No, you do not need a non-AT&T microsim when you activate the 4S. Like I'd written, I'd accidentally left the AT&T microsim that was already in the 4S in when I'd activated it with iTunes. Then, I swapped my T-Mobile microsim in and it works fine.
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"Off Contract" AT&T iPhone 4Ss Already Come Unlocked
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No, you do not need a non-AT&T microsim when you activate the 4S. Like I'd written, I'd accidentally left the AT&T microsim that was already in the 4S in when I'd activated it with iTunes. Then, I swapped my T-Mobile microsim in and it works fine.
Hey guys, I really need your help/advice here...
I bought my girlfriend a Device-Only iPhone 4S this past weekend. Right after we got home, I plugged the iPhone into the wall charger and it turned on. After it got fully charged, we connected it to iTunes and it said "Congratz, unlocked". During this process we didn't take the AT&T micro SIM that was originally inside the iPhone. After syncing with iTunes, iPhone 4S said "No service", so we called AT&T and gave them the IMEI/ICCID numbers to get it activated on AT&T's network.
Today, I went to Apple Store for another device-only iPhone 4S, for myself. But the employee told me secretly that, if I want to get it unlocked for good, I should not turn it on before I put a microSIM from other carriers in (e.g. T-mobile). When I asked him whether I can turn it on while the AT&T card is still inside. He shook his head and implied that it would be locked to AT&T for good or in the future.
What to do now?
Do I have to return my girlfriend's iPhone 4S? Is the current still going to be unlocked, or we have get a new one and activate it with T-mobile micro SIM? If yes, then why iTune said "Congratz, unlocked"?
This is mighty confusing. Thanks for any input. I appreciate your understanding and please forgive my newbie-ness.
I also activated mine with the AT&T card inside simply because it wanted one and I didn't have another micro-sim lying around. Few days after my micro-sim cutter arrived and I cut my German sim card and it works flawlessly with T-Mobile or AT&T (whatever I choose) since then. Put my AT&T gophone card back in now for savings though.
As some have said in this forum, I think they are trying to sign as many people as possible under contracts before they start selling them unlocked. I suspect that as long as demand remains higher than supply resulting in lines in retail stores and people having to make reservations, we will not see officially unlocked iPhones. When this whole "launch rush" winds down and you would be able to pick any carrier/size/color at any time without waiting/reservations, then they will add unlocked ones to line-up as well.
Again, I think it is the carriers who are pressuring Apple to hold off on selling unlocked in the US and Apple is bowing to their demands (at least a little). AFAIK, most if not all other countries in EU as well as Canada, Australia and some others had unlocked on sale since the launch date. I don't see how selling unlocked phones would hurt Apple, they are getting paid for the phone in full regardless. In fact, when selling unlocked, they are getting the entire sum from one source (customer) whereas with locked ones part of the sum comes from customer and another part comes from the carrier.
I noticed that, when buying the iPhone as "device-only" from Apple store, the employee can select from "new at home", "existing at home", "device-only" and two other options. For some "device-only" iphones, they selected "exisiting at home" instead of "device-only". Not sure if this has an impact on the unlock status of the iphone.
Ok that was just a random observation.
I am going in again to exchange for a new iPhone 4S. Kinda frustrating. The screen is defective as there is a light dot underneath the screen, visible when the background is white. Also it cannot connect to my home wifi, but my gf's new iPhone 4S can, I tried reseting the router and a dozen other methods but the iPhone 4S just refuse to connect.
I am kinda curious if they have sold an opened iPhone 4S to me. How can I check in the future?
Thanks!
Ok that was just a random observation.
I am going in again to exchange for a new iPhone 4S. Kinda frustrating. The screen is defective as there is a light dot underneath the screen, visible when the background is white. Also it cannot connect to my home wifi, but my gf's new iPhone 4S can, I tried reseting the router and a dozen other methods but the iPhone 4S just refuse to connect.
I am kinda curious if they have sold an opened iPhone 4S to me. How can I check in the future?
Thanks!
I am going to try to apply some common sense and say that "New at Home" probably refers to someone who is opening a new account and activating that phone on it. The screens that follow probably ask for buyer's info, carrier that they are choosing, and number(s) that they wish to port (if any). Provided that they pass the credit check, they get the phone at subsidized price (obviously locked).
