Subsidy codes

This is just to satisfy my curiosity (my phone is not locked), I always
believed that subsidy codes were coded into the handset by the manufacturer
for the phone provider. The manufacturer kept a database of the codes
matched to imei numbers and that the phone provider obtained the subsidy
code from the manufacturer and then "sold" it to the customer.
If I am right, how can commercial websites offer to provide subsidy codes to
someone who gives them the imei number. Or am I completely wrong and it is
just an algorithm based on the imei number ?

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<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> This is just to satisfy my curiosity (my phone is not locked), I always
> believed that subsidy codes were coded into the handset by the
> manufacturer
> for the phone provider. The manufacturer kept a database of the codes
> matched to imei numbers and that the phone provider obtained the subsidy
> code from the manufacturer and then "sold" it to the customer.
> If I am right, how can commercial websites offer to provide subsidy codes
> to
> someone who gives them the imei number. Or am I completely wrong and it is
> just an algorithm based on the imei number ?

Depends on the handset. The manufacturer code is generated by an algorithm.
These have been cracked and therefore the codes can be provided by
commercial websites.

[email protected]lid declared for all the world to
hear...
> This is just to satisfy my curiosity (my phone is not locked), I always
> believed that subsidy codes were coded into the handset by the manufacturer
> for the phone provider. The manufacturer kept a database of the codes
> matched to imei numbers and that the phone provider obtained the subsidy
> code from the manufacturer and then "sold" it to the customer.
> If I am right, how can commercial websites offer to provide subsidy codes to
> someone who gives them the imei number. Or am I completely wrong and it is
> just an algorithm based on the imei number ?

You are right on both counts, it is an algorithm. Sites that offer codes
often buy "credits" from bigger sites. When you reach the top of the
pyramid you will find that there is a bent employee somewhere inside who
is getting the codes for a price.

With others, it's simply the case that the algo has been reverse
engineered, for example Nokia DCT4 handsets.
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Regards
Jon