UnlockBase

Mobile-Base is a dynamic new site that offers customers around the world a safe, secure and properly vetted buying experience for mobile phones of all kinds and for all budgets. With over two billion mobile phones currently in use around the world, there’s always a great bargain to be had, but when you buy remotely it’s often difficult to know what you are getting.

Buy Cell Phone from Sellers you can trust

Instead of working with Sellers you don’t know or trust, Mobile-Base takes the time and effort to work with cell phone stores and dealers around the world who are keen to work with us. They want to extend the good service and reputation they have built up in traditional bricks and mortar stores and start to offer their products and services online. And because every dealer is checked, buyers can feel confident that they will receive exactly what they pay for.

The site is designed to be easy to navigate, and refreshingly fast to find exactly what type of phone or device you are looking for, or where is the best section for you to sell your own wares. Whether you’re looking to buy, or you want to sell a phone, you can be up and running on Mobile-Base fast.

Tell us what you want, we’ll tell you when it’s available

Whichever model you are looking for from a wide choice of brands, if you don’t find what you want straightaway you can subscribe to the site and we’ll let you know as soon as a seller offers the phone you are searching for.

With each Seller we feature you can quickly check what inventory they have on the site, as well as their pricing history. If you find better value, just move on, Mobile-Base is like a multi storey shopping mall that only sells phones and devices, so there’s a lot of choice.

We make sure everything runs smoothly. Mobile-Base has a a team of ten dedicated mobile phone experts working 24/7 to review and monitor every single deal posted on our site so as to offer maximum protection to our customers, and to ensure prompt and efficient payment for our trusted dealers.

So whether you’re a webmaster or a cell phone store owner, you should get in touch to find out more about our affiliate program and details on how you can make some serious money by trading your phones with us.

Trade older phones and devices on Re-Boot Hill

In addition to selling new or newish phones and devices, you can even buy or sell older products, many of which are rare and no longer in production, in our special section called Re-Boot Hill. There is still a thriving market for older phones, tablets, iPads and other devices, as well as all those easy to lose accessories such as chargers and cables that go with them. And even though these are older products you’re still protected to make sure you get exactly what you pay for. All item descriptions must be accurate and truthful.

Learn handy hints on buying and selling online

In the coming months we’ll be adding informative articles on best practice for buying and selling mobile phones and other devices remotely. There are already articles on how not to get scammed, how to find that all important IMEI, and how you can make money from older devices. You can learn a lot without having to lift a finger.

Tell us what you want!

Rather like a smartphone, Mobile-Base is a two-way communications tool. We tell you what’s out there, you tell us what you want and how you want the site to improve. We’re here to listen to what you need to make ours the best mobile phone market on the web. Check us out!

We think of cellphones as being very much a 21st century invention. And there is no doubt they have become indispensable to our everyday lives, all around the world. Modern cellphones or smartphones as they have become known, are used as a means of instant communication, whether by phone, text, email, instant message, or Skype. For video gaming, for music, for photography, even for finding our way to the nearest take out at 2am in the morning.

As more apps are developed, they become more crucial to our everyday lives. But did you know that wireless technology has actually been around since the early 1900s? No? Then you need to arm yourself with our brief history of the cellphone.

Wireless Technology in the Early 1900’s

It all started with one Nathan B. Stubblefield in the year 1908. He was a self-described “practical farmer, fruit grower and electrician” and also an inventor who was granted a patent by the US government to develop a wireless telephone technology system. Fast forward to 1921, and the first use of a radio telephony service became available on first-class passenger trains on the Berlin-Hamburg route in Germany.

Stubblefield (1908) with his later, induction, wireless telephone

Meanwhile, not to be outdone, in the United States, the first radio receiver was created by the Galvin Manufacturing Company, and soon became known as the Walkie Talkie. The model was referred to as the Motorola SC-300. The Walkie Talkie was quickly adopted by police departments as it delivered a means of constant communication, even while the police were out patrolling the beat.

Mobile Phone Technology after World War 2

The first official “cellphones” although not as we know them today, were first used by the Swedish Police in 1946. They worked by means of connecting a hand-held phone to the central telephone network. These early cellphones were separate to two-way radio phones that were commonly used in cars and taxis as a means of portable communication. There was just one problem with these phones, they could only make 6 calls before the car’s battery was drained!

Modern cell phone technology closer to what we recognize today, started when the appropriately named D.H. Ring from Bell Labs created hexagonal cells for mobile phones in 1947. Later, another engineer from Bell Labs came up with the idea of cell towers that would transmit and receive signals in three directions instead of two. However, rather like aviation design, electronics and other technologies take decades to mature. For instance, the electronics that were used in the first real cell phones were first developed in the 1960’s. In 1950, radio phones were used by the US military for communication and civil services.

