Radiation is good
Unlock is instant. You submit a request (with IMEI and phone #) through TFW Unlock Portal, and two codes will be given for you to enter in your phone to unlock. It is fine to put other SIMs in these unlocked phones, but don't put the TF SIMs in any other phones. When you come back, just put the original SIM back (be sure to write down which SIM goes back to which phone, don't mix up).Originally Posted by UNCMo96
Post Machine
If your Galaxy note 8 was originally branded by Verizon, it may or may not have the bands used by the European carriers. Could be the same with the TF-branded A13. You'll need to find out what bands are used by the European carriers, and whether or not your phones support those bands.
Regarding your A13, if you check the Tracfone Unlocking Site and it said your phone is eligible for unlocking, it should ask for your name and an email address to send your the unlocking instructions. It might also display the unlocking codes (two strings of numbers). The instructions are as following:
==================
Below are the instructions you need to follow to Unlock the phone with serial number xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
Phone Unlocking Step-by-Step Instructions
On your phone, dial #TFUNLOCK# (#83865625#) to access the TF UNLOCK Menu.
The TF UNLOCK Menu will request the UNLOCK Codes. Enter: (sample strings of numbers)
037xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
436xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
When the Codes are processed successfully, a Device Unlocked message will display. If the Codes are NOT processed, try to re-enter them.
Your phone may reboot.
Note: After Unlocking your phone, your current phone number, service (including benefits), and any enrollment will remain as they are.
===================================
NOTE: Use the Samsung Phone app (with a GREEN phone icon) to enter those strings of characters and numbers. The Google Phone app (with a BLUE phone icon) won't work for that on a Samsung phone.
I've climbed a cellphone tower
Not sure if you meant that the kids will be using the phones overseas?
From what I understand, if the phones are to be used overseas, they will need to have overseas bands.
Why yes, that is a bag phone
Yes those phones may not work well overseas
Locked or unlocked does not matter for VZW devices overseas.
The issue is radio bands compatibility with the "GSM" networks
VZW "CDMA" is irrelevant there, only in the US.
They should try different local SIMs once there, getting advice from local friends.
And they may need to buy local phones to get good coverage, fast data etc
Secondhand Androids are cheap...
Phone Collector
> If I unlock it and use my own sim. When we come back and put the tracfone sim in will it still work?
Yes. But make a note of the APN settings. I found in my A03s it reverts to the factory default when I remove/replace the TF SIM. Possibly have to change VZWENTP to VZWINTERNET to get functions needing data to work again.
This is found in Settings > Connections > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names > Tracfone > APN.
Make a note of it now. Take a screenshot of it by pressing volume-down and power buttons at the same time and the image will be saved in the photo gallery for later.
I've got more phones than fingers
CDMA is not relevant in the US either, at least with regards to Verizon. Just maybe USCC and some small remaining CDMA supporting carriers.
The phones should at least fall back to 3G in Europe.
I suspect that the Note 8 should be fine. A flagship caliber phone, so likely OK.
I'm less confident of the A13. I had a TF branded A10e until recently, and even when unlocked I couldn't get it to work on a T-Mobile MVNO, it wasn't whitelisted so I couldn't use it on ATT. Didn't try directly on Verizon. I think the problem was the firmware, so I don't know if it would work with an European SIM or not. I traded it in for Samsung's $150 offer toward an unlocked S23, which worked. So I'm not willing to buy a TF branded phone in the future except for just TF.
iPhone 12 Pro is my current phone I carry.
Why yes, that is a bag phone
Hence the quotes
.
LTE Bands 3, 7 and 20 are common in all three of those countries.
It looks like both of those phones have those bands:
https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php...idPhone2=11149
(Click the down arrow on the Network line item as needed to see all of the frequency bands.)
Phone fan
Thank you so much!
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