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AT&T has finally changed their policy and will begin unlocking iPhones for those who have completed their two year contract.

Here is AT&T's statement:


“Beginning Sunday, April 8, we will offer qualifying customers the ability to unlock their AT&T iPhones. The only requirements are that a customer’s account must be in good standing, their device cannot be associated with a current and active term commitment on an AT&T customer account, and they need to have fulfilled their contract term, upgraded under one of our upgrade policies or paid an early termination fee.”

San Te....where did you find this statement? I want to unlock an old IPhone 3G. Thanks

It is all over the news sites which cover Apple. Here is a link:

http://9to5mac.com/2012/04/06/in-respon ... g-iphones/

So when I bring my 3G unlocked I-phone, anybody know if my Kolbi pre-paid Sim will allow me e-mail access automatically or do I need to do some stuff with them to get it going?

You need to set up the correct APN under settings, general, network. If I recall correctly you need to enter in kolbi3g for the APN. Just stop at the desk at the airport and they will set it up for you. Although, data is automatic you may want to text dia to 6060 on a daily basis as it gives a better rate. They will have a sheet listing the codes to text and the costs for data. Also, their website has all the information.

Figures after I just jailbroke and unlocked my 3g they would do this. I like the jailbreak but had to run on the ipad 6.15.00 baseband and now my phone sucks down the battery like no tomorrow. I have improved it some buy turning off push notifications, and changing several other settings. I like my phone how it was but was hopeless in the need to unlock. Now I have no choice but to keep the jailbreak, from what I hear you cannot go back after upgrading the baseband to 6.15.00. It sure would of been nice had they done this years ago so I didn't have to make crazy changes to my phone just to unlock it. Been out of contract over a year on it. Waiting for the iphone 5 to come out but part of me is reluctant to go with ATT again.

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Not banned yet...

Unfortunately, you are correct, you can never go back on your baseband. Yeah, it really sucks with regards to battery life.

Actually, it will be the 6th generation of iPhone and it is expected they will drop the numbering thing and just call it iPhone. There is talk it will be released this summer. As to AT&T, they have the fastest data service so it works well for me as that is mainly how I use the device. One good thing about Verizon and Sprint is they use CDMA technology and will unlock the GSM Sim after a short time so you can use it abroad. In the USA it will continue to be locked to the CDMA system.

Will I have to undo these settings and replace them with the originals when I return to the States? Anything else I need to know? It'll be first time bringing an I-phone.

I am not 100% sure but I would say probably not if you are just putting your AT&T Sim back into the iPhone. When an AT&T Sim is in the iPhone those settings do not even appear. However, when I travel and unlock my iPhone 4 with a Gevey Sim the settings screen becomes available. Either way it is not a big deal as it only one line telling the iPhone to use kolbi3g for data.

I can't think of anything else. Just call AT&T customer service and say you want to unlock your out of contract iPhone. They will ask for the IMEI number. You will provide them with the number and they will add it to a database which Apple keeps for unlocked phones. You will then need to sync via iTunes and you will get a message your iPhone is unlocked.

Thanks man. Are there any other benefits to an unlocked Iphone other than the ability to use different sims? Am I still stuck with having to download ringtones, apps, etc thru Apple I-tunes?

As far as I am aware a unlock only allows you to use different sims. If you want more flexibility on what you can do with it you will have to jailbreak it, which is something different than unlocking.

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Not banned yet...

Note that you can't buy an ATT iPhone 4/4s on Craigslist, from a friend etc and then call ATT to have it unlocked. You must be a current customer of ATT before they will unlock it.

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Voted San Jose's #1 Maripepino

In the states, called ATT Mon re my 3g I-Phone unlock, opened a file #, got an email Thusday from them with directions: "sync w/ I-Tunes, Back-up, and then Restore", did that, screen then displayed "lock or unlock?" hit unlock, ATT sim still working, good news, put my Kolbi CR sim in, asked for my pin#, entered, no ATT signal, so I presume I am unlocked. But was able to send a text to myself with my Kolbi sim in the phone which I cannot undertand how---off my home wi-fi maybe?

[quote="DGD"][quote="San Te"][quote="DGD"][quote="San Te"]So when I bring my 3G unlocked I-phone, anybody know if my Kolbi pre-paid Sim will allow me e-mail access automatically or do I need to do some stuff with them to get it going?[/quote]

You need to set up the correct APN under settings, general, network. If I recall correctly you need to enter in kolbi3g for the APN. Just stop at the desk at the airport and they will set it up for you. Although, data is automatic you may want to text dia to 6060 on a daily basis as it gives a better rate. They will have a sheet listing the codes to text and the costs for data. Also, their website has all the information.[/quote][/quote]

In the states, called ATT Mon re my 3g I-Phone unlock, opened a file #, got an email Thusday from them with directions: "sync w/ I-Tunes, Back-up, and then Restore", did that, screen then displayed "lock or unlock?" hit unlock, ATT sim still working, good news, put my Kolbi CR sim in, asked for my pin#, entered, no ATT signal, so I presume I am unlocked. But was able to send a text to myself with my Kolbi sim in the phone which I cannot undertand how---off my home wi-fi maybe?[/quote]

iTunes should have displayed a message saying your iPhone is now unlocked. If you saw that you should be good to go.

As regards to the Kolbi Sim; it doesn't work in the states so you are probably using wifi. If you know someone with a T-Mobile sim try that out in the iPhone as a test.

I went to AT&Ts online chat Monday night and requested my iPhone 4 and an old iPhone 3g which I rebuilt to be unlocked. They wouldn't do anything with the iPhone 4 stating I had to wait another 2 months when it is out of contract. The did set up a case for the iPhone 3g and said I would receive an email in 24 to 48 hours but I haven't received the email yet. I am sure they are really backed up as it took nearly an hour waiting on chat for an agent. The good news is that iPhone 3g was never on my account. From what I have read they are looking at the original contract of the phone to determine if the contract was fulfilled.

As an update, it took two weeks but AT&T finally sent me the email letting me know my iPhone is available to be unlocked. I went through the restore process and did indeed get the message my iPhone has been unlocked. Basically what happens is AT&T sends your iPhone's IMEI number to Apple which adds the number to their database. After you restore your iPhone it sees the number is on the Apple list and unlocks the phone. About time AT&T!