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Verizon iPhone 4S SIM UNLOCK Tutorial
- Thread starter b24pgg
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Restore didn't do anything as I expected, still get an invalid SIM error message.
I am trying this with an AT&T SIM.
Waiting for call back from Apple senior adviser.
Maybe Verizon's servers are being beat up with activations and there will be a delay to transmit the info to Apple...
Got a call back from Apple, they will escalate it to engineering.
Said they would call back tomorrow or Monday.
I am only able to test it at work anyway, so not gonna do much good if they fix it over the weekend.
I called Verizon earlier today. They told me it wasn't locked. All you have to do it put in a SIM and connect the phone to iTunes and it will activate.
Thats exactly what I did. If I don't connect it to iTunes after I swap SIM's it will just sit there on no service.
Thats exactly what I did. If I don't connect it to iTunes after I swap SIM's it will just sit there on no service.
Well ironically in my case it gets a signal and restarts, but then tells me unsupported/invalid sim.
I had an apple support rep tell me my phone was locked to Vodafone sim.
Well glad they're working on it at least. Looks like there's lots of conflicting info coming from reps on this issue (and not just from VZW).
Yes, I called yesterday when I got my phone early and did not get the message when I plugged in. Still haven't called back, though.
I just got off the phone (called the 1-800 # at the beginning of the thread). After being bounced from customer service to technical support (who verified my eligibility to unlock but couldn't unlock the SIM), I was again transferred to global technical support. The global technical support guy repeatedly told me that they don't have instructions from Apple on how to unlock iPhone 4S's, and they have no ETA on when they'll get them. He was very insistent on this.
Has anyone else encountered this? Is there a way around this?
I guess I'll try calling again later on to get a different service rep...
Has anyone else encountered this? Is there a way around this?
I guess I'll try calling again later on to get a different service rep...
AT&T SIM won't work. Its basically blocked. Only international SIM cards will work.
My Thailand SIM works fine. My AT&T SIM won't activate.
He was wrong...it happens pretty often. I don't know why they don't train their reps on this. Just try a different rep I guess.
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That's what I anticipated. The iTunes-required activation thing seems weird to me though.
MachAF I think the phone that you have is not unlocked in the general sense.
It's possible that when it does activation that it checks a carrier whitelist and allows certain carriers to activate.
I am just guessing here, no solid evidence.
The Apple senior adviser that I talked to said that when your phone is unlocked you don't have to activate each time, it just works.
Of course they could be wrong, but can't anyone at either Apple or Verizon get it right.
So far I have been told something like four different scenarios by four different people (two Verizon, two Apple) of how iPhone 4S unlock works.
Thing is if you manage to buy a prepaid SIM in a foreign country, the last thing you want to be doing is hunting for a hotspot or worse needing a full blown laptop computer with iTunes.
I had an Verizon/HTC Touch Pro 2.
It took something like five minutes on the phone to get it unlocked.
They gave me an unlock code and it just worked.
Isn't iPhone supposed to be simple in every way?
It's possible that when it does activation that it checks a carrier whitelist and allows certain carriers to activate.
I am just guessing here, no solid evidence.
The Apple senior adviser that I talked to said that when your phone is unlocked you don't have to activate each time, it just works.
Of course they could be wrong, but can't anyone at either Apple or Verizon get it right.
So far I have been told something like four different scenarios by four different people (two Verizon, two Apple) of how iPhone 4S unlock works.
Thing is if you manage to buy a prepaid SIM in a foreign country, the last thing you want to be doing is hunting for a hotspot or worse needing a full blown laptop computer with iTunes.
I had an Verizon/HTC Touch Pro 2.
It took something like five minutes on the phone to get it unlocked.
They gave me an unlock code and it just worked.
Isn't iPhone supposed to be simple in every way?
So apparently Verizon and Sprint iPhone 4S users have having trouble unlocking, while an AT&T iPhone 4S owner is getting the iTunes unlock message.
We are officially in bizarro world.
We are officially in bizarro world.
Got a call back from the Apple senior adviser today at 6:30am, they must not be human and don't require sleep.
I was told that my iPhone has nothing wrong with it and will only work with foreign but not domestic SIMs.
Pretty much I was given the safe answer.
After which they tried selling me on Applecare+ while I was still dazed and confused having just woken up a minute earlier.
The value of my iPhone just went down in my mind.
Especially the need for WiFi to activate another SIM, i mean it's a cellular phone, who came up with that idea?
Why not store the whitelist locally?
I think I'll just wait and see what other people figure out.
I wasted something like four hours at work messing with it and CSRs, and did not get very far.
I was told that my iPhone has nothing wrong with it and will only work with foreign but not domestic SIMs.
Pretty much I was given the safe answer.
After which they tried selling me on Applecare+ while I was still dazed and confused having just woken up a minute earlier.
The value of my iPhone just went down in my mind.
Especially the need for WiFi to activate another SIM, i mean it's a cellular phone, who came up with that idea?
Why not store the whitelist locally?
I think I'll just wait and see what other people figure out.
I wasted something like four hours at work messing with it and CSRs, and did not get very far.
The carriers want to sell as many contract phones as possible. I believe that with the release of the unlocked iPhone 4s in November, we'll see a change in policy. The only way that Sprint will be able to sell $20 billion worth of phones is if their prepaid subsidiaries, Boost and Virgin Mobile also sell the iPhone. Since prepaid phones really can't be subsidized, the phones will have to be sold unlocked. Once that happens, locking a phone will only happen for a particular carriers' coverage area.
The EU is already cracking down on outrageous roaming charges, I hope the US won't be too far behind.
I can't get it to activate with a Rogers sim. Maybe only north America bands are banned?
Hi forum,
I just called VZW global services, the rep told me he unlocked my 4S, but when I plugged into iTunes I did *not* see the "Congratulations! your iPhone has been unlocked" message pop up - just the regular sync messages. Is there any way to verify that the unlock has been done successfully? The rep told me there was no way to verify it, but when I plugged in the international SIM it would go through the activation process on the new network, etc., etc. I just don't want to find out when I'm overseas that the unlock never happened obviously.....
Any tips would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance....
I just called VZW global services, the rep told me he unlocked my 4S, but when I plugged into iTunes I did *not* see the "Congratulations! your iPhone has been unlocked" message pop up - just the regular sync messages. Is there any way to verify that the unlock has been done successfully? The rep told me there was no way to verify it, but when I plugged in the international SIM it would go through the activation process on the new network, etc., etc. I just don't want to find out when I'm overseas that the unlock never happened obviously.....
Any tips would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance....
After many phone calls to VZW, I ended up at this point as well. I did not see any "your iPhone has been unlocked" message. However, I am able to put a French SIM card into my Verizon iPhone. Since I'm no longer in France, the phone (with the French SIM in it) is actually roaming on the AT&T network. I'm also getting SMS'es from the French cell provider telling me that I'm now roaming.
So, it appears to be working...
So, it appears to be working...
Did you guys test out your international SIMs before calling VZW to unlock?
If you got a screen like this before, and then managed to connect after calling VZW, it's safe to say that Verizon is unlocking them successfully...just in a different manner than we thought.
I unfortunately don't have access to an international microsim card at the moment. How about ...
1) Could I borrow a micro-SIM from someone else with an iPhone 4 / 4S on AT&T to test it out?
2) If I brought the phone into an apple store would the "geniuses" be able to determine if it was unlocked?