1947 Paper That First Described a Cell-Phone Network

Cellphone Development in The ’60s

The electronic parts and components that are used in today’s generation of cellphones were developed during the 1960’s. Yes, cellphone technology was already available in the 60s, however its use was only restricted because the cell areas were only base stations which covered a limited land area. During these times, calls could be made, but if the cellphone user traveled beyond the boundaries of the cell area, the signal got blocked or went dead. Of course that can still happen today but cellphones can cover a far wider area.

Cellphones in the 70’s and 80’s

In 1970, Amos Edward Joel, who also was another engineer at Bell Labs, developed the call handoff system. This technology facilitated phone calls from one area to another that would not be dropped. By 1971, AT&T, requested a public cellular phone service from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), but that request was only processed a decade later. The advent of analog cellphone service began in 1982, and this continued until 1990.

In 1983, Motorola unveiled the first truly portable cellular phone to the world. It was called the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, also known as the Brick. This was they type of phone Michael Douglas used in the movie Wall Street. The FCC approved it in the United States. Motorola developed the technology for cellular phones for decades and this particular phone took 15 years to come on the market at a cost of over 100 million dollars.

Michael Douglas (as Gordon Gekko in the movie “Wall Street”) holding a Motorola DynaTAC

Cellphones become smartphones – 2007 to present

Just prior to the new millennium in 1999, the first-ever fully-fledged Internet phone service was introduced by Japanese company NTT Docomo. The following year, mobile phone advertising first appeared in Finland, when a free SMS text service was launched, and was sponsored by advertisers. Cellular phones from the early 1990s are considered second generation (2G) and they were able to work on mobile phone systems such as GSM, IS-136 (TDMA), and IS-95 (CDMA). Digital mobile phone networks were in use in the United States in 1990 and in Europe by 1991.

In 2001, the pre-commercial 3G trial network was also launched by NTT Docomo, and soon after, Sony and Ericsson agreed to create a joint company, which was called Sony-Ericsson, for the development and manufacture of high-end cellphones.

Just as 3G became accepted worldwide, and phones were designed around the capabilities of the speed and services it could provide, along came 4G in 2011.

When we look back on the introduction of the Apple iPhone, one of the earliest smartphones in 2007, everyone hailed it as a complete revolution, enabling music, photography and instant messaging, yet all this was managed on 3G, and in comparison to today’s high speed 4G broadband access, today the first Apple iPhone would seem incredibly clunky, underpowered and slow.

With the introduction of 4G mobile broadband (short for 4th generation) in Korea as early as 2008, smartphones of today act as efficiently and effectively as laptop computers, while still remaining wireless. This allows mobile phone users to access the full internet just as they would on a computer without any decrease in speed or the dropping of any data. If you think back to early websites adapted for mobile, they were slow, prone to stalling and generally frustrating to deal with. In the last couple of years, apps have been developed for popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Amazon that actually work better and look better than their desktop based counterparts. For now, the 5G network is the fastest mobile broadband network available.

The technology behind the 4G network is either WiMax or Long Term Evolution (LTE). WiMax uses a broadband network over a wireless connection. LTE, on the other hand, transfers data using IP connections. Essentially 4G creates an IP address for every mobile device.

And what about the future of broadband transmission and advances in smartphone technology? There are great plans underway but we will leave that for another posting…

At UnlockBase we deal with more types of cellphones than people even know exist. We handle all the big name brands as well as several lesser known brands. We offer the largest database of cellphones and service providers on the web, and we advise hundreds of customers each and every day about all kinds of topics, from how to unlock their phone to how take care of their phone.

Here then is our expert advice on the best post-purchase care of your device when it comes to the all-important screen. You’ve just bought or signed up for the gleaming new cellphone, but after just five minutes of use the screen can easily become a smeary, sticky mess of bacteria and fingerprints. With an unprotected screen, after just a few weeks, hairline scratches can start to appear from those times the phone scraped your keys in your pocket or you placed your phone front side down. Then there’s the dust, or the damage from UV rays, or maybe the eye searing glare from the screen when your insomniac boss calls you at gone 2am to check on stuff he could have asked you during the day.

Since the glass screen is one of the most vulnerable parts of a costly cellphone it makes sense to protect it with a good quality screen protector. But before purchasing just any screen protector, consider what type of protection you need. If you use your phone mainly for business you might want to consider a screen that protects your privacy, or if you use it at home during your leisure time, you may simply need a screen protector to protect against scratches, dirt, and sticky fingerprints.

As with many modern developments that have since become household products, the United States military first used a similar transparent coating to protect helicopter blades and electronic displays from abrasive airborne particles in harsh environments. Screen protectors are made from a an extremely thin clear plastic material that covers the screen of your phone so perfectly that users often do not even realize they have a screen protector on their phone. In the early days, screen protectors could be rather fiddly as they had to be trimmed to size, but today’s versions come pre-trimmed and punched to fit a wide range of cellular devices. Here are 6 top reasons you should put a screen protector on your phone.