"Existing at Home" probably refers to those who are upgrading and wish to stay with their existing carrier. The next screen probably prompts for carrier selection and then the phone number, then checks upgrade eligibility. If they are eligible, they get the phone at subsidized price, if not, they are asked to pay more. In either case, the phone is still locked.
"Device Only" obviously bypasses anything carrier-related and goes straight to the payment @ full retail price.
It would be interesting to know what the other 2 options on their screens are.
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Go to a Genius Bar, and if they come to a conclusion that you need a replacement once they examine it, remind them that you purchased yours as "Device Only" and the replacement should be the exact same way. Technically, they should look it up themselves, but it doesn't hurt to remind them. If you purchased yours less than 30 days ago and they won't set up the replacement the same way as original, return it instead and get your money back, then talk to a sales person about purchasing another "Device Only".
Honestly, I never mentioned "Device Only" when I was purchasing mine. I asked if it was possible to purchase it at full retail price instead of extending the contract and the sales guy said "Yes, absolutely". He went into the store room, got the 64 GB Black that I wanted, and rang me up. I did not get to look at his screen as he held his POS device very close to him and trying to take a peek would have meant violating his personal space, which I did not want to do. The only two times when I looked at it/held it is when I had to sign: first, Apple T&C, and then credit card payment authorization. As I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the "Device Only" topic made its way into our conversation by pure accident. There was another customer a few feet away from us trying to do the same thing, but the sales guy who was helping him was confused; he obviously wanted to help but didn't know what to do. The sales guy who was helping me overheard him and told him to back out of the screen that he was in and then select "Device Only". The other sales guy followed that and checked that other customer the exact same way. I'm assuming that the guy who was helping me did the exact same thing for me as when I got home, I got "Congratulations, Unlocked" screen and also tried my phone with pre-paid T-Mobile USA MicroSIM and it worked flawlessly.
In light of the above, I was always under the impression that the "Device Only" option is buried somewhere in the menus on their POS devices; hence that's why trying to buy these is a hit or miss. You may get lucky enough and get a sales guy who knows how to get to that screen. Or you may get someone who doesn't know about it, but would be willing to dig around and find it until you walk away satisfied. Sadly, there is a category of people who are lazy and would not bother to look unless that option is right in front of them and would flat out turn you away. Since people of different personality types work for Apple (just like for any other company), you can get one of the categories listed above or various degrees of in-between, and hence YMMV.
Thanks for the tip, I just updated to 5.0.1. I rather know now that it works for my phone then wait when my 30 day refund period is passed. So far no issues.
Just updated my off-contract AT&T 4S to 5.0.1 OTA. My pre-paid T-Mobile SIM still works like a charm.
Now would be a good time to hear from the Sprint users as well. Sprint was threatening to re-lock those that were "accidentally" sold unlocked. If they wanted to do it, this update would have been their perfect chance.
I can't imagine a firmware update would relock your phone (in the case of an official unlock). Isn't the unlock tied to your IMEI number and Apple's unlocked database?
Updated mine to 5.0.1. Still is unlocked. And after rebooting the the phone, the GSM network is instantly detected. Like about 2s not like in 5.0 that lasted like about 20s
The first time after reboot it did detect GSM network instantly. However, after a power off and back on it's back to 15-20 seconds, just like the GM iOS 5.0.0. Not that big of a deal for me though.
As I have said earlier, I think the default protocol for 4S is probably to attempt to sign on to CDMA network first, then to try GSM ones if that fails.
The SIM lock is tied to the GSMA IMEI database. Sprint just announced that their already shipped phones will be locked down soon. You can expect both Verizon and AT&T to follow suit now that the activation issues are resolved.
Evidence? You have been saying this over and over again on several threads. However, there is no evidence that they will. The phones Apple has sold device only haven't been added to the IMEA database as locked to AT&T, and only Apple can do it. From the announcement, apparently Sprint can't go back and lock the phones that have gone out over the past 3 weeks unlocked, so why would AT&T be any different. Contrary to what you said, all Sprint is doing is saying future iPhones sold (from today on) will be locked.
An exception
I bought a Sprint phone last week...
Before 11th November....
I haven't activated it yet...
I'm going to activate it this week..
