iPhone: Japanese iPhone unlocking...

[vincebio]

hey guys,

I just realised that I had saved 4.1 SHSH blobs using Tiny Umbrella from my current iPhone..

Could I now downgrade the 5.1 to 4.1 then upgrade to 5.0.1 and jailbreak, or does the baseband not get downgraded?

[Sine Qua Non]

Baseband does not get downgraded even if you downgrade software versions.

Softbank won't do an official carrier unlock for iPhones that are that old? AT&T may not be the worst carrier in the world...

[terraphantm]

Originally Posted by Sine Qua Non

Baseband does not get downgraded even if you downgrade software versions.

Softbank won't do an official carrier unlock for iPhones that are that old? AT&T may not be the worst carrier in the world...

From what I hear, SoftBank is even worse than AT&T. And none of those "factory unlock" services seem to exist for SoftBank either. I don't really understand what they have to lose by not offering an international unlock, but I guess they just don't care.

[patent10021]

Originally Posted by terraphantm

From what I hear, SoftBank is even worse than AT&T. And none of those "factory unlock" services seem to exist for SoftBank either. I don't really understand what they have to lose by not offering an international unlock, but I guess they just don't care.

Originally Posted by Sine Qua Non

Baseband does not get downgraded even if you downgrade software versions.

Softbank won't do an official carrier unlock for iPhones that are that old? AT&T may not be the worst carrier in the world...

Actually all Japanese carriers suck balls.

Let's see...

1.) No shared data plans. You have an iPad and iPhone you will need to pay for two separate plans. You will actually get two separate invoices in the mail/email.

2.) Zero unlock support.

3.) Give a separate marketing title to real LTE and charge as a special service separate from 3G.

4.) When sending photos via SMS/MMS be prepared to wait up to 1 minute for the photo to finish sending. If you send 3 photos in the same SMS/MMS be prepared to wait up to 3-5 minutes for the message to complete sending.

5.) Inconsistent accounting.

6.) Staff that can't tell their ass from their head.

7.) Hardly any free WiFi spots even in the biggest cities. Mostly subscription services from NTT, YahooBB, Docomo and other 3rd party global WiFi providers.

[terraphantm]

Originally Posted by patent10021

Actually all Japanese carriers suck balls.

Let's see...

1.) No shared data plans. You have an iPad and iPhone you will need to pay for two separate plans. You will actually get two separate invoices in the mail/email.

2.) Zero unlock support.

3.) Give a separate marketing title to real LTE and charge as a special service separate from 3G.

4.) When sending photos via SMS/MMS be prepared to wait up to 1 minute for the photo to finish sending. If you send 3 photos in the same SMS/MMS be prepared to wait up to 3-5 minutes for the message to complete sending.

5.) Inconsistent accounting.

6.) Staff that can't tell their ass from their head.

7.) Hardly any free WiFi spots even in the biggest cities. Mostly subscription services from NTT, YahooBB, Docomo and other 3rd party global WiFi providers.

Most of that is still true with AT&T - just we finally got unlocking here.

[BlueRaider]

Originally Posted by vincebio

OUCH! I just brought them back from Japan ;(
Lost the sim...but that doesn't matter anyway as you say.

Im now going to hunt online and see whos making an unlock for 5.1..

Nobody is making an unlock for the 3GS although there is a guy in China who will supposedly replace the baseband on your phone with one that's unlocked. That's a measure almost as drastic as the iPad BB but not nearly as damaging if successful. I would not Flash the iPad baseband to those phones of yours, it destroys any value they have and isn't worth the problems. Just buy an IMEI unlocked iPhone, they're everywhere today.

[japanime]

Originally Posted by patent10021

Actually all Japanese carriers suck balls.

Let's see...

1.) No shared data plans. You have an iPad and iPhone you will need to pay for two separate plans. You will actually get two separate invoices in the mail/email.

2.) Zero unlock support.

3.) Give a separate marketing title to real LTE and charge as a special service separate from 3G.

4.) When sending photos via SMS/MMS be prepared to wait up to 1 minute for the photo to finish sending. If you send 3 photos in the same SMS/MMS be prepared to wait up to 3-5 minutes for the message to complete sending.