• Screen Protector For Better Privacy

With a privacy screen protector prying eyes are unable to read your private data when out in public. That’s because the information on your phone is visible only to you as you are directly in front of the screen looking straight at it. When the phone is tilted at an angle, however, the contents of the screen become masked, keeping electronic data confidential and blocking the view from nosey neighbors in the subway or on the coach.

• Screen Protector As A Handy Mirror

Need to check your appearance or freshen up before an important meeting? When the phone’s screen is turned off, the screen protector creates a mirror-like finish if you choose a reflective style screen protector. But once in use, all you see is the screen of the phone.

• Screen Protector To Reduce Glare

Anti – glare screen protectors use a matte finishing coat and diffusion thereby breaking up the reflected light that is given off the screen’s surface. An anti-glare protector reduces eye strain and avoids you having to squint due to the harsh glare. They also improve visibility outdoors or in brightly lit conditions.

• Screen Protector To Resist Fingerprints

With a fingerprint resistant screen protector, screens stay clean looking without having to constantly clean them, at the same time eliminating the use of harsh cleaning agents that can damage the screen’s surface and bright glossy finish.

• Screen Protector To Guard Against Bacteria

Constantly touching the screen surface with your fingers is going to create mold, while climactic conditions can create mildew that causes stains, odors, and other problems. A specially formulated coating on an anti-bacterial screen protector kills over 99 percent of common bacteria by preventing its growth and transmission. The perfect choice for those working in hospitals, schools, and other public places where bacteria can breed and where cleanliness is of prime importance.

• Screen Protector To Prevent UV Damage

Anti-reflective (AR) screen protectors offer UV and glare protection by filtering out UVB rays while eliminating glare from sunlight thereby optimizing the screen’s readability with minimal eyestrain.

UnlockBase is the web’s leading remote online cellphone unlocking site and has the web’s largest database of cellphone models and service providers all around the globe. It may not sound very romantic, but when you consider the cellphone has become the medium of choice to flirt, romance, chat, share pictures and find hot dates all over the world, then you can start to see how UnlockBase can help. Several websites such as OK Cupid and Plenty of Fish, not to mention a whole raft of some of the more naughty dating sites, have modeled their entire business structure around their customer base using the cellphone. It means that finding the love, or even the lust of your life, can be as simple as just reaching for your phone to exchange flirty messages, chat for hours on social media apps, or better still, chat on the phone thanks to a generous cell phone deal.

That’s where UnlockBase can play Cupid. A lousy deal from your service provider can seriously hamper your naturally romantic nature if you quickly run out of data, or exceed your monthly call minutes. Make no mistake, no matter how interesting things are getting on your phone, they’ll stop you in mid-sentence or refuse to send that all important selfie if you should suddenly run out of credit. That’s what they mean when they say the course of love can be cruel. And when you suddenly cut people off on the phone, it’s Murphy’s Law that they will assume the worst. Their imagination starts to run riot. Did he or she just blank me? Have they found someone better to talk to? Why did they suddenly and so rudely stop talking to me?

Fortunately, with UnlockBase, it takes only a few seconds to free yourself from a lousy phone deal and go in search of a better one. It’s rather like unlocking your own libido, because once free of your all controlling service provider you are free to find any provider you want. One with better call rates, a better data package, or much better reception in your area so you are not constantly asking your loved one to repeat what they just said, or seeing only fuzzy images of them on an intimate Skype call – that gets tiring and unromantic very quickly.

If your cellphone is going to be your method for finding love and fulfillment it needs to be free to work its magic, and that’s what an unlocked cellphone can be. The beauty of an unlocked phone is that it doesn’t limit you to just searching for love in your own back yard. Imagine if you wanted to find romance in another part of the world. Your traditional cellphone provider will quickly pour cold water over that with texts that won’t go through because they are not part of your regular package, crippling call rates, and quite often, the inability to actually connect with certain foreign countries.

Let UnlockBase unlock your phone and you can buy yourself a SIM card such as Lebara, Vectone or Lycamobile which are specially designed for long distance calling, with cheap call rates, generous text messaging costs and even free calls if your long distance lover uses the same service provider.

You don’t need to test your patience or powers of endurance with Wattsapp or Viber messaging if you can just pick up the phone and chat for hours. Explaining how you feel and what you’re trying to say is much easier when you just say it with spoken words, but unless you want romance crushing bills falling on your doormat from a normal cellphone service provider, your long distance love life will suffer without an unlocked phone.

UnlockBase doesn’t just unlock your cellphone, it sets your spirit free.

You might think that choosing your cellphone is much more important than choosing your cell phone provider, but if you get stuck with the wrong provider, it’s really like being stuck in a bad marriage for 24 long months.

Fortunately, with UnlockBase there is a an easy and painless way to get a quickie divorce from your service provider, because UnlockBase has the largest database of mobile phones and service provider around the globe, and is able to unlock your cellphone within seconds. That’s always good to know, but it doesn’t alter the fact that you should give serious consideration to which cellphone provider before you sign on the dotted line.

But why is this so?

Good coverage

Well first of all, the provider provides the all-important network coverage you will receive throughout the length of your contract, and coverage is not created equal. You can have poor and patchy coverage from one service provider in one particular area, and excellent coverage from another. Before you make up your mind, ask the provider to check your area to see how well they cover your part of the world. Make sure you get the best coverage you can in the areas where you will need it.

The right cellular technology

Another important point to consider is whether you travel frequently. Before you sign up for that shiny new phone with the big megapixels, find out if it offers GSM when traveling abroad. CDMA, while common in the States, is not nearly as prevalent outside of American borders. You don’t want to arrive in a foreign country only to find your phone can’t find a signal and is effectively dead for the whole trip.

Generous data package and 4G network

The data network and data package didn’t use to matter so much when apps and video games weren’t as all powerful as they are today. But in this age of intense online surfing on your smartphone, data packages and the speed at which they are delivered are all important and must be examined carefully. You need a data package generous enough to enable all the things you want to do on a daily basis including use of the internet, sending of e-mails, streaming music and videos, and of course, downloading apps and video games. If you are not able to access free WiFi while you surf you’ll be amazed how fast your phone gobbles up data.

As for the network, the fastest 4G LTE data network has become like a God given right. If you want LTE, which of course you most probably do, get to know where the carrier has the best 4G coverage and how fast it is. And just like with calls, make sure you’ve tried a carrier’s data network before committing.

The right phone for your needs

Service providers tend to push you towards the phone they want you to have, and quite often this is a model which they want to offload before the new version comes in. That means you are stuck with last year’s technology for maybe two whole years. So it really pays to do your homework and read a whole bunch of online reviews about a wide variety of phones before settling on the one that’s best for you. If the service provider doesn’t have the phone model you want, take time to check what they are offering before signing up. Different service providers offer different models and even the same models can be at different monthly rates, so check and double check your phones so that you don’t get swayed or misinformed by the sales talk.

Customer service

If all goes well and you have done your homework properly, you won’t need to be talking or dealing with customer service too often, but if you find you are dealing with them, and you are not satisfied, the chances are it’s because you haven’t ironed out all the important details we have mentioned above. Over 90% of calls or interaction with the customer service departments of network service providers stems from either the phone, the coverage, the data package, or the bills. If you have found out all you need to know before you sign up, you can quite possibly get by with only minimal need for customer service. But like we say, if you find you’re not happy, and you’re stuck with poor service and a lousy package, don’t worry, there’s always UnlockBase!

Did you know that over 50% of cellphone owners – 58% – have been the target of phone scammers in the past year alone? This staggering statistic means that one in two people will receive a scam call, and it’s a 41% rise in the number of such calls since 2013. These figures were released recently by the Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK) and usually such trends in the UK reflect a much worse situation in the USA, so it’s safe to say, there are a whole lot of scammers working the phones.

This type of phone scam has become known as ‘vishing’, but what is a vishing phone scam? This kind of call typically involves fraudsters deceiving people into believing they are speaking either to a police officer, bank staff, or a representative of just about any financial or even a government department.

There are apps that can be downloaded to create such spoof calls. Amazingly calls can appear to be coming from a number you know and trust such as your bank, when in fact it’s a criminal call you from hundreds of miles away.

Skilled fraudsters have convinced people they are genuine by appearing to know certain financial and personal information about them, all of the information has been previously hacked form your account details. The fraudster will then proceed to explain that your savings account or current account is at risk from hackers, and that they are urgently recommending you to switch the account to another account number.

This exact trick has robbed several unsuspecting people of tens of thousands of pounds of their savings. Sometimes it is possible to stop some of the funds before they reach the fraudsters account, but if you leave it too late to double check with the bank and the money is transferred, there is nothing your bank can do, and you are liable for the loss. Another variation of a phone scam involves the fraudster persuading people to hand over cash directly to a courier, or to invest in a scheme that is apparently making others a small fortune.

If you are suspicious about a call from your bank, tell the caller you are going to hang up and call back to verify the authenticity of the call. However, even then beware. Scammers actually encourage people to hang up and call their bank to verify the legitimacy of the call. A phone line can stay open for up to two minutes, so the fraudsters remain on the line and play a dialing tone to trick the individual into thinking they’re calling their bank. Banks, police and other official institutions will never ask you to call them back to verify their authenticity.

Leave the phone call to your bank for at least 5 to 10 minutes to frustrate the fraudsters, and always be wary of giving out bank details and other sensitive information. Most banks have a password you need to repeat in part prior to proceeding with the call, you might want to test the caller by deliberately mentioning incorrect letters to your password. If they say it’s ok, you know you are dealing with a scammer.

