sim unlocking on iPhone 4s

[dren1980]

Hey, I was wondering:

So, there are now iPhones being sold at Apple unlocked and free from any carrier. Well, I recently canceled my contract with crappy Verizon and plan to take my phone with me to AT&HELL. I know these are "world" phones but what makes it dedicated to a specific carrier? Software? Anyone know if there is a way to load an iPhone 4 with purely unlocked software that apple loads into the unlocked phones sold on their site? Maybe I'm not looking at this correctly. I know there are many jailbreak and unlock methods but it just seems odd that if apple them selves sell iPhones unlocked, and there is nothing different with hardware between GSM, CDMA, or unlocked phones, then why can't that unlocked software be installed in a phone that was on the Verizon network? Anyhow, as much input as possible is appreciated. -Thanks

 

[Applejuiced]

You won't be able to use a Verizon 4S on AT&T.
Better off selling it and getting one for AT&T or a factory unlocked.

 

[dren1980]

You won't be able to use a Verizon 4S on AT&T.
Better off selling it and getting one for AT&T or a factory unlocked.

thanks but that doesn't answer my question. I can just jailbreak and unlock my phone, no biggie, but I'm just curious as to why this sort of thing cannot be done; Or has not been done.

----------

You won't be able to use a Verizon 4S on AT&T.

Why? Specifically.

-Thanks

 

[DerekRod]

I believe there is a gevey unlock for Verizon/sprint it may require a jailbreak though not sure check applenberry.com

 

[dren1980]

I believe there is a gevey unlock for Verizon/sprint it may require a jailbreak though not sure check applenberry.com

It is not a problem getting the phone to work on another network. I guess what my true question is: What makes an iPhone carrier specific?

-Thanks

 

[ste1164]

Apple puts the imei numbers for the iphones that are locked to certain carriers seperate to unlocked ones. So if someone goes into a uk apple store for example and asks for one on o2 the staff will bring out an iphone that's imei is locked to o2.

 

[dren1980]

Apple puts the imei numbers for the iphones that are locked to certain carriers seperate to unlocked ones. So if someone goes into a uk apple store for example and asks for one on o2 the staff will bring out an iphone that's imei is locked to o2.

I take it the imei number is stored in memory in the phone? So it's only locked down by the imei number no matter if it's on a gsm or cdma network??

 

[CyBeRino]

Hey, I was wondering:

So, there are now iPhones being sold at Apple unlocked and free from any carrier. Well, I recently canceled my contract with crappy Verizon and plan to take my phone with me to AT&HELL. I know these are "world" phones but what makes it dedicated to a specific carrier? Software? Anyone know if there is a way to load an iPhone 4 with purely unlocked software that apple loads into the unlocked phones sold on their site? Maybe I'm not looking at this correctly. I know there are many jailbreak and unlock methods but it just seems odd that if apple them selves sell iPhones unlocked, and there is nothing different with hardware between GSM, CDMA, or unlocked phones, then why can't that unlocked software be installed in a phone that was on the Verizon network? Anyhow, as much input as possible is appreciated. -Thanks

The phones themselves are identical. The difference is the baseband memory where it stores things like the IMEI number and a bunch of other things. One of those things is a block of data that tells the phone what SIMs to accept, or to accept all of them. The carriers have this block of data changed.

Unfortunately for people who are stupid enough to buy locked phones, unlocking isn't simply a matter putting a block of data in the right place and having it work-- that piece of data has to be correctly encrypted and only Apple can do that because it requires a key that only they have. See http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Unlock#Official_Unlock.


Apparently for newer devices, all are shipped exactly identically (apart from serial number, IMEI, WiFi and BT MAC addresses) and the lock state is applied when you activate it. http://theiphonewiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Activation

 

[ste1164]

The imei is hardware based coded to the motherboard. That's why when you get a new motherboard the imei number changes. Not sure about the cdma/gsm thing. I know the 4S is cdma & gsm. But I think cdma carriers have esn. Not sure if this is the same.