Official Apple iPhone Unlock Possible!?!

[angiepangie]

[StealthBravo]

What unlock? I have no idea what this thread is about, I was just waorried that someone might think I could agree with SB when we all know that is impossible!

I was worried about the same thing

[arieldemarta]

hi all i bought a iphone 3gs in the us but i live in venezuela is there anyway to do the official unlock ? is there an email address so i can send them an email about my problem? the official carrier here is movistar should i go to them and ask them ?

[confucious]

There is no way either AT&T or Movistar can unlock your phone.
What FW and BaseBand are you on?

[arieldemarta]

3.1.3 and 05.12.01 :s
i was trying to send an email to apple but it looks like you can only call them

[confucious]

As you've updated to the latest FW there is now no unofficial unlock available either.

[bobonix]

ok, i'm new to all this and i dont even own an iphone just doing the unlocking job for my confused friend , do you think i should give this i try
Fuzzyband Downgrade Your Iphone 3.1.3 Baseband 5.12.01 To 04.26.08

[confucious]

Fuzzyband only works with 3G iPhones bought when they were first released.Unless the week number is 28 of year 2008 it will not work.

[bobonix]

oh well,guess he'll have to wait for something else to happen..thanks for the quick reply

[ronblade]

Hmm, I have visited the link and I found it very useful. The site has got all the potentials. I love the ways it is designed and I suggest all of you to visit this.

[confucious]

Which link are you talking about?

[crashnburn_in]

Interesting stuff. Wrt all this info I am wondering if WHERE I should buy the iPhone from... so its overall cheaper and unlocked?

u can do this with att in the us i live in el paso tx and i originally wanted to exchange my iphone due to the screen had a dead spot so i echanged and everything when i got the new one back i tried to put my att sim since im a loyal customer and it wouldnt read it so i called apple tech support and i had to get transphered to a superviser since i had just exchanged out my iphone so i told him it was not reading my sim i never said att sim and he asked "did your carrier unlock it for you" me thinking quickly responded yes they did i thought the unlock would transpher to this new iphone he put me on hold for about 2 min and when he came back he asked me for an IMEI number i acted dumb and asked where do i get it he talked me throught it and once he had it he put me on hold once again and 5 min later he said "can you please connect your iphone to itunes "i did and that same carrier update poped up i installed it and viola it was officially unlocked so what did i do...well i sold it on ebay for 800 bucks if u need help just message me and ill help u out thank me if this helped

That's the exact screen you get when you buy an unlocked iPhone from Apple Australia.
This happens worldwide. i.e you can sell the phones world wide and simply plug it into iTunes and you will get this screen, USA, Qatar, Ireland etc

most companies offer unlocks, for world phones, when going to another country... i kno t mobile unlocked my blackberry when i called and complained

As long as you told att you weren't cancelling their contract, you were just going to another country and need the phone to be unlocked so you can use it in places att doesn't have roaming. If your a loyal customer, and had an att phone before the iphone, they SHOULD unlock it... they don't have to, but they have the ability, you just have to convince them.

Guys, I agree this is not news.

Factory unlocked iPhone are sold in Hong Kong through authorized Apple resellers, Apple official carrier partner (3 HK) in Hong Kong and Apple Online Store HK since the iPhone 3G and in Apple Online Store Australia/New Zealand since iPhone 3GS.

In many countries like Finland, France, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium and Taiwan, Apple official carrier partner can unlock iPhones, but those are done as explained earlier in this thread, where the carrier send Apple the iPhone's IMEI number then Apple unlock the said iPhone through iTunes. This method of unlocking is usually valid for carriers within the country that the phone is unlocked in.

Hehe.. Lookie here > Its here! - Erodov

Got the same screen when I activated my iPhone 3GS on my carrier Vodafone IN.

The phone was from Australia, and definitely locked to one of the carriers (because I was 100% aware that the Unlocked ones from Apple's Online Store were Out of Stock.

I think Apple has removed the necessity to submit the IMEI, Serial No. etc. for the phone's on carriers who "can" unlock it for you.

It happens automatically now when you switch the carrier.

Makes sense?

The same thing applies to iphones bought in Poland from Era. Actually Era unlocks all phones(including iphones) from the beginning of the year.

we have 3 of Iphone 3G on Optus network and all 3 of them are unlocked by optus, and when Iphone 3GS came out, i have upgraded one of my Iphones 3G to 3GS, after couple days i called Optus and told them that i am going to travel and need my 3GS to be unlocked, so in couple hours it was done, the only thing i had to do is to restore the 3GS, and when its done restoring Itunes shows the same text saying that its unlocked . After that i have sold one of my 3G iphones for $650 to someone, so now i have an unlocked Iphone 3GS. In Australia its very easy to unlock the iphone if you are on a contract, and you don't have to pay off your contract, just upgrade the phone and sell the old one

I got myself a iPhone 3GS from Aus. via eBay and it had that screen.

There is a place here in Manila that reflashes a chip inside the phone for you, and then the phone is permanently unlocked whatever FW you flash. Connect to Itunes, download apps, whatever. Price about $80.00

At&t by law has to unlock your phones after 3 months into the contract, or so my at&t rep advised me a few months ago. He was curious as to how they would do it though. I suppose now we know that it has to do with apple as well.

Pare,... mahal na naman!? I heard Globe iPhone units in there are already Unlocked? Friends told me they can use Smart/Globe SIM right OTB iPhones!

My one year old 3G is like that: I asked the carrier for the unlock and a few minutes later connecting to iTunes caused the unlock to happen.

