I'm going to be cancelling my AT&T contract through the moving out of area provision. I'm being posted to Haiti. So, is it going to be automatically unlocked when the contract's done or am I going to have to do some finagling? Sorry for the probably oft-asked question, but I have too many things to research and organise in the next couple of weeks!
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Getting out of contract; using iPhone in Haiti
- Thread starter lacereza
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I don't recall an instance where AT&T unlocked the iphone.
If it doesn't work, you can always jailbreak, provided you haven't upgraded to 3.1.3.
If it doesn't work, you can always jailbreak, provided you haven't upgraded to 3.1.3.
You will need to jailbreak and unlock your phone yourself. This should not be a problem as long as your iPhone has never been updated to iPhone OS 3.1.3. If you have updated your firmware to 3.1.3, then there is currently no way to unlock your phone. Please note also that if your phone has the newest bootrom (approx. Oct 2009 or later) it will have a tethered jailbreak and you will not be able to reboot it without the help of a computer. People in the iPhone Hacks forum would be glad to help you out if you have questions.
I believe AT&T will unlock the iPhone after contract is done. Whether or not you could slip a Digicel sim card into it then and have it work, I don't know, but I think so.
Cell service in Haiti is pretty good. You'll want to go with Digicel. They have prepaid and contract services available. You'll likely have to arrange a contract, if you elect to do that, at their main office in Port au Prince (if it's still standing). I spend a lot of time in Haiti, and my approach has always been to just buy a $35 Nokia prepaid. Calling the US over that phone is dirt cheap, and text messages back and forth are free. I understand you would prefer to use your iPhone, so I'd check into your options for getting it unlocked.
Where are you going to be in Haiti?
Cell service in Haiti is pretty good. You'll want to go with Digicel. They have prepaid and contract services available. You'll likely have to arrange a contract, if you elect to do that, at their main office in Port au Prince (if it's still standing). I spend a lot of time in Haiti, and my approach has always been to just buy a $35 Nokia prepaid. Calling the US over that phone is dirt cheap, and text messages back and forth are free. I understand you would prefer to use your iPhone, so I'd check into your options for getting it unlocked.
Where are you going to be in Haiti?
If we were talking about any other model of phone sold through AT&T, you'd be correct. But because we're talking about the iPhone, unfortunately that is not the case. Under AT&T's current policies, they will never unlock an iPhone for anybody under any circumstances. Maybe that will change if AT&T ever loses exclusivity on the iPhone.
Or, if it became obvious to AT&T that there was a huge (IMO unprecedented in the history of American consumerism) swell of grassroots support for an unlockable iPhone. I'm talking widespread boycotting of the iPhone until it becomes unlockable, leading AT&T to the conclusion that the only way to continue earning customers is to start unlocking the iPhone. Frankly, the majority of American consumers just don't care enough about unlockability right now for that sort of grassroots movement to gain any meaningful traction.
If AT&T won't unlock your iPhone, your options are likely going to be canceling your AT&T contract and unlocking it yourself, selling it and buying an unlocked iPhone from some other country that sells them, or paying AT&T for an international voice and data package ($
$).
You may be able to use Haiti's GSM network in your iPhone by putting a Digicel sim card (only GSM game in town) in your iPhone similarly to the way people use their iPhone on T-Mobile in the US. IOW unlock the phone, buy the voice and data package from Digicel and put the sim in your iPhone. Note, it is a slow data connection - GPRS only. HaiTel does have 1X/EVDO, but they are CDMA. Your GPRS data connection would cost .08 gourdes/kilobyte. There are 40 Haitian Gourdes to the US dollar.
Good luck. Frankly, I suspect you could save yourself a lot of frustration by giving up on mobile web in Haiti, getting a cheap prepaid cell phone, selling your iPhone and getting an iPod Touch.
$).You may be able to use Haiti's GSM network in your iPhone by putting a Digicel sim card (only GSM game in town) in your iPhone similarly to the way people use their iPhone on T-Mobile in the US. IOW unlock the phone, buy the voice and data package from Digicel and put the sim in your iPhone. Note, it is a slow data connection - GPRS only. HaiTel does have 1X/EVDO, but they are CDMA. Your GPRS data connection would cost .08 gourdes/kilobyte. There are 40 Haitian Gourdes to the US dollar.
Good luck. Frankly, I suspect you could save yourself a lot of frustration by giving up on mobile web in Haiti, getting a cheap prepaid cell phone, selling your iPhone and getting an iPod Touch.
Thanks, all. I had a feeling I'd need to jailbreak. Bloody well updated the thing to 3.1.3 though.Hw long does it usually take for them to crack it? Not interested in a Touch, the camera's important to me (don't want to carry my Pentax Kx around!), but will probably end up doing the cheapest NOkia thing (my usual MO in these cases... I've become spoiled though!)
Delighted to see that it's not too expensive to make international calls from Haiti. My family is freaking out about me going!
I'll be in P au P the vast majority of the time. I think. It's impossible to tell from over here...
Delighted to see that it's not too expensive to make international calls from Haiti. My family is freaking out about me going!
I'll be in P au P the vast majority of the time. I think. It's impossible to tell from over here...