[adwaitgharat]

Hello,
I purchased The HTC Windows Phone 8X last year in the month of August via eBay. It turns out that the phone belonged to the Telstra network of Australia. The phone seems unlocked as I use my TATA DOCOMO sim on it and it works perfectly.
Although the problem is that, it still shows carrier as Telstra in Phone Information under Settings and also, certain Telstra specific apps such Garmin navigator are still present int the app list. Moreover, while booting, the screens include the Telstra bootlogo screen.
This makes me wonder whether the phone is properly unlocked or not, because I receive updates according to Telstra Update schedule only and certain features such as DATA SENSE that are omitted by Telstra are also omitted in the update I received.
So help with knowing whether my phoone is really unlocked or no, and if not, then what should I do in order to do so.
I stay in Mumbai (India) and my phone is updated to GDR3.

[N_LaRUE]

Any phone can be unlocked but still be branded by the carrier. For example, my phone is EE branded but it's unlocked. I am stuck with EE updates though.

You can use other ROMS on your phone but I'd wait to do that until the official WP8.1 comes out.

[metalchick719]

That's completely normal. It was originally a Telstra phone that the first owner probably got unlocked, unless the phone was unlocked from the get go. My 920 is a Rogers unlocked and shows in the settings that it's a Rogers phone. No biggie as long as it still works on your carrier and can get updates from the original carrier.

[adwaitgharat]

Ohk, but then what if I dont want it to be telstra ? Cause telstra s*cks... it really does !!!
NO DATA SENSE... very much delayed updates... nothing proper :(
So I would want to flash it to the unbranded ROM, like N_LaRUE said; in that case what should I do ?? approach HTC service centre ?!
Is unbranded ROM better ??? I guess atleast I'll get all the updates with all the features and that too in time right ???

[metalchick719]

Are you running 8.1 on your phone via the developer preview? I'm not 100% sure, but Data Sense might be available through that. Of course, you could flash to a different ROM if you want. I personally don't know how to do that, but I'm sure there are instructions on the web somewhere (including here).

[adwaitgharat]

No I haven't upgraded to 8.1 Developer's Preview yet. I have the GDR3 update running on my phone.
( O.S version : 8.0.10501.127 & Firmware revision number : 3030.0.41601.841 )
I have read there are a few bugs in the developer's preview, & also my cell is yet in the warranty period, so I would like to wait for the final draft. Then again, because of Telstra it would get delayed a lot with unfortunately a few features skipped maybe including datasense.
So I thought if I had an unbranded firmware, that would be better right ?? What is your opinion on this ?
Also, would the HTC Service Centre do it for me ?? Ofcourse they might charge, but would they ??

[metalchick719]

I'm probably not the best person to ask about unbranded firmware, but I'm sure there are others around here who have flashed their phones to it. You should probably be careful and make sure the bands from the firmware will be compatible with your carrier. But it might work fine if you're in India.

[mikey2toes]

There is no way of flashing the firmware on the 8x as I have looked. I have an unbranded 8x so I can see your frustration with having carrier branded rom. Mine is factory unlocked.

[adwaitgharat]

Yeah, it is really frustrating
I hope HTC can help me, I'll check up with the service centres here.
They can do the flashing right ??

[Arda Ozkal]

Check some threads on xda devs. They even root unlocked much samsungs and one (and the owner got a new phone, guess he did that to it too, so two) lumia.