iPhone 3GS software-unlocked. Expensive and unstable.
As they didn't answer my email about the procedure to follow and their website didn't work, I had to go with a local unlocker. However, for some reason, in this poor city of mine no local unlocker seem to do a factory unlock for less than $100, which is very good for a subsidized iPhone 4S and +, but too expensive for an older 3GS, and price varies according to original carrier. Anything less expensive is a software unlock.
For that reason, I suspect there may be some kind of intermediates on the carrier's side that, while the customer side doesn't do any unlocking when requested by the original customer if too long a time passed since last activity, the wholeseller side is able to manually look for an IMEI when requested by a third party unlocker and remotely unlock it. Hence my question about how to contact them, if an estimate of unlock requests can be made to get a more interesting license access. Working at the carrier itself would be very interesting indeed as I heard the salary was quite good in this poor city, but this is definitely not my chosen career.
This was, apparently, a jailbreak + software unlock so yes, quite expensive as I won't be able to upgrade iOS. Each time I connect my phone to the Mac, I feel worried that iTunes will check for an upgrade without my permission, since iOS 6 jailbreak provides no safety net to prevent un-jailbreaking or relocks, AFAIK. iOS was still 4.2, so he had to upgrade it before unlocking. As I had no time to wait for a Telus SIM card to come and was unsure of the process required to actually upgrade iOS without the phone activated, I paid the $40 requested. Yes, I feel somewhat ripped as it doesn't come with any hard warranty, like 1 or 2 years of free, unconditional unlock in case of re-lock.
As always after a jailbreak, the phone isn't so stable anymore (although no additionnal extension was installed, except for the ones disabling software update notice and the reset all soft key). At once, I wasn't able to send or receive SMS, but rebooting the phone finally allowed it. Sometimes phone loses cellular connectivity for some reason where the Nokia received it, and the battery seems to be a bit worn, but again, I was pretty brutal downloading all applications over cellular. iOS being what it is, I had no problem whatsoever configuring emails, and using different applications, despite the obviously slower experience from a 2009 phone. It is still faster and more stable than the Nokia N8 it replaces.