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About legally unlocking an iPhone 3G

J

jmmo20

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 15, 2006
1,166
102
Hello,

11 months ago I bought a subsidised iphone from Movistar Spain.
By spanish law, the carrier has to unlock your phone when the contract reaches 1 year.. So I will soon ask for the unlock.

HOWEVER;

Since I bought my iphone in july 2008, I have had two replacement iphones issued by Apple. So the one I have now is *not* the one Movistar sold me.

How would this work out?
I would assume Movistar will ask Apple to unlock iphone whose serial number is XXXX but mine is ZZZZ .. will I have to contact Apple? OR do I have an eternally locked iphone? lol.

thanks :)
 
jmmo20 said:
By spanish law, the carrier has to unlock your phone when the contract reaches 1 year.. So I will soon ask for the unlock.
Click to expand...

I think you may have answered your own question. If the law states that the phone has to be unlocked after a year of the contract then it wouldnt matter if you had one or fifty iPhones in that time...the contract has been for a year
 
I've called Movistar numerous times about unlocking my phone. They've always told me that I had to wait until July (12 months into my contract) so they could unlock it.

I'm sure they'll unlock the iPhone you currently have, you probably would have to explain to them that Apple replaced it a couple of times, hence the different IMEI (if they ask why it's different). In a previous call, they asked for my IMEI code in order to unlock it, so maybe they don't already have that number with them, instead they ask for it.
 
jmmo20 said:
Hello,

11 months ago I bought a subsidised iphone from Movistar Spain.
By spanish law, the carrier has to unlock your phone when the contract reaches 1 year.. So I will soon ask for the unlock.

HOWEVER;

Since I bought my iphone in july 2008, I have had two replacement iphones issued by Apple. So the one I have now is *not* the one Movistar sold me.

How would this work out?
I would assume Movistar will ask Apple to unlock iphone whose serial number is XXXX but mine is ZZZZ .. will I have to contact Apple? OR do I have an eternally locked iphone? lol.

thanks :)
Click to expand...

once Apple has the info on what your device is (serial number, etc) they will send a file via iTunes next time you plug in, and that will unlock it (at least, this is my understanding of the process)

however, you don't need to worry, because whenever your device gets replaced, they update their records so they know that your plan is with the new device and not the old one
 
dccorona said:
once Apple has the info on what your device is (serial number, etc) they will send a file via iTunes next time you plug in, and that will unlock it (at least, this is my understanding of the process)

however, you don't need to worry, because whenever your device gets replaced, they update their records so they know that your plan is with the new device and not the old one
Click to expand...

you sure of that?
this second replacement iphone came with dust under the screen and I called to get it replaced as well (so I would have gotten a FORTH iphone). At the last minute I decided it was stupid and kept the iphone.

HOWEVER; every time I called Apple I had to give them the serial numbers of my previous iphones (the original, then the first replacement). The guys at the phone said there was some kind of database error or something that kept them for knowing the serial numbers of my previous iphones...
 
Has anyone had any luck getting an unlock code from O2?
I suspect they won't do it for the iPhone but perhaps someone has had some luck getting this done.
 
GreenLightJerky said:
What are the laws in the US?
I just upgraded to the new 3GS from my 3G. Am I able to legally unlock my no longer contracted 3g?
Click to expand...

You are always legally allowed to unlock the phone, so long as you do it yourself by hacking it. In so doing, you void your warranty, but you won't face prosecution for doing it. (This is true until the DMCA exception allowing it expires later this year.)

If you want to do it through "official" channels, then it's entirely up to the discretion of the carrier to decide whether or not they want to do it for you. There is no law saying that they must do it, and no law saying that they cannot do it.

With most phones, AT&T and T-Mobile (the two major companies who carry GSM phones in the USA) will happily unlock your phone upon request after a certain minimum period of time. However, AT&T officially will not unlock an Apple iPhone under any circumstances.
 
jmmo20 said:
11 months ago I bought a subsidised iphone from Movistar Spain.
By spanish law, the carrier has to unlock your phone when the contract reaches 1 year.. So I will soon ask for the unlock.
Click to expand...

No such law exists in Spain, in 1998 Spanish telecom regulator CMT saw that Spanish carriers already provide unlocking codes for fee within the first 12 months and for free after the first 12 months VOLUNTARILY --- so CMT decided NOT to put it into law.

http://www.cmt.es/es/publicaciones/anexos/Cap-V.pdf
 
goosnarrggh said:
You are always legally allowed to unlock the phone, so long as you do it yourself by hacking it. In so doing, you void your warranty, but you won't face prosecution for doing it. (This is true until the DMCA exception allowing it expires later this year.)

If you want to do it through "official" channels, then it's entirely up to the discretion of the carrier to decide whether or not they want to do it for you. There is no law saying that they must do it, and no law saying that they cannot do it.

With most phones, AT&T and T-Mobile (the two major companies who carry GSM phones in the USA) will happily unlock your phone upon request after a certain minimum period of time. However, AT&T officially will not unlock an Apple iPhone under any circumstances.
Click to expand...

