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who will unlock my Iphone 3g after contract expires

V

vemulasri

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 21, 2008
54
0
Hi Guys,

I am ending my contract with AT&T this month (iphone 3g). I do not want to use AT&T anymore as i hardly get service at my place. So what is everyone doing after the contract?

If you are not staying with AT&T and want the phone have unlocked who will do that? I do not want to Jailbreak it.

I paid $200 for this and i definitely want to use this phone either here or i can use it back home if it is unlocked.

Just wanted to see what everyone is done with their phone after the contract.
 
The only place you can go with the iPhone is T-Mobile, and you will not be able to use their 3G network, only Edge.
 
As already stated, you cannot get your phone officially unlocked if it's a US iPhone. You can only unlock it via jailbreak. Even if it's off contract.
 
Wow that is a bummer. While AT&T unlocks every other phone why not Iphone?

When contract is up i was thinking that is my phone and i can use it anywhere i want to and that they cannot restrict me like that. Is this a legal thing to do? Is there no law that should tell AT&T and Apple that they cannot do this when a customer is not under contract?
 
vemulasri said:
Wow that is a bummer. While AT&T unlocks every other phone why not Iphone?

When contract is up i was thinking that is my phone and i can use it anywhere i want to and that they cannot restrict me like that. Is this a legal thing to do? Is there no law that should tell AT&T and Apple that they cannot do this when a customer is not under contract?
Click to expand...

Yep, its pretty messed up but thats how its been for over 3 years now with all AT&T iphones and not much you can do.
They should pass a law that once a customer is out of contract or pays full price for a phone it should be carrier unlocked.
Thats how its done in the rest of the world.
 
The issue is not so much AT&T, but Apple.
AT&T has always provided me with the unlock code for every other AT&T/Cingular phone I've owned.

When my contract was up on my 1st Gen I called to get it unlocked (I knew they couldn't but tried anyway).
AT&T said Apple didn't provide them with a method to remove the carrier lock and to call them for assistance.
We all know how that call went. :rolleyes:
 
rjohnstone said:
The issue is not so much AT&T, but Apple.
AT&T has always provided me with the unlock code for every other AT&T/Cingular phone I've owned.

When my contract was up on my 1st Gen I called to get it unlocked (I knew they couldn't but tried anyway).
AT&T said Apple didn't provide them with a method to remove the carrier lock and to call them for assistance.
We all know how that call went. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I am thinking to open a complaint after my contract is up with BBB on AT&T as i bought the phone with them. I will let you know the case number in case anyone of you want to support this. With most of the Iphone 3g contracts (more than 10 millions 3gs sold) are coming to an end i believe AT&T or Apple has to answer someone in this regard.
 
rjohnstone said:
The issue is not so much AT&T, but Apple.
AT&T has always provided me with the unlock code for every other AT&T/Cingular phone I've owned.

When my contract was up on my 1st Gen I called to get it unlocked (I knew they couldn't but tried anyway).
AT&T said Apple didn't provide them with a method to remove the carrier lock and to call them for assistance.
We all know how that call went. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Yeah right.
Its not Apple. Apple unlocks every other iphone in many other countries and carriers that they sell to. Thats just the BS that AT&T gave you and you eat it :D
 
vemulasri said:
I am thinking to open a complaint after my contract is up with BBB on AT&T as i bought the phone with them. I will let you know the case number in case anyone of you want to support this. With most of the Iphone 3g contracts (more than 10 millions 3gs sold) are coming to an end i believe AT&T or Apple has to answer someone in this regard.
Click to expand...

You can but Im telling you know you will just waste your time.
Best of luck and I also hope in the future this should be changed.
 
rjohnstone said:
The issue is not so much AT&T, but Apple.
AT&T has always provided me with the unlock code for every other AT&T/Cingular phone I've owned.

When my contract was up on my 1st Gen I called to get it unlocked (I knew they couldn't but tried anyway).
AT&T said Apple didn't provide them with a method to remove the carrier lock and to call them for assistance.
We all know how that call went. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Except that in other countries the carriers will unlock the iPhone if you ask (sometimes for a fee).
 
Unlocking it yourself is not hard nor the end of the world. But, it's not available yet if you've updated to 3.1.3.
 
