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iPhone 4s unlock timeframe?

S

scubaprashant

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 14, 2011
13
0
Anyone know which specific dev team will be working on the iPhone 4s unlock? I've got an iPhone 4s locked to Canada's Sasktel Wireless and I want to use it on h2o...

Sucks...I know.

Also, if anyone (going by the theory that history repeats itself) knows how long the wait will likely be, I'd appreciate the info. I'm debating on whether or not I should sell it on eBay any buy another one locked to AT&T.

-prashant
 
Why not just purchase a factory unlocked 4 S and avoid the waiting game?

I know musclenerd had stated they had made some progress toward an unlock. Keep in mind they haven't relased an unlock since the iphone 4 and its very first baseband which came out some 20 months ago.
 
scubaprashant said:
Anyone know which specific dev team will be working on the iPhone 4s unlock? I've got an iPhone 4s locked to Canada's Sasktel Wireless and I want to use it on h2o...

Sucks...I know.

Also, if anyone (going by the theory that history repeats itself) knows how long the wait will likely be, I'd appreciate the info. I'm debating on whether or not I should sell it on eBay any buy another one locked to AT&T.

-prashant
Click to expand...

What you should do is see if Sasktel will unlock it for you after you've fulfilled the terms of your contract. Then you may end up with a permanently, carrier unlocked 4s.

I can guarantee you that ATT will not unlock your phone for any reason, so you will be stuck with waiting for someone to hack the baseband for it.

Also, if you're not on the right baseband an unlock is being made for, you're SOL until it is ready. Right now, MuscleNerd is the only one working on it, and that is with the 1.0.11 baseband (only with iOS 5.0). No, no-one knows when it will be ready, if at all. Only suggestion is to follow him on Twitter.

BL.
 
Thanks for the replies. I bought the phone used..I have no idea if Sasktel will even be able to help me since I am not the original contract holder. No harm in trying though. Ill probably end up selling it on eBay and buy another one that is unlocked or on AT&T so I can use it on h2o without unlocking.

I only bought it because it was only $350 and only a month old.. Ok..I also thought an unlock would be in the near future :-D
 
hackthatphone said:
I know musclenerd had stated they had made some progress toward an unlock.
Click to expand...


Hi, I was wondering about the unlock.
Is there a thread going on this site that I can follow? (gotta link)?
I looked at settings/general/about and I have 1.0.11
thanks in advance
 
scubaprashant said:
Thanks for the replies. I bought the phone used..I have no idea if Sasktel will even be able to help me since I am not the original contract holder. No harm in trying though. Ill probably end up selling it on eBay and buy another one that is unlocked or on AT&T so I can use it on h2o without unlocking.

I only bought it because it was only $350 and only a month old.. Ok..I also thought an unlock would be in the near future :-D
Click to expand...

You're missing it..

If you buy it for AT&T, without the baseband being unlocked by MN or another person on a dev team, you will not be able to use it on H2O, or any other carrier. AT&T will not unlock your iPhone 4S. Your cheapest hope right now is if your phone is still under any contract with Sasktel, to go there and see if they can unlock the phone. Then you could use it anywhere. ATT will not help you with it. If you bought an iPhone 4s with AT&T, they won't unlock it for you either. It won't work on H2O.

Your best chances are to sell the phone you have, and buy it factory unlocked from Apple. Then you can use it anywhere on the planet. But AT&T won't help you with unlocking it.

BL.
 
On the Dev Team blog they mention you should downgrade your baseband to 9A405 on 5.0.1 to have the best chance of an unlock. If you are still on 5.0 you will be better off.
 
The AT&T iPhone will work with H2O without unlocking. H2O uses AT&T towers and I have seen people use iPhone 4 on it. I am not sure about data though
 
darngooddesign said:
On the Dev Team blog they mention you should downgrade your baseband to 9A405 on 5.0.1 to have the best chance of an unlock. If you are still on 5.0 you will be better off.
Click to expand...