Information is everything to a scammer. Just your name, email address and phone number are enough for fraudsters to find out your home address and then sell your details on to other scammers in places as far away as Romania and Russia.

UnlockBase can stop criminals in their tracks

If you start receiving too many of these calls, and many people complain of being plagued by scam calls on a daily basis, UnlockBase can quickly come to your aid.

UnlockBase is the biggest online remote cellphone unlocking service on the web. If you find your cellphone number has been compromised by fraudsters, don’t put up with it. We can unlock your phone quickly, easily and economically, leaving you free to find another service provider and a brand new number the scammers don’t know about.

Guard your information carefully

Never disclose your new number to anyone you don’t know or trust. Do not broadcast your number on social media or fill in online forms that require a cell phone number unless you are certain you know the number will be handled in complete confidence. Whether you’re looking to invest, or searching for a new bank account, you should always be the first one to make contact. If the caller is trying to hurry you and brow beat you into a decision, be suspicious, say no.

Unfortunately, scammers have been able to steal information from official records and the DVLA, the British driving license authority, so always be on your guard when you receive calls from people you do not know.

Cellular phone tracking is not just a fantasy dreamed up by spy thriller movie directors to make you believe that there is no escape from Big Brother. Big Brother, to a greater or lesser extent, really is tracking you, or at the very least, can do so should they ever feel the need.

The process of determining the position of a cellphone on a map, whether it be stationary or moving can be achieved by either GPS, which most smartphones have automatically included these days, or by checking the triangulation of several radio towers used by the cellphone owner’s network provider. The cell phones GSM is judged by the signal strength of the cell phone to nearby aerials and/or antennas.

How is working Cellphone Triangulation

At UnlockBase we unlock thousands of smart phones around the world every year, in fact more than any other web based remote unlocking service, so we like to keep our customers knowledgeable about the clever technology that comes hidden inside every phone you own.

Sneaky cellphone tracking

Instant messaging apps such as Viber have taken the GPS tracking device a step further by actually providing an accurate location complete with map an address of where your chat buddy is living or working. You may have installed other apps that can enable malicious app writers to intercept or read your emails, your text messages and sensitive information on your phone such as your bank details. If you have clicked OK to a long list of permissions on a newly installed app, delete it!

Cell phone tracking that includes a location gives out the actual coordinates of the cell phone. While the government may or may not be interested in your whereabouts, this feature is more commonly used by your cellphone provider to get an idea of where the cellphone is. Why do they do this? It’s not because they care about your safety or are spying on you. They simply want to know when your cell phone moves into areas where there are extra tariffs applicable. And this usually includes traveling to other countries.

Cell phone tracking that uses GPS is achieved by using a constellation of 27 satellites that orbit our planet. In simple terms, the satellites send out a signal which reveal where they are and when they sent the signal, and the GPS receiver picks up these signals. This information is then used to figure out where the GPS device is in relation to these satellites, and by doing so, accurately works out where it is on the globe. Don’t blame your cellphone for letting people know where you are; the GPS will simply transmit this information to whoever wants to know where the phone is located. And if you think going into the great outdoors will make you harder to follow, think again, GPS tends to work better outdoors.

Scenes showing cellphones being broken in two or thrown into rivers are common place in thriller movies. Ever since Osama Bin Laden and several of his cohorts were traced by their cellphones in the early days of tracking technology, they quickly reverted to a pre-cellular era and delivered all messages by human couriers.

What does your cellphone broadcast about you?

Hopefully you’re not in that situation, but if you were, do you really need to go that far, and what information is your cell phone broadcasting about you?

For example, if you believe your cellphone is being tracked switching to airplane mode won’t help. Every phone has two operating systems, one that connects to cellular networks, and one that interfaces with the customer. Airplane mode would only disable features on the customer facing operating system, such as Android or iOS, but not in the OS used between the phone and the carrier network. A phone can be happily giving out a ‘ping’ and you will never know it.

Your phone doesn’t even need to be sending out GPS coordinates, because any communication at all with a cell tower can expose you. By comparing the signal strength of your cell phone on multiple cell towers, someone looking for you can approximate your location with the triangulation technique, and criminals are still caught by this on a regular basis. Access to this data from your mobile network is, thankfully, out of reach of criminals, but service providers can be compelled to provide this personal data to law-enforcement agencies.

You often see the SIM card being thrown away by operatives in the movies. While this may provide an obstacle to cyber criminals, every phone has a built-in feature set of identifiers that may be detected via tools and devices used by the police and military. The NSA has even installed fake 2G cell towers thereby forcing a phone to 2G which means no encryption so it is easily detected and tracked.

At short range, your phone can also be tracked by Wi-Fi. Every time you turn Wi-Fi on, your phone is sending out a signal that includes your unique MAC address, a fingerprint for digital devices. Stores already employ this technology to track customer movements. It’s not ideal for surveillance, but with armed with your MAC address, surveillance teams don’t need an announcer to tell everyone you have left the building, they will already know.

