Can you unlock a phone w/o restoring from iTunes?

[MK25toLife]

Long story short, I paid a 3rd party service to unlock my phone. I have a feeling they won't unlock it before I leave the country so I won't have a computer to restore my iPhone.

When I last unlocked my iPhone 5, I had to restore it through iTunes to get it to work.

If the 3rd party service I used unlocks the phone after I've already left the country, how would I activate the unlock?

 

[Mephisto1]

You do not need iTunes. Once the 3rd party informs of the unlock, it's on Apples severs. Just insert new carriers SIM card and if unlocked you will see it activate. If it's not yet unlocked you will see invalid SIM.

 

[lordofthereef]

Phones running iOS7 and later do not need to be restored. I learned this just a few days ago mylf.