Unlocking O2 iPhone 3G

KTRIC

I'm thinking about treating myself to the 3G iPhone. The pay as you go pack from O2 looks good but I'd like to buy it in Dublin and bring it back to Germany with me.

Is it possible to unlock the phone (to use my German sim) easily and still use it with iTunes for music and updates ?

Stephen

Surely it'd be cheaper to buy one in Germany?

Anyway, it depends on what firmware version is on the phone. If it's already on 2.2.1 there's not yet any way to unlock it via software. 2.2 and older can be unlocked easily.

KTRIC

Stephen wrote: »

Surely it'd be cheaper to buy one in Germany?

Anyway, it depends on what firmware version is on the phone. If it's already on 2.2.1 there's not yet any way to unlock it via software. 2.2 and older can be unlocked easily.

Nope, no prepay iPhone here. How do I find out the firmware before I buy it ?

G-Money

I'm not sure how you find out the firmware version before buying it.

Just so you know, I bought an 8GB iPhone on Pre-Pay in the north on Saturday and it has the latest software on it and can't be unlocked yet. Luckily enough though, I've a family member in the north who is looking to buy an iPhone anyway so I'm able to sell it to them. I guess at some point the dev team guys who produced yellowsn0w will update the software so it can be unlocked.

I had planned to unlock it and use it in the south.

Also, there's rumours of a new iPhone in June this year. I don't know if that affects your decision at all, but I just thought I'd let you know.

mobius42

Can't you download an older firmware from here and then unlock that?

Stephen

Nope. While you can downgrade to the 2.2 firmware, it doesn't downgrade the baseband firmware which is the part that needs to be hacked for unlocking to work.

If you have an iphone with older firmware you can update it to 2.2.1 without updating the baseband firmware and that will still be unlockable, but if you have one already at 2.2.1 (like me) you're stuck.

Its not just a case of the dev team updating their tools to unlock it, they have to find a vulnerability in the firmware to exploit to do it.

G-Money

I'm probably just going to have to fork out the money for an O2 iPhone and let that be it. Not really interested in going onto contract though.

I was wondering though. If you buy a pay as you go iPhone, can you switch onto some sort of O2 contract afterwards, but without it being 18 months long?

KTRIC

I found an online store in Germany that sells them sim free and unlocked. All perfