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I don't care about the gi bill, i care about getting my iphone unlocked without paying the factory unlocked price equivalent. Kindness is not what this is. It is a media stunt to get support from the people that feed into the hype and in turn makes ATT more money. They are a business in business to make money right?

If they gave everyone an unlock, and I am on a contract they still get their money from me to fulfill my contract whether i have an unlocked phone or not, because they are in business to make money, not be kind ;)

Thank you :D

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but that doesn't have to take away from this small gesture if we just agree that this is a perfectly reasonable and appreciable gesture on the part of AT&T.

A gesture that probably has absolutely nothing with supporting the troops and more to do with fixing a bad image. Gotta hand it to those AT&T marketers though because this small 'gesture' will probably give them exactly what they want if this thread is any reflection of the general public
 
A gesture that probably has absolutely nothing with supporting the troops and more to do with fixing a bad image. Gotta hand it to those AT&T marketers though because this small 'gesture' will probably give them exactly what they want if this thread is any reflection of the general public

'absolutely nothing to do' is a funny bit of speculation. I will certainly agree that they did not do it just to be kind. it had to make business sense to them in some way and they have established that 'the right thing' is not always what they consider the best business sense.

My post--really--was not about AT&T though. It was about folks whining about this by basically saying that deployed soldiers shouldn't get it unless job X, Y, or Z gets it. why not simply lobby for the other jobs without questioning the merit of this?

(I am not a deployed soldier. I don't have close family members that are. I am a long time AT&T customer and I don't have an iPhone because I disagree with AT&T's unlock policy. I still don't see why this rattles cages.)
 
This should not be a news. They should have done the unlock automatically for the people who serves the country.

No, they shouldn't. I'm former military, and I live and am stationed overseas on a military base. I understand and appreciate the current policy and think AT&T is doing the right thing, since I know a lot of people not on active duty (Guard and Reserve) who can get called up for deployment at any time. AT&T already does a hell of a lot for the military members overseas, and has a long history of supporting deployed troops, but they don't owe those troops anything. If they're stationed Stateside, they get discounts on phones and service already, and if they sign up for a plan and get a subsidized phone, they should have to wait their contract out just like everyone else. The ones who get orders to oveseas locations like where I am can already get out of their contract with orders and can get their phones unlocked under the program that started on Sunday.
 
Way to go AT&T!

[sarcasm]
I have to get this out there before someone else does:
1) Can we please stop calling it iPhone 5 (it's the sixth generation)
2) A 3.5" Screen is two small for power users!
[/sarcasm]
 
US Navy in Japan

just got off the phone with att.
I'm currently deployed in Japan for a few month.
I told att rep that I'm deployed, and there was no help. She told me that i have to have my phone for 2 years in order for them to unlock it, and since I got my 4s last october, she said there is no way she can do unlock my phone. She even talked to her maneger and still no luck, I guess he said no.
So it didn't work out for me.
 
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This is a nice gesture by AT&T.

Although in Australia by law a carrier has to unlock a phone by request no matter what.

Anyway, does anyone know how I can call up and get a phone unlocked while in Australia? I have an iPhone 2G I bought a few years back and jailbroke and unlocked it. But it would be nice to be able to use it with no jailbreak.

Thanks.
 
uhh why does ATT give service members special treatment? there are plenty of hardworking people here at home whose jobs are just as important as the soldiers. knowing that ATT can unlock in-contract phones at any time and not doing it for everyone is another reason they are a *****ty company.

Seriously? I think AT&T's move is awesome and I will continue to buy goods & services from a company who does things like this for the American men and women sent across the world to protect it...
 
These guys and women, DEFINITELY DON'T need unlocked iPhones when they are in a warzone :rolleyes:. You got to be kidding saying that they should be able to get them unlocked because of that???

Obviously you're no service member and/or one that's been deployed. My AOE is communications and there's many reasons to challenge your statement but for OPSEC issues, I'll just pick one to showcase.

In a warzone, there was a policy that states no cell phone use and all comms must be through military hardware, no commercially available devices are authorized.

While this looks great on a policy letter or in a page in the book of regulations, in a combat theater it did more harm than good when it robbed troops of "available" methods of communications for example when they're not able to use their equipment in their vehicles (like when they're pinned down in a building) or when terrain features limited how effective certain 2-way radios operated. In those situations, having access to a cell phone helped tremendously.

The problem with being in those countries is unlike where you live where you can go to an Apple Store and buy a nice shiny iPhone with a legit carrier, most of us had to settle for street-vendor "Haji phones" usually something similar to the older Nokias and basic flip phones. There's always the concern about whether the phones were internally rigged/tapped/boobytrapped.

So in that situation I'd feel better if I used a device I know is at zero risk of being rigged from the factory and simply use a SIM card local to that area.
 
But can I keep my unlimited data?

If I am a service member and I deploy, AT&T may be required to allow me to suspend my contract, but when I get back will they still let me keep my unlimited data plan?
 
suspend without penalty?

I wonder if that can also be construed to mean "less any admin fees"?

While on a deployment to Guantanamo Bay (another location where a U.S. cellphone is utterly flipping useless) I remembered a then-in-place policy with AT&T, where for the duration of my absence, the account would be placed in a 'limbo', or suspended status.

At the time I was 6 months into a 2-year cellular obligation, with a 'dumb' phone. After contacting AT&T to put that account on hold I thought that would be it; that on my return I would pick up where I left off, with the time on the contract lessened by my absence.

It worked out that way, but at *that* particular time my account was charged $5.00 a month. An additional stipulation was that on my return there was no guarantee of resuming the same deal/contract which has been on temporary suspension. I would be subject to whatever plan(s) were then in effect.

