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AT&T Will Unlock Off-Contract iPhones Starting Sunday, April 8

bigjnyc said:
My friend works in an AT&T store and they had a meeting about it this morning. He sent me a text about it but I honestly thought he was just messing around with me and being sarcastic about AT&T as he usually is ... I had the heads up on this rumor since this morning but didn't take it serious and wrote it off as my buddy joking around LOL... Wow what a pleasant surprise. I blew my chance at 15 minutes of Macrumors fame dammit! :D
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Can you ask him if there is any wiggle room on the "out of contract" clause for iPhone release day purchasers?
 
eagleglen said:
I was worried about the same thing. But the new releases says qualifying accounts include those that "upgraded under one of our upgrade policies." So I would assume that when you upgrade at the time a new iPhone gets released, whether or not you get a full upgrade discount or a partial, that should satisfy the contract on your existing iPhone. Therefore, they should unlock it for you.

Can't be certain until you try, but you should be able to make a stronge argument for it, if necessary.
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I hope this is true. I had a 3G and upgraded to 4 as soon as I could. My contract expires 7/5/12 but I'd like to unlock before May 10 as I have a trip to Canada planned and I don't want to pay $15/MB!!
 
While I am very happy with the news, why not offer unlock to all customers, whether they are in contract or not? Is AT&T that desperate to rob customers with ridiculous international roaming charges?
 
I have my 4s and about 2 months i pay the ETF i cant unlock it calling it and say to unlock it ???
 
I wonder if US iPhones are locked the same way my Vodafone iPhone 4s was here in Australia - just doing a full software restore by putting my iPhone into recovery mode, then restoring it, was enough to unlock it for me to use SIMs from other carriers. Would be interested to hear of people's experience over there in the US.

Cheers.
 
pheenix11 said:
How does this work? Do they do it over the air? My old iPhone 4 is in Ecuador with my brother in law who has never been able to unlock it. Do we have to get the phone back in the US and turn it on to unlock it?
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In Switzerland it works over the air (or maybe via iTunes), you go to your provider, give them your IMEI and the lot, they clear it in their database and send the ok to Apple which unlocks your phone over the air.
 
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my iPhone 4 is a GoPhone

Xenomorph said:
OK, AT&T, you're almost there. How about these, next?

- Does paying my ETF on a new phone qualify me for Unlocking? Please make that so.

- Please STOP requiring a data plan. The iPhone works perfectly fine as an "iPod touch that can make calls and send SMS". It doesn't need a data plan.
I wanted to let my daughter use my old 3GS. It worked fine without a data plan, until you forced one on her. Now she's back to using her old phone.

- Where is family/shared data plans? My wife and daughter would like to use their own iPhone, but it would make me SICK to have pay $20-$30 per device even if they do NOT want data plans.
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I paid the early contract termination fee and now use my iPhone 4 as a GoPhone. I don't need or even want a data plan now that my wife has retired. But I will have it unlocked as soon as possible so I can use it in Europe, etc.
 
eagandale4114 said:
you ask for the unlock. At&t send the imei number to apple. Apple tells you to sync with itunes. Itunes tells you it is unlocked.
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Official iPhone 3G Unlock.png
 
Xenomorph said:
- Please STOP requiring a data plan. The iPhone works perfectly fine as an "iPod touch that can make calls and send SMS". It doesn't need a data plan.
I wanted to let my daughter use my old 3GS. It worked fine without a data plan, until you forced one on her. Now she's back to using her old phone.
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This and 'no unlock EVAR!!!' were my reasons for not getting an iPhone. I would have simply purchased an unlocked iPhone a while ago if I wouldn't be forced into a data plan.
 
lordofthereef said:
I think keeping a subsidized phone structure would be extremely difficult to do in this case. An add-a-line on most family plans is $10. If they share data (just not use it) there is not an increase in the monthly fees paid on that plan.
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AT&T can require $30 DataPro 3GB as the minimum requirement for shared data plan and charge $10 per each additional line and $10 per each additional GB. For 3 iPhone lines, AT&T will generate $50 for same 3GB. Granted, that is less than selling 3 $20 DataPlus 300MB plans (or $60 for 900MB), but family shared plan helps AT&T sell iPhone to customer who would not have purchased iPhone otherwise.

Alternatively, AT&T can require $50 DataPro 5GB Personal Hotspot plan (and $10 per additional GB), without additional charge for lines already in the family plan.
 
appletowns said:
This is great news, but now I'm wondering if there is anyway to get my 3GS back to normal since it has the ipad baseband on it...

Any gurus have insight about that? :/
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No. Didn't you read the warnings from the dev team?:rolleyes:

marku5 said:
How exactly are you asking for the unlock?
I`m in europe right now and can't walk into an at&t store.
:/
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AT&T does have a telephone number. Call that.

nagromme said:
What about during your contract? When you travel overseas, can you pop in a SIM? You wouldn’t cancel your US plan, so AT&T would still get every month you signed on for. You’d simply get a second, temporary plan and SIM at your destination. I believe you can do that with Verizon; what about AT&T?
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You have to finish your contract before you can unlock. Didn't you read the article?

Well, it looks like I'll only have to keep my 1.59 bb until October (when I got my 4), which isn't too long in the grand scheme of things. I'm so excited!
 
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I'll see about unlocking my backup phone, the 3G. Then, in July, I can unlock my 4.

This provides a backup in case my sister's phone, on TMobile, is broken and she needs an emergency phone. I figure I need to keep one backup phone in case I lose or break my current phone.
 
Hurray! Looks like my girlfriend will be getting a nice Christmas present this year haha (she's on T-Mobile).
 
nutmac said:
AT&T can require $30 DataPro 3GB as the minimum requirement for shared data plan and charge $10 per each additional line and $10 per each additional GB. For 3 iPhone lines, AT&T will generate $50 for same 3GB. Granted, that is less than selling 3 $20 DataPlus 300MB plans (or $60 for 900MB), but family shared plan helps AT&T sell iPhone to customer who would not have purchased iPhone otherwise.

Alternatively, AT&T can require $50 DataPro 5GB Personal Hotspot plan (and $10 per additional GB), without additional charge for lines already in the family plan.
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Sure, they could do all this, but that wouldn't be all that much cheaper than their current offerings, which is what I am guessing people who propose changes like this ACTUALLY want. I believe the original post I responded to said something like "it would make me SICK to have to pay for additional individual plans". I would think, by that, he means he doesn't want to pay for them at all.
 
Anyone call them yet? I did. Apparently, AT&T hasn't told their CSRs yet. I argued with two of them who claimed that AT&T had never had the ability to unlock iPhones. What is wrong with these companies? Why is it so hard to tell the employees BEFORE the public?
 
jbachandouris said:
Anyone call them yet? I did. Apparently, AT&T hasn't told their CSRs yet. I argued with two of them who claimed that AT&T had never had the ability to unlock iPhones. What is wrong with these companies? Why is it so hard to tell the employees BEFORE the public?
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I have not seen a press release from AT&T. Technically, they have not told the public.

But your right, if you're going to leak it to the news, at least leak it to your CSRs too so they know to say "wait for 4/8."
 
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