Owners of the Realme 10 Pro+ who bought the Chinese variant have run into a troubling problem: their devices cannot place or receive calls. The issue was highlighted by Evgeny Makarov, the editor-in-chief of Mobiltelefon, in discussion on the Telegram channel Bald from MT. The phenomenon points to a regional restriction that appears to be enforced by the device’s software when a non-local configuration is detected.
On the screen, users see a message indicating that the phone is customized for a specific region and that communication features are limited in the current region. In practical terms, this means that despite having a capable modem and a functioning SIM card, the essential calling capability may be disabled while using a variant intended for a different market. Realme users facing this problem have been advised to reach out to the Chinese seller or the official support channel to seek a fix. These steps suggest the issue is tied to how regional firmware versions are managed and pushed to devices sold in different territories.
It is noted that Realme 10 Pro and Realme 10 Pro+ devices began official sales in Russia earlier in the year. In the Russian market, there were also customers who had ordered the Chinese edition of the phone ahead of the local release. The timing and the region-specific restrictions raise questions about how BBK Electronics, the parent company of Realme, Oppo, and OnePlus, handles multi-market launches and regional firmware updates for these models.
Analyst commentary from Makarov and other observers suggests that 2023 models from the BBK group might ship with similar regional limitations or features that require activation tailored to the local market. The precise effect of pre-activation in China remains unclear, and there is ongoing debate about whether such steps could mitigate regional lockouts after the device reaches a new country. This uncertainty underscores the broader challenge of harmonizing software across global markets while maintaining regional compliance and carrier compatibility.
Similar reports have surfaced concerning OnePlus 11 smartphones, which are part of the same corporate family. Russian owners of these devices allegedly faced the same inability to make or receive calls, illustrating that the issue may not be isolated to Realme alone. A broader pattern seems evident: when BBK-branded devices arrive in different regions with Chinese-origin firmware, critical communication features can be restricted until regional configurations are properly applied. The problem has reportedly extended beyond Russia to other countries, suggesting a widespread regional lock mechanism affecting several BBK brands in certain shipments and variants.