Bottom line is that if in fact AT&T is now offering a for-real, no-cost option for service-members stationed overseas in areas without AT&T towers, it's about time!
 
More of the typical mindless military worship that has overrun this country.

Of course this is required so that average citizens feel better about themselves when they send young men and women to die in some foreign craphole for some corporate interests.

We haven't been in a war that actually defended this country in over 65 years.

Hey I have an idea, how about we bring all the soldiers home, let them actually defend this country and let them unlock their phones when the rest of us do.
 
Pure PR

The rationale behind locking the phone and keeping it locked is absurd. In most European countries where carriers have been using interoperable equipment for over a decade, they are required by law to unlock the phone within 3 to 6 months. In some countries carrier locks are even illegal.
In the U.S., the lock is pointless since the only other GSM carrier, T-Mobile, is not even 3G-compatible, defeating most of the benefits of using an iPhone.
You could think that AT&T's insistence in keeping iPhone locks has to do with forcing people who travel abroad to pay outrageous roaming charges, but the reality is that anyone traveling abroad who needs to keep their U.S. phone active will pay the outrageous roaming charges whether their phone is unlocked or not, and everybody else will just buy a cheap local phone to go with a pay-as-you-go SIM (you can get a decent unlocked Android smartphone for under $150).
So, I'm still completely unclear as to the rationale behind AT&T maintaining the lock on their iPhones. All I can think of is that it's at the request of Apple, to prevent gray markets in foreign countries. But the benefit to AT&T eludes me.
 
and not every foreign country wants to kill and hates our service members...

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the enlistment bonus doesn't hurt either and surely has no bearing on making the decision to enlist...

all about protecting the country my ***. More like not knowing what to do with one's life and deciding to accept a hefty bonus to have a guaranteed job. Sorry, I know more than enough people whose mentality was this going in that I am jaded in this whole "patriotic" act


Hefty bonus? 10K for some jobs. not everyone gets a bonus when you sign up.
 


I think you should bother because I'd love to see how you defend your position. I made my points clear and pointed out FACTS that can't be desputed. No point discussing it with you or the other guy, you simply don't get it and possibly never will.
I however will take the word of my brother and many of the vet/guard/reserve LEO's out there that I have discussed deployments with (oh, and my now dead lifetime fire fighter father who knew my brothers and my deployments were way harder than being here in the states being a fireman who said many times "I don't know how you guys did it"), who all agree that being deployed is WAY harder than anything they have to do here in the states, over any one's here .

You (and apparently others that are possibly ignorant on the subject) are confusing PCS'd soldiers with deployed soldiers. I don't think a service member should get this service SIMPLY because they are a service member. I was stationed in Germany but I deployed to Iraq, see the difference? Being a deployed service member is an entirely different ball of wax.
Whether or not what you say is factual has no relevance to whether or not you're being condescending. You can correct people without being a dick about it.

And I know there's a difference between a stationed service member and deployed. My point is during a time of no conflict, there won't be deployed members. LEOs ad firefighters otoh will still be going on with their duties even during times of peace. And yet they for the most part don't earn much respect or get even a fraction of the perks.

I'm all for deployed service members getting this service and more - I never said anything to the contrary. I'm just saying you (and others) should recognize there are non military folk who also sacrifice a ton to keep the rest of us safe

I'm done with this anyway. Clearly you're arguing for the sake of inciting conflict and have no desire to hold a reasonable discussion.

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More of the typical mindless military worship that has overrun this country.

Of course this is required so that average citizens feel better about themselves when they send young men and women to die in some foreign craphole for some corporate interests.

We haven't been in a war that actually defended this country in over 65 years.

Hey I have an idea, how about we bring all the soldiers home, let them actually defend this country and let them unlock their phones when the rest of us do.

I agree with the sentiment, but have nothing against the troops - they're just following orders. It's the leadership that's sending us into pointless "wars" (technically we haven't declared war since WWII)

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Hefty bonus? 10K for some jobs. not everyone gets a bonus when you sign up.

To be fair, 10k isn't bad for a kid who probably wouldn't otherwise have a shot at getting a decent job. Granted 10k isn't much when putting your life on the line

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I wonder if that can also be construed to mean "less any admin fees"?

While on a deployment to Guantanamo Bay (another location where a U.S. cellphone is utterly flipping useless) I remembered a then-in-place policy with AT&T, where for the duration of my absence, the account would be placed in a 'limbo', or suspended status.

At the time I was 6 months into a 2-year cellular obligation, with a 'dumb' phone. After contacting AT&T to put that account on hold I thought that would be it; that on my return I would pick up where I left off, with the time on the contract lessened by my absence.

It worked out that way, but at *that* particular time my account was charged $5.00 a month. An additional stipulation was that on my return there was no guarantee of resuming the same deal/contract which has been on temporary suspension. I would be subject to whatever plan(s) were then in effect.

Bottom line is that if in fact AT&T is now offering a for-real, no-cost option for service-members stationed overseas in areas without AT&T towers, it's about time!

For civilians, suspending a line for $5/mo has always been an option. My cousin did so as recently as last year. Sounds like they implemented the wrong option on your account
 
Wow. AT&T is, like, the most awesome company in the world.

this is awesome!

Good for AT&T :)

Cool AT&T. :cool: Thumbs up.

One of the few honorable things I've seen AT&T do; good for them!

I still don't understand all the AT&T accolades. The freaking phone is paid for and OUT OF CONTRACT and they are just doing what the courts would make them do anyway.
 
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