Is your Android Smartphone truly unlocked from the Operator???

After my just concluded experience I had to surely write this post so that the wider audience is aware of a common technical problem.

Problem Statement -

I purchased a HTC One X UNLOCKED handset around 6 months back while I was in UK. I was quite excited to have my first high end Android Phone which worked perfectly when I was in UK. The Vodafone Boot logo while powering on the phone made it clear that it was unlocked fro Vodafone UK network.

The problem started after I returned back to India. After inserting my Vodafone India micro-SIM (I cut out my old SIM with a micro-SIM cutter) everything seemed to work fine - Voice Call, Wi-Fi, Basic GPRS ('G' sign), etc. But I suddenly discovered that though we get EDGE ('E' sign) on the 2G Network, I was continuously getting only Basic GPRS ('G') speed. When I went to the Vodafone Store the representative told me to get a new factory made micro-SIM since he suspected that cut-out micro-SIM's cause such issues. Even after using  the new miro-SIM the GPRS speed issue continued. Googled a lot to find if there was another user with a similar issue - unfotunately no :-(

Troubleshooting -

Found that executing the USSD command *3*#4636#*#* from the Phone Dialer would return some statistics of the Phone. Executed the command and checked on the "Phone Information" section. All other data in the section looked normal from my technical experience, except the section which showed Network Type: Unexpected . With my Vodafone UK SIM it showed either Network Type: WCDMA or Network Type: HSPA . Trying lot of things found on the web did not solve my problem.

Solution -

I finally decided to Unlock the Bootloader and Flash a Custom ROM . Though I wasn't sure that this was a problem, but my gut feeling was that though the Phone was unlocked, the operator might have locked something in the Firmware relating to the GSM Frequency Bands. 

Found that ViperX ROM was one of the many popular ROM's and was also reported as quite stable.

Steps -
3. Check whether your Phone's CID is supported -
4. Flash Boot Image using FASTBOOT and Flash ROM using CWM Recovery -

I haven't gone too much into detail as all information on Bootloader Unlock, Rooting, CWM Recovery Installation and ROM Flashing are available on various sites. 

After having the custom ROM installed I can finally get EDGE speeds and the Phone Information now shows Network Type: EDGE.
So when you plan on getting an Unlocked Smartphone from outside India (which is not factory Unlocked) be ready for surprises and also be ready for ROM Flashing.
A Big Thanks to Team Venom for providing this ROM. I really like the ROM!
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