AT&T's iPhone 5 - activation on T-mobile

aalangari · Sep 27, 2012, 07:18 PM

i've bought my new iPhone 5 from eBay and the seller told me that the phone is with at&t but without contract. he also mentioned that he will ship the phone sealed as he received it from apple. the question here, am i going to be able to activate the phone and get it unlocked on my T-mobile SIM card?
please note that i don't have a contract with At&t.

the reason why i placed this order is because i read an article that stated that off-contract At&t iPhone can be easily unlocked via iTunes.

many thanks!

rritterson · Sep 27, 2012, 07:25 PM

If the phone is unlocked and unattached to AT&T you will have no problem. However, you can buy an AT&T phone without a contract and have it pre-linked to an AT&T account. You may have trouble activating it in that case.

soya · Sep 27, 2012, 08:23 PM

Just received an iPhone 5 32GB from Ebay. Seller told me it is without contract (no-commitment iPhone). I've tried the iTunes trick to unlock it but no luck. I'm trying the IMEI unlock thing, it should work.. (only 8$ BTW)

aalangari · Sep 28, 2012, 02:48 AM

thanks you guys for your input!

rritterson,

the seller told that the phone is from at&t and without a contract. he also told me that he got it from Apple, would that mean that the phone is not attached to At&t? and how do I get it pre-linked to an at&t account, my phone number is from t-mobile?!

Soya,

which SIM card did you use when you tried the iTunes trick, was it yours or was it the one that came in with the phone?

am not from the states so i guess I'll be needing more time to digest all these complicated issues

where i come from every thing is very simple, just buy the phone of your choice and put in the carrier's sim of your choice and that's it! no locking or unlocking, no IMEIs or serial numbers and every company has almost the same network capabilities!

again, thank you very much!

PPFee · Sep 28, 2012, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soya

Just received an iPhone 5 32GB from Ebay. Seller told me it is without contract (no-commitment iPhone). I've tried the iTunes trick to unlock it but no luck. I'm trying the IMEI unlock thing, it should work.. (only 8$ BTW)

who was the seller if you dont mind me asking, was it unlock fusion?

Demonofelru · Sep 28, 2012, 07:18 PM

I would also like to know as I am in a similar situation I can't activate since it tries to give me their number I'll try the imei trick or else I'll just have to return it I guess.

PPFee · Sep 28, 2012, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demonofelru

I would also like to know as I am in a similar situation I can't activate since it tries to give me their number I'll try the imei trick or else I'll just have to return it I guess.

tries to give you their number?!?! what do you mean by that? mine was unlocked, it shows unlocked by "ATT" but i dont get the message in iTunes and the phone says "needs activation" with the non ATT sim card in it, yet i can see it has a signal and showss the edge data connection of T-mobile....all weird ****

Demonofelru · Sep 28, 2012, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PPFee

tries to give you their number?!?! what do you mean by that? mine was unlocked, it shows unlocked by "ATT" but i dont get the message in iTunes and the phone says "needs activation" with the non ATT sim card in it, yet i can see it has a signal and showss the edge data connection of T-mobile....all weird ****

I didn't try to unlock mine yet. Basically I bought it off eBay the seller just took out their SIM card and shipped it. I went to AT&T store to transfer to the phone and they said they couldn't so it he was supposed to activate first then ship.

PPFee · Sep 28, 2012, 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demonofelru

I didn't try to unlock mine yet. Basically I bought it off eBay the seller just took out their SIM card and shipped it. I went to AT&T store to transfer to the phone and they said they couldn't so it he was supposed to activate first then ship.

ohhh yea i got you, what about buying pre-paid att sim card and popping it in their would it activate with that? i do know ur right though it has to be activated at least once before you can unlock it

Demonofelru · Sep 28, 2012, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PPFee

ohhh yea i got you, what about buying pre-paid att sim card and popping it in their would it activate with that? i do know ur right though it has to be activated at least once before you can unlock it

So even if I do the imei unlock and stick in a tmobile sim or whatever you don't think it will work?

