Region Lock explained on European Galaxy S 5

When the Galaxy Note 3 was released last year there was a big hoopla about Samsung and its regional SIM locks. The “issue” came to be when it was found that potentially “unlocked” devices were found to carry a regional lock. It eventually came out that this wasn’t as big of a problem as people first thought with devices ending up being fully unlocked when activated in an approved region. To avoid the same issues as before, Samsung has updated their label with some clarification. It says:

European Model: This product should be activated with a SIM card issued from a mobile operator within Europe. (as defined EU/EEA, Switzerland and the following Non-EEA countries Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R.O.M), Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia and Vatican City.) To use SIM cards from other regions, a cumulative call over five minutes must first be made with the SIM card from European operators.

So basically if you have over 5 minutes of call time on a SIM in an approved region, your brand new Galaxy S 5 will be able to be used on any carrier world-wide. The potential reasoning behind doing this is to help in stopping unauthorized phone importers who could activate the phone with a European SIM before it ships to places outside of an approved region. Of course, it’s another hoop that customer have to jump through for an unlocked device.

source: Android Central

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Region Lock explained on European Galaxy S 5