Why Doesn't My Smartphone Stay Unlocked Abroad?

September 14, 2013 6:14 PM

I live in Spain and travel regularly to London. I have a Sony Xperia Arc S which I unlocked when I changed mobile companies. It works fine here in Spain for voice and data. HOWEVER, when I go to London, voice works fine but I cannot get data to work.

In order to configure in London, I go into network operators, APN's (Access Point Names) but whatever I enter does not save. My phone company says that this is because the phone is not fully unlocked. However, everyone here I've gone to speak with tells me that it is unlocked and they don't know what else they can do.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Sorry, not sure if this is the best forum for a question like this but I have been Googling for a while without much luck.

posted by BigBrownBear to Technology (5 answers total)

Are you sure you're saving it? I realize this sounds like a stupid question, but it gets me every time: if you use the Back button in the APN editing screen, unlike every other freaking screen in Android, it cancels your changes. Instead you have to choose Save using the ... menu. Only screen in Android that works like this, and it's a screen you hardly ever use. Gah.

At least this is the case on my phone (which admittedly is a Nexus 4 running Carbon) but I can't imagine Sony bothered to fix this.
posted by kindall at 7:18 PM on September 14, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks Kindall. Yes, I am saving it! I've tried just about every combination on the APN screen...
posted by BigBrownBear at 2:52 AM on September 15, 2013

Response by poster: so still no luck. if anyone else has ideas much appreciated...
posted by BigBrownBear at 5:41 AM on September 15, 2013

Are you using a UK SIM when in the UK?

Can your phone use the 3G frequency bands in use in the UK?
posted by pharm at 6:42 AM on September 15, 2013

Response by poster: I am use my Spanish SIM but this same phone worked fine previously when I was in the UK before changing operator and unlocking. My current operator insists that the problem is that it is somehow still partially locked.
posted by BigBrownBear at 7:55 AM on September 15, 2013