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T-Mobile in the U.K. on Unlocked iPhone

CD3660

CD3660

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jun 6, 2007
5,483
2,797
Cheshire, United Kingdom.
Is anyone successfully using an unlocked iPhone on the T-Mobile network in the U.K.?

If so, could you post your experiences please. It would be very helpful for those of us who are less than enamored with the o2 tariffs and are now thinking of importing and unlocking.

Many thanks.
 
Might not help much but seeing as you're desperate :) - I've unlocked to Virgin Mobile (closely related to T-Mobile as I understand it), and everything works fine.
 
Speaking as someone who's about to get a US iPhone to unlock onto a current O2 tariff, what about 'going legit' later on, once the official UK iPhone and O2 tariffs are available? I'm thinking that logically that would be possible.
 
owen-b said:
Speaking as someone who's about to get a US iPhone to unlock onto a current O2 tariff, what about 'going legit' later on, once the official UK iPhone and O2 tariffs are available? I'm thinking that logically that would be possible.
Click to expand...

I'd be interested to know this too, might take some of the sting out of possibly ending with a brick at some point.
 
AndyGarton said:
Might not help much but seeing as you're desperate :) - I've unlocked to Virgin Mobile (closely related to T-Mobile as I understand it), and everything works fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks Andy, I think that Virgin uses T-Mobile's network so that sounds good.

Not sure whether T-Mobile has EDGE outside London though. Are you outside London and have you used it for browsing (other than wi-fi)? If so is it slow?
 
CD3660 said:
Thanks Andy, I think that Virgin uses T-Mobile's network so that sounds good.

Not sure whether T-Mobile has EDGE outside London though. Are you outside London and have you used it for browsing (other than wi-fi)? If so is it slow?
Click to expand...
I haven't set it up since I have no real need for it when I'm away from wi-fi and don't fancy paying for it anyway (I'm on a PAYG direct debit tarif not a contract). I do get the "E" Edge icon though, if that means anything (I'm in Tring in Hertfordshire).
 
AndyGarton said:
I haven't set it up since I have no real need for it when I'm away from wi-fi and don't fancy paying for it anyway (I'm on a PAYG direct debit tarif not a contract). I do get the "E" Edge icon though, if that means anything (I'm in Tring in Hertfordshire).
Click to expand...

How long have you had it, and have you noticed it being expensive at all? The E showing up means you are connected to EDGE and thus the iPhone will be downloading data all the time.
 
Project said:
How long have you had it, and have you noticed it being expensive at all? The E showing up means you are connected to EDGE and thus the iPhone will be downloading data all the time.
Click to expand...
I beg to differ. Whenever I'm away from WiFi and start an internet enabled application I get an "Edge not activated" (something like that) error message (the edge server/login info is still at the default AT&T settings).
 
AndyGarton said:
I beg to differ. Whenever I'm away from WiFi and start an internet enabled application I get an "Edge not activated" (something like that) error message (the edge server/login info is still at the default AT&T settings).
Click to expand...

Cool... it may not sound it but thats a good thing. Does it not revert to GPRS? i.e. can you use the internet without Wifi on your phone?
 
Project said:
Cool... it may not sound it but thats a good thing. Does it not revert to GPRS? i.e. can you use the internet without Wifi on your phone?
Click to expand...
I know it's a good thing :) And no, as I said above, internet doesn't work without WiFi.

FWIW I just entered the Virgin Mobile APN details correctly into the Edge settings page and it does then connect successfully (via EDGE) with WiFi off. It seemed quite fast too, better than GPRS, worse than WiFi, which of course makes sense. I quickly went back and changed the APN name to garbage as I dread to think how much they're charging me :)

(Handy to have as an emergency backup though one day.)
 
so just had a convo with T-Mobile customer care and the girl said that HSDPA or something was as far as T-Mob UK were going with their data thing... I asked her about EDGE and she apparently checked with the tech dept who said they dont use it... but i suspect it was a half arsed response as she didnt actually know what it was and called it "double speed" which goes to show that the techies didnt understand what it was either.... I think they thought that EDGE was the newest thing and not an older technology.

I think others should try calling to see about the EDGE thing and see what responses they get.

Interesting that it works with Virgin tho... are we sure they use T-Mob networks?
 
AndyGarton said:
FWIW I just entered the Virgin Mobile APN details correctly into the Edge settings page and it does then connect successfully (via EDGE) with WiFi off. It seemed quite fast too, better than GPRS, worse than WiFi, which of course makes sense.
Click to expand...

Excellent! What are the settings if you don't mind me asking?