Cellphone tracking is only going to get smarter, but unfortunately, for most of us, it’s too late to step off the merry go round. Could you go back to a pre-cellular era?

Whether you’re new to the ultra-competitive remote cellphone repair and unlock business or a seasoned pro, there is always a way to do things better and make life a little easier. That’s the idea behind MRC Manager. It’s a software designed specifically for the cellphone repair and unlock business to help business owners gain a competitive advantage by streamlining their operations, managing an unlimited number of technicians, automating invoicing, and tracking and organizing jobs as they come. In short, it’s a complete blueprint for running a cellphone repair and unlock business. All the thinking has been done for you. As you work with the software you will discover efficiencies and time saving procedures you never thought were possible.

Repair Service Center: MRC Manager = Easy scalability

The beauty of MRC Manager is that it’s not just a one size fits all solution to your business. There are different levels suited to each size of enterprise, but each software package, from the entry level MRC Manager – Standard to the top of the line MRC Manager -Ultimate, works in very much the same way, so there is no new learning curve every time you upgrade.

MRC Manager helps with some of the most important reasons you are in business in the first place: to be able to take on more work, and of course, to make more money with ease.

MRC Manager: Easy billing

Receiving jobs and then billing them promptly and efficiently should be the easiest part of your daily work schedule. With MRC Manager, you can achieve this in just 3 simple steps. First, you can easily oversee and manage all repair orders from receiving to processing repairs and then get paid by your customer, second, you can generate professional receipts & invoices your customers will appreciate and understand. And third, when you process a job, the invoice is automatically generated. This puts you in complete financial control of your business from the first day you try the software.

MRC Manager: Easy job tracking

One of the most frustrating aspects of the cellphone unlock business can be customers who constantly call up to check on the progress of their particular phone repair or unlock. MRC Manager takes that hassle off your hands. It enables customers to be able to check their own repair status online by simply inserting their job number.

With the MRC Manager Pro version customers can even ask for pricing on another unit at the same time and can choose to follow or contact you through social media such as Twitter or Facebook where they can make enquiries or brief in new jobs. Not only does this mean you no longer constantly need to handle phone calls, it ensures greater communication with customers and can result in more repeat business.

MRC Manager: Easy inventory keeping

With thousands of spare parts, you need MRC Manager to keep a quick and easy to understand log of what you have in stock, and what you need to restock. A manual stocktake can hours, with MRC Manager it can take just minutes. As you will know, one great way to frustrate customers is to not have popular items in stock when they need them.

MRC Manager: Easy E-Marketing

Of course, like any business, marketing yourself effectively remains a key component of your success. Again, this is where MRC Manager can help you. You can keep customers informed of new stock arrivals, impress them with prompt invoicing and receipts, and beat other rivals to be first with the news of new developments. You can even opt to communicate with customers instantly through SMS rather than risking emails getting lost in the spam filter, but if you or your customer prefer emails, the option is there too.

MRC Manager: Easy affiliation

If you want to make money from MRC Manager, that’s easy too. Just sign up for the free affiliation program and each time someone clicks on our banner on your site, you get paid.

MRC Manager: Easy on you

MRC Manager doesn’t stop working when you close the shop door. It works when you’re at home, at work, asleep, away on business, or even on holiday, and you can monitor all your activities in real time. All this, and it’s not expensive to run. MRC Manager – Standard starts at just $10.00 a month, and there’s a 50% discount on an annual subscription. There’s even 24/7 support via support tickets, email or via TeamViewer. Find out more today with the free trial (no credit card required)!

http://www.mrcmanager.com

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Good question, and right now the answer is quite simply Lycamobile! That’s because they currently have a buy two months get one month FREE offer on a choice of bundles.

Who is Lycamobile?

In case you are new to Lycamobile, founded in 2006, the company rapidly became the pioneers in cheap international phone calls using prepaid pay as you go Sim cards. They claim that a new customer joins them every two seconds.

Lycamobile Sim cards make calling not only cheaper in the UK, but all around the world. The brand’s stated mission is to connect family and friends wherever in the world they may be. They are the world’s largest international mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), providing low-cost, high-quality data and voice services to over 14 million customers across 19 countries.

Lycamobile is now expanding its product offering to include a broad range of financial and travel services, such as Lycamoney and Lycafly, that help people stay in touch across borders.

How to take advantage of the Lycamobile 3 months for the price of 2 deal

Upon arriving in the UK you can pick up a Lycamobile Sim card before you even leave the airport. Just head to WH Smith inside the terminal and ask for a Lycamobile Sim card or you can go online to the Lycamobile site and order a sim card for free.

Remember, you must have an unlocked cellphone!

