February 20, 2013

How to Network unlock AT&T GoPhone Samsung A157

I recently came to USA and had brought two Indian phones with me, but could not get any reception here in US for Airtel. I had heard that Airtel had ties with TMobile in US and that I was supposed to get network here. So, I dug around and found that the network was in a different band and could not be joined by both my Nokia and Samsung c3303.

Luckily, I had an AT&T goPhone lying around after I bought Samsung Galaxy S3, but it was locked to AT&T alone. I tried to insert my airtel sim, but it asked for Network lock pin.

After searching for a solution for a long time, I finally found the solution from here.

SGH-A157 Network unlock procedure:

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Step 1: Remove sim card from phone and turn the phone on.

Step 2: Dial *2767*3855# This will  initiate a Full reset for Samsung A157
(Note: According to one of the commenters below (Captain Greybeard), skipping this Step 2 will retain your IMEI number, and prevent the IMEI from becoming all Zeros. SO, DON'T DO THIS STEP. Only if Step 3 does not work, try Step2 and Step 3 together)

Step 3: Once the phone restarts, dial #*7337# This will remove sim lock and freeze

Step 4: Now insert Airtel Sim card. and restart the phone. You will get TMobile signal and will start receiving messages.

Update:
The above procedure would make the imei number all 0s in the phone. May be because of this, I was not able to use this phone in India with the same airtel sim card.
However, my AT&T sim card works fine in the US, and I have even called customer care to associate this phone to my sim card permanently. One thing to note is that AT&T will not accept 0000 as imei number. So, I provided the IMEI number printed below the battery in the back of the phone, and everything works fine now.

That's it! Enjoy!

69 comments:

Unknown said...

Has your sim working started to work there??? :O

Anonymous said...

You're Genius!!!

Anonymous said...

It worked for me! thanks!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks!!! :)

Jessica said...

Thanks for posting this. You fixed my problem!

JT said...

Thanks for this, this fixed the sim lock problem, now i have an extra phone to use whenever i visit another country.

David Cruz said...

It works perfect! Thank you.

Unknown said...

It works perfect. Thank you!

Unknown said...

It worked perfect. Thank you!

PEPPALIGHT said...

THANKS ALOT BRO! IT WORKED WELL!!! AM FROM JAMAICA! (Y)

Anonymous said...

but this makes the phone unusable for at&t sim in US..

Hannibal said...

Thanks! Worked perfect in Central America

Hannibal said...

Thanks! worked perfect in central america

Anonymous said...

Worked perfect! Thank you so much! Wast locked to AT&T, now I can use it in Nicaragua.

reeshi said...

emergency calls only showing mm6 can you please help

Anonymous said...

If u take this to india will it work imei is 00000000... after this procedure raj

A said...

Nope! I tried the airtel sim in India and I was not able to get a signal...

Götz said...

Ich habe es mit einer blau-Karte (Deutschland) gemacht und es hat auf Anhieb funktioniert. Toll !!!

Anonymous said...

Did not work.even the the AT&T sim is now invalid.what can Ido.

Anonymous said...

Works perfect with Telcel Mexico,
Thanks man!

sunny said...

unlocked but it is not taking network as my imei number changed to all zeros due to this code.
what to do ??/

Unknown said...

How do i undo this change?

Unknown said...

How do I undo this???

Thanks in advance for your help...

Anonymous said...

do you know if this will work if i buy the same phone and take it overseas?

A said...

That depends on where you take the phone. It worked for an indian sim card in USA but the same sim card didn't work in India in this phone.

A said...

That depends on where you take the phone. It worked for an indian sim card in USA but the same sim card didn't work in India in this phone.

Unknown said...

How can i undo this change?

A said...

I haven't tried it yet. I'll post an update once I do.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much!!! this saved me 24 bucks for obtaining a code!!

Anonymous said...

Yes, Thank you very much working in DIGITEL Venezuela...

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much works at bolivia

Anonymous said...

SWEET Thanks worked for me

Anonymous said...

Another earlier poster stated " but this makes the phone unusable for at&t sim in US.." Is that true?

ds said...

Another poster stated "but this makes the phone unusable for at&t sim in US.." Is that true? You can no longer use the original at&t sim?

ds said...

Another poster stated "but this makes the phone unusable for at&t sim in US.." Is that true? You can no longer use the original at&t sim?

Unknown said...

Works perfectly! Thanks :)

Unknown said...

hi i currently have an s3 att&t 4.1.1 version,, can i just put in a telcel chip to use every time i go to mexico for business trips?? let me know asap thanks!!

Unknown said...

can i use an att&t cell phone galaxy s3 in telcel mexico without unlocking it,,?? i heard att owns telcel just a question i have thanks.. please help..email is candyhdz1993@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Many thanks! Worked like a charm.

Anonymous said...

I had the same problem after visiting the USA. You helped me a lot! WOW! Thank you very much!

Anonymous said...

Kommol(Thank you) Mani from the Marshall Islands.

Anonymous said...

Gracias, funciona muy bien en la red de Telcel Mexico Thanks, work fine in Telcel Mexico Network

JC PerozaM said...

Thanks a lot, it works fine with gsm networks in Venezuela!

Anonymous said...

This was awesome thanks

Unknown said...

I'm from Jamaica and i cant make calls only receive text messages.

mac115 said...

Hi Mani - I want to buy A157 and use this in India in Indian sim card. Do i need to do Sim unlock or Network unlock and which procedure I should be following.

Coincidentally I saw you are from Bloomington IL and I also live there. Must be in SF

mac115 said...

Hi Mani - I saw your note and little confused on unlocking A157. I want to gift this phone to someone in India so that they can use there with Indian service provider. Should I do a sim unlock or network unlock or anything else. Again the idea is to use this in India with India service provider. I don;t think IMIE 0000000000 will work there

Anonymous said...

Jamaica, did you get it working?

Is Digicel blocking imei of all zero's? or is it Lime

A said...

The above procedure would make the imei number all 0s in the phone. May be because of this, I was not able to use this phone in India with the same airtel sim card.
However, my AT&T sim card works fine in the US, and I have even called customer care to associate this phone to my sim card permanently. One thing to note is that AT&T will not accept 0000 as imei number. So, I provided the IMEI number printed below the battery in the back of the phone, and everything works fine now.

Unknown said...

I have a #mm6 code from using an unlocked code att gave mevon my galaxy 3 s willvthis fix it?? If so its att phone n I have T-Mobile sim n service so I need T-Mobile sim to work in it any help great ly appreciated no one seams to no what to do for me please email me @ michelleshere4u@gmail.com. thank u again I need to no if sim for T-Mobile will work in us I have an I phone that I needa unlock from att to

Anonymous said...

I am in the same situation as Mahesh. This procedure is useless if you want to gift this phone to someone in India, unless BSNL/Tata DOcomo are more forgiving than Airtel

Anonymous said...

Worked like a champ! Thank you so much!!!

Anonymous said...

Tried it and it worked with a t-mobile sim and a lycamobile sim here in USA.... Web doesnt work that sucks. THANKS

Anonymous said...

thanks for the info, it works.

Anonymous said...

Manikandan, this worked flawlessly!! I am amazed, so many websites kept sending me to a place to buy a code (which many users say is a scam). But your method worked.

I have a question, do you know where I can get other codes? I am looking to unlock a Nokia 3555b. Thanks for any help. -ryan

Anonymous said...

good afternoon i am from Guyana and i got a att gophone from my aunty and i used your method and it worked for me thanks a lot. oh by the way Guyana is in South America

Samm said...

Hi
Anyway to get it worked in India

Anonymous said...

does any one know how to make this phone work in India?

Anonymous said...

Leave the AT&Tgo SIM in and just enter #*7337#. This will unlock the phone but not reset the IMEI. Increases network interoperability.

Captain Greybeard said...

I bought an AT&T Go-phone in the USA a few months ago. Now I'm back to Switzerland, where the AT&T credit will expire in a few weeks anyway. So I gave it a try, removed the AT&T SIM, entered #*7337# without the previous, longer, code, got a message that I could do emergency calls only, said, "What the fook?", shut the phone down, inserted the Swiss SIM (Sunrise), powered the phone up again, and hey presto, it works a charm!!!

What's more, all my American contacts are still there, and copying the European ones from the SIM was a matter of a few seconds.

Please note that I did not use the *2767*3855# code, just #*7337# without any SIM inserted.

Thank you very much. I now have a nice little back-up phone besides my allegedly smart phone.

Unknown said...

as the guy is shouting but no body is giving him an answer there are some countries or companies that black list the IMEI 15x0, so how to reverse the #*7337# code and regain the original IMEI?

Anonymous said...

I put a not-working ATT sim and just entered the 7337 code. Now my IMEI said "unknown". I did able to use it to call with T-mobile and ATT. Once I setup a t-mobile network profile, I am able to go online too. I could text too.

Anonymous said...

AT&T refused to unlock my phone which I purchased while vacationing in US from Canada earlier this year because the phone was not active for longer than 6 months.

Now I want to use the almost brand new phone with another carrier in Canada, found this post and was able to unlock the phone by following the no sim card, skip reset step procedure.

However, IMEI is now 15x0, I will be traveling to Japan/Korea and Australia soon, any chance to get the IMEI back so I will not run into trouble, I copied down the IMEI before unlocking.

Thanks very much for sharing this.

Anonymous said...

me lo desbloqueo completamente pero nada mas resive mensages... imei en 0000 cuidado aqui en republica dominicana no trbaja... telefono inservible

Anonymous said...

Thank you!!!!!
Called ATT to unlock this phone. ATT took a week to give me an unlock code that did not even work. The instructions here unlocked it in 2 minutes. Works great!

Unknown said...

mani

i am in india .
my imei is all 0 .

how do i make the phone work with vodafone and idea and airtel ?

Unknown said...

Hi i use #*7337# and my network and imie no goes blank plz help me

Anonymous said...

its working..but can't make a call..btw tanx for the code..

SachinN said...

can i use airtel sim card in this phone in India coz i am not able to select airtel network and without sim card also its showing me network signal so i m confuse how get it working in india