bought my wife a Samsung phone while we were up in Udon Thani  last year as it was a mid range phone it seemed to do the job ok

I gave away my smart phone to her daughter as it was not for me and bought an old type Samsung phone with no camera no internet

and I was quite happy until I went back to the uk with the wife.

I had ordered two sim cards for our use while in the UK but when she put the sim in her phone she got an "insert sim" message and

as we had bought both phones in large supermarket and a large shopping mall without any sim or any hint that these phones were locked

to any particular network but both now have to be unlocked it appears and what would of happened if I had bought another sim than AIS

last year I used my English unlocked phone for AIS to Three to GiffGaff all worked fine.

as I have never signed any contract with AIS nor was there any mention of any network at the point of sale or is this just me discovering

another bit of Thainess .     

Thailand is also another country that forbids outright SIM locking and as a result, no phones are sold in the market are subsidized by carriers. Up until recently mobile phone manufacturers have their own store fronts and mobile carriers are only the service providers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock

Are you sure your problem isnt coming from the UK---refusing to accept? why I ask this is as you can see there are very high fines in Thailand for selling a SIM locked phone----however the UK not only allows their carriers to Lock the SIM but allows them to super glue the SIM into the phone....which means the phone is useless (crazy I know) it also allows them to do  all sort of things not allowed in Thailand---they don't have to unlock the phone even after you have completed the contract with them

 

I believe its called another bit of Englishness .    

United Kingdom--In the United Kingdom, mobile phone network providers are not obliged to provide unlocking, even after the end of the contract. Ofcom, UK's telecom regulator, allowed 3 UK to sell a mobile phone with the SIM card permanently superglued to the phone.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock

I can't really follow the OP, but...

 

Most phones (99%) sold here are carrier-unlocked. Obviously if you bought a phone from a night market, with a questionable provenance, it could be locked.

 

The only phones which may be locked are those highly-subsidized phones, lower-end models tied to specific trade-in/up programs: AIS (Lava), DTAC (Joey) and TrueMove H all have these models, but they represent less than 1% of the market and are primarily targeted at cost/price-sensitive Thais who need to move up to 3G.

 

Maybe the OP could provide detail re: the exact make/model? I suspect it may be more of an issue re: specs, and local network types - that the Thai models do not support the UK bands, but that's just a guess.

the wifes is a Samsung duos which was bought at the  large electronics place on the nong khai

udon thani road(similar to tuc-com)  I also bought an apple iPhone at the same time and this place was recommended by the daughters teacher. my phone is a Samsung basic model no camera no internet and was bought at big c extra pattaya. both are displaying AIS/EE as the partners

the" no sim card "is also displayed when the English sim is fitted.

I used both English and Thai sim cards last year with an English unlocked phone no problem.

 

Have you tried the varied fixes to be found online? It might not be locked. https://www.quora.com/Why-does-my-Samsung-Galaxy-Note-2-say-No-SIM-card-when-I-insert-a-SIM-card-of-a-different-operator

If it is locked, shops will unlock for eg ca a fiver.

So, you have:

 

1.) Samsung DUOS

 

2.) Samsung "basic"

 

can you share any details on the exact model numbers? Settings, About phone,  Model name.

 

which provider are you trying to use in the UK?

 

Is the iPhone at all related to your issue(s)?

 

It looks like there may have been a version of the Samsung DUOS which was co-branded with AIS/Lava: Lava AIS LAVA 4G A1 LTE Samsung GT-S7572 Galaxy Trend Duos II, and this model may be carrier-locked. If you bought this model then you may not be able to use it anywhere other than AIS. You could contact AIS and request an unlock code, which they may provide for free, or a small fee?

 

If the Samsung DUOS is unlocked, and it should work - just a guess. You may have to manually configure an APN?  Try both SIM slots, maybe go in to the menu (the Samsung DUOS menu may be different): Settings, Wireless & network, Cellular network settings, Access Point Names and see if there are any APNs configured and/or selected. If you see an APN which looks related to the SIM provider's name, make sure it is selected, then restart the phone. Otherwise you may have to manually configure the APN. Also look in Network operators, select Choose automatically and restart the phone.

 

No clue on the Samsung "basic"; need more detail on the exact model number.

Have you tried going to the networks shop in the UK to update the carrier details ?

