Get a phone off eBay, job done.

You can get it unlocked from loads of places for under a fiver so worst case it'll cost you a phone plus a fiver.

Yep, any phone can be unlocked, and the SIM cards are all the same. The network providers will try and tell you some SIMs won't work with certain phones and you need a new one etc... but I've used old SIMs in new phones and vice versa and although there is technically a difference it doesn't affect any functionality.

If the phone says unlocked then it should work fine.

they can however be illegally reprogrammed to a new imei number and theives have already shown they are prepared to break the law.

[quote author=Lectrician  link=1124020408/0#6 date=1125162314]All these iemi and puk codes etc - what are they all for - can they cause problems when swapping phones around??

If you have an orange simcard, can this be put in a phone bought as a vodaphone??

How about subcribing to a 12 month pay monthly deal, and cancelling after 12 months - you could have a brand new phone, costing less than the retail price, and paying for it monthly - could you unlock one of these, and put any sim into it??

Sorry - babbling, and trying to find the cheapest way [/quote]
Unless already mentioned you can buy most phones new SIM-FREE, this is the best way, if a phone is already registered by it's IMEI number, which is what they register, then it could be difficult to re-register.

Most phone company’s have a large selection of phones available on orange, if you go to the orange site they have only a few..

PUK codes are used for unlocking blocked sim cards normally

If the old/new phone is from/trough vodaphone the chances are that it has been locked to the network and has logos stuck all over it, some of the contract phones trough orange aren’t locked at all..

As for a 12 month contract why would you cancel after 12-months, the contact is only for 12-months and should need renewing?, the phone is long paid for within 12-months!

The best option is to get the phone SIM-FREE, which means it won't be locked to any one network, swap the sim-card and all should be ok, the only thing is orange expect you to register, I know from experience some of them will allow you to register a new phone with the same sim-card so long as the phone isn’t nicked, others will expect you to buy a brand new sim card for some £25 or something and re-register, which usually means a new number but to make it a bit more complicated orange have moved money/texts/and phone number all over from another sim-card registered in the past  

generally when a new phone is sold as sim free it means its been bought direct from the manufacturer and never been locked in the first place.

In case it's not obvious....

Phones were originally locked so that they can be given away with a subscription. The cost of the phone was/is subsidised by the subscription and call charges. That's why unlocked phones were/are more expensive.

See the paragraph subheaded "Unlock Codes" a little way down this page..

http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/unlock-codes.htm

Sorry L.Spark - I didn't mean you!

[quote author=CWatters  link=1124020408/0#13 date=1125180503]Sorry L.Spark - I didn't mean you! [/quote]
I know okayy