Before you can take advantage of Lycamobile’s generosity, make sure you have an unlocked cellphone, so that it is free to accept any sim card from any service provider. If you want to break free from your current service provider UnlockBase can unlock your phone in minutes, quickly, easily and cost effectively.

Choose your tariff

When you visit the Lycamobile website you have a choice of 3 tariffs, UK Plan 15, UK Plan 20 or UK Plan 25, each of them offering 3 months for the price of 2, representing a saving of 33%. Note that these offers are for UK calls and SMS only. If you want to make overseas calls you will have to add more credit to your sim card and check the rates that apply to the country you want to call.

UK Plan 20
Pay £24 for 3 months with 1000 minutes per month, unlimited SMS, and 2 GB of data, and unlimited Lycamobile to Lycamobile calls and SMS.

UK Plan 15
Pay £38 for 3 months with 1000 minutes per month, unlimited SMS, and 3GB of data. You also enjoy unlimited calls and SMS Lycamobile to Lycamobile.

UK Plan 25
Pay £60 for 3 months with unlimited calls and unlimited texts to any UK service provider as well as Lycamobile to Lycamobile, and you also get 5GB of data.

Lycamobile Call to order

To buy the tariff of your choice there is a special phone number next to each tariff you can call and then you just follow the instructions on the screen. Lycamobile have championed low cost national and international calling, and if you’re looking for a great deal, right now theirs is the best prepaid sim card deal on offer in the UK.

Buying a used cellphone can be a great idea: you can save money, obtain an already unlocked phone, or buy a brand or a particular model you couldn’t otherwise afford. It sounds ideal, but unfortunately, buying a cellphone that is blacklisted can mean not only is your phone completely useless to you, you could potentially end up with a knock at the door from the police asking some difficult questions.

Think it can’t happen to you? In 2013 over 3.2 million cellphones were stolen in the United States alone, double the amount stolen in the previous year, so this is a fast growing problem. It means millions of cellphones are out there being advertised daily on online auction sites and listing sites around the world that could well be stolen, and you won’t know anything about it until you arm yourself with what to look for and what questions to ask.

Every mobile device in the world, whether it’s a cell phone or a tablet, has a unique serial number known as the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identifier). In a growing number of countries, operators enable consumers to report a mobile phone or device as lost or stolen using the device’s unique identity number, the IMEI.  The operator can block the phone from their mobile network, which is called IMEI blacklisting. Participating operators have an up to date Device Check database which contains the IMEI for devices reported as stolen or lost, as well as the device model and capabilities.

Groupe Speciale Mobile (GSM), established in 1982, defines the GSM standard as the internationally accepted digital cellular telephony standard. Global mobile connections now exceed some 10 billion connections, and as of 2015, exceeds the total population of the globe.

As a means of controlling this vast number of global connections, which is increasingly important in an age of international organized crime and terrorism, blacklisted IMEIs are provided to the GSMA central IMEI Database which allows operators to exchange data and to block devices on multiple networks both nationally and internationally.

Each time you make a call your SIM card immediately identifies you as a subscriber to that particular carrier. If your account is in order, then you can make the call and use the services of your service provider. Before that can happen, however, the network will check your phone’s IMEI, which is a number that is unique to every GSM handset.

Like IMEI, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) devices also use something similar called an Electronic Serial number, or ESN. The IMEI or ESN identifies the phone to your carrier and it checks that the handset is valid to use. If the phone is locked to another carrier or if it’s lost or stolen your service provider can use the IMEI to “blacklist” a device which means you won’t be able to make calls.

So for example, it’s the IMEI, and not your customer profile that lets a large carrier such as AT&T know that you are using an iPhone. Even if you switch to a different type of phone, a BlackBerry or an Android, your service provider will know which phone you are using. Even when you jailbreak a phone, your IMEI will still give your chosen service provider the information they need to know.

Each time you switch your phone on or attempt to make a call, the network systems check the IMEI number of the handset you are using as soon as you insert a SIM card.

In the USA, the cellphone blacklist is operated by the CTIA, which works with leading cellphone providers including AT&T, Cellcom, Nex-Tech Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless to provide a vast database of blacklisted phones. They are also linked to the GSM IMEI database.

In the UK, when the SIM card is inserted, the IMEI number of your handset is cross referenced with the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), which is also known as the IMEI database. If the IMEI number of your handset is on the CEIR/IMEI blacklist then the network will either refuse to send a signal to your phone (No signal strength at all or will supply a signal but will not allow any outgoing or incoming calls.

If your IMEI number is on the CEIR your handset is blacklisted and therefore of no use to you or anyone else except for spare parts.

Despite huge efforts by service providers and international cellphone network organizations to clamp down on stolen cellphones, inevitably the system has its shortcomings and criminals can still get around the blacklist database by sending blacklisted handsets overseas, which is why cellphone theft still tops the list of stolen items. It’s a crime worth billions every year to international organized crime syndicates. The so called petty criminal who pickpockets your handset while you gaze into a shop window could be passing the phone on as his part in a global crime syndicate. Also, IMEI’s can in some circumstances be changed or rewritten. Don’t be tempted to try it, it’s against the law and will result in a jail term, but it still goes on.