If they do, as I believe, use the T-Mobile network, I assume that they will be the same as T-Mobile.
 
so its official.... T-Mobile won the contract in Germany.... HOW ANNOYING... why couldnt they have it in the UK?? :(

However interesting possibilities are abound... could we, say, get access to visual voicemail now??
 
npdale said:
so just had a convo with T-Mobile customer care and the girl said that HSDPA or something was as far as T-Mob UK were going with their data thing... I asked her about EDGE and she apparently checked with the tech dept who said they dont use it... but i suspect it was a half arsed response as she didnt actually know what it was and called it "double speed" which goes to show that the techies didnt understand what it was either.... I think they thought that EDGE was the newest thing and not an older technology.

I think others should try calling to see about the EDGE thing and see what responses they get.
Click to expand...

HSDPA is sometimes referred to as 3.5G and is the latest technology in the U.K. for data (very fast).

The response I got from T-Mobile suggested to me too that they thought that what I was asking about (EDGE) was the newest thing and not an older technology. They said that they use only 2G and 3G, whereas I know that they rolled out HSDPA about a year ago.

It is very difficult to get an informed answer from these people.
 
AndyGarton said:
I know it's a good thing :) And no, as I said above, internet doesn't work without WiFi.

FWIW I just entered the Virgin Mobile APN details correctly into the Edge settings page and it does then connect successfully (via EDGE) with WiFi off. It seemed quite fast too, better than GPRS, worse than WiFi, which of course makes sense. I quickly went back and changed the APN name to garbage as I dread to think how much they're charging me :)

(Handy to have as an emergency backup though one day.)
Click to expand...

Virgin charge 5p per KB and do not offer any bundle or package deal for data on PAYG or contract.

So when my current credit runs out I will be heading over to Orange which is currently offering 15p per min flat rate on calls to all networks plus unlimited data after 7pm (available through their website only) on their speakeasy plan. And orange have Edge (although they call it something else)
 
Project said:
How long have you had it, and have you noticed it being expensive at all? The E showing up means you are connected to EDGE and thus the iPhone will be downloading data all the time.
Click to expand...

Speaking as an ex-T-Mobile UK employee...

When you see the 'E' on your iPhone it means that the phone has detected the network and is able to use it. When you try to use the Internet, it fails because you have the wrong APN information is, as you said. I see that you later said that you'd put the correct APN details for Virgin in... when your phone is on, it won't be downloading data all the time - only when you've got an application running that is using an internet connection. You're charged by the amount of traffic you download, now how long you have a connection to the network for. Just thought I'd try and clear that up in case others got confused from what was said before...

Oh, and yes, Virgin use the TMUK network for all of their services that a customer would see, internal services (such as billing and provisioning) and customer services are provided by Virgin direct...

HTH,

M.
 
AndyGarton said:
APN: goto.virginmobile.uk, User: user, PW: wap
Click to expand...
Thanks.
T-Mobile settings (found through Google) are different:
http://wap.t-mobile.co.uk/ or http://www.t-zones.co.uk/
GPRS APN address: general.t-mobile.uk
Gateway (IP) address :149.254.1.10 (alt: 149.254.201.132)
Username : user (alt: wapuser)
Password: wap
Session type: Continuous / permanent
Port number: 8080 (alt: 9201)
Authentication: Normal

SMTP email server: smtp.t-email.co.uk
 
so its looking more promising... are we now saying that T-Mobile does support EDGE?
 
markjewiss said:
Speaking as an ex-T-Mobile UK employee...

When you see the 'E' on your iPhone it means that the phone has detected the network and is able to use it. When you try to use the Internet, it fails because you have the wrong APN information is, as you said. I see that you later said that you'd put the correct APN details for Virgin in... when your phone is on, it won't be downloading data all the time - only when you've got an application running that is using an internet connection. You're charged by the amount of traffic you download, now how long you have a connection to the network for. Just thought I'd try and clear that up in case others got confused from what was said before...

Oh, and yes, Virgin use the TMUK network for all of their services that a customer would see, internal services (such as billing and provisioning) and customer services are provided by Virgin direct...

HTH,

M.
Click to expand...
I'm talking about things like checking for Visual Voicemail, downloading email
etc. These run in the background without the user necessarily knowing it. Obviously the first won't work, but the second could be a problem if GPRS/EDGE was working.
 
This photo posted on the Engadget website was taken at the U.K. iPhone launch in London yesterday and shows an official o2 UK iPhone next to a hacked U.S. iPhone using a T-Mobile UK sim card. The latter displays the EDGE symbol, whereas ironically the o2 EDGE coverage was not strong enough to be picked up inside the Apple store in Regent Street! Bodes well doesn't it?

My question is this: Does the fact that the E (for EDGE) is displayed definitely mean that EDGE is being picked up?
 

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