 

I remember in the UK I used to get SMS from Orange with carrier updates which needed to be opened, deleted and sometimes the phone would need a reboot.

 

Nowadays iTunes does it through the computer / internet on my iPhone.

 

Maybe worth speaking to the network first.

 

 

Often times, what at first appears to be a cheap price proves to be otherwise ... i.e., cheap ain't always cheap. 

My Thailand bought phone works fine here in UK with UK SIM. I also recall when I put a Thai SIM card into a UK phone once it did not say 'Insert SIM', but something about 'Enter Unlock Code'. (That cost me 15 pounds). Try the Thai SIM in the UK, it should get onto a network as roaming. Also try another UK network SIM. O2 SIM cards fit all phones.

ok for those who want to know the phones  hers Samsung duos 2 GTs7582L

mine Samsung GT  E1200Y

I have just found out what the problem is at least on mine , a TV member mentioned that

Thai sims appear to be thicker than UK sims ? so I made sure the UK sim was jammed into

the phone as tightly as possible and then  pressed down on the sim while I switched the phone on ,hey presto giffgaff displayed.  thanks for the mostly helpful replies.

4 hours ago, HerbalEd said:

Often times, what at first appears to be a cheap price proves to be otherwise ... i.e., cheap ain't always cheap. 

 

and the most expensive is always free.

 

On 12 August 2016 at 2:36 AM, oxo1947 said:

Thailand is also another country that forbids outright SIM locking and as a result, no phones are sold in the market are subsidized by carriers. Up until recently mobile phone manufacturers have their own store fronts and mobile carriers are only the service providers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock

Are you sure your problem isnt coming from the UK---refusing to accept? why I ask this is as you can see there are very high fines in Thailand for selling a SIM locked phone----however the UK not only allows their carriers to Lock the SIM but allows them to super glue the SIM into the phone....which means the phone is useless (crazy I know) it also allows them to do  all sort of things not allowed in Thailand---they don't have to unlock the phone even after you have completed the contract with them

 

I believe its called another bit of Englishness .    

United Kingdom--In the United Kingdom, mobile phone network providers are not obliged to provide unlocking, even after the end of the contract. Ofcom, UK's telecom regulator, allowed 3 UK to sell a mobile phone with the SIM card permanently superglued to the phone.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock

What a load of BS that is !!!

NO company in England is allowed to super glue the SIM card they would be prosecuted out of business  even the arch controller Apple would not dare to do or demand that.

 

Both 02 and 3 sell unlocked phones even on contract, I know this because I have had contracts with both and when I come here I put Thai Sims in  both My Samsung and my IPhone with no problems.

 

Most companies WILL provide an unlocking service after contract and it can not be refused because they no longer own the phone because by the end of contract the phone has been bought and payed for.

 What they do do is make an expensive charge for unlocking  so go to any high street or market and there are loads of people who can legally unlock your phone , but what nobody can legally do is unblock it.

 

As for the BS ,I am really surprised that you didn't say it was nailed into the phone,probably because even you would realise that a nail sticking out of the phone would not look quite right.

 

Zoza     if you read this you have discovered the problem and remedied it but if you need to pack the Sim down don't use silver paper use a piece of the Sim carrier to do it .

and also sometimes if you just put the Sim in while the phone is on it will not recognise it so switch off and switch on again.

Good luck and best wishes hope you enjoy the holiday

Read the packet that the SIM came in - it tells you on there that you need to 'register' the SIM. To do mine, I just needed to turn my phone off and back on again.

On 13/08/2016 at 4:26 PM, Janner1 said:

Thailand is also another country that forbids outright SIM locking

 

My wife  has  3 phones from True  ( with logo on the phone )  all dual sim but all locked to True.

 

Lenovo A2010     flashed the ROM to CUBOT_A2010  still SIM locked

True-SMART-4G-Speedy   flashed to  cyanogenmod 12.1 Sd4.0_Plus_UnlockSim2     still SIM locked

TrueSmart-3.5   tried a few files nothing unlocked the SIM

 

I tried some of the unlocking  files on the True-SMART-4G-Speedy  and ended up with a phone with no IMEI

no way to input in the hidden "Engineer Mode"     luckily I had made a clockworkmod backup so could recover

other files where password protected requiring payment.

 

I asked at the True office and was told they cant be unlocked...I said what if I want to use the phone overseas they where flummoxed....err  can only use True  ok then bye.