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"Off Contract" AT&T iPhone 4Ss Already Come Unlocked

I posted the two iPhones I bought on Friday off-contract on the local classifieds. Got a call a few minutes later. A friend and I went to meet the person, we broke the seal plugged in the iPhones and the unlocked came up. He guy bought, I made several hundred dollars on the deal and the guy will buy more if I get more. Going to the Apple store tomorrow to get as many iPhones as I can, I hope the general public doesn't find out about this.
 
Can ANYONE who has bought an unlocked phone tell WHERE they bought it? A fair number have bought one, but do not share where for some reason.
 
thevofl said:
Can ANYONE who has bought an unlocked phone tell WHERE they bought it? A fair number have bought one, but do not share where for some reason.
Click to expand...

The Apple store, just tell them you want off contract and make sure they check "device only" when you pay their iPod touchs.
 
lostngone said:
How does this work for CDMA networks? With GSM you just put in the SIM but how do you get the unlocked phone on a different CDMA network?
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CDMA doesn't work that way. Once a CDMA is activated for a network it can't be changed to another CDMA

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PigsOnTheWing said:
Wouldn't it make more sense to buy the phones under contract at $199, $299, or $399, and then pay the $325 to break your contract 31 days out, resulting in an end cost of $524, $624, or $724?
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They won't be unlocked. ATT doesn't unlock at the end of the contract

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EricNau said:
Also interesting how the unlocking seems to be handled through iTunes.
Click to expand...

Actually it isn't. When you plugged into iTunes, it activated the iOS software when then called out to ATT to verify service or not. all phones actually come from Apple unlocked. During that verification the AT&T server would kickback a command to lock the phone or not.
 
What is the advantage to buying it unlocked and paying that much?

$649? the 16gb is $199, with a $325 opt out of contract. 325+199= $524.

you could opt out and take the 4s to any us carrier for less than an unlocked phone.

Edit: Never mind my question was answered by the poster before me. lol
 
bacaramac said:
Doesn't look like they will sell iPhones with the CDMA side unlocked. Only gsm unlocked and my guess is the CDMA side doesn't work on these. Loving my sprint iPhone though. Working great and here's to hoping the gsm side stays unlocked.
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Does an AT&T or T-Mobile SIM work on your phone? Just wanted to clarify whether Sprint's rep talking about an "international unlock" was just uninformed about the nature of unlocked phones.
 
Better than a trip to Canada?

Hmmm. I was planning on driving up to Vancouver, British Columbia tomorrow to be at an Apple store up there early Monday morning and buy an unlocked Canadian 4S. I've been a bit nervous that Siri might be localized for Canada and not the US if I did that, and I didn't know if an iTunes restore would fix that problem if it existed.

I'll try this tomorrow at my local Apple store. This could save me a drive up north.
 
This is the case with every phone: you can either get them Locked and on Pay Monthly contract, or Locked on Pay as You Go, or Unlocked and then you can put whatever SIM you want inside. Obviously, Unlocked will be the most expensive, Pay as You Go in between, and Pay Monthly will be the cheapest.

I'd only ever buy an unlocked phone, since I spend 6 months in one country and 6 months in another...
 
I have tried in San Francisco on Friday. They told me they do not currently sell iPhones without a contract tied to it and the off contract will be available in November. The stores are 1 stockton and Stonestown. So YMMV.
 
mrsir2009 said:
paying $xxx a month on a contract is even more absurd. You end up having to pay more because it doesn't occur to you that your going to be paying for your iphone (and then some) over 2 years, rather than giving them the money upfront:rolleyes: It may make sense to some who spend $50 or more on their phone a month, but as someone else said, if you only spend $20 a month on it you'll save a lot.

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yeah but apple only sells the 8gb one.
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also.... Iphones hold their value... You sell your iphone 4 for 400 and buy a new 650 phone.... Contract free...
 
charlituna said:
CDMA doesn't work that way. Once a CDMA is activated for a network it can't be changed to another CDMA

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They won't be unlocked. ATT doesn't unlock at the end of the contract

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Actually it isn't. When you plugged into iTunes, it activated the iOS software when then called out to ATT to verify service or not. all phones actually come from Apple unlocked. During that verification the AT&T server would kickback a command to lock the phone or not.
Click to expand...

I want to clarify something about CDMA. I'm not intimately familiar with it, but in my experience don't you call up the carriers to activate your device? Well, normally the device you purchased would already be in their system. What I don't understand is, why can't you call them up with the serial number of an unlocked iPhone for them to activate? They already support the model, you just bought it directly from the manufacturer.

