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Factory unlock an iPhone 3GS for free?

W

wickedking94

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 27, 2010
271
4
So I bought an iPhone 3GS from a pawn shop fro 150$. Its on Rogers Wireless (a canadian company) but I'm on Koodo. For the past 6 months of owning my phone I've been using the jailbreak method to use my Koodo SIM on my phone. However I am finding now that it only lasts a month or two before a glitch pops up (like being un able to sync or connect to wifi) and then I have to do the whole restore, jailbreak, unlock, and re-copy my stuff onto the phone. Its getting quite irritating. I wan't to factory unlock my iPhone so I can use the regular software and so I can update to iOS 6 finally. Unfortunately the only two options I can find are 1: To get rogers to unlock it, which I can't even do because you have to be a rogers customer for like 6 months and then pay them 50$ to unlock my own property. 2: I can pay an unlocking service, but they all charge like 200$. Why the hell would I ever pay that much to unlock something thats MINE. How is this even legal? Its like being forced to pay to get into my own house.

So has anyone ever found a FREE way of factory unlocking their phone? If not I'm just going to smash my iPhone against a wall and buy a cheap unlocked android phone.
 
J

Jamesesesesess

macrumors 6502a
Nov 26, 2011
595
66
IMEI unlocks for Canadian carriers seem to always be much more costly than US carriers, it's too bad you didn't buy an AT&T locked (or already unlocked) one from eBay.

Seems to me that your only affordable choice is to get a micro SIM card (or cut yours down), buy a Gevey SIM unlock card, and a micro SIM card adaptor.
 
PsstGreek

PsstGreek

macrumors 68040
Oct 21, 2010
3,776
59
Tampa Bay
If your 3GS is old enough you could always upgrade/downgrade basebands and unlock, with you want to go that route.
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
wickedking94 said:
So I bought an iPhone 3GS from a pawn shop fro 150$. Its on Rogers Wireless (a canadian company) but I'm on Koodo. For the past 6 months of owning my phone I've been using the jailbreak method to use my Koodo SIM on my phone. However I am finding now that it only lasts a month or two before a glitch pops up (like being un able to sync or connect to wifi) and then I have to do the whole restore, jailbreak, unlock, and re-copy my stuff onto the phone. Its getting quite irritating. I wan't to factory unlock my iPhone so I can use the regular software and so I can update to iOS 6 finally. Unfortunately the only two options I can find are 1: To get rogers to unlock it, which I can't even do because you have to be a rogers customer for like 6 months and then pay them 50$ to unlock my own property. 2: I can pay an unlocking service, but they all charge like 200$. Why the hell would I ever pay that much to unlock something thats MINE. How is this even legal? Its like being forced to pay to get into my own house.

So has anyone ever found a FREE way of factory unlocking their phone? If not I'm just going to smash my iPhone against a wall and buy a cheap unlocked android phone.
Click to expand...

On the other note did you know that the phone was locked to another carrier and you bought it anyway?
Without doing any research what needs to be done to unlock it or how much it costs?
Or they sold it to you as unlocked?
Either way you put yourself in that situation and now you're complaining saying its expensive and illegal and you want a free way of officially unlocking it.
The only one that doesnt make sense is you, next time be more carefull with what you purchase. Unfortunatelly there is no free way to officially unlock it and its locked to rogers and its perfectly legal. It has nothing to do with paying to get into your house or any other analogy you tried to present.
Live and learn I guess.
 
W

wickedking94

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 27, 2010
271
4
I bought it on rogers because it was the only iPhone I could get for 150$ and I knew about the unlock method through jailbreaking. What none of the jailbreaking guides told me was that jailbreaking takes 4 hours to do and that its so badly written you have to re-do it once a month. Had I known I probably wouldn't have done it.
 
W

wickedking94

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 27, 2010
271
4
I've given up on this unlocking venture. Clearly north america is far behind when in a lot of countries over in europe its illegal to sell locked phones. Oh well. Luckily I managed to sell my iPod touch for enough to get a factory unlocked iPhone 4 off ebay. I guess its a win in the end so now I don't have to have two devices for phone and music. Still stupid though.
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
wickedking94 said:
I bought it on rogers because it was the only iPhone I could get for 150$ and I knew about the unlock method through jailbreaking. What none of the jailbreaking guides told me was that jailbreaking takes 4 hours to do and that its so badly written you have to re-do it once a month. Had I known I probably wouldn't have done it.
Click to expand...

It always took me a few minutes to jb. And never had to redo it once a month.
The only reason I had to redo it was when there was an updated jb version. So I had to update the firmware and rejailbreak it.
There's gotta be something that you're installing from cydia that's causing you all these probs and you have to redo it all every month.
I bet if you just jb and install ultrasnow you will never have any problems at all.
Not all jb iPhones have to be restored every month;)

----------
wickedking94 said:
I've given up on this unlocking venture. Clearly north america is far behind when in a lot of countries over in europe its illegal to sell locked phones. Oh well. Luckily I managed to sell my iPod touch for enough to get a factory unlocked iPhone 4 off ebay. I guess its a win in the end so now I don't have to have two devices for phone and music. Still stupid though.
Click to expand...

