AT&T Will Unlock Off-Contract iPhones Starting Sunday, April 8

I am really looking forward to unlocking my phone (i bought the iphone 4 on release day.)

The funny thing is that I actually probably don't need to switch, as the only option would be tmobile (edge only), I just hate the idea of AT&T locking a phone I already paid for....

Hoooly Cowwww!

The price of everyone's iPhone 4's resale just went up!

FrauHasSpoken said:

The price of everyone's iPhone 4's resale just went up!

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Or the price of unlocked iphones will come down...

For all the anti-AT&T feelings out there I've had good service out of them for two iPhone contracts. Whether my next one is an iPhone or Windows phone I'm likely to stick with AT&T. I think I'll have my retired 3G unlocked it that's possible.

Finally ...... after all these years.

Don't assume AT&T is doing this because they want to. Competition / complaints / law suits / and thank you Tim finally forced this change.

As for the price change: A greater supply of unlocked iPhones means lower prices.

June 24?

My guess is on or around June 24 of this year AT&T is going to see a large amount of people with iPhone 4's in hand.

Mr Fusion said:

While I applaud them for doing this, they'll still be losing my business with the next iPhone for the throttling of my unlimited data plan.

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That's why I got on Verizon before they ditched the unlimited. They only throttle if that particular tower is congested(which I have never seen). I've used 10 Gigs so far this month and still getting 20 Down/14 Up.

viperGTS said:

Never thought I'd see the day.
EDIT= too bad i'm a tmobile customer so i cant just walk into an AT&T store and have my 3GS unlocked it'd be nice to finally be able to update iOS without going through a custom FW. Or even a jailbreak

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Actually, if you are off contract they *should* unlock it.

If you're no longer under contract because you used a family member's upgrade to get an iPhone, I don't see how AT&T can possibly track that device to that family member's line and deny you the unlock. What if you were to get that iPhone swapped at the Genius bar under warranty? You would be giving AT&T an IMEI number for an iPhone that they have no record of. For all they know, you received the iPhone as a gift from someone who paid full price for it after losing the one that your family member bought for you.

Then again, they must have a way to prevent people off-contract to keep requesting unlocks for all of their friends and family.

Maybe the policy will be very strict in that they will only grant an unlock if that particular off-contract customer used an upgrade for an iPhone 2 years ago and is still using that same model regardless of IMEI number.

Color me flabbergasted!

I wish network operators would allow phones to use other sims while abroad. Either by geo-fencing or as a minimum have reciprocal deals with some operators in each country whereby their sims are allowed.

How does this work? Do they do it over the air? My old iPhone 4 is in Ecuador with my brother in law who has never been able to unlock it. Do we have to get the phone back in the US and turn it on to unlock it?

PLin said:

Maybe the policy will be very strict in that they will only grant an unlock if that particular off-contract customer used an upgrade for an iPhone 2 years ago and is still using that same model regardless of IMEI number.

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Perhaps this is a case where less is more. We don't need to give them an involved history of the device. Just present it like it was yours all along, no need to complicate matters.

tray3 said:

Finally!!

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What he said!

Nice seeing AT&T doing the right thing for a change.

Now... If Apple's CEO could show the same (reported) diligence to allow their own customers to override the Cellular Data settings and set other "advanced" parameters, I would be very impressed.

There's something I cannot get my head around to this day: why is the "hotspot" feature a carrier option? The customer has paid for data, why does Apple allow the carrier to effectively force the customer to double-pay for data if using the phone as a "modem"?

Go easy now. It's a rhetoric question...

kryten3000 said:

Actually, if you are off contract they *should* unlock it.

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I was never on a contract with them and i didnt upgade through one of their "policies." could i still be eligible? I might give them a call.

pheenix11 said:

How does this work? Do they do it over the air? My old iPhone 4 is in Ecuador with my brother in law who has never been able to unlock it. Do we have to get the phone back in the US and turn it on to unlock it?

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Yes.

pheenix11 said:

How does this work? Do they do it over the air? My old iPhone 4 is in Ecuador with my brother in law who has never been able to unlock it. Do we have to get the phone back in the US and turn it on to unlock it?

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Million dollar question now, What is the process? Hopefully it is something that can be done with just using wifi, rather than an active sim signal.

Does anyone think that they will try to charge an "unlocking fee" as well?

AT&T will finally unlock my phone? YES! YES! YES! YES!

rum said:

Nice seeing AT&T doing the right thing for a change.

Now... If Apple's CEO could show the same (reported) diligence to allow their own customers to override the Cellular Data settings and set other "advanced" parameters, I would be very impressed.

There's something I cannot get my head around to this day: why is the "hotspot" feature a carrier option? The customer has paid for data, why does Apple allow the carrier to effectively force the customer to double-pay for data if using the phone as a "modem"?

Go easy now. It's a rhetoric question...

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A perfectly valid question, it's your (overpriced) data, you should be the one to decide how to use it. Which is why rooting/jailbreaking is so nice...

Mr Fusion said:

While I applaud them for doing this, they'll still be losing my business with the next iPhone for the throttling of my unlimited data plan.

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Where you going? Sprints unlimited turtle pace plan? So when you got your unlimited plan and could download at 800K to 1M, do you think AT&T should keep growing their network and infrastructure so everyone can download at 12M-15M. Or maybe AT&T should wait a few more years to even rollout their LTE so they can make it large enough to accommodate everyones unlimited plan at 12M-15M.

#1 - AT&T is still providing you unlimited plan and at the same speeds you signed up for (probably didn't think of that).
#2 - AT&T is still providing you the unlimited plan. When you are so much faster than everyone else, you have to balance your network
#3 - You have NOWHERE to go that compares. You can go to verizon and pay for every 5GB you use or you can go to Sprint and get your 800K to 1MB unlimited.


At least with AT&T you get the fastest network for the first few GB, then you get a little slower network unlimited.

If the grass is greener with Sprint, JUMP SHIP! If you think it will be better with Verizon, you need a checkup from the neck-up. It will take 6 months of misery just to get an accurate bill from Verizon :=)

Richdmoore said:

Million dollar question now, What is the process? Hopefully it is something that can be done with just using wifi, rather than an active sim signal.

Does anyone think that they will try to charge an "unlocking fee" as well?

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There have been some rogue AT&T employees who have sold their unlocking services for iPhones throughout the years, and how they would do it is you give them the IMEI of your device and once they put it into their database, all you have to do is plug in your phone into iTunes and it unlocks from there.

AT&T has always unlocked other brands of phones once they're off contract and never charged for it and I have no reason to believe that this will be any different.

This is really good news. Except for those selling "factory" unlocked iPhones at premium prices on CL and eBay.

Kilamite said:

I always thought it was a legal requirement for them to unlock it once you had completed your agreed contract. Or is that just in Europe?

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Let those socialists have their silly consumer protections. I'd rather have a free and open market where businesses are able to write contracts however they please without fear of serious punishment.