Another major reason criminals want to get hold of your cellphone is not just to sell it on the international market, it’s the chilling fact that while 77% of users use their cellphones for online banking transactions, less than a quarter of these have any type of security on their phones! Accessing sensitive banking details on an unprotected cellphone is much easier than robbing a bank!

There are also several examples of incomplete data with all of the blacklist databases because the submitting of details is still voluntary. For example, a handset that is barred in the USA could still work in Mexico and vice versa, and a cellphone bought or stolen in the UK can work in a different country. A large number of UK barred handsets find their way to Italy, Spain and France.

There is an important difference between unlocking and unblocking a cell phone. Unlocking a cellphone from a service provider to be able to choose another is perfectly legal, but when a mobile phone is “unblocked” criminals can change the IMEI number and make the cellphone operational again. This practice is illegal and only the manufacturers are allowed to alter it.

Unblocking mobile phones is a criminal offence and carries custodial sentences. It is even an offence to simply offer to unblock or reprogram a phone.

If you are buying a phone online, and amazingly, 74% of consumers do, and you see one you want to buy on an auction site or a listing site, first determine whether the phone in the picture is the exact same phone you are actually being offered. No matter what site you are on you should expect to be able to glean some basic stats about the phone: the color, the correct model number, its storage capacity; all these are vital details in the device description.

The next step is to see if you can contact the seller to ask for the IMEI, if he or she refuses to give you this important piece of information, be wary and walk away. It could mean they have something to hide, and the fact is, there are so many other options you could explore rather than running the risk of a blacklisted phone. For example, Amazon and eBay have a safeguard of profiles and seller reviews that make them more trustworthy than buying from unmonitored websites. Also, Swappa and Glyde, have policies and safeguards in place for buyers. For example, Glyde holds the seller’s payment in escrow until the buyer has checked the device and confirmed that it’s clean and offers a full refund policy if not satisfied.
If you pay for your phone through PayPal or with a credit card you should be able to obtain a refund if the phone proves to be blacklisted.

If you are buying an iDevice, Apple now has a service on iCloud.com called Check Activation Lock Status. This enables you to quickly see if a device was obtained illegally. If you have managed to obtain the IMEI serial number from your seller, you can tell if someone used ‘Find My iPhone’ to switch on Activation Lock.

Activation Lock was introduced in iOS 7. It locks down the device, making it unusable until the correct Apple ID and password have been entered. So if you do purchase a bad Apple so to speak, you won’t be able to use it. You can also check how much warranty is left on the device by checking the serial number too.

Buying a cellphone online is always a case of ‘buyer beware’, which is essential for any major purchase from a complete stranger on the internet.

IMEI stands for International Mobile Station Equipment Identity. It’s the key identifier of each and every cellphone around the world. You can check your phone’s IMEI quickly and easily on a number of free sites:

For Canada you can check here: http://www.protectyourdata.ca

In USA, you can check on the T-Mobile Website as well as Verizon, Ringplus, and Ting.

In Australia you can check for free on Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association Website:
http://www.lost.amta.org.au/IMEI or http://www.amta.org.au/pages/amta/Check.the.Status.of.your.Handset.

There are also some well-known free Check Services such as: https://swappa.com/esn
(ESN Check FAQ: https://swappa.com/faq/esn)

So it really is very easy to do some basic homework before you allow yourself to become stuck with a blacklisted mobile phone. If in doubt you can also check with the service provider that is hosting the phone or even your own current provider. You can quickly look for free IMEI services in your own country by checking on the internet.

There is also a paid for service called Checkmend but beware, if you use this site and the IMEI is blacklisted, you might just be approached by your local Law Enforcement agency who have direct access to the searches made on the Checkmend website. This could result in an unwanted visit to the police station at an unsociable hour of the day.

What to do once you are certain your phone is not blacklisted

This is the easy bit. If you obtain a clean cellphone but you are not happy with the service provider that is hosting it, or you simply want an unlocked phone, UnlockBase offers the web’s largest database of service providers and cellphone models that can be safely, quickly and economically unlocked via remote unlocking, and it can all be done in a matter of minutes. Also, UnlockBase won’t be beaten on price, so if you find a genuine deal elsewhere that unlocks the same model for less, UnlockBase will match it or beat it for price, and you can’t say fairer than that!

Buying a new cellphone can be a fun and rewarding experience provided you exercise caution and know your facts prior to purchase. Study this article well, ask questions, don’t be fobbed off and walk away if you are in the least bit suspicious. Also, let your friends know about this article by sharing it.

A complete guide to Blacklisted Cell Phones – the eBook

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