Clove Technology (www.clove.co.uk) started dispatching stock to its customers. It noticed the following sticker on the box.
In a nutshell, the Note 3 European SIM model, SM-N9005 has restricted functionality limitations regarding SIM cards on the Note 3.
As a consequence, this is the advisory message from Clove Technology.
“If you travel internationally (outside Europe) and usually insert a local SIM card when in those countries, the Note 3 will NOT be able to use the local network. It will lose all mobile connectivity with the exception of emergency calls.
For example, if you travel to the USA and insert a SIM card issued in the USA, you will not be able to use the Note 3 for any voice calls, text messages and mobile data connection. It will work via a WiFi connectivity only.
We are accepting and shipping all orders from Europe, with the exception of those countries mentioned.
As a result any orders received outside of Europe will not be shipped”
Just why Samsung has done this is unknown at present.
The same applies to phones sold in other regions. It only works with sims sold in that region. The Note 3 is a business phone and I cannot believe Samsung have been so underhand imposing this restriction without pre warning its commercial customers and its end users.
After the S4 internal memory saga, you would have thought Samsung would have learnt about being open with information that impacts its devices. Clearly not.
Gavin's Gadgets & Photography 
It has been confirmed that the handset along with the Galaxy S4, S4 Mini, Galaxy S3, and Galaxy Note 2 also have a regional SIM lock in place.
This is for hardware that was built after the end of July this year, but this issue has been clarified by Samsung. Basically if an owner activates their new Samsung handset in the country it was originally purchased, it can then be used elsewhere.
So as long as users do this they can easily travel to other regions and insert a local SIM card to avoid sometimes expensive roaming charges on their normal phone contract. So the warning sticker that is being placed inside the packaging of Samsung smartphones is basically warning purchasers that if they activate the device in another country, this option of using a local SIM in other regions won’t be possible.
Mike
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