I have read on this site that you cannot downgrade your BB, (whatever you on on, you are on).
 
Baseband cannot be downgraded because the baseband's ROM can only be flashed with new firmware with a higher version number. 9A405 is an iOS build number, not a baseband firmware version. Although the two versions of 5.0.1 contain different basebands, downgrading will not downgrade your baseband.
 
Last edited:
thelatinist said:
Baseban cannot be downgraded. Period.
Click to expand...

On the iPhone 4 and 4S, it can. But only if Apple is signing the firmware the baseband is a part of. It is a side affect of the signed baseband firmware updates that Apple has started using with the iPhone 4.
 
hi,

how do you know if the phone is factory unlocked?

if i can use another carrier SIM does it mean it is factory unlocked ?

As my carrier (china unicom) says it is locked but can use other SIMs for a short period ( which i suspect could be only contract bonded not really locked)

Can someone with a locked 4s tell me how a locked phone is when you use another carrier SIM. thanks
 
hecticsix said:
hi,

how do you know if the phone is factory unlocked?

if i can use another carrier SIM does it mean it is factory unlocked ?

As my carrier (china unicom) says it is locked but can use other SIMs for a short period ( which i suspect could be only contract bonded not really locked)

Can someone with a locked 4s tell me how a locked phone is when you use another carrier SIM. thanks
Click to expand...

You will have to ask your carrier to find out details.
Every carrier is different.
Some will unlock the phone after your contract is up or after 90 days and other will never unlock it if you bought it under contract.
 
bradl said:
You're missing it..

If you buy it for AT&T, without the baseband being unlocked by MN or another person on a dev team, you will not be able to use it on H2O, or any other carrier. AT&T will not unlock your iPhone 4S. Your cheapest hope right now is if your phone is still under any contract with Sasktel, to go there and see if they can unlock the phone. Then you could use it anywhere. ATT will not help you with it. If you bought an iPhone 4s with AT&T, they won't unlock it for you either. It won't work on H2O.

Your best chances are to sell the phone you have, and buy it factory unlocked from Apple. Then you can use it anywhere on the planet. But AT&T won't help you with unlocking it.

BL.
Click to expand...

AT&T iPhones don't need to be unlocked to be used on h2o. My wife's iPhone 4 wasn't even jail broken and we had it on h2o. The jailbreak is only useful to get mms working but the unlock isn't necessary since h2o is a reseller for AT&T. Hence why I'm ok with an AT&T iPhone.

----------
scubaprashant said:
AT&T iPhones don't need to be unlocked to be used on h2o. My wife's iPhone 4 wasn't even jail broken and we had it on h2o. The jailbreak is only useful to get mms working but the unlock isn't necessary since h2o is a reseller for AT&T. Hence why I'm ok with an AT&T iPhone.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the duplicate post. Just read everyone else's response to this.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)

Fallow musclenerd on twitter even if the unlock isn't his he will report it.
 
4sFanatic said:
I have read on this site that you cannot downgrade your BB, (whatever you on on, you are on).
Click to expand...

thelatinist said:
Baseband cannot be downgraded because the baseband's ROM can only be flashed with new firmware with a higher version number. 9A405 is an iOS build number, not a baseband firmware version. Although the two versions of 5.0.1 contain different basebands, downgrading will not downgrade your baseband.
Click to expand...

Normally you can't, but if the dev team says i can downgrade my 4S' baseband I believe them. I seem to recall there were one or two times that I could downgrade my BB back in the 2.0 days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_version_history#iOS_5.x:_fifth_major_OS_release

According to that, 9A406 has the 1.0.14 modem firmware and 9A405 has the 1.0.13 firmware. I downgraded from 06 to 05 and now have the 1.0.13 Modem Firmware.

So in this case it looks like you can, and if you want an unlock its in you best interest to downgrade while Apple is still signing 5.0.1.
 
Last edited:
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