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unlocked 3GS w/prepaid att sim..... no service???

aaronstephen

aaronstephen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 10, 2009
27
0
just what the title says. I have an unlocked 3gs that I have been using with Tmobile for some time now and I needed to get att for better coverage at our new house. I activated the sim card with the prepaid phone then popped the sim in the iPhone and now all I get is "No Service." shouldn't this work just fine since my phone is unlocked? what am I doing wrong?
 
aaronstephen said:
just what the title says. I have an unlocked 3gs that I have been using with Tmobile for some time now and I needed to get att for better coverage at our new house. I activated the sim card with the prepaid phone then popped the sim in the iPhone and now all I get is "No Service." shouldn't this work just fine since my phone is unlocked? what am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...

In order to use the T-mobile sim, you hacktivated the phone when you JB it. Once hacktivated, the phone will not be able to use the official carrier sim.

You will need to re-jailbreak, keep official AT&T sim in the phone during JB. If you use Pwnage Tool, uncheck the activate phone box. Do not unlock after JB.
 
HTML: 
i jailbroke my phone without a sim installed. I did not hackivate my tmobile sim. I activated the tmobile sim with a prepaid tmobile phone. I read somewhere that AT&T locks there sim to the phone it was activated in for 180 days is this true? and is this why my phone won't recognize the sim?
 
aaronstephen said:
HTML: 
i jailbroke my phone without a sim installed. I did not hackivate my tmobile sim. I activated the tmobile sim with a prepaid tmobile phone. I read somewhere that AT&T locks there sim to the phone it was activated in for 180 days is this true? and is this why my phone won't recognize the sim?
Click to expand...

You do not activate a sim card, you activate or hacktivate the phone. The ONLY way to get an iPhone to turn on after jailbreak without putting an official carrier sim into it is thru hacktivation.

Since you claimed the T-mobile sim worked in the phone and the AT&T sim does not, that means the phone (not the sim) was hacktivated. Otherwise the un-official sim would never have worked in the phone (and yes, hacktivation is different from unlocking). Hacktivation prevents an official carrier sim from working in an iPhone. Unlocking does not, however unlocking won't be required (obviously) with the AT&T sim

My advice still stands, you will need to restore in order to use the AT&T sim, then you can re-JB if you wish to get the bells & whistles.
 
ok I hear what you're saying and here's another question. I have heard AT&T locks there sims to the phone it was activated in for 180 days. is this true? and if it is does that mean I would have to wait that time frame before it would work?
 
aaronstephen said:
ok I hear what you're saying and here's another question. I have heard AT&T locks there sims to the phone it was activated in for 180 days. is this true? and if it is does that mean I would have to wait that time frame before it would work?
Click to expand...
This is only true if the GoPhone that you activated included credits such as $50 in airtime.
 
I did come with airtme so it looks like I'll have to wait. but I still don't understand why if my phone has been unlocked thru blacksnow why the AT&T sim wouldn't work. anybody?
 
aaronstephen said:
I did come with airtme so it looks like I'll have to wait. but I still don't understand why if my phone has been unlocked thru blacksnow why the AT&T sim wouldn't work. anybody?
Click to expand...

As I said above, the sim is locked to that GoPhone for six months. An unlocked iPhone won't change that fact. You can either Go to AT&T and tell them you need a new sim for that GoPhone or activate a new GoPhone account with a new sim from AT&T and start all over again. This time, the sim will work in the iPhone.
 
Unlocked 3gs w/prepaid activated SIM - No Service

I have a JB (JailBreakMe), unlocked iPhone 3gs (4.0) that is functional using a T-Mobile SIM.

I bought and activated an ATT SIM under a pre-paid plan. With the ATT prepaid SIM I get the No Service indication.

I can't "re-jailbreak" since JailBreakMe is no longer functional.

If I restored the iPhone, will the activated ATT SIM just work? Seems to good to be true.

If I restored the iPhone and used RedSn0w to JB but did not unlock will it work?

Please advise

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.
 
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