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How do I find out where my iPhone is originally from?

nightfly13

nightfly13

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 17, 2008
679
0
Ranchi, India
I upgraded my wife's 3GS (model A1303) to 4.0 and to my surprise it deactivated. I expected it to be unjailbroken and that I'd need to unlock it again, but I didn't expect it to be deactivated. I've tried AT&T SIM cards (one prepaid, and one original postpaid pulled from an operational 3GS) and it still says wrong sim.

This leads me to guess it's from somewhere else. My folks purchased it on my behalf from some kid on craigslist, and that was 25miles from the Canadian border. So the next logical guess is it is Rogers, but is there any way from the IMEI number or model number (above) that I can KNOW the original carrier so I can try to get the appropriate SIM to re-activate so I can JB/UL again?

Thanks macrumors braintrust :)
 
I don't believe there is currently a way to Jailbrake, unlock an iPhone without an Official SIM installed first. If the phone is locked to rogers (which is your guess) you will need a roger sim to do it since the current jailbreake require Safari access.

I don't think either that there is a way to know where the phone is locked to based on the IMEI sorry
 
In Canada Bell, Telus, Rogers, Fido all offered the iPhone 3GS, so that's 4 possible sim cards :(
 
nightfly13 said:
I upgraded my wife's 3GS (model A1303) to 4.0 and to my surprise it deactivated. I expected it to be unjailbroken and that I'd need to unlock it again, but I didn't expect it to be deactivated. I've tried AT&T SIM cards (one prepaid, and one original postpaid pulled from an operational 3GS) and it still says wrong sim.

This leads me to guess it's from somewhere else. My folks purchased it on my behalf from some kid on craigslist, and that was 25miles from the Canadian border. So the next logical guess is it is Rogers, but is there any way from the IMEI number or model number (above) that I can KNOW the original carrier so I can try to get the appropriate SIM to re-activate so I can JB/UL again?

Thanks macrumors braintrust :)
Click to expand...

Check your model number on this web site.

http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/archive/t-994747.html
 
Thanks for all the help and thoughts guys. It seems there's no way to get the detailed model number details from the back of the phone. There is talk about what I believe to be Windows software 'Forecast' that can pull the details up, but I have no idea how to get more-detailed model info from my Mac.

Continued help appreciated, my wife is suffering with a cracked-screen iPhone 2G! <-- that is supposed to be my kid's Air Video enabled cheap Apple TV, streaming their content to their TV, now there's pandaemonium.
:)
 
Got it activated, but still don't know where it's originally from

After more research, I finally bought a $4 Phonebook sim card from eBay India (thanks for the suggestion, -aggie- and silentsim) and it worked. I still had a few hoops to jump through (had to hactivate it in order to be able to put a real sim in) but the bottom line is we're up and running after a month or two of downtime.

Belated answering the first response's question: no, I never called Apple or AT&T, probably should so I can try to get an original SIM to add to my collection. The phone is totally functional running 4.0.1 and I don't think I'll touch the firmware for a LONG time, given the hassle of this last round.
 
I don't know if this has anything to do with your question but, I have a few Friends that have older AT&T SIM cards With really old accounts and they have to unlock their iPhones to use the SIM. The SIM won't activate the phone and It doesn't work in the phone unless it is unlocked!
 
Curious, jkeating2005. The AT&T Sims I've tried are pretty current - prepaid sims and an active one from an in-use 3GS which I know is under a year old. It is helpful information, though.
 
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