Glad that it worked out. Best thing to do is buy factory unlocked if you don't want to deal with unlocks, hacking, chasing carriers etc...
About the countries in Europe they have to buy it there full price and pay over $1000-1100 for it so almost double of what we pay for it here in North America. Grass is not always greener...
 
D

Daveoc64

macrumors 601
Jan 16, 2008
4,074
92
Bristol, UK
wickedking94 said:
I've given up on this unlocking venture. Clearly north america is far behind when in a lot of countries over in europe its illegal to sell locked phones.
Click to expand...

I'm only aware of one country where that's the case (France).

Competition here has driven demand for unlocked devices. Most phones are sold unlocked here, not because of the law, but because of consumer demand.

The iPhone is the exception to that rule, but most carriers will unlock an iPhone within the customer's contract period - usually charging only about €20

The carriers make a lot of money selling people plans that don't include a device but that offer a huge discount over the normal "subsidised" plan.

Applejuiced said:
About the countries in Europe they have to buy it there full price and pay over $1000-1100 for it so almost double of what we pay for it here in North America.
Click to expand...

This isn't really true either. The phone subsidies offered by our carriers are higher than those in the United States. The US carriers like to perpetuate the notion that a subsidised phone has to be locked, but there's no reason for that to be the case.
 
W

wickedking94

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 27, 2010
271
4
Actually I had to get one thats locked to Koodo. (I was in the process of ordering a factory unlocked one but they didn't ship to canada) still better, and Koodo is pretty good about unlocking. They say you have to pay 50$ but I got them to unlock my old android phone when I got this iPhone because I told them I wanted to give it to a friend on a different provider.
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
Daveoc64 said:
This isn't really true either. The phone subsidies offered by our carriers are higher than those in the United States. The US carriers like to perpetuate the notion that a subsidised phone has to be locked.
Click to expand...

Well it depends on the country and carrier.
I know in some places in Europe the base 16GB iphone 5 model goes for 750-800 euros so that's around $950-1000 full price unlocked.
At least now in the US and Canada we have the option to either get it unlocked for a lot less ($650) than other places in the world or get it cheaper with a contract agreement.
 
D

Daveoc64

macrumors 601
Jan 16, 2008
4,074
92
Bristol, UK
Applejuiced said:
Well it depends on the country and carrier.
I know in some places in Europe the base 16GB iphone 5 model goes for 750-800 euros so that's around $950-1000 full price unlocked.
At least now in the US and Canada we have the option to either get it unlocked for a lot less ($650) than other places in the world or get it cheaper with a contract agreement.
Click to expand...

The unsubsidised price IS expensive, but the average consumer isn't going to buy it that way. They'll just get a subsidised contract.
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
Daveoc64 said:
The unsubsidised price IS expensive, but the average consumer isn't going to buy it that way. They'll just get a subsidised contract.
Click to expand...

I dont know, I heard in Europe in general the sim only plans are dirt cheap.
So where we pay in the US something like $100-120 a month with taxes for 2GB data, 700 minutes and texts they would pay not even a quarter of that price on an unsubsidized plan.
In the long run it would come out to save you way more money if you buy one full price and just choose your prepaid no contract carrier.
In the US like you said they hate the idea of paying $600-700 for a phone but they dont mind spending $120-140 on the phone service fees every month:D
Weird. I wish it was cheaper and we could get LTE service and great priced plans here prepaid on the iphone with all features like visual voicemail, mms, facetime, tethering etc...
 
D

Daveoc64

macrumors 601
Jan 16, 2008
4,074
92
Bristol, UK
Applejuiced said:
I dont know, I heard in Europe in general the sim only plans are dirt cheap.
Click to expand...

It depends on the plan.

I checked before I got my iPhone 5 whether it would be cheaper that way.

I pay £39 a month ($62) for:

2000 voice minutes
5000 text messages
5000 voice minutes to other people on the same carrier
Unlimited Data including Tethering

I had to pay £89 ($142) upfront for the 32GB iPhone 5

I've also paid £15 ($23) to unlock the phone.

Total cost over 24 months: £1040 ($1655)

If you get the phone unlocked from Apple, it's £599 ($953)

The same plan is £25 per month ($40) on a 30 day rolling contract with no phone.

Total over 24 months: £1199 ($1908)


There are far cheaper unsubsidised plans than that (but mine is the only one with Unlimited Tethering included). £12 per month ($19) would get you:

1200 minutes
Unlimited Texts
1GB of data


Note that all of these prices include tax at 20% (the standard rate here).
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
Daveoc64 said:
It depends on the plan.

I checked before I got my iPhone 5 whether it would be cheaper that way.

I pay £39 a month ($62) for:

2000 voice minutes
5000 text messages
5000 voice minutes to other people on the same carrier
Unlimited Data including Tethering
Click to expand...

So around $62 per month with taxes.
That's a pretty sweet deal bro including unlimited data with unlimited tethering.
 
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