iPhone Restore question

I purchased a iPhone 3GS off of Craigslist. It was locked to AT&T and I wanted to get it to work with Red Pocket Mobile.

A few days after getting it, the phone froze up and would not power on. Sent a RMA to apple since it was covered still.

Received phone today, thought id check to see if my Red Pocket Mobile SIM would work right out of the box, it did.

Got Data working via http://www.unlockit.co.nz website. However my MMS still doesn't work.

Did research and found that the issue is I need to get TeatherMe app from Cydia. Which requires my phone to be JB.

I do not want to JB/unlock if I dont have to. For one, my phone appears to be Unlocked already as my SIM worked right out of the box (however, iTunes did not mention anything about it being unlocked when I plugged it in). My baseband is the 5.16.05, which is unlockable w/o upgrading to iPad baseband. Since my phone is the iPhone 3GS 8GB (with serial showing manufact date of Jan 2012) I do not want to upgrade to iPad Baseband as it will brick my hardware.

If I restored my iPhone in iTunes, will it still work with my Red Pocket? I assume so since it worked right out of the box, so I assume its factory unlocked and restoring would keep my unlock still.

Also, if I do JB, will it keep my unlock status as well?

I had my first iPhone i got off of CL Jailbroken before it crashed.

(Sry for asking what may be a newbie question. This is my first Apple product, and had an RMA already due to issues getting it to work with Red Pocket. Phone works with it now, so I am hesitant to modify it to ensure it keeps working. But I would like to be able to send MMS pictures to family of my kid).

I did several google searching of the entire web, but most sites came up with unlocking software/services. Found out how to fix my MMS issue, but want to ensure by JB'n my iPhone it will not kick out my Red Pocket Voice/text/Data stuff.

 

I did some research.

I know the main purpose of TeatherMe is to share the internet connection, however it adds the "Cellular Network" details section to the settings menu so you can add the MMS/APN Settings.

Found that via youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jGIfZtLDJE

I put my red pocket sim into my 1st iPhone and got "No Service" with it. With the first one I only JB it and did not unlock it. With the new iPhone I got, I popped my SIM in and it found the network and allowed me to send/receive calls. Red Pocket is a MVNO of AT&T, however with a locked phone it still did not work, and red pocket support (which is not all that good), says it has to be an unlocked GSM phone to work on their network. And my 1st iPhone 3GS didnt work as indicated. So, since my 2nd one worked right out of the Apple Care box, I assumed it was unlocked already. Have not restored in iTunes to get the "Unlocked" screen" as I dont want it to make my Red Pocket stop working. Thats why I am asking this question before making that step ahead. And asking if JB'n the phone will effect my Red Pocket working.

I went here (http://www.unlockit.co.nz) to get my Data working, and it now my data works also just not MMS.

I know 5.16.05 baseband is unlockable, by upgrading to the iPad 6.15 baseband, which will most likely kick out my GPS. Plus there are warnings all over it, that if you have a 3GS 8GB made after week 28 of 2011, it has the toshiba chip and not compatible with baseband 6.15 and would brick your baseband (my serial number indicates it was made in Jan 2012, this month). Found that information here: http://www.beijingiphonerepair.com/hack/jailbreak-and-unlock-iphone-3gs-on-ios-5-baseband-5-16-05/ (As well as other sites). Ultrasn0w does not unlock the baseband 5.16.05. The previous link also says the baseband 5.16.05 is unlockable. (now it is old information, but I have not found anything to say otherwise yet).

 

I can get a Simple Mobile SIM Card off ebay for pretty cheap. Will this work instead of a TMobile SIM Card to test the unlock theory? TMobile doesnt have any stores besides wal-mart/best buy which will not give me a sim.

And dont have any friends/relatives in area with TMobile. But for $1 I can get a Simple Mobile SIM which runs on the TMobile network.