We recently(November) signed another two year contract with t-mobile. Is there anyway i can buy an iPhone and LEGALLY unlock it. Thanks in advance.
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iPhone and T-Mobile Question
- Thread starter ilovemyibook
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Sure. Just ask someone who's received it to see if they can unlock it and use it on a different carrier.
LEGALLY!?!?!?!?! thats why I hate cell phones. Why is the **** locked in the first place? How is some one else going to lock MY property?
Cell phone companies = dicatatorship.
it kinda makes me want to murder and revolt.
i'm not mad at you ilovemyibook, I'm mad at the system...
Normally, they lock the phone to make sure you fufill the terms of your contract (because they can authorize a discount on the phone, lose the money from it, and then get double back from your plan costs).
With the iPhone, I dunno ... because I don't think they're offering any kind of incentive to buy it ... I'm sure people will figure out how to unlock it within a few months and you can just buy them of eBay like most people do when buying an unlocked phone.
It is not illegal to unlock a cell phone you've purchased in order to have it work with a different carrier. Check out this article from engadget. This is what I plan on doing, if I'm able to buy the iPhone. I love Tmobile and hate Cingulars rate plans so I'll have my fingers crossed to see if someone can unlock it. I'm sure it'll be possible, I'm just worried that some of the features won't function correctly though.
Although GSM, it isn't apparent how to access the SIM chip on the iPhone.
Also, Apple co-developed the interactive voicemail feature with Cingular (now AT&T) -- it requires back-end changes within the carrier's voicemail system.
Even if you get the iPhone to work with another carrier as a basic phone, you can pretty much count on the interactive voice-mail features to be inoperative.
As if that's not enough, I have a Treo 650 unlocked GSM that I use with Cingular. I tried popping my friend's T-Mobile SIM chip in and although it works just dandy as a phone, none of the data services work.
So you see, GSM is very portable technology, but US carriers tend to screw it up because they're so afraid of consumer choice (e.g. if you can change carriers too easily they might actually have to provide good service and/or lower prices).
Also, Apple co-developed the interactive voicemail feature with Cingular (now AT&T) -- it requires back-end changes within the carrier's voicemail system.
Even if you get the iPhone to work with another carrier as a basic phone, you can pretty much count on the interactive voice-mail features to be inoperative.
As if that's not enough, I have a Treo 650 unlocked GSM that I use with Cingular. I tried popping my friend's T-Mobile SIM chip in and although it works just dandy as a phone, none of the data services work.
So you see, GSM is very portable technology, but US carriers tend to screw it up because they're so afraid of consumer choice (e.g. if you can change carriers too easily they might actually have to provide good service and/or lower prices).
Whenever you unlock a phone, you have to go manually change a lot of settings for data, text messaging, and MMS to work. It
After you change the settings, it should all work like a dream.
And I agree, there is a high chance that the cool voicemail Apple/AT&T created won't work.
There is a "high chance" it won't work. It is guaranteed not to work. Only AT&T/Cingular has visual voicemail.
Thats weird cause I have a Cingular Treo 650 thats unlocked and I use it with Tmobile. Not only does my data service work but I can use VersaMail for email and surf the web for FREE. I just looked on Tmobiles support site for the WAP settings and it works fine.
right but you need to input the WAP settings. The SIM doesn't carry them, so the other poster couldn't use the data settings until they were inputted.
The bigger issue with the iphone, as some people mentioned above, is the visual voicemail. That will almost definitely be Cingular-only, so an unlocked iPhone probably wouldn't be able to use that.
It also has to do with your plan. If you don't pay for data then you won't be able to access it. For instance: if you pay for unlimited data with cingular, and you unlock the phone and pop in a tmobile sim card, that account associated with the sim needs to have to data enabled. But I am sure that you need to change settings also....