There is one interesting thing here: it must be done everytime the baseband is updated, so it's a software unlock from Apple and it is reversible, so it's not a "true" unlock.

I am from Canada and I have just spent the last 2 hours on the phone with starting with APPLE and the person I was speaking with was of great help and provided me with some NEWS.

There are AWARE that this can be DONE and they have a FILE on their internal system (apples system) called (APPLE KB, EM231) Emerging issues.

to further continue I was then transferred to ROGERS IT/CS and the guy was a F-ing moron, however I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with him, and got nothing till I got pissed off and asked to go higher, he then transferred me to (OFFICE OF PRESIDENCE) I spoke with her. However I am with FIDO and not ROGERS even though they emerged (idiots I know), so from there I got transferred to FIDO'S OFFICE OF PRESIDENCE, I have left a message for the person to contact me regarding this issues and am awaiting their response.

I can confirm 110% that apple is aware(f-ers) if you want to find out more just call up apple and provide them with (APPLE KB, EM231) let up all know your progress to further help us.

guys,as too easy to replicate. check out my utube link eland27. I unlocked my fathers 3Gs via itunes easily. Ill do it again if anyone complains about the quality but i was using cycorder from my 3G. enjoy!!!

eland28

Same in France, with Orange. After being on a contract for 3 months, they give you the option to unlock it, though you'll still be paying your contract. This applies to both 1 year and 2 year contracts, again you choose which contract you have. I have the year one and pay about €5 more a month; all about the choice and options!!

It's to do with the Euro Anti-competitive laws. Euroland is lot more free when it comes to mobile telecoms.

YouTube - eland27's Channel

Yeah, great! How about sharing!

What is it? Is it the itunes version? Is it the location? Bypass?

If it's just itunes, shouldn't be any problem to get a european version.

iPhone 3G and 3GS are sold standard unlocked in South Africa. Local legislation forbids network providers from network locking any brand of cell phone. So come buy one here, wont cost you that $1000+ that you pay for the same privilege in the US. ;-)

Every iPhone out-of-the-box is equal: neither locked nor unlocked.

When the iPhone is activated, Apple's database determines what kind of lock the individual device should have and sends an Activation Token that can only be used on that particular iPhone. The Token is encrypted and signed so it could only be forged by obtaining their private key. See Unlock - The iPhone Wiki for details.

Wether an iPhone will be locked or unlocked is completely up to the Carrier selling it. When a Carrier unlocks an iPhone, they tell Apple to update the record for that specific device. Next time iTunes checks for updates for your phone, it receives a new Activation Token.

There are quite some Carriers (most of them in Europe and SE-Asia), who decided to have no SIM-lock at all. The iPhone Activation Support Page lists those, and for the others it shows, wether an official unlock is offered. Again: this list represents the Carriers' policies to Apple's best knowledge and NOT limitations imposed by Apple or the iPhone itself.

Why is unofficial activation so much easier than unofficial unlocking?
In both cases it is not the Activation Token itself that is patched, but the code that validates it. For activation the check is done by the OS, for the SIM-lock it is done by the baseband which is much more difficult to hack.

Here in Australia we can buy them off the shelf unlocked. If someone wants one send some cash this way and I'll sort it out for you.

iPhone - Apple Store (Australia)

Other wise you can sign up to a contract with Telstra, Vodafone, Optus, Virgin, Three ect (we are pretty lucky here we have the pick of a number or carriers)

From there you get your carrier to unlock it for you for a small fee. I'm with Vodafone and they charge $25 to unlock a phone doesn't take long at all so there is no messing around with all the software crap and locking phones when a new FW update comes out.

EDIT: Sorry if this has been said a million times, not interested in reading 6 pages of posts to find out.

I'm surprised to see that this is not available everywhere
Here in Denmark, you buy the iPhone with 6 months subscription, and after that, the carrier will unlock your phone for free. If I want it unlocked right away I can just pay about 60$ and they will unlock it. Still have to pay for the subscription each month though, so I see no reason to unlock it before the 6 months subscription is expired.

[Remember God]

Australia is lucky in the fact that carrier companies must give the customer the option to officially unlock their phone whether it is paid out right ( generally it is unlock if paid outright) or on a plan. But they are allowed to charge a fee to have it officially unlocked. For the iPhone, Vodafone charge something like $100 the first 6mths of the contract if you phone them to have it done or $75 if you do it online via their website, after 6mths it's $50 phone in, or $25 online.
The carrier called 3 charge no fee at all to unlock at any time if you are on a two year plan, but I think charge if u buy outright.
Optus and telstra I am not sure but they would probably charge an arm and a leg to unlock.

This has been the normal occurance in Australia since phones have had the ability to be unlocked from a carrier.
But generally speaking it sounds like every other countries plans are way cheaper and more data but I do feel lucky to be able to unlock without worry or frustration like others have, I feel for you guys,
well if you ever plan a trip to oz make sure it's the same time you need a new iPhone lol!!!.
I was stoked when the ipad came out here and carriers here were doing ipad prepay (no lock in plan) unlimited data plans for $50,( in Oz there is no unlimited data for iPhone) I snapped one of those babies up and modified the micro sim to be a normal size sim so I could use it in my 3gs.

So now my iPhone 3gs is now an ipad nano, lol!!

[confucious]

If they have to offer unlock they charge in other ways. Here in the UK you can pay nothing on an expensive contract up to a lot on SIM free and unlocked.
We have all options - but still people complain

[Anfloyd]

This is possible with O2 in the UK. You don't actually have to be out of contract either. They will do it anytime upon request.