Besides, both Sprint and Verizon have made commitments to open up their networks to compatible CDMA devices so I'm not quite sure where you're coming from. From what I understand of what you're saying, it seems like CDMA devices are permanently tied to their network.

Links:
Verizon
Sprint

Also, as far as unlocking is concerned, nothing is done through iTunes. The unlocked phones that are out right now are being unlocked at the Apple Stores' POS system. This much is apparent from the article itself when it mentions the device being sold "Off Contract."

http://9to5mac.com/2011/06/26/apple...unlocking-full-price-att-iphones-at-checkout/

The message is a result of a previously locked phone being added to Apple's whitelist of unlocked units. I purchased a completely unlocked iPhone 4 when they were first made available in the US and received no such message when I activated the phone. Europeans, on the other hand, get this message after they request for their phones to be unlocked.
 
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ouimetnick said:
those retail prices sure are expensive.. just get an iPad. If you need a new phone, wait for your contract, and get a new one, or pay Apple the $199 for the OOW fee. but $649-$849 is absurd.
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No it's not. It's absurd that people think they are getting the phone "free" with a contract that costs them $3000 in total. I bought a UK iPhone 4 for about 600GBP and I spend 10GBP per month for unlimited data, and about 3GBP each months for my calls and texts (I rarely call and usually use Skype when i do). So two years of iPhone costs me about 1000GBP instead of 3000GBP. Another huge advantage is that I travel a lot. I have a German SIM that costs 9EUR per month for a 1gb of data. I use that when I'm in Germany and another "roaming" sim when I'm in the US (because you can't get cheap prepaid data SIMs in the USA - now that is what is absurd!).
 
wordoflife said:
Wow nice! I hope AT&T automatically unlocks iPhones as contracts expire!
Click to expand...
Uh huh. What makes you think AT&T is suddenly going to start doing that when it has steadfastly refused since 2007 to officially unlock any iPhone even after the contract is over? AT&T was sued over refusing to unlock its handsets, and in settling it carved out a narrow exception for the iPhone that allowed it to keep the iPhone locked because, the company claimed, the iPhone was exclusive to AT&T. That was a few months before the 4 first came to Verizon.

AT&T public policy claims the iPhone can never be unlocked, and customer service is clueless saying that it's because Apple has a proprietary locking/unlocking scheme. That much is true, but the problem isn't really Apple's proprietary tech because tons of international carriers manage to allow iPhone unlocking, and now it seems that Verizon and Sprint will also provide unlocking for their GSM world phone 4S functionality. The problem is obviously due to AT&T and its desire to restrict the legitimate functionality of iPhones, even those long since paid for.

AT&T has maintained a discriminatory policy against iPhone customers in this area, and there is as of yet no indication that that is going to change.

PigsOnTheWing said:
But jailbreaking and unlocking are easy to do on your own.
Click to expand...
Not with the modern baesbands on the 3GS, 4 and 4S. The Dev Team has been stopped cold because Apple has secured the software (and with the 4 forward) the hardware against the hacks that previously allowed unofficial software unlocking. Now we're either at the mercy of the carrier or have to buy the full priced, unsubsidized units mentioned in this article.
 
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baryon said:
This is the case with every phone: you can either get them Locked and on Pay Monthly contract, or Locked on Pay as You Go, or Unlocked and then you can put whatever SIM you want inside. Obviously, Unlocked will be the most expensive, Pay as You Go in between, and Pay Monthly will be the cheapest.

I'd only ever buy an unlocked phone, since I spend 6 months in one country and 6 months in another...
Click to expand...

Wrong. iPhones were never unlocked in the U.S. until the iPhone 4. Apple specifically caid there would be no unlocked iPhone 4S' until November. So you said nothing useful.

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Duo said:
I want to clarify something about CDMA. I'm not intimately familiar with it, but in my experience don't you call up the carriers to activate your device? Well, normally the device you purchased would already be in their system. What I don't understand is, why can't you call them up with the serial number of an unlocked iPhone for them to activate? They already support the model, you just bought it directly from the manufacturer.

Besides, both Sprint and Verizon have made commitments to open up their networks to compatible CDMA devices so I'm not quite sure where you're coming from. From what I understand of what you're saying, it seems like CDMA devices are permanently tied to their network.

