Is there ANY way to use an American AT&T iPhone 3GS with my British O2 Sim Card

[rhymeface]

Hi,

I recently acquired an Amercian iPhone 3GS that's locked to AT&T.

I have an O2 sim card and O2 are all like "yeah, go for it if it works".

So put the O2 sim card in and plugged the iPhone into my laptop and I get a message saying "no, that Sim Card won't work" or words to that effect.

After a bit of reading up, I can see that AT&T are just plain stingy and won't unlock their iPhones despite the fact that my phone is effectively a spare from someone who got an iPhone 4 upgrade, so it's not like it's going to be used.

I've read up on jailbreaking and understand that's not what I want either.

other than that, my reading hasn't shown any real conclusions.

So my question is, is there ANY way that I can get this iphone working with my O2 sim card?

If there isn't, this phone is going straight on eBay and I'm going back to the dark, bleak world that is Blackberry 9000.

Help a brother out and I'll send good vibes your way.

Cheers.

P.S. - It's currently running iOS 4.0 if that makes any difference.

 

[anthdci]

it all depends on what baseband it has. Your only option is to jailbreak and then unlock it using ultrasn0w, but if you go into settings, general, about and then post your "modem firmware" people on here will quickly tell you if that is unlockable using ultrasn0w

you will need to have either 05.11.07, 05.12.01 or 05.13.04. Any later then you will have to wait on a new version of ultrasn0w and hope it unlocks your current modem firmware.

The option option is to upgrade it to the 06.15.00 baseband which is from the ipad. But doing this probably will mean loosing your GPS functionality and you will not be able to downgrade it back to an iphone baseband again. (baseband = modem firmware)

 

[Crystal-RX]

Hi,

I recently acquired an Amercian iPhone 3GS that's locked to AT&T.

I have an O2 sim card and O2 are all like "yeah, go for it if it works".

So put the O2 sim card in and plugged the iPhone into my laptop and I get a message saying "no, that Sim Card won't work" or words to that effect.

After a bit of reading up, I can see that AT&T are just plain stingy and won't unlock their iPhones despite the fact that my phone is effectively a spare from someone who got an iPhone 4 upgrade, so it's not like it's going to be used.

I've read up on jailbreaking and understand that's not what I want either.

other than that, my reading hasn't shown any real conclusions.

So my question is, is there ANY way that I can get this iphone working with my O2 sim card?

If there isn't, this phone is going straight on eBay and I'm going back to the dark, bleak world that is Blackberry 9000.

Help a brother out and I'll send good vibes your way.

Cheers.

P.S. - It's currently running iOS 4.0 if that makes any difference.

Base on your thread, the baseband you have on your Iphone is 05.13 which is unlockable to use with your O2 sim card.

Here is what you need to do and if you following my instruction, your sim will work in this phone.

1. Connect your Iphone to wifi network that you can access to internet.
2. Open safari on your iphone and in the address bar, type in www.jailbreakme.com then hit go
3. Jailbreakme website will appear and there is a slider on it. It ask you to slide to jailbreak, slide it to jailbreak and it will do its things.
4. Once jailbreak is done, you will see a Cydia icon on your Iphone screen.
5. Open Cydia and let it loads, update and follow its instruction to upgrade essential package.
6. go back to Cydia, press "manage", then "Sources", then "repo666.ultrasn0w.com", "ultrasn0w" and install it.
7. Once ultrans0w installs, it will reboot your phone and it is ready for your sim.

Enjoy!

 

[rhymeface]

anthdci and Crystal-RX for Dudes of the Day, please.

Nice one. Modem Firmware is 05.13.04.

Just to be absolutely sure, should the iphone be hooked up to iTunes while I'm doing the Jailbreak? I'm guessing no.

 

[MaxBurn]

anthdci and Crystal-RX for Dudes of the Day, please.

Nice one. Modem Firmware is 05.13.04.

Just to be absolutely sure, should the iphone be hooked up to iTunes while I'm doing the Jailbreak? I'm guessing no.

Should not be connected to itunes when going to that site to jb.

You also want to read up on updating your ios version and preserving your baseband. Even if you dont want to just be aware to not restore with a newer ios version from apple or it will update your baseband and lose your unlock.

 

[rhymeface]

Should not be connected to itunes when going to that site to jb.

You also want to read up on updating your ios version and preserving your baseband. Even if you dont want to just be aware to not restore with a newer ios version from apple or it will update your baseband and lose your unlock.

Understood. Thanks a lot for all your help. So glad this wasn't a wasted venture.

Fare thee well, MacRumors Dudes. You shall always be friends of the bears.

 

[Crystal-RX]

Understood. Thanks a lot for all your help. So glad this wasn't a wasted venture.

Fare thee well, MacRumors Dudes. You shall always be friends of the bears.

Yeah. You are very lucky to get this 3GS with 4.0 where you can jailbreak it without hooking up to your machine.

Enjoy!