3 sim card in unlocked iPhone

[Stampyhead]

Merry Christmas everyone! My wife got me a new iPhone 3G for Christmas with the stipulation that I give her my old unlocked 2G. She had a contract on the 3 network, and when we put her sim card into the unlocked iPhone it gave an error that said "invalid SIM". I searched a bit on Google and I found a site that says that 3 used a different type of sim card than O2. Does anyone know of any way to make this work? Thanks!

 

[MST]

AFAIK 3 SIM cards will not work with the iPhone (2G or 3G) at all and there is no solution to make them work, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong...

 

[sammachin]

Sorry but MST is right,

Three in the UK don't have their own 2G network they rent wholesale roaming on Orange. This means that whenever you are on 2G its costing three money

For this reason Three don't like to allow unknown phones on their network ESPECIALLY 2G only ones! Therefore they block any inknown IMEI Numbers (phone serial no.) from attaching and have even been known to disconnect the SIM's of people who try.

I'm not sure if there is a special reason why a Three SIM won't work in an unlocked iPhone other than the above.

One option although the legality is questionable might be to change the IMEI number of the iPhone to that of your old Three phone and then never use the Three phone again. As I say I'm not sure as to the legality of this but from a purely technical point of view it should work, I think some of the unolock SW allows editing of IMEI's
Also proceed with caution as I'm not sure what Apple/iTunes will do if it see's a non iPhone IMEI.

HTH
Sam

 

[Stampyhead]

Interesting. Thanks for the info. That kind of sucks, but it is what it is I guess. I suppose she could just use it as an iPod for now and maybe I can convince her to switch to something more user friendly when her 3 contract runs out. The IMEI change thing is tempting, but you're right. It does sound questionable and I'd rather not run the risk of making things worse.

 

[MST]

As sammachin has said the legality of changing the IMEI is most definitely questionable; changing an IMEI to all zeros e.g. 000000000000000, is fine, however, changing it to mimic the IMEI of another handset is illegal, even if you are the owner of that other handset, just so as you are clear IT IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE.

I'm only saying this because I don't want you to go ahead and change it only for 3 to get the arse and report you to the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit, I don't profess to know a great deal about the subject but what I do know comes directly from a NMPCU officer.

Just out of curiosity does anyone know whether a piggyback SIM such as RebelSIM could help in this kind of situation?

 

[3gboy]

MST: You're correct that 3 SIM cards don't work in 2G iPhones but they do work fine in an unlocked 3G iPhone. I get a pretty good experience (voice, data etc). I was surprised to see the latest 3G coverage maps showing O2 quite bad and 3 network quite good:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/...and/cellular/3g/maps/3gmaps/coverage_maps.pdf

I thought any change to IMEI - even 000000000000000 - was illegal? By changing to all zeros doesn't that bypass the stolen/lost or blacklisted check in the CEIR which is why its not supposed to be done?

 

[CoolMe]

Can anyone confirm that the Three sim card will work on an iPhone 3G? (Second generation iPhone)


There is a lot of people saying yes and no, its kind of scary!