How do I know whether or not my iPhone 6s is locked and how do I unlock it?

[Hieveryone]

I bought an iPhone 6s from ATT for $299 on a 2 year contract.

First, I thought locking was illegal so I'm not sure why my iPhone would be locked.

Second, how do I know if it is locked.

Third how do I unlock it.

Thanks.

 

[willmtaylor]

I bought an iPhone 6s from ATT for $299 on a 2 year contract.

First, I thought locking was illegal so I'm not sure why my iPhone would be locked.

Second, how do I know if it is locked.

Third how do I unlock it.

Thanks.

You've been here for a year now, yet you can't search the threads yet?

Yes, it's locked bc it isn't paid for. No, you can't unlock it bc it isn't paid for. When you pay for it, then request an unlock.

 

[Hieveryone]

You've been here for a year now, yet you can't search the threads yet?

Yes, it's locked bc it isn't paid for. No, you can't unlock it bc it isn't paid for. When you pay for it, then request an unlock.

Uh if I didn't pay for it why did I get a bill?

And is there a service like swift unlock who will do an unlock

 

[willmtaylor]

Uh if I didn't pay for it why did I get a bill?

And is there a service like swift unlock who will do an unlock

You start a lot of ridiculous threads, but you can't tell me that you seriously think your phone costs $350. You cannot be serious. I refuse to believe it.

No. Unlocking services no longer work.

 

[Hieveryone]

You start a lot of ridiculous threads, but you can't tell me that you seriously think your phone costs $350. You cannot be serious. I refuse to believe it.

No. Unlocking services no longer work.

What I'm saying is that it shouldn't be unlocked because they had passed a law banning it from what I understand.

Whatever the case it's a shame there's no service like swift unlock

 

[DeltaMac]

Contract phone with 2 year contract means you pay for 2 years, and the phone is not paid for until the end of the 2 years. That's the contract. An ATT iPhone 6s, full price-no contract, starts at $649.
Unlock for an ATT contract phone is pretty simple. Just ask ATT about it. You will need to pay the early termination fee to get out of your contract. ATT will tell you how much that will cost.
Here's ATT page with more info.
https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/#/
You could have found all this out by asking when you purchased your iPhone from ATT. You could have just asked for an unlocked iPhone, and paid full price. Easy-peasy.

BTW, the law that you speak about does not make it illegal to sell a locked phone. Far from it. The law makes it legal to unlock a locked phone, if you want to do that. Your carrier will unlock your iPhone if you request it. And, you just pay the fees, and it's done.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/...w-required-to-unlock-off-contract-cell-phones

 

[Applejuiced]

I bought an iPhone 6s from ATT for $299 on a 2 year contract.

First, I thought locking was illegal so I'm not sure why my iPhone would be locked.

Second, how do I know if it is locked.

Third how do I unlock it.

Thanks.

Locking is not illegal, you thought wrong.
2nd if you bought it under a 2 year contract then its 100% locked to AT&T. You will have to wait till the contract expires or you pay the ETF to unlock the device.
3rd you have to either ask AT&T and hope for the best but most likely they will deny your unlock request unless you fulfill your obligation or try paying a 3rd party imei unlock service in order to unlock it.

 

[Applejuiced]

What I'm saying is that it shouldn't be unlocked because they had passed a law banning it from what I understand.

No, you understood wrong.
They never passed a law that banned locking cellphones or made it illegal.
They passed a law that all US carriers have to unlock their devices under certain terms. Read below.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/as-new...-carriers-can-now-unlock-your-phone-for-free/

 

[baller1308]

Since you are under contract you won't be able to get it unlocked until it is paid off. If you went with the Next program you might be able to get it unlocked if your account is in good standing, even if you have payments left on the device.

 

[cynics]

The law is to prevent carriers from keeping a phone locked that the customer owns. Its the customers property at that point so it shouldn't be locked permanently to that carrier. However you don't own your phone yet, so its locked to ATT.

Just pay the difference you owe them for the price of the phone which is the early termination fee. You don't have to terminate the service.

 

[eyoungren]

Interesting how a 'law' and an agreement between the carriers to unlock phones that are paid off gets interpreted as a "right" to an unlocked phone you haven't paid for.

The part about the customer having to pay for the phone first seems to get ignored quite frequently while the customer vents his spleen about how the carrier is committing an illegal act.

People only hear what they want to hear.

 

[Applejuiced]

Interesting how a 'law' and an agreement between the carriers to unlock phones that are paid off gets interpreted as a "right" to an unlocked phone you haven't paid for.

The part about the customer having to pay for the phone first seems to get ignored quite frequently while the customer vents his spleen about how the carrier is committing an illegal act.

People only hear what they want to hear.

What do you mean he didn't pay for it? Why did he get a bill then? lol

 

[Hieveryone]

Att does not own my device. I own it. They can't just come and take it away.

 

[Applejuiced]

Att does not own my device. I own it. They can't just come and take it away.

