I'm curious... I'm halfway through my contract and will be purchasing the next iPhone outright. Do you think they will unlock it for me? I've never really cared/looked into the process of unlocking so if not, under what conditions will they do this? Thanks!
unless you pay the early termination fee OR your contract is 'satisifed' you can't get your at&t supplied locked phone unlocked any way (like someone said, you can buy an unlocked one but not from AT&T).. only loophole i found was to 'upgrade' my iphone 4, to an iphone 4s (this assumes one is eligible for upgrade).. THEN you can unlock your old iphone 4 "before" your contract is up (though technically the contract is satisfied because you started a new contract w/ the iphone 4s).
It goes like this, the iphones retails for over $500-600 dollars unlocked, you're only getting it for $199/299 though locked, because you're agreeing to a 2-year contract. You pay an ETF within the first few months, you'll be paying likely more than it would have cost just buying an unlocked phone from Apple direct. I am considering going with SmartTalk and an unlocked iphone 5 since I really hate on AT&T
back story, i actually WAS traveling overseas, have been an AT&T member since 2006 but they would still not unlock my phone any way (they sorta have you all by the balls basically and don't feel they have to do you ANY favors). So I went on my trip, came back and returned the iphone 4s, my iphone 4 stays unlocked (albeit i had to pay for activation/restocking fee, which was still cheaper than the ETF).
Now, as for asking them to give out the iphone 5 unlocked, i actually laughed when i saw that.. You do realize the kind of company AT&T is right?
if not, re-read the part in my previous paragraphs about favors
