rjstacey

Morning all,

I would like some info from anyone who is using an iPhone 3G that has been unlocked and on another network. i.e. do you have probs or anything.
Going to get one but am locked into my current contract for a long time... :-(
CHeers for the info!
Rob

boxst

Hello

As far as I understand you cannot unlock the 3G iPhone. I have been looking on iClarified plus other places to try. You can jailbreak it (i.e. be able to use third party applications) but it is restricted to O2.

Markus can correct me

Steve

Markus

Once again the shopkeeper appears

Steve has it pretty much nailed on the head, but I'll explain a few in's and out's

Firstly, there are two areas when it comes to the iPhone, regardless of version, Jailbreaking and Unlocking. These are two different things.

Jailbreaking refers to the ability to allow you to add additional applications to the iPhone without having to use Apple's AppStore. It is possible to jailbreak a 2G and 3G iPhone.

Unlocking refers to the ability to remove the carrier/network lock from the iPhone. As we know, the iPhone is locked to a specific provider, for example, O2 in the UK.

When it comes to unlocking, which is what you actually want to do. It is possible to unlock an iPhone 2G (the original iPhone) via a few methods, one of which is via software.
As for the iPhone 3G, at this present moment in time there is no software based unlock, and the hardware based ones (using a sim card holder) may not be totally reliable, and from what I know, if you update to the latest 2.2 firmware, they don't work.

So the bottom line is, If you have an iPhone 2G, you can jailbreak and unlock it, so you can use it on any network. If you have an iPhone 3G, you can jailbreak it but you cannot unlock it, so you are stuck using whatever network happens to carry the iPhone 3G in your country.

rjstacey

Cool thanks for your knowledge!

Markus

No problem at all. I'm just sorry it wasn't an answer of "Yes you can unlock it, here's what you need to do..." I do so wish the iPhone 3G was able to be unlocked, perhaps in time it will be.

JackClark

Best way to get a 3g iPhone to use on an alternate network is to source one from Italy or New Zealand. I'm sure other countries also sell unlocked iPhones as well but I have personal experience of those two.

boxst

I didn't realise that other countries were sold unlocked. If that is the case I wonder why it is so hard to hack them?

(How much is a phone from Italy?)

Steve

Markus

That's a good point Jack. What I'd be interested to know is what happens if you take your NZ iPhone and sync it with, for example, a UK version of the OS/iTunes. I wonder if it'll update it.

Markus

I've thought the same thing myself. Part of me wonders if it's simply the cost, ie; someone would need to purchase at least one, if not more, of the unlocked iPhones and get them to the dev team to play with. It's possible that their experimentation could brick the phone, requiring another one, and thus they'd need more phones.

I think it's a little more than that though, but I do wonder if there is some way to programatically compare an US iPhone to an NZ one and see where there are differences.

It could also be something as simple as an encryption key that's used to unlock the phone when it's activated, but it's obviously going to be pretty strong encryption and would take a fair while to brute force it.

boxst

Considering the level of hacking I've seen go on, then I would of thought that someone much cleverer them me could certainly start by comparing a dump of the chip/firmware to see where the differences are. Actually understanding the differences is an entirely different matter of course.

Steve

JackClark

NZ iPhone never seen a NZ sim, activated and updated the day of purchase on my UK MacBook, not a problem. Purchase price was £400.

wiley

iTrader: (63)

my mate has a iphone 3g, we got the sim card holder to able it to use the vodafone network... so it makes and receives calls with one sim card, and doesnt with another which is weird. plus the internet comes and goes on vodafone...
cant believe it has taken so long to unlock the 3g iphone

wiley