As I mentioned in the previous post, I killed my phone last night. That was the Galaxy S-2 I inherited from my nephew. I am loathe to purchase a new smartphone, especially given the fact that I already “own” a perfectly fine Galaxy S-3. When I first got back to Korea I attempted to have SK telephone install a new sim card in my U.S. phone but was told it could not be done because the dicks folks at AT&T had “locked” the phone in a manner that could not be legally undone.
As our president has demonstrated on numerous occasions, laws are for the little people. And I am many things but little is not among them. So I set about trying to unlock my phone on my own. Found a handy website that offered step-by-step instructions on doing just that and I followed them to the best of my ability. Alas, the assholes geniuses at AT&T had apparently installed a block to the unlock, because the lock would not open in the manner the website had promised. I guess it wouldn’t have mattered anyway because after going through the unlocking process twice I discovered that the sim card from the S-2 doesn’t fit in the S-3.
What I find especially irksome is I’m paying AT&T a whopping $143.00 a month for the U.S. service I’m only using six months a year (that’s mine and Jee Yeun’s phone and data plan charges). I do this for the privilege of keeping my American phone number which I need to maintain for a host of reasons I won’t bother discussing here. But I’ve been on the AT&T plan for well over a year fulfilling my commitment which means I own the smartphones I bought when I signed up. Anyway, when I turned my S-3 back on after the unsuccessful unlocking effort, I got a message from AT&T welcoming me to Korea and advising I could set up an international plan by calling (for free!) a number they provided.
I don’t need or want an international plan, but I would like my phone unlocked. So I called. And the pleasant AT&T customer service rep advised that requests to unlock have to be submitted through the website. So that’s where I went and that’s what I did. And somewhere between two and five days from now I’ll have my answer. Which better be “yes” or I’m going to make some changes. To hell with the consequences, I will not be denied!