5.) Inconsistent accounting.

6.) Staff that can't tell their ass from their head.

7.) Hardly any free WiFi spots even in the biggest cities. Mostly subscription services from NTT, YahooBB, Docomo and other 3rd party global WiFi providers.

I'm certainly no fan of the carriers here in Japan — I've complained about Softbank quite often in these forums — but I do feel you're overstating the truth.

1) While it's true there are no "shared" data plans for the iPhone and iPad, you can set up your account so that both plans are invoiced together. Contact your carrier, and they'll have it set up in about 5 minutes.

2) NTT DoCoMo (they are one in the same) allows unlocking and unlocked phones, and supports them.

3) Not quite sure what you mean by this. DoCoMo and Willcom both make a clear distinction between 3G and LTE, and offer distinct plans for each.

4) The speed of network services obviously depends on both the location of the user and, ultimately, how good the network is in the first place. I've had both outstanding SMS and MMS transfer speeds, and horrendous ones.

5) If you've had problems with your bills, then you should contact your carrier and demand a correction. I've never once experienced an accounting error on any of my cell phone bills (I've used DoCoMo, J-Phone, Vodafone and Softbank), and I haven't had any family or friends tell me of any such trouble, either. I'm sure accounting errors occur, but I haven't seen evidence of such errors being widespread.

6) I've experienced nothing but outstanding customer service from DoCoMo. Softbank customer service has been inconsistent for me, but several times it has been excellent.

7) Softbank's WiFi network (free to iPhone users) is among the most extensive and best I've experienced anywhere in the world.

I've posted this not to challenge you — I don't doubt you've had lousy experiences with Japan's cellular carriers, as I've had bad experiences with them myself. But I've also had many positive experiences with the carriers here, and wanted to point them out.

Cheers!

[vincebio]

Originally Posted by BlueRaider

Nobody is making an unlock for the 3GS although there is a guy in China who will supposedly replace the baseband on your phone with one that's unlocked. That's a measure almost as drastic as the iPad BB but not nearly as damaging if successful. I would not Flash the iPad baseband to those phones of yours, it destroys any value they have and isn't worth the problems. Just buy an IMEI unlocked iPhone, they're everywhere today.

Well considering im not in Japan anymore, there is no value in getting rid of these here...so im not left with not many options sadly

My major error was not checking them before i left, as i was told they were on 4.1, when in fact they were on 5.1.

Basically, I was waiting for the 5.1 untethered so I could jailbreak them, and use Ultrasnow to unlock them, but it seems now im going to have to use the iPad BB....and wreck the GPS (as well as the pain in the ass custom upgrades).

I tried 5.01 but realised it wouldnt work as Apple have stopped signing it already.

In short, im screwed without the iPad baseband i reckon...

[vincebio]

hey guys,

im getting conflicting information, so my question is :

Do i have to wait for the 5.1 jailbreak before I use Ultrasnow?

Or can i jailbreak now, using iPad BB with 5.0.1 and use Ultrasnow to unlock?

I was under the impression apple had stopped signing 5.0.1, so i have to wait for 5.1 to be broken..?

thanks...

[vincebio]

Well guys,

I can report that i successfully Jailbroke and unlocked both my iPhones as I had the old bootrom, it was easy to Redsn0w them doing Cydia first then iPad baseband next then installing both Ultrasn0w and the Ultrasn0w fixer to get the unlocks working.

Strangely enough, my maps still seems pretty accurate using the cell towers so no complaints with that...

Only issue I can find is that iMessage is stuck at 'Waiting for Activation'...

Anyone know a fix for this?

thanks for all your helps...

[Otherthai]

Hi Vince

I'm having the same problem as you with my SoftBank iPhone 3GS - but i've never jailbrolen before - how did you install iPad baseband? Do u have a Ipsw with ipad baseband for version 4.1?

[Applejuiced]

Originally Posted by Otherthai

Hi Vince

I'm having the same problem as you with my SoftBank iPhone 3GS - but i've never jailbrolen before - how did you install iPad baseband? Do u have a Ipsw with ipad baseband for version 4.1?

You can install the ipad baseband using redsnow.
And you will need to JB it in order to install ultrasnow from cydia to unlock it.