PPFee · Sep 28, 2012, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demonofelru

So even if I do the imei unlock and stick in a tmobile sim or whatever you don't think it will work?

I cant say for sure either way, all i can say is if you click this link to this ebay listing and scroll down it has a spot that says NOTE: unlocks may not work on un-activated iPhones http://www.ebay.com/itm/Factory-Unlo...-/190731616257

Demonofelru · Sep 28, 2012, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PPFee

I cant say for sure either way, all i can say is if you click this link to this ebay listing and scroll down it has a spot that says NOTE: unlocks may not work on un-activated iPhones http://www.ebay.com/itm/Factory-Unlo...-/190731616257

Yeah according to this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/Unlock-Code-...item2c687114ec
it says it MAY not work on it not sure what that means, guess easiest way would be just to return oh well.

PPFee · Sep 28, 2012, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demonofelru

Yeah according to this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/Unlock-Code-...item2c687114ec
it says it MAY not work on it not sure what that means, guess easiest way would be just to return oh well.

thats what i say MAY not work. Assuming returns would cost more than 10 bucks, you may as well just try it and see if it works.

Demonofelru · Sep 28, 2012, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PPFee

thats what i say MAY not work. Assuming returns would cost more than 10 bucks, you may as well just try it and see if it works.

Yeah guess I will thanks.

aalangari · Sep 29, 2012, 03:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PPFee

thats what i say MAY not work. Assuming returns would cost more than 10 bucks, you may as well just try it and see if it works.

i was at the att store and they've told me that they'll activate it for me. they said that i just need to show them the purchase receipt which the seller got from apple. i guess this news is good, however i still have some doubts!

anyways, my phone will arrive tomorrow and I'll keep you posted!

aphexacid · Sep 29, 2012, 04:18 AM

I'm waiting for at&t to do a sweep of all these shady black market unlockers, and re-lock all these iphones. its not gonna be pretty.

PPFee · 05:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aphexacid

I'm waiting for at&t to do a sweep of all these shady black market unlockers, and re-lock all these iphones. its not gonna be pretty.

Are you now, i dont think you have any idea what you are speaking of unfortunately. I am confident your answer post was an emotionally charged one, what emotions (anger, jealousy, disapproval) i wont speculate to. I will however enlighten you as to the fact that most of the "shady black market unlocks" either work for AT&T or are only in existence because they are well connected with someone at AT&T, many of whom are high enough up to be able to do an unlimited number of unlocks and be immune to having their data need to be approved by anyone.
Most importantly and most laughable about your post is what makes me wander why you are even reading this thread, as you obviously have no idea what an unlock is. Let me make it quite clear, a Factory hardware Unlock is not something that can be undone. Devices cannot be "re-locked" as you put it. It just doesn't work that way.

aphexacid · 06:27 PM

EDIT:

not worth it.

Dwalls90 · Sep 29, 2012, 06:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soya

Just received an iPhone 5 32GB from Ebay. Seller told me it is without contract (no-commitment iPhone). I've tried the iTunes trick to unlock it but no luck. I'm trying the IMEI unlock thing, it should work.. (only 8$ BTW)

Just because it is out of contract, doesn't mean it's automatically unlocked.

However, by contacting AT&T, they should realize that there is no contract, and unlock it for you.

PPFee · Sep 29, 2012, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aphexacid

EDIT:

not worth it.

LMAO, i read it in my email inbox, you're right, had a migraine and a few days of no sleep and i'll take up some crazy causes when there's sand in my vag

soya · Sep 30, 2012, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dwalls90

Just because it is out of contract, doesn't mean it's automatically unlocked.

However, by contacting AT&T, they should realize that there is no contract, and unlock it for you.