So will that also be locked by the sprint authorities...??
I bought a Sprint phone last week...
Before 11th November....
I haven't activated it yet...
I'm going to activate it this week..
So will that also be locked by the sprint authorities...??
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Are all Sprint phones worldwide unlocked? Or they also have "contract" and "no-contract", just like AT&T phones?
Unlocked is available on apple.com
This thread can finally die. Unlocked iPhone 4S is available on apple.com
This thread can finally die. Unlocked iPhone 4S is available on apple.com
Yeah, but you have to wait 1-2 weeks for it.
You can get off contract ATT in store upon reservation
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Apple Chipmunk lol
http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html
this will tell you the date and factory where made.
But not necessarily if someone opened it before.
Also, a truly brand new item would yeild the following message upon trying to register on there warranty page: "Cant register, please activate via iTunes"
https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
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This thread is about to die, but just before it does, i would like to point out an interesting tidbit on the iTunes Welcoming screens.
The ATT Off-Contracts have all been showing "Congratulations, your iPhone is unlocked"
I happedn to purchase a Factory Unlocked iPhone 4 (not 4S) last week and did not get that screen.
Here is what i think. Both phones are in Apple's unlock database. However, the ATT one gave you an Unlock Welcome screen as if you had requested to be unlocked and got your wish from the carrier.
The Factory Unlocked one did not need that welcome screen.
Any thoughts?
Yeah, but you have to wait 1-2 weeks for it.
You can get off contract ATT in store upon reservation
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Apple Chipmunk lol
http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html
this will tell you the date and factory where made.
But not necessarily if someone opened it before.
Also, a truly brand new item would yeild the following message upon trying to register on there warranty page: "Cant register, please activate via iTunes"
https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do
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This thread is about to die, but just before it does, i would like to point out an interesting tidbit on the iTunes Welcoming screens.
The ATT Off-Contracts have all been showing "Congratulations, your iPhone is unlocked"
I happedn to purchase a Factory Unlocked iPhone 4 (not 4S) last week and did not get that screen.
Here is what i think. Both phones are in Apple's unlock database. However, the ATT one gave you an Unlock Welcome screen as if you had requested to be unlocked and got your wish from the carrier.
The Factory Unlocked one did not need that welcome screen.
Any thoughts?
Can anyone tell advice on wether I can get a switch at d apple store for the new unlocked?
Are you sure yours was factory unlocked? As I have pointed out in my earlier posts, when Apple started selling iPhone 4 unlocked, they had a limited inventory of unlocked units, but in case they ran out, they were yanking units from AT&T inventory, "working some magic" on their POS devices (IMO the same Device Only trick that they are doing now) and customer walked away with an unlocked iPhone 4 at the end. Some of the sales reps have this habit of connecting your new phone to their test Mac in the store to insure that activation went through. Perhaps they did the same thing with you? If they did, the "Congratulations, your iPhone is unlocked" screen would have appeared on their machine in the store and never again.
However, if you want to see that screen again, you can restore your phone and it should pop up. It did for me. Basically, when I purchased my off-contract 4S and connected it to my MBP, I got that "Unlocked" screen. I had my old iPhone 4 backed up to iCloud, so I entered my iCloud credentials into new 4S and it started restoring from there. Sadly, I was at work at the time and our WiFi there is slow as a snail. About 5 minutes into the process I realized that it was going to take hours to get my new 4S into the same shape as my old 4 with restoring all the apps, so I connected my old 4 back to my MBP, backed it up to the computer, transferred all the apps, then connected 4S, restored it and then restored the backup. When the restore was complete, I got the "Unlocked" screen once again, followed by "Do you want to set it up as new iPhone or do you want to restore a backup to it?"
If you want the extra peace of mind, you can try restoring yours and you will probably see that screen again. Personally, I don't care about it, as long as it accepts SIM's other than AT&T, it is unlocked enough for me.
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I have a feeling that Apple's policy is in fact that once any given iPhone is unlocked, they will never lock it again. As much as Sprint hates to admit it, they did say that whatever iPhones were sold prior to today will not be affected. So whatever went out the door unlocked will stay unlocked for lifetime. They are locking the phones sold from today on, and even with that they will unlock them for customers with good standing upon request, as will Verizon.