Purchased iPhone 3G in HK, no unlock needed and can use Taiwan sim?

[shebalord]

Hi ppl,

I was talking to a friend in Taiwan. He said that his friend bought a iPhone 3G in Hong Kong and brought it back to Taiwan. Inserted the Taiwan sim card without unlocking it (or maybe it was unlocked already when he bought it in HK) and was able to make calls like normal.

I've also read some forum posts in a Taiwan forum and people are also discussing they are using the iPhone 3G.

Is this possible? I've read the posts here and I don't think the "unlock" is available for the 3G yet?

Here is a post in a Taiwan forum (in Chinese): http://iphone4.tw/forums/showthread.php?t=13502

Thanks in advance.

 

[Apple Ink]

You'll have to unlock it first!

 

[shebalord]

You'll have to unlock it first!

I thought the unlock was not available for the 3G yet?

I added a link to a post in the Taiwan forum. It's in Chinese though...you can use the Google translator if you want to read it...

 

[Moi un Mouton]

The iPhone is sold unlocked in Hong Kong.

Search the forum for Hong Kong and you'll find lots of confirmation of that.

 

[Kardashian]

You'll have to unlock it first!

No, he/she won't.

As Apple have confirmed, iPhone in Italy, New Zealand and Hong Kong are sold fully unlocked.

It's on the Apple website even.

 

[Apple Ink]

Im sorry! My apologies! Thanks for the rectification!

 

[shebalord]

thanks for the info!!

but according to a post, its hella expensive in HK...

"港幣HK$10,800元，約等於新台幣NTD$42,336元"

for those of you that cant read Chinese, NTD $42,336 is equal to USD $1323

hoho

 

[petah]

HK sells iphone 3G either as locked (with a contract...like here in the states with at&t) or unlocked.

The unlocked one allows u to use it anywhere...including taiwan. It's just really, really expensive

 

[Chundles]

Unlocking iPhone 3G is also possible in Australia for a fee. The telco sends your IMEI number to a database and you simply plug it in to iTunes and it unlocks it for you.

You even get a congratulatory message saying your iPhone is unlocked.

 

[petah]

Unlocking iPhone 3G is also possible in Australia for a fee. The telco sends your IMEI number to a database and you simply plug it in to iTunes and it unlocks it for you.

You even get a congratulatory message saying your iPhone is unlocked.

I wonder why people havent come up with a soft unlock fo the iphone 3G yet...I mean if iTunes has a way to do it for you, can't they just figure out how iTunes do it and make a program that does the same thing?

I'm not an expert on technology..so I'm just wondering

 

[Chundles]

I wonder why people havent come up with a soft unlock fo the iphone 3G yet...I mean if iTunes has a way to do it for you, can't they just figure out how iTunes do it and make a program that does the same thing?

I'm not an expert on technology..so I'm just wondering

iTunes accesses a database of IMEI numbers and sends a "carrier update" down to the phone. Pretty hard to fake that.