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Do I need to activate my IPhone 3GS if I'm going to unlock it?

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giulianoaugusto

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 18, 2009
33
0
Hey Guys,
I'm brand new to the forum although I've been following macrumors for quite some time now.
Anyways...I've never owned an iPhone before so this might sound totally newbie for you guys but I just don't know...
I'm going to buy an iphone 3G S with AT&T w/ that 2yr plan and stuff and then Im gonna cancel it so I can use it outside of the U.S with another carrier.
The question is...Do I need to activate it after I buy it from AT&T? or can I just buy it, cancel, pay the fine and unlock the phone to use whatever carrier I want?

Thanks a lot you guys!
Appreciate it
Have a nice weekend and a happy father's day for all dads out there:)
 
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giulianoaugusto

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 18, 2009
33
0
I know that there's no actual unlocking for it yet but I believe there will be and when there's I'll do it..or if there isn't one, couldn't I use turbo sim?
or the only way I can use it is if I buy one factory unlocked? I'm just getting more confused! sorry for the mess, you guys
 
mkrishnan

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
It's generally believed it'll be unlocked at some point, but no one knows for sure. The iPhone 3G turned out to be very complicated, and even now that an unlock exists, it has never really been as smooth as the one on the original iPhone. The turbosim may be an option.

As for your original question, though... as far as I understand it, I don't think it ever needs to be activated with AT&T to be able to be unlocked, no. At least, the existing methods haven't required this.
 
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giulianoaugusto

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 18, 2009
33
0
Thanks a lot mkrishnan.
I've been looking for answers all over and someone was finally kind enough to answer me!
Well...you said turbo sim would be a viable option, but I always here people complaining about it, saying it gets stuck and all that...
Is it safe to use it? And more importantly, one thing I've always wondered about turbo sim, If I use it with turbo sim, will all functions of my iPhone still be available to use? (by that I mean, will I be able to use my 3G connection to open webpages, youtube, or I'll have to make special configurations for my carrier?)

Thanks again mkrishnan!
 
ImNoSuperMan

ImNoSuperMan

macrumors 65816
Dec 1, 2005
1,221
64
You`ll have to pay for atleast the first month before cancelling the contract. so why not activate and use it until you cancel the contract. Without activation the iPhone will be a paperweight at worst and a show piece at best. In case you are going out of states very soon then just take out the sim before you move and use it as an iPod touch till you get some unlocking solution. Also no one knows how long it`ll take. And Turbo sims too need to be updated for the latest firmware(I could be wrong here, someone please confirm). So you could be waiting for some time here.
 
C

cogginsj83

macrumors newbie
Jun 21, 2009
1
0
Hello,

I am new to this world of jailbreaking/unlocking as well. I have read many posts, but they seem very vague and unsure to me. I am currently moving to the Philippines and I am in Thailand now.

Hypothetically speaking, this is what I want to do and would like to know what is recommended ...

When I purchase the iPhone 3G S without contract, should I activate or wait till the Dev Team comes out with the jailbreak for it? I mean, if I don't activate and I can't jailbreak it yet, the iPhone is pretty much useless, right? This is what I have gathered from other posts around the web.

I also assume I can activate it via iTunes, use it as an ipod touch until the Dev Team comes out with the jailbreak and then apply it to get it fully operational on a Philippine network?

Why does one even need to activate? What does it really do? Just open the phone up so it can be used on its own firmware?

Jeff
 
T

Tuckmonster

macrumors regular
Dec 16, 2007
110
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20)

I have 3g jailbroken on 2.2.1 and I am using turbo sim. Turbo sim works fine but the one major suck factor is everytime you lose signal the phone doesn't regain signal. It says "no sim". So in order to regain service you have to remove your sim card(not your turbo sim but your sim card) and put it in a different phone(not an iPhone) and browse the Internet and then put the sim card and turbo sim back in your iPhone. It's a pain in the ass.

Also turbo sim does not support the new 3.0 or it's bb

So u will haveti wait for that
 
ImNoSuperMan

ImNoSuperMan

macrumors 65816
Dec 1, 2005
1,221
64
cogginsj83 said:
Hello,

I am new to this world of jailbreaking/unlocking as well. I have read many posts, but they seem very vague and unsure to me. I am currently moving to the Philippines and I am in Thailand now.

Hypothetically speaking, this is what I want to do and would like to know what is recommended ...

When I purchase the iPhone 3G S without contract, should I activate or wait till the Dev Team comes out with the jailbreak for it? I mean, if I don't activate and I can't jailbreak it yet, the iPhone is pretty much useless, right? This is what I have gathered from other posts around the web.

I also assume I can activate it via iTunes, use it as an ipod touch until the Dev Team comes out with the jailbreak and then apply it to get it fully operational on a Philippine network?

Why does one even need to activate? What does it really do? Just open the phone up so it can be used on its own firmware?

Jeff
Click to expand...

Well the iPhone is nothing but paper weight until it's activated unless you buy it factory unlocked from apple. Otherwise you can't even use it as an iPod before activating it with your carrier via iTunes(doesn't matter if you bought it with a contract or not) Since the 3gs is not available in Thai yet, I don't know how you'd get one at all. Just remember if you buy a carrier locked iPhone 3GS right now you'll have to wait until the dev team comes up with jailbreak solution before you can use it as an iPod. And then you'll be waiting a bit more for unlock solution to use the phone part. But if you get ur hands on a factory unlocked iPhone from apple then you can use all the functions of the iPhone right away
 
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