Is this the 1st cell phone contract you ever had?
You signed a 2 year agreement.
You paid $299 for a $650 device. That means you agree to stay with AT&T for 2 years of service or pay the rest of the remainder ETF.
The phone you have now is locked to AT&T until you finish your contract obligation or pay the remainder off.
Did you read any of the paperwork you agreed to?
This is all basic wireless phone industry procedures that has been going on for over 15+ years.

 

[Applefan4]

One thing I don't understand is why carriers in US lock contract phones if you are already locked in for 2 years. What do they care how you use your phone if you already pay them every month? I'm on contract for 2 years in New Zealand and the iPhone is always unlocked - which is great for using it overseas with international sim. Locking phones just seems to outdated at this point

 

[aristobrat]

One thing I don't understand is why carriers in US lock contract phones if you are already locked in for 2 years. What do they care how you use your phone if you already pay them every month? I'm on contract for 2 years in New Zealand and the iPhone is always unlocked - which is great for using it overseas with international sim. Locking phones just seems to outdated at this point

You can choose to stop paying them at any time during the 2-year contract.

Locking the phone to the carrier makes it less valuable and harder for people that would sign 2-year contracts (with no intention of actually paying monthly) to resell the phone as a way to make some quick money.

 

[Applejuiced]

One thing I don't understand is why carriers in US lock contract phones if you are already locked in for 2 years. What do they care how you use your phone if you already pay them every month? I'm on contract for 2 years in New Zealand and the iPhone is always unlocked - which is great for using it overseas with international sim. Locking phones just seems to outdated at this point

It always comes to the root of all evil. Money That's why they do it.
Now when you go on vacation you cannot just stick a local sim for a week or so and use data and have a local number for cheap.
You have to pay calling and texting roaming charges, get an international data package that is an arm and a leg and gives you only 120mb's of data and after that small amount of data that you will blow over within an hour it charges you per MB and you'll end up having to sell your gold jewelry when you come back home when your cellphone bill comes in

 

[Hieveryone]

The way you make it seem like they own my phone as in they can just come and take it.

 

[C DM]

Interesting how a 'law' and an agreement between the carriers to unlock phones that are paid off gets interpreted as a "right" to an unlocked phone you haven't paid for.

The part about the customer having to pay for the phone first seems to get ignored quite frequently while the customer vents his spleen about how the carrier is committing an illegal act.

People only hear what they want to hear.

To be fair, unlocking doesn't have much to do with living up to ones agreements of being on a contract or in financing. Verizon's LTE phones have been unlocked by default from the beginning for years now and yet people do just fine living up to their contracts or financing agreements.

One thing I don't understand is why carriers in US lock contract phones if you are already locked in for 2 years. What do they care how you use your phone if you already pay them every month? I'm on contract for 2 years in New Zealand and the iPhone is always unlocked - which is great for using it overseas with international sim. Locking phones just seems to outdated at this point

Yup, that's basically it.

 

[iPad Retina]

Is this the 1st cell phone contract you ever had?
You signed a 2 year agreement.
You paid $299 for a $650 device. That means you agree to stay with AT&T for 2 years of service or pay the rest of the remainder ETF.
The phone you have now is locked to AT&T until you finish your contract obligation or pay the remainder off.
Did you read any of the paperwork you agreed to?
This is all basic wireless phone industry procedures that has been going on for over 15+ years.

True but they will be able to blacklist your phone I believe, not be able to connect to a carrier again, or until paid off

 

[noisycats]

The way you make it seem like they own my phone as in they can just come and take it.

Dude. Don't be thick. It's like a car or house you buy with a loan. It's not 'yours' until you pay off the loan.

 

[C DM]

Dude. Don't be thick. It's like a car or house you buy with a loan. It's not 'yours' until you pay off the loan.

For all practical purposes of what you can do with it, it's yours.

 

[willmtaylor]

It always comes to the root of all evil. Money That's why they do it.
Now when you go on vacation you cannot just stick a local sim for a week or so and use data and have a local number for cheap.
You have to pay calling and texting roaming charges, get an international data package that is an arm and a leg and gives you only 120mb's of data and after that small amount of data that you will blow over within an hour it charges you per MB and you'll end up having to sell your gold jewelry when you come back home when your cellphone bill comes in

Common misquote:
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils." -‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭6:10‬A‬‬

 

[Stevessvt]

For all practical purposes of what you can do with it, it's yours.

Until you don't pay for it. Then it's blacklisted. Then it's nobody's.
AT&T can't send a tow truck company to get your phone because it wasn't paid for. So they do then next best thing. Make it worthless to everyone.

 

[cynics]

Att does not own my device. I own it. They can't just come and take it away.

Straw man argument, of course they won't come and take it, it doesn't cost enough to warrant that sort of action unlike a car or house where they will come and take it away from you. Besides ATT doesn't want the phone, they want your money, which is why they have an early termination fee so you can break the contract.

If the phone was technically yours alone then if you stopped paying ATT then couldn't turn you into collection nor could they basically render the phone useless. But they can and will.

Look at it this way. I paid near 800 dollars (after taxes) for my iPhone 6S. You paid less then half of that, did you think you got some sort of amazing deal?

This is the whole purpose of it being locked btw. If you stopped paying for it and went to a different network AT&T would be out the remainder of your phones cost.