Links:
Verizon
Sprint

Also, as far as unlocking is concerned, nothing is done through iTunes. The unlocked phones that are out right now are being unlocked at the Apple Stores' POS system. This much is apparent from the article itself when it mentions the device being sold "Off Contract."

http://9to5mac.com/2011/06/26/apple...unlocking-full-price-att-iphones-at-checkout/

The message is a result of a previously locked phone being added to Apple's whitelist of unlocked units. I purchased a completely unlocked iPhone 4 when they were first made available in the US and received no such message when I activated the phone. Europeans, on the other hand, get this message after they request for their phones to be unlocked.
Click to expand...

You answered your own question. You can't tell them & tell them activate any old iPhone because its NOT in their system, if it isn't an iPhone made specifically for their network.

Regardless of whatever promises they have made, neither one of these carriers activates phones which don't come directly or indirectly from them. Your Sprint reference doesn't even list when Sprint agreed to start activating such phones.
 
chick at the register screwed me

So the girl that checked me out Friday screwed me. I bought two 4S'. One 16GB for the wife, one 32GB for me. Only one of our lines is available for upgrade.

The girl asks me which phone I want to pay full price on.
I tell her it doesn't matter. It's going to come up to the same price anyway (this is still correct).
She's like no it won't be the same price.
I'm like yes... it will.
Then she's like, ok, well still, which one is off contract.
The boxes look identical. I just picked one and pointed. Already told this chick its going to be the same price... and I don't care.
****!
So turns out I pointed to the 16GB. If this girl had told me one was going to be locked and one wasn't, I would have picked the 32GB!! She made a point to force me to pick which one was full-price... but possibly deliberately refused to tell me why it was so damn important I pick which one is full-price.
So now I'll be showing up tomorrow with two iphones in hand and my receipts. Tell 'em I need to do two open box exchanges (should be free).... they'll also need to do a refund so that the magic iPhone cash register they use tells AT&T the 32GB is off-contract and the 16GB is tied to my phone line. For that to work, they'll have to first tell AT&T that that contract I signed up for on Friday.... revoke that... Oh boy.

Hopefully since I'm not actually asking for any type of refund, they don't charge me any open box fees.
 
If carriers let me spend $100 a month on pure data opposed to a combination of voice and text that i will never use, i MIGHT buy my self an iPhone on contract. Until then, I'll continue on my cheap ass pre-paid system.
 
frez said:
I currently have a 3GS with an unlimited data plan (contract finished a few months ago) and hope to keep the plan.

Do I need to contact AT&T about getting a new (micro) SIM?

Or am I better off trying to use a micro SIM cutter and leave AT&T no chance to mess up my talk/data plan?
Click to expand...
AT&T knows what phone you have. They'll know you're using a different phone. I started out with the original iPhone, which had a cheaper rate than they charged for the iPhone 3G and higher. When I got the 3GS, my original iPhone plan originally worked well. I had bought the 3GS as a new phone number, since I was done with my first contract...but then cancelled that one and just put my old SIM card in the 3GS. Later, they cracked down on iPhone's with 3G capability running on anything less than 3G data plan prices. So, just sticking to your old SIM won't save you from any changes they truly want to make.

That said, it also gives them fewer opportunities to screw up what you've already got. As for the SIM card, I was planning to get one of those cheap micro-sim cutters. It's just like a stamp-press thing. Just put your SIM card in, press down and voila. I know it isn't as cheap as scissors, but...it will save me a lot of time and nerves.
 
I get this message EVERY time I restore a fresh iOS to my 3GS. I have got it since O2 in the UK unlocked my iPhone a few years ago.
 
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So let me get this straight, I can walk into an AT&T or Apple store tomorrow and tell them that I want to buy an "off contract" iPhone4S and I'm set to use it on T-Mobile USA??

They won't ask me for an AT&T account or SSN?
 
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mrsir2009 said:
Paying $XXX a month on a contract is even more absurd. You end up having to pay more because it doesn't occur to you that your going to be paying for your iPhone (and then some) over 2 years, rather than giving them the money upfront:rolleyes: It may make sense to some who spend $50 or more on their phone a month, but as someone else said, if you only spend $20 a month on it you'll save a lot.

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Yeah but Apple only sells the 8GB one.
Click to expand...

True - there has been no fixed release date which leave me to wonder when it'll be released in NZ; the alternative is to maybe go to Australia for a holiday and buy one whilst you're over there.
 
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