You don't sign a contract when you purchase the iPhone, you do it later through iTunes. So you can buy the iPhone and unlock it without signing any contracts.
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Unlocking the NEW UK iPhone
- Thread starter phalewhale
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You don't sign a contract when you purchase the iPhone, you do it later through iTunes. So you can buy the iPhone and unlock it without signing any contracts.
MacHiavelli
macrumors 65816
My understanding of UK law as regards phones is once the contract is finished, you're free to do what you like, and a provider MUST unlick for a 'reasonable fee'
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/Oftel/consumer/advice/faqs/mobfaq3.htm
This may be a 'bridge to cross' for Apple in about 18 months time, but by then, the iPhone will be a whole different ballgame...
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/Oftel/consumer/advice/faqs/mobfaq3.htm
This may be a 'bridge to cross' for Apple in about 18 months time, but by then, the iPhone will be a whole different ballgame...
i bought a uk iphone today.
this method occurred to me earlier and a quick search turned up this thread.
so, the question NOW is, has anyone had the balls to try it!?
if not, we might assume that one of the fee-charging unlocking sites might have given it a go
if so a good measure of the above method working would be whether or not one of those sites announces tomorrow that it can unlock firmware v1.1.2, but with the addendum that you will get a v1.1.1 iphone back...
things i've discovered today no. 61:
staring at a pretty box, with the lid off, and a dormant iphone lying in it is a million times worse than that any amount of time spent waiting in an apple product launch queue 😉
edit:
another good starting point would be to use part of the method described here:
http://iphone.unlock.no/#Bypass-Activation-and-Jailbreak
to get into the settings menu to check the baseband.
but i have to sleep now.
i'm seriously.
edit2:
baseband is 04.02.13_G.
i'm waiting for the hackers.
Just to update, I bought my UK iPhone yesterday at CPW. As expected, it shipped with 1.1.2 under which the TIFF exploit has been fixed and so standard jailbreak is not possible.
It is possible (and in fact relatively easy) to downgrade to 1.1.1 and jailbreak: see here. You can put the phone in DFU mode, option-click as before in iTunes and feed it the 1.1.1 firmware from Apple's site. iTunes will throw an error (due to the upgraded baseband with 1.1.2), but then use iBrickr to kick the phone out of DFU mode at the end. After that, run through the standard procedure to jailbreak and get Installer.app. You'll then have the 1.1.1 firmware with the 1.1.2 baseband. From here you can theoretically update back to 1.1.2 with the jailbreak announced on TUAW, but that's not been released yet as it needs more testing.
Now assuming that you had a US iPhone and upgraded to 1.1.2, you should theoretically be able to use the new AnySIM 1.2 released by iphone-elite to re-unlock your phone. However, if like me you have a UK iPhone then you're going to have to wait, because it looks like Apple also updated the bootloader on our phones. As far as I know, this is being worked on atm but again I'm just hanging around in IRC.
However, I did notice that the iPhoneUnlockUK site is now reporting that they can unlock native 1.1.2 UK iPhones: this was apparently confirmed over the phone. So if you really need to unlock it, then it might be worth giving them a call and shelling out the £40 to get it done.
It is possible (and in fact relatively easy) to downgrade to 1.1.1 and jailbreak: see here. You can put the phone in DFU mode, option-click as before in iTunes and feed it the 1.1.1 firmware from Apple's site. iTunes will throw an error (due to the upgraded baseband with 1.1.2), but then use iBrickr to kick the phone out of DFU mode at the end. After that, run through the standard procedure to jailbreak and get Installer.app. You'll then have the 1.1.1 firmware with the 1.1.2 baseband. From here you can theoretically update back to 1.1.2 with the jailbreak announced on TUAW, but that's not been released yet as it needs more testing.
Now assuming that you had a US iPhone and upgraded to 1.1.2, you should theoretically be able to use the new AnySIM 1.2 released by iphone-elite to re-unlock your phone. However, if like me you have a UK iPhone then you're going to have to wait, because it looks like Apple also updated the bootloader on our phones. As far as I know, this is being worked on atm but again I'm just hanging around in IRC.
However, I did notice that the iPhoneUnlockUK site is now reporting that they can unlock native 1.1.2 UK iPhones: this was apparently confirmed over the phone. So if you really need to unlock it, then it might be worth giving them a call and shelling out the £40 to get it done.
hey davem7.
as i thought they might, iphoneunlockuk.com are just using the method you described above for now.
their website currently states:
Please be advised that the 1.1.2 unlock downgrades the phone to v1.1.1 - if you are not using other languages other than English then you are not losing any features. Our 1.1.2 unlock is currently being tested and will be ready by Monday 12th November at the latest.
cool. i'll try your method when i get home!
thanks for the confirmation that it is usable 😀
as i thought they might, iphoneunlockuk.com are just using the method you described above for now.
their website currently states:
Please be advised that the 1.1.2 unlock downgrades the phone to v1.1.1 - if you are not using other languages other than English then you are not losing any features. Our 1.1.2 unlock is currently being tested and will be ready by Monday 12th November at the latest.
cool. i'll try your method when i get home!
thanks for the confirmation that it is usable 😀
No problem 🙂 Yeah, the iPhoneUnlockUK thing will not work because of the bootloader update. Don't know when this will be overcome, but I guess it will be at some point - either by an update to the software to work with new bootloader, or a bootloader downgrade.
