AT&T Lumia 900 users now able to unlock their phones. Kind of.

"I am not a number! I'm a free phone!"

Word on the street is that starting yesterday (October 8th), those of you who are on AT&T or at least have an AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 can now call with your International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number and get your unlock code. That would allow you toss in a T-Mobile SIM (or anyone else’s) and use the phone freely on any network.

We called and emailed AT&T on the matter and we can confirm that they are unlocking phones but…this is AT&T we’re dealing with and our experience was far from smooth...

All right AT&T, let me have it...

Our George Ponder emailed them about it and he was told that unless you are out of contract or paid the ETF, they won’t give you the code. The conversation ended there for him. I called AT&T, which is the recommended method. However, I spent 33 minutes on the phone, half of which was the customer service agent looking through his manual to figure what I actually wanted.

In the end, I gave him my IMEI only to be told that they can't find the unlock code. In turn, they created a case for me and they should have it resolved by the 17th.  Needless to say that was a painful, near time wasting experience.

Having said that we have seen people in our forums and elsewhere have success in getting their unlock code, so if this is important to you then we recommend you call AT&T and get started with the process.

To obtain your IMEI before the call and to make your life easier, simply open up your dial pad and type *#06#. Write that down and grab a cup of coffee before you enter the AT&T train wreck of unlocking your device.

Good luck and let us know in comments if you were successful. Thanks to all who sent this in!

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.