No-commitment AT&T iPhone 5 was supposed to be unlockable using the iTunes trick people found. I know that out-of-contract does not mean unlocked. Anyway I got it unlocked via unlock fusion, working perfectly

aalangari · Sep 30, 2012, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soya

No-commitment AT&T iPhone 5 was supposed to be unlockable using the iTunes trick people found. I know that out-of-contract does not mean unlocked. Anyway I got it unlocked via unlock fusion, working perfectly

unlock fusion just sent me the unlock email. the thing is my phone is not activated so am not sure its gonna work. was your phone activated by an att sim before you went through the unlocking instructions?

soya · Sep 30, 2012, 11:08 PM

I've answered your PM

Boiler · Oct 6, 2012, 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soya

No-commitment AT&T iPhone 5 was supposed to be unlockable using the iTunes trick people found. I know that out-of-contract does not mean unlocked. Anyway I got it unlocked via unlock fusion, working perfectly

What was the itunes trick for no commit ATT iphone 5?

ANMA dojo · Oct 6, 2012, 02:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aphexacid

I'm waiting for at&t to do a sweep of all these shady black market unlockers, and re-lock all these iphones. its not gonna be pretty.

why wish misfortune on others?

Sep 27, 2012, 07:18 PM	#1
aalangari macrumors newbie Join Date: Sep 2012	AT&T's iPhone 5 - activation on T-mobile i've bought my new iPhone 5 from eBay and the seller told me that the phone is with at&t but without contract. he also mentioned that he will ship the phone sealed as he received it from apple. the question here, am i going to be able to activate the phone and get it unlocked on my T-mobile SIM card? please note that i don't have a contract with At&t. the reason why i placed this order is because i read an article that stated that off-contract At&t iPhone can be easily unlocked via iTunes. many thanks!
	1

Sep 29, 2012, 06:18 PM	#18
aphexacid macrumors 6502a Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Chicago	EDIT: not worth it. Last edited by aphexacid; Sep 29, 2012 at 06:27 PM.
	1

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Sep 27, 2012, 07:25 PM	#2
rritterson macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: SF CA	If the phone is unlocked and unattached to AT&T you will have no problem. However, you can buy an AT&T phone without a contract and have it pre-linked to an AT&T account. You may have trouble activating it in that case.
	2

Sep 27, 2012, 08:23 PM	#3
soya macrumors member Join Date: Jul 2010	Just received an iPhone 5 32GB from Ebay. Seller told me it is without contract (no-commitment iPhone). I've tried the iTunes trick to unlock it but no luck. I'm trying the IMEI unlock thing, it should work.. (only 8$ BTW)
	1

Sep 28, 2012, 02:48 AM	#4
aalangari Thread Starter macrumors newbie Join Date: Sep 2012	thanks you guys for your input! rritterson, the seller told that the phone is from at&t and without a contract. he also told me that he got it from Apple, would that mean that the phone is not attached to At&t? and how do I get it pre-linked to an at&t account, my phone number is from t-mobile?! Soya, which SIM card did you use when you tried the iTunes trick, was it yours or was it the one that came in with the phone? am not from the states so i guess I'll be needing more time to digest all these complicated issues where i come from every thing is very simple, just buy the phone of your choice and put in the carrier's sim of your choice and that's it! no locking or unlocking, no IMEIs or serial numbers and every company has almost the same network capabilities! again, thank you very much!
	1

Sep 28, 2012, 07:18 PM	#6
Demonofelru macrumors member Join Date: May 2011	I would also like to know as I am in a similar situation I can't activate since it tries to give me their number I'll try the imei trick or else I'll just have to return it I guess.
	1

Sep 29, 2012, 04:18 AM	#16
aphexacid macrumors 6502a Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Chicago	I'm waiting for at&t to do a sweep of all these shady black market unlockers, and re-lock all these iphones. its not gonna be pretty.
	1

Sep 30, 2012, 11:08 PM	#23
soya macrumors member Join Date: Jul 2010	I've answered your PM
	1