However there are reports that an O2 PAYG SIM card will work fine on a downgraded/jailbroken 1.1.2. I'm thinking about picking one up later on in the week if nothing becomes apparent so that my phone is at least usable.
This is something someone had said on IRC - haven't tried it myself. It doesn't seem beyond the realms of impossibility that it could work. Seems like some others are going to try it later on today.
i don't understand why you can't use any sim card you like already.
can we not downgrade to 1.1.1 and jailbreak as you describe, then downgrade the baseband to an earlier version with "virginize 04.x" (http://iphone.unlock.no/#how-to-downgrade-and-virginize-baseband) and install anysim to unlock?
As far as I know, downgrading the baseband will not work because the existing tools assume you have the older US bootloader. The UK/Germany phones are shipping with a more recent bootloader which breaks the tools used for the downgrade. Otherwise, yes, it would be simple - indeed we could use AnySIM 1.2 and not even bother downgrading the baseband. But as it stands we can't unlock yet.
thanks again davem7 - just read that that's the consensus over on tuaw too (http://www.tuaw.com/2007/11/09/iphone-elite-1-1-2-jailbroken/2#comments).
guess we'll just have to keep our other phones around for a little longer then.
If you are going to fork out £40 every time Apple issues an upgrade that breaks your jailbroken iPhone, then you may as well just pay for a contract.
sorry to sound silly, but just to confirm, this doesnt work on a brand new UK iphone with 1.1.2 right?
because we have a downgrader, we just need an activation method now right?
in that quote i was only talking about getting into field test mode to find out if the baseband was upgraded on euro iphones as well as the firmware.
which, upon checking, i found out it was.
which means no sim unlock/activation until the hacker teams work out a way to either downgrade this baseband version and bootloader to an earlier version or hack firmware v1.1.2 entirely.
Yup, that's correct. In fact, I'm posting this from a 1.1.2 downgraded iPhone right now.
fantastic! 😀
that is exactly what i wanted to hear - as long as there's no problem getting back to v1.1.2 if we want to, there's no reason at all not to do this right away.
i'm off to play 😀
So.. in theory, can i put my existing o2 contract SIM in the phone and it will be usable?
In theory. It doesn't look like the baseband will work properly with 1.1.1 for whatever reason (SIM card will be recognised but you'll get no signal). However, if you downgrade to 1.0.2 you should be able to use an O2 SIM as the modem firmware appears to work with that version.
If you downgrade to 1.0.2 will you not retain the same baseband, meaning the SIM won't work, i.e. the baseband of a 1.1.2 phone with the 1.0.2 firmware?
yea, but if i downgrade to 1.1.1 and then activate the phone, back upgrade 1.1.2 will the sim work? im essentially just activating the phone and using the sim for network registration as its a valid contract sim card from o2.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nipz
hello,
i brought an iPhone from USA about 2 weeks ago now and i used www.iphoneunlockuk.com/ to unlock it! Worked great just got to take it step by step!
Def dont use any free softwear...
If you are going to fork out £40 every time Apple issues an upgrade that breaks your jailbroken iPhone, then you may as well just pay for a contract.
Originally Posted by Nipz
hello,
i brought an iPhone from USA about 2 weeks ago now and i used www.iphoneunlockuk.com/ to unlock it! Worked great just got to take it step by step!
Def dont use any free softwear...
If you are going to fork out £40 every time Apple issues an upgrade that breaks your jailbroken iPhone, then you may as well just pay for a contract.
The £40 for the software is for the LIFETIME of your iPhone - updates to iphoneunlockuk.com software are free.
Hi Guys, sorry for the probably stupid question.
Can anyone confirm that the UK Iphone can be unlocked to work with Any O2 sim card at the moment?
If so I will go buy one and put my O2 contract sim into it!!
Thanks
Chris
Can anyone confirm that the UK Iphone can be unlocked to work with Any O2 sim card at the moment?
If so I will go buy one and put my O2 contract sim into it!!
Thanks
Chris
when you get the phone you have to activate it otherwise it is useless
when you activate it you have to sign upto an 18 month pricey o2 iphone contract.
need a way to actiavte it without signing up to a contract.
personally i think just getting one in from the states is looking like the best option..