Telefonica (Movistar) has unlocked my iPhone 3G!

[efp1]

I'm posting this in case someone needed advice on how to proceed with unlocking their iPhone legally with Movistar in Spain. Don't know about how 02 works in the UK, but both companies are owned by Telefonica.

Basically all I did was call them and ask for the unlock code for my iPhone. I know that your iPhone does not require a code to be unlocked as it gets unlocked when you connect it to iTunes automatically, once your carrier requests your iPhone to be unlocked. Most Movistar employees don't know about this though, and they treat it as a normal mobile phone.

When you ask for your phone to be unlocked, they tell you that you had to have had the phone for at least 12 months. They ask for your IMEI and tell you that you should have the code in 15 days, at most. They claim that you'll get an SMS message with the unlock code.

This is where it goes wrong, or so you think. Nothing ends up happening after 15 days. You never receive a text message about it and when you call them back and ask them about it, they basically don't know what happened and just request for another unlock code and tell you to wait another 15 days. This can become an endless loop.

What I did was just insert another SIM of another carrier and plug the phone into iTunes. Voila, I got the 'congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked' screen! No need to call them back constantly asking where your unlock code is!

I'm happy that my iPhone is now legally unlocked!

 

[Jumpie]

Sweet! i'm assuming though if you gave them another imei from an at&t that it wouldn't work. but it'd be nice to try. hell, i'll be a guinea pig

 

[efp1]

Yeah, I tried to get my girlfriend's iPhone unlocked but there was a small problem. Basically she had her iPhone replaced by Apple because the silence switch broke off the original one. Of course, the replacement phone's IMEI is different than the first iPhone she had. They want her to send them a fax with documentation to prove that the phone was replaced and include the new IMEI number.

Oh well... At least once that's done it'll get unlocked. I just don't understand why they can't get in touch with Apple for this sort of information.

 

[xpengler]

Unlocking Telefonica iPhone

Thanks for the post - this worked for me.

After giving the IMEI number to Telefonica they unlocked the phone directly with Apple whilst I was on the phone.

However, I needed to put a different SIM card into the phone before connecting to iTunes before the unlocking worked.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

Is this likely to be the same with T-Mobile? Rang them up the other day and asked for unlock, they said they had to contact Apple and I'd receive a code in the mail 10-21 days later. Presumably that's just standard for most phones, and for the iPhone it'll be done automatically as soon as Apple get the request?

 

[appeltje1]

Movistar says that I have to be the original account holder but i bought the iPhone on the Internet so i dont have a simcard or any details about the account holder, only an iPhone 4 with a Movistar simlock. I rang them up and told them te IMEI number but they told me they cant do anything without the original phone number. Please help me.