Maybe more people will want an iPhone now, knowing they can be easily unlocked, and actually make prices spike!
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AT&T Will Unlock Off-Contract iPhones Starting Sunday, April 8
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Maybe more people will want an iPhone now, knowing they can be easily unlocked, and actually make prices spike!
I can't see reason to not unlock it if the phone is out of contract, if you have the IMEI you should be good.
My friend works in an AT&T store and they had a meeting about it this morning. He sent me a text about it but I honestly thought he was just messing around with me and being sarcastic about AT&T as he usually is ... I had the heads up on this rumor since this morning but didn't take it serious and wrote it off as my buddy joking around LOL... Wow what a pleasant surprise. I blew my chance at 15 minutes of Macrumors fame dammit!
does anyone know if they will unlock it if i am no longer an AT&T customer??
I paid the ETF on both of our phones, but i can see AT&T saying you still need to be a current customer to do that.
thanks
I paid the ETF on both of our phones, but i can see AT&T saying you still need to be a current customer to do that.
thanks
Yes, in CA the tax is of the unsubsidized price so the $199 iPhone has $50 in taxes. Also you need to pay the first month of bills before you can ETF
Errr... are you saying it IS significantly cheaper? Because it sounds like it isn't...
it ends up being about the same. you might as well just go to apple store and buy a factory unlocked one for $649.
$199 plus tax for phone=$215 or so
1 month of service plus activation=$70 for service, plus $36 activation
$325
total=$646 vs. $700
but you have the hassle of them pulling your credit etc. I would rather just buy directly from apple.
also, what happens if you go through all this and they refuse to unlock it for some crazy reason
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i think he means yes as there are more fees etc. that the other guy isn't thinking of
My guess is that it was probably not the swamping alone, but swamping based on AT&T lies. I've heard it from many other sources that if you asked AT&T to unlock iPhone, they would send you to Apple, while Apple's policy has always been that unless the phone was purchased factory unlocked, a carrier was the one that has to authorize the unlock. Once the carrier authorizes it, they have to send the IMEI to Apple, and once Apple adjusts their DB, the user can connect their phone to iTunes and will get the "Congratulations, your iPhone is unlocked" message.
eBay
Does anyone think I (an ATT customer) would be able to have an iPhone 4 unlocked that my friend (a T-Mobile customer) bought on eBay a couple of days ago?
Does anyone think I (an ATT customer) would be able to have an iPhone 4 unlocked that my friend (a T-Mobile customer) bought on eBay a couple of days ago?
Something tells me that AT&T did not do this out of the goodness of their own heart. They either felt pressure from Apple or there is a bill somewhere in Congress trying to correct this injustice.
Ditto. ATT should at least unlock for outside travel like Verizion does while still in contract. In the meantime, I hope Gevey unlock prices for 4S can come down with this news.
The way this press release sounds, it probably depends on what terms the original owner parted with AT&T. If they did their 2 years, upgraded to another phone under the contract (which released that i4 from whatever contract it was under), or paid ETF, then I don't see a problem with getting it unlocked. If a previous owner was a dead-beat and had their service cut off due to non-payment, I could see AT&T giving you problems.
I guess with that in mind, whoever bought my old i4 won't be able to unlock it until June 24 this year. I pre-ordered it, received and activated it on the launch day. Not wishing to stick around with AT&T past my contract and yet wanting i4S when it came out, I bought an off-contract AT&T i4S from Apple Store (which was automatically unlocked). Took a SIM out of my i4 and put it in i4S, then sold i4 on eBay. Well, I did have to call AT&T to have them switch me to the HSPA+ plan, during which they updated their system with the IMEI of my i4S, but did not extend my contract. I wonder if that automatically released my old i4 from existing contract. Either way, if whoever bought it wants to unlock it officially should be able to do so in about 2 and a half months.
I was worried about the same thing. But the new releases says qualifying accounts include those that "upgraded under one of our upgrade policies." So I would assume that when you upgrade at the time a new iPhone gets released, whether or not you get a full upgrade discount or a partial, that should satisfy the contract on your existing iPhone. Therefore, they should unlock it for you.
Can't be certain until you try, but you should be able to make a stronge argument for it, if necessary.
I guess I scared them...
with the class action lawsuit I threatened to file.
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Yes, if you paid the ETF, and are no longer a customer, they'll unlock it...just got mine done by them a week ago, after an email to Tim Cook.
with the class action lawsuit I threatened to file.
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Yes, if you paid the ETF, and are no longer a customer, they'll unlock it...just got mine done by them a week ago, after an email to Tim Cook.
I think keeping a subsidized phone structure would be extremely difficult to do in this case. An add-a-line on most family plans is $10. If they share data (just not use it) there is not an increase in the monthly fees paid on that plan. ATT will bring in an extra $240 in the term of the contract on the line in question (don't forget that they are providing voice service to that line still) while they have subsidized somewhere around $400 off the price of the handset. The only way I can see this working is if they opted for some sort of off contract plans (much like TMobile does currently, though I am unsure if they offer any family data package). Either that, or the family data package would be something like $60/mo for 3GB of data, or some similar thing.
Yes, that's what I'm thinking. Why have the "off contract option"? If I'm on contract what do they lose by unlocking me? I still have to pay my monthly fee.
I'd like the unlock for occasional travel to Canada (without have to pay $15/mb)!!