Your property rights are only what your government says they are--your sense of fairness isn't law. Right now, the U.S. government says you can't unlock a subsidized phone without permission from the carrier. I don't know if anyone will end up actually enforcing it, but they have the option to do so if they wish. It's a small but notable risk if you unlock an iPhone purchased after the window expired back in January.
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iPhone Unlocks. iPhone Unlocks everywhere?
- Thread starter leftynaut
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Your property rights are only what your government says they are--your sense of fairness isn't law. Right now, the U.S. government says you can't unlock a subsidized phone without permission from the carrier. I don't know if anyone will end up actually enforcing it, but they have the option to do so if they wish. It's a small but notable risk if you unlock an iPhone purchased after the window expired back in January.
Nicholasss, that was an example that they can detect if a locked phone is using other network.
Like the other colleague says, they have the option to do so if they wish....
Like the other colleague says, they have the option to do so if they wish....
AT&T doesn't fully unlock
Maybe I don't exactly understand what "unlock" means, but AT&T unlocked my wife's old iPhone 4 for her after her contract expired and still it can't be configured to send an MMS or use cellular to surf the Web the way a truly footloose and fancy free iPhone can be. The relevant configuration settings are invisible. Probably everything would work if we were still using AT&T, but we've switched it to Airvoice. Calls and SMS are fine.
Update: Everything works now. I borrowed a new and not yet activated T-mobile micro-SIM card at the Apple Store (though the Genius there had never heard of this trick) and with that installed I had access to the Cell Data Network settings, which I just configured as described on the Airvoice support page for iPhone configuration. I did this only half way the first time I tried, but as I result I can tell you that the procedure works just as well if you borrow a T-mobile SIM from a phone that's already activated and in use--which could be a friend's or the phone of an employee at a T-mobile store, if he or she is trusting and in a charitable mood. I read about this SIM swap trick in some other forum I'd link to if I remembered it, but anyway I suggest pass this along, since it's not all that widely known, I searched quite awhile until I found it.
Maybe I don't exactly understand what "unlock" means, but AT&T unlocked my wife's old iPhone 4 for her after her contract expired and still it can't be configured to send an MMS or use cellular to surf the Web the way a truly footloose and fancy free iPhone can be. The relevant configuration settings are invisible. Probably everything would work if we were still using AT&T, but we've switched it to Airvoice. Calls and SMS are fine.
Update: Everything works now. I borrowed a new and not yet activated T-mobile micro-SIM card at the Apple Store (though the Genius there had never heard of this trick) and with that installed I had access to the Cell Data Network settings, which I just configured as described on the Airvoice support page for iPhone configuration. I did this only half way the first time I tried, but as I result I can tell you that the procedure works just as well if you borrow a T-mobile SIM from a phone that's already activated and in use--which could be a friend's or the phone of an employee at a T-mobile store, if he or she is trusting and in a charitable mood. I read about this SIM swap trick in some other forum I'd link to if I remembered it, but anyway I suggest pass this along, since it's not all that widely known, I searched quite awhile until I found it.
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This is odd. I have had 2 replacement iPhone 4 phones. AT&T unlocked both replacements right away based on the overall length of time with that model.
so is this still legit? If so I'll do it before I sell my iPhone 5 and get a couple extra hundred$
that doesn't have anything to do w/ the unlock, you need to edit the APN settings depending on your new network, called them up or check online for it.
Unlock means the phone can accept sim cards other than the carrier that originally locked to. For example, if you have an iPhone that locked to AT&T, it will accept only AT&T sim card and refuse other carriers sim cards.
For Airvoice, it is a AT&T MVNO so its sim card is technically an AT&T sim card. The way iPhone (or other phones) recognize the carrier of the sim card is by mobile network codes. For example, AT&T mobile network code is 310-410 and T-Mobile is 310-260. If your iPhone is locked to AT&T, which means the phone will only accept the sim card with mobile network code 310-410 and will refuse all other sim cards (Non-310-410 sim cards). Since your Airvoice sim card is a 310-410 sim card so it doesn't matter if your iPhone is still locked to AT&T or unlocked and you can still use your Airvoice sim card on AT&T-locked phones.
The reason why your MMS setting is invisible is also related to the mobile network codes. In the iPhone configuration files, Apple hides the cellular network setting (included MMS) for AT&T sim card. Once you inserted an sim card with mobile network code 310-410 (like original AT&T sim card, Airvoice sim card), it will hide the cellular network setting automatically no matter your iPhone is locked or unlocked.