- Unlock phone locked by a service provider
You need to start by contacting your previous service provider. The chances are that the service provider will allow you to unlock the phone, but will not give you the code for free. Instead, they will charge you a small fee that will allow you to unlock your phone.
Another option is to look online for any pieces of software that will be able to do this for you. Some of the software available will cost you, so only do this if you are not able to get hold of a code from your service provider. The code from your service provider will generally be much less expensive than the software you can obtain from the Internet
You then need to buy yourself a SIM card, and everything will be fine. The SIM card can be obtained from most cell phone stores. You will now be able to use whatever provider you wish on your phone.
- Unlocking a phone locked by the user
Sometimes people lock their phone by accident. It can be done by doing something as simple as carrying a phone in your pocket, and pressing buttons by accident.
In order to unlock the phone, you will need to type in the PIN that was already provided or agreed with you. If this doesn't work, you could try the code '1 2 3'. This is a default code that is actually used by a number of cell phone network providers.
Enter this default code into your cell phone. If this does not work then you could alternatively try 1 1 1 1 or 1 2 3 4 instead, as these are just a couple of other common codes used by providers.
You could also take the phone to a store operated by the service provider. Most of the time they will be able to unlock the phone for you.