Yes i am on 3.1.3 and also you run into this issue whenever Apple updates the firmware.
 
I'm guessing it's both but came from AT&T. I bet that AT&T is trying to hard to keep all the iPhone customers on their network that they made the agreement with Apple to not unlock any US iPhones.
 
Applejuiced said:
Yeah right.
Its not Apple. Apple unlocks every other iphone in many other countries and carriers that they sell to. Thats just the BS that AT&T gave you and you eat it :D
Click to expand...
You're confusing AT&T's willingness to do it with their ability.

I truly believe AT&T has no desire to unlock an iPhone, but that doesn't negate the fact that Apple has not provided AT&T the means/method to do it either. Is that Apple's choice or AT&T's... who knows.

We all know that if an AT&T employee/tech had the ability to remove the carrier lock from an iPhone, it would have been released into the wild by now.

How do you think the first Nokia unlocks made it to the public arena...
Internal employees selling the codes.
 
rjohnstone said:
You're confusing AT&T's willingness to do it with their ability.

I truly believe AT&T has no desire to unlock an iPhone, but that doesn't negate the fact that Apple has not provided AT&T the means/method to do it either. Is that Apple's choice or AT&T's... who knows.

We all know that if an AT&T employee/tech had the ability to remove the carrier lock from an iPhone, it would have been released into the wild by now.

How do you think the first Nokia unlocks made it to the public arena...
Internal employees selling the codes.
Click to expand...

Apple provides the ability to every other partnet carrier in the world. The reason that US iphones are locked is because of AT&T. Apple can care less, they're in the business of selling phones.
I dont think you understand how it works with iphones.
The customer requests an unlock for a specific serial number iphone and Vodafone for example passes it to Apple and then Apple officially adds it into the unlocked list of phones thru itunes. All other cellphone manufacturer unlock codes have nothing to do with itunes and the iphone. Its a whole different system that doesnt use unlock codes.
 
Applejuiced said:
Apple provides the ability to every other partnet carrier in the world. The reason that US iphones are locked is because of AT&T. Apple can care less, they're in the business of selling phones.
I dont think you understand how it works with iphones.
The customer requests an unlock for a specific serial number iphone and Vodafone for example passes it to Apple and then Apple officially adds it into the unlocked list of phones thru itunes. All other cellphone manufacturer unlock codes have nothing to do with itunes and the iphone. Its a whole different system that doesnt use unlock codes.
Click to expand...
OK... thanks for the correction on HOW it works.
Seems to be a bit of an arcane method to have to log every serial number instead of simply modifying the boot ROM of the device to remain unlocked.
 
vemulasri said:
Wow that is a bummer. While AT&T unlocks every other phone why not Iphone?

When contract is up i was thinking that is my phone and i can use it anywhere i want to and that they cannot restrict me like that. Is this a legal thing to do? Is there no law that should tell AT&T and Apple that they cannot do this when a customer is not under contract?
Click to expand...

What rock have you been living under for the past three years? :rolleyes:
 
rjohnstone said:
OK... thanks for the correction on HOW it works.
Seems to be a bit of an arcane method to have to log every serial number instead of simply modifying the boot ROM of the device to remain unlocked.
Click to expand...

It's designed to maintain a web of trust between the carrier and the handset. After the phone enters the customers' hands, the carriers cannot have absolute certinty that an unlock code or algorithm embedded within the phone itself won't be compromised and disseminated to 3rd parties - in which case the carriers lose the exclusive authority to decide which customers get unlocks and whice customers don't get it. There is a lack of trust when the handset itself is its own authority to decide whether or not it ought to be unlocked.

With the iPhone, Apple came up with a different system, whereby the authority to apply the unlock resides within Apple's own servers, which the carriers deem to be a more tustworthy method of tracking unlock status.

Apple is almost certainly willing to provide unlocking services to AT&T customers, if AT&T were to instruct Apple to do so. And front line AT&T customer service representatives would probably be more than willing to provide unlocking services to customers upon request, if the method was made available to them. But AT&T corporate officials have decided to instruct Apple not to provide unocking, so the CSRs are ultimately left powerless to provide the service.
 
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