I guess JB and Unlocking is in the future for my old phone.
 
its interesting that a possible unlock code could be supplied for an iPhone thus unlocking it. Perhaps this could be the same for all iPhone and a possible future exploit???
 
samab said:
No such law exists in Spain, in 1998 Spanish telecom regulator CMT saw that Spanish carriers already provide unlocking codes for fee within the first 12 months and for free after the first 12 months VOLUNTARILY --- so CMT decided NOT to put it into law.

http://www.cmt.es/es/publicaciones/anexos/Cap-V.pdf
Click to expand...


I wasn't aware of this.. thus replace "by spanish law" with "as a common practise in Spain" :)
 
chandler99 said:
its interesting that a possible unlock code could be supplied for an iPhone thus unlocking it. Perhaps this could be the same for all iPhone and a possible future exploit???
Click to expand...

Apple doesn't use unlocking codes.
It's rather a config file uploaded to the iphone as the iphone syncs with itunes.
 
3gs unlock and waive contract ?!

folks..
am sorry if i am off the topic but wanted to ask you guys if its possible or if someone has done something like this..
back in 2007 i bought the edge iphone, unlocked it and offcourse i was not under the contract..
this year i bought the 3gs in july.. if i use another phone.. will be out of contract?
 
swashy said:
folks..
am sorry if i am off the topic but wanted to ask you guys if its possible or if someone has done something like this..
back in 2007 i bought the edge iphone, unlocked it and offcourse i was not under the contract..
this year i bought the 3gs in july.. if i use another phone.. will be out of contract?
Click to expand...

Assuming you're a customer in North America (I don't feel comfortable answering for other parts of the world):

The phone itself is never "under contract" per se. You (ie the person who bought the phone and activated the account) are the thing that's under contract.

You could do anything you want with the phone - unlock it, hide it under your pillow, disassemble it, give it to a friend (but you'll want to keep the SIM for yourself), or run over it in your car - and as long as you keep on paying AT&T your mutually agreed rate, you'll be fulfilling your obligations to AT&T.
 
By the way, since this thread has been revived from the dead, I'll post an update to my post.

Movistar unlocked my iPhone. :)

They'll unlock it for you after you've been with the contract for 12 months. If you get a customer support representative that won't do it for you, just hang up and call back. I got both mine and my girlfriend's iPhones unlocked.
 
Apple is stupid, it's legal to unlock your phone... so shouldn't it be illegal to void your warranty if you do something that's legal? I don't know if the voiding warranty based on doing something legal could be held in court. Any ideas? (It's legal to unlock your phone in Canada, and I think there is even some sort of law making it so they can't prevent you from doing so)

cbc.ca said:
"It's a consumer's piece of property," says Michael Geist, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, "and I don't think there's any reason that copyright law or any other law would stop someone from unlocking a phone."

The only country where the legality of unlocking is murky is the United States, Geist says, because of that country's Digital Millennium Copyright Act. That law contains a provision against "picking digital locks" that might be read to prohibit phone unlocking — except that as of earlier this year cellphones were specifically exempted from the legislation, Geist notes.
Click to expand...

This was from 2007.http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/cellphones/unlocking-cellphones.html
 
stuffradio said:
Apple is stupid, it's legal to unlock your phone... so shouldn't it be illegal to void your warranty if you do something that's legal? I don't know if the voiding warranty based on doing something legal could be held in court. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
There are loads of things that are legal to do, but could void a contract if you did them.

For example: Say you are a hockey star who has signed a sponsorship deal to only wear Rbk equipment in public, and in exchange you'll get $2 million per year from Reebok.

You wouldn't be breaking any laws if you were to work out in public wearing Bauer equipment, but it would still be a breach of the agreement you made with Reebok, and if Reebok got wind of it, they'd be within their rights to void the contract and withhold their $2 million.

It would be the same deal with unlocking phones and warranties.

(It's legal to unlock your phone in Canada, and I think there is even some sort of law making it so they can't prevent you from doing so)
Click to expand...
In Canada, I believe that locking (and unlocking) of cell phones is totally unregulated.

If you have the means to unlock it, you are permitted to do so. But the carriers are permitted to refuse to help you do it. And the manufacturers are permitted to go out of their way to make unlocking as difficult as possible.
 
terraphantm said:
If all these carriers do is submit the IMEI to apple, I wonder what would happen if you gave one of them the IMEI of a US iphone.
Click to expand...

When I got mine unlocked, they already had my IMEI in their system. They just asked me for it again to check if it matches. If you give them a different number, they make you prove to them it's your phone. For example, if you get it exchanged because it broke, you have to prove that it's a replacement phone from Apple.
 
On this very topic, for us who have bought 2nd hand iPhones is there any way to know what provider the iPhone was originally locked to?

For instance, my iPhone reports model number MB500KN and if I google that I get various reference pages but in my case the model number matches like 3 different service providers.

As Apple reports my iPhone as no longer being eligeble for free service or repair I figure any contract period must have expired as well and have therefore emailed my IMEI number to these 3 providers asking for an unlock code. If they deny my request I need to know which of them I should be extra persistent with :D

/Fred
 
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