What does unlock mean?

[bougiie09]

This is one confusing topic that I've been hearing all the time but can't seem to pick it apart

[qnc]

Unlock means that the phone is allowed to use services from a carrier that is not subsudising the phone.

i.e. An iPhone on AT&T network is "locked" to that network. If you put a simcard in the phone from another network you will get some type of invalid sim message.

Once the phone is "unlocked" you can for instance put in a T-Mobile sim card and the phone will not give an error message and it wil work.


Now I know you did not ask, but I thought I would offer any way.
Jailbreaking is the process of allowing read/write access to the file system.

Think of a your computer you can read files and write files to what ever directory you choose. You can execute applications or scripts that you create.

An iphone that has NOT been jailbroken does not allow you to do this. The file structure is "jailed" to where you only have read access through the applications Apple allows you to use.

Once you jailbreak your phone you can then install apps from other sources and change things around as you like. You can write to the file structure.


For an iPhone you must Jailbreak in order to Unlock. The jailbreak allows access to write/install the proper hacks that allow you to put in and "invalid sim" but it works.


Hope this helps, I always see a lot of people asking about this.