iPhone Unlock in UK - 10th November

[markym07931]

O2 say that it can take up to 2 weeks, and from what I have read it, like all good Reality TV shows, is in no particular order - well not that's discenrable to mere mortals like you and I

I wonder if O2 are first dealing with those customers who are still under contract to them, and as such cannot actually leave them.

Yeah. i'm still in contract with them til the 10th Jan.. I don't NEED the unlock until March when I go to the USA, as my 3g which is unlocked is MUCH slower than the 3GS and i'm used to that, so want to chuck my at&t sim in it, but it'd just be NICE to have it now....

M

 

[ukcolinr]

I submitted my request on the 9th. Mine should be a straight forward request, still in contract, iPhone 3GS bought in June. Not heard anything either way yet. Want it unlocking as I regularly travel with work. I'm impatient with these things heh

 

[Mercer]

Submitted my request on Saturday 14th. Still waiting, although im not gonna leave o2. its good to keep your options open.

I may get an Orange Pay as you go sim to see if it is a "Superior 3G Network"

 

[Ewan Hoozarmy]

OK, whats the best way to jailbreak an officially unlocked iphone through mac?

I have a jailbroken and unlocked iphone 3gs for which I have just received official O2 notification that I can unlock. The plan is to rebuild using iTunes to official firmware 3.1.2 and then jailbreak, hence my question. Any info greatly received.

My phone has just been officially unlocked by 02.

I restored via iTunes to official 3.1.2 to check to see if I got the "Congrats your iphone has been unlocked message" - which I did.

I then used PwnageTool 3.1.4 to build a custom IPSW, and then Option-Restored in iTunes again (make sure iTunes is not running when PwnageTool asks you if your 3GS is already jailbroken/pwned).

Everything went OK, I'm now officially unlocked and jailbroken

 

[Bbusyb]

I wonder if O2 are first dealing with those customers who are still under contract to them, and as such cannot actually leave them.

I'm not too sure about that. I've PayandGo iPhone, and I got the Unlock SMS the second day after unlocking started.

My gut feeling is that they may be going by some other method such as Names,etc

 

[Peruvian]

Submitted my request on Saturday 14th. Still waiting, although im not gonna leave o2. its good to keep your options open.

I may get an Orange Pay as you go sim to see if it is a "Superior 3G Network"

What I realised the other day playing with my friends Iphone on Orange is that Orange does not have an EDGE network, so when 3G signal is poor, it goes on to GPRS.. Which is slow as hell.. Im sat there with full EDGE on O2 and my friend has full GPRS on Orange.. Im not convinced Orange has the best 3G network in the country as has been claimed... At least O2 has EDGE to fall back on when no 3G signal is available..

 

[Phil Lee]

I just got my text message confirmation that my iPhone has been unlocked. Th eonly alternative sim I had with me was the 3 sim from my USB dongle so I put that in the iPhone, connected to iTunes and got the unlocked message

 

[ukcolinr]

Whilst waiting for your phone to be unlocked, if you're bored like me, check out the reviews of the Orange Wednesday app. I had no idea the average age of an iPhone user was 7 lol

 

[Mercer]

What I realised the other day playing with my friends Iphone on Orange is that Orange does not have an EDGE network, so when 3G signal is poor, it goes on to GPRS.. Which is slow as hell.. Im sat there with full EDGE on O2 and my friend has full GPRS on Orange.. Im not convinced Orange has the best 3G network in the country as has been claimed... At least O2 has EDGE to fall back on when no 3G signal is available..

AHH thats a valid point, im very happy with o2 at the mo as i get 30% discount through work which is decent. just hate going from having 3G all the time to intermittant now with the amount of people putting strain on the network

Thanks for the info

 

[sorchard]

What I realised the other day playing with my friends Iphone on Orange is that Orange does not have an EDGE network, so when 3G signal is poor, it goes on to GPRS.. Which is slow as hell.. Im sat there with full EDGE on O2 and my friend has full GPRS on Orange.. Im not convinced Orange has the best 3G network in the country as has been claimed... At least O2 has EDGE to fall back on when no 3G signal is available..

Orange does have EDGE, it is just quite splotchy. Where I live (mid Cornwall), a few cells have EDGE enabled and a few don't. My Nokia connects to their EDGE network quite happily and a parent's iPhone says E all the time that is in the house.

At least where I live their EDGE coverage is slightly better than o2, where you only get EDGE when you start to hit a town. Orange's 3G coverage here is superior, anyway.

 

[camperdown9]

What I realised the other day playing with my friends Iphone on Orange is that Orange does not have an EDGE network, so when 3G signal is poor, it goes on to GPRS.. Which is slow as hell.. Im sat there with full EDGE on O2 and my friend has full GPRS on Orange.. Im not convinced Orange has the best 3G network in the country as has been claimed... At least O2 has EDGE to fall back on when no 3G signal is available..

Orange where the first network in the UK to offer edge, O2 only started to offer it when they got the iPhone contract. However it all comes down to where you live. I live in East London and have never had an edge signal from O2 at home, where as I always seem to have one with Orange.

(However the only network that offers any sort of 3G signal in my house is T-Mobile and they don't offer iPhone)

 

[the-sandman]

Thought i'd just add that i got my unlock text today, i applied for it sometime last week. I didn't really need it, but it'll come in handy if i ever want to sell it. This i a 3GS bought on PAYG with an iPhone contract sim in.

 

[mbear]

Everything went OK, I'm now officially unlocked and jailbroken

Great, thanks for that - will give it a go.

Just out of interest, did any of you find your phone ran significantly slower when (unofficially) unlocked? I'm hoping all this will help things, but if not maybe I need to do a clean install (without restoring settings from backups etc).

Thanks

 

[Ewan Hoozarmy]

Great, thanks for that - will give it a go.

Just out of interest, did any of you find your phone ran significantly slower when (unofficially) unlocked? I'm hoping all this will help things, but if not maybe I need to do a clean install (without restoring settings from backups etc).

Thanks

I haven't noticed much difference between unofficially unlocked via Ultrasn0w vs. officially unlocked - in terms of the phone running slow.

But I did do a clean install and didn't restore from backup just in case.

I have noticed that I no longer get "searching" displayed (where the carrier logo is) when I use a foreign SIM though, this seemed to happen a lot with Ultrasn0w.

It'll be interesting to see if battery life is improved though....

 

[FXT 1]

Just received my unlock I applied on the 10th and have a replaced iPhone 3G 16GB (by apple under warranty), still under contract until March though.

 

[steve-p]

I've had my text (or half text actually like others), so it seems they will unlock my PAYG 3GS which I'm using with a contract SIM. However, since I don't have any other SIMs, I can't see if it works or not. It does nothing on the O2 SIM in iTunes I only want to unlock it so it's worth more when I sell it on, so I won't be using another operator's SIM with this phone, so I don't know how or even if it will actually get unlocked.

 

[mbear]

I've had my text (or half text actually like others), so it seems they will unlock my PAYG 3GS which I'm using with a contract SIM. However, since I don't have any other SIMs, I can't see if it works or not. It does nothing on the O2 SIM in iTunes I only want to unlock it so it's worth more when I sell it on, so I won't be using another operator's SIM with this phone, so I don't know how or even if it will actually get unlocked.

You can get a PAYG for free (type free payg sim into Google) to try this out. It should work, since those are the instructions given by O2!

 

[OllyW]

I've had my text (or half text actually like others), so it seems they will unlock my PAYG 3GS which I'm using with a contract SIM. However, since I don't have any other SIMs, I can't see if it works or not. It does nothing on the O2 SIM in iTunes I only want to unlock it so it's worth more when I sell it on, so I won't be using another operator's SIM with this phone, so I don't know how or even if it will actually get unlocked.

Can't you just borrow a SIM off one of your friends. You only have to use it for a minute or so until you get the message in iTunes to say it is unlocked.

I'm still waiting for my confirmation text after applying on the 9th.

 

[FXT 1]

Come on guys, a Pay and Go SIM is about 50p (incl. shipping) on Amazon.

 

[Ewan Hoozarmy]

I've had my text (or half text actually like others), so it seems they will unlock my PAYG 3GS which I'm using with a contract SIM. However, since I don't have any other SIMs, I can't see if it works or not. It does nothing on the O2 SIM in iTunes I only want to unlock it so it's worth more when I sell it on, so I won't be using another operator's SIM with this phone, so I don't know how or even if it will actually get unlocked.

You need to restore your iPhone in iTunes to unlock - when you do this, you get the message to say your phone in unlocked.

 

[JamesBerry]

I have a 3GS PAYG on my 3G contract sim, like many of you here. Received my unlock text today.

Synced with itunes. Swapped for an Orange sim. Plugged into computer, itunes offered to download new carrier data - I did, and the phone was unlocked. No need for a restore.

Swapped back and forward between sims, no problem

Best wishes
James

 

[Dlanod]

I have a 3GS PAYG on my 3G contract sim, like many of you here. Received my unlock text today.

Synced with itunes. Swapped for an Orange sim. Plugged into computer, itunes offered to download new carrier data - I did, and the phone was unlocked. No need for a restore.

Swapped back and forward between sims, no problem

Best wishes
James

When did you submit your request - I sent mine on the 9th and nothing so far. I'm in the same situation as you re PAYG 3GS on 3G contract.

 

[jimmy83]

Any particular reason your all unlocking?

 

[mbear]

Any particular reason your all unlocking?

I spend a lot of time abroad so want to use my other sim in my iPhone. I did this using the unofficial methods but upgrading is always a pain and for some reason it seemed to slow my phone down significantly. I've only had the officially unlocked version for a couple of hours now but it certainly seems faster so far!

 

[Dlanod]

For me, O2 3G coverage is pants, and when it's there, it's slow. I've tested with a vodafone sim in the same area and it's significantly better. Consistently.