[Taima]

Wondering if anyone could tell me a couple of things about debranding the above mentioned phone.

I don't have it yet, but it's on it's way in the mail, and I was hearing stuff around the net about people who love debranding their phone.

What I wanted to know is:

What do you lose by debranding
and
What do you gain?

Dunno if I should do it or not, due to lack of knowledge on what exactly it is lol.
I do know you can either pay to get it done or do it yourself.

Thx

[Joshuashawharvey]

Debranding, I believe, is illegal. Well here in the UK it is. Some places it's not though, so it might not be for you. At the very least you will lose your warranty. Debranding is removing the network branding/firmware that comes with the phone. Networks usually customise their firmware, and some poeple don't like this, hence why people debrand their phones, though some networks don't modify their firmware, only brand it. Debranding is done usually by changing the IMEI number to an unbranded IMEI, so then unbranded firmware can be installed on the phone.
Well as i've said, you will lose your warranty at the least, and you will have to check if debranding is legal or not where you live.
What you gain is an unbranded phone, that will be like the manufacturer set, instead of what the network set, so appearance may be a little different, some things may have different names, it may unlock new features, and you will lose the branding which usually shows when you turn the phone on and off.

[Blackmirror]

Never heard of it before

If its a new phone and something goes wrong they wont replace it....

Off to google and find out more

[Taima]

Very nice info there Josh H..
I'm not sure if it's illegal or not (never looked into it) but people have advertised that as a service on stuff like ebay so I'm not sure...

Since it will indeed trash my warranty, I'll probably wait some time before I do it unless there are some things that I absolutely cannot wait a year to change. (Warranty is a year)

[samjohnson]

Thats interesting, never herd of it before. I wouldn't do it till the warranty is up. Just in case something happens to the phone. It would suck to have to buy a new phone.

[Taima]

Yeah I'm definitely going to wait as long as I can, especially since I heard the keys crack if you press 'em too much (texting and stuff like that)

[Blackmirror]

I don't have a mobile

I washed and tumble dryed it

it died

[Taima]

Originally Posted by Blackmirror

I don't have a mobile

I washed and tumble dryed it

it died

Should've had a funeral for it

[Blackmirror]

Not as bad as my son
He sat on the loo and it fell out into the bowl from his pocket

not wanting to put his hands in he had the brilliant idea of flushing it
thinking it would stay in the bottom

nope bye bye phone .. off to the North Sea


His boss ribbed him for weeks
kept listening to the pipes and saying " its for you "

[evilfantasy]

Brand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service. A brand serves to create associations and expectations among products made by a producer. A brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, sound which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality.

I see it like this. Brands/Branding costs money and are normally protected under some sort of patent. Which involves laws and if it is a big name brand maybe millions of dollars. Firmware is Intellectual Property, still copyrite protected. In my eyes that would make Debranding illegal.

[Joshuashawharvey]

Updating the firmware is not illegal though, and can be even done at home using software that the phone manufacturers themselves provide, such as Nokia Software Update. But how it works is the networks will supply the update service with their own updated firmwares, so when you update your phone, and if it's branded, it will read your IMEI, and detect the latest firmware from that network. Changing the IMEI to and unbranded one will allow you to update the firmware with an unbranded firmware from the manufacturer themselves. It's even possible to update your phone with firmware that was not even made for that phone by changing the IMEI to one from a different model, but there's obviously no point. To my knowledge it may not be illegal in some places, but it definitely is here.

[evilfantasy]

That's the key statement "using software that the phone manufacturers themselves provide".

[Joshuashawharvey]

Yeah. Changing your IMEI, you need 3rd party software. It's just that i've read that some countries it may not be illegal to debrand, how true or not it is, I don't know. All I know is that it's illegal here in the UK

[evilfantasy]

Yea I personally don't care what one does with their phone. Just in the spirit of accuracy I think it's important to have the facts laid out. I don't think anyone would actually end up in jail for this (unless they were reselling them as their own creations) but "I didn't know" doesn't go far in the eyes of the law.....

[Joshuashawharvey]

Yeah I agree. There is no kind of punishment for it that I know of. To my knowledge, if you're found out, the most they will do is block your phone.