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Fully SIM Unlocked iPhones

I generally stay away from Hacksies and things of that ilk since it is not worth the headache when a patch comes from Apple, and in general, I am pleased with the way Apple designs its products.

But this is one hack I think I may do.

I am an AT&T customer, despite my loathing the company, but international roaming rates are simply criminal.

If AT&T were smart, they would re-negotiate their international roaming deals and offer reasonable roaming rates. Executives like myself who don't like hacking my devices and have decent disposable income will pay more to roam internationally with the convenience of our global phone number.

But at $2 - $5 per minute, we'll use local SIMMS and AT&T will see no revenue.

Not smart business.
 
NomadicTy said:
I can? ... Buy an iPhone from Apple store, buy unlock software, then use my current t-mobile SIM, without having to activate the phone with ATT first?
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The iPhone doesn't need to be activated with ATT. The activation scheme was broken from day one, and there at least two pieces of software that can do that for you; the one from DVD John or iActivator (or iNdepedance v1.0).

So what you will need is an iPhone, your SIM, an activation program, and the unlock software that this whole thread is about.
 
Stella said:
Apple didn't let AT&T subsidize the iPhone, so we are assuming it is full price.
Click to expand...

That's junk.

Apple makes hundreds of dollars over the life of each iPhone as a result of its use on ATT's network. You really think that if Apple didn't have that certain income, that the price of the iPhone would not change? Come on!
 
bdj21ya said:
To all those saying Apple will lose money because of their profit sharing deal with AT&T: simply not true. Apple makes a lot more profit per iPhone sold than they do from the service kickback.
Click to expand...

So wait, because they are making more money by selling the iPhone than from the kickbacks (which should be over $120 per customer by the way), that means Apple should not care about losing that money? That $120 is the subsidy - for Apple to make the same money from the deal without the kickbacks, they would have to sell the phone for $150 more, give or take.
 
This is neat and props to the six that worked on this. Though it really doesn't do anything for me, won't have an iPhone possibly ever. I'll stick with my $8/mth plan.
 
homeboy said:
Word! Here in Sweden every single phone on the market can be bought unlocked. Further more we don't even pay when we receive calls and SMS, heck we can even receive calls and SMS when without any money on our pay-to-go cards. I lived in Orange County the first half of this year and the cell phone business in the US is the evil work of capitalism.


International iPhone sales on eBay are going to bloom now.
Click to expand...

I have no idea what you are talking about!! I spend a lot of time in Orange County and have a contract with ATT for 2 phones with no data or text charges and the bill is $79/ month TOTAL!!!!
 
JoeG4 said:
IMHO that should have been very illegal.
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Illegal? Why? Why shouldn't Apple get ongoing revenue in exchange for bringing ATT customers who use high margin services for years? Why in the world should that be illegal?
 
Roaming rip-off

BWhaler said:
I am an AT&T customer, despite my loathing the company, but international roaming rates are simply criminal.

If AT&T were smart, they would re-negotiate their international roaming deals and offer reasonable roaming rates. Executives like myself who don't like hacking my devices and have decent disposable income will pay more to roam internationally with the convenience of our global phone number.

But at $2 - $5 per minute, we'll use local SIMMS and AT&T will see no revenue.

Not smart business.
Click to expand...

You are so right. The US charges are very reasonable but roaming is a nightmare. ATT should work out a deal with the "roamers" for rates that are the same as US prices, otherwise hacking and SIM card replacement is the only way to go for travelers.

In the meantime, this might put a damper on any deals with all the other carriers as they will not be happy about doing a deal with Apple that can be undone so quickly.
 
I am amazed people are ringing up such large international bills and claiming they knew nothing about it.

The iPhone has a feature to help you manage this.

Before your trip:

1. Go to Settings
2. Click on Usage
3. Click reset.

Now you can track both your voice and data usage during the trip.

I am in Asia right now, and I can instantly see that a) I am below the 20 meg monthly limit on my plan and b) I have spent about $120 on voice calls.

Don't get me wrong, it's insane how crazy international roaming costs are. But not knowing about how much you are spending is just foolish.
 
The most pirated program ever :)

Quoted from iphonesimfree.com:

"We are currently opening up our mail for bulk purchase enquiries of 500 licenses and above. "

They know that no one is going to pay for this utility once it gets out in the wild and they are trying to get license fees up front through bulk sales, before "Individual per unit licenses will be available starting next week". Good luck with that.

I predict this will be the most pirated piece of software recently produced.
 
On a recent trip to Australia, I checked with AT&T before leaving and it was going to cost us an arm and the leg to call back to the US. I don't even remember what the rate was but I remember thinking I could be out 20 or 30 bucks for one moderate length call.

That is what prompted me to use Skype for the first time. Hotel broadband and airport wifi + MacBook + Skype and I was able to talk to whoever I needed to, and spent about 2 bucks for the entire 10 day trip.

Mind you, this isn't a truly portable cell phone experience. But for someone who just needed to make occasional calls back home, it was a life saver. And so much easier than fooling with calling cards.

Now that I'm back home, whenever I need to make international calls, I use Skype.

I sometimes would wonder what the use of having Skype on a cell phone would be- it made no sense to me. But now I can see it... (I also see why some carriers might not want Skype capabilities on a phone!)
 
I'm glad that someone did it, not that it matters to me, befcause at&t's data rates are better than T-Mobile's, and at&t service covers a wider area than T-Mobile down here. But this means that iPhone sales will likely jump, if only modestly, which is an increas in AAPL stock. I LOVE my iphone. In installed the terminal app on it, and I can use it as a mobile network troubleshooter in my hotel, I can log into and repair routers without carrying my laptop around.
 
cameronjpu said:
Illegal? Why? Why shouldn't Apple get ongoing revenue in exchange for bringing ATT customers who use high margin services for years? Why in the world should that be illegal?
Click to expand...

Especially since AT&T isn't losing money on the Apple phones like they do on the hadnsets of every other manufacturer. Well, except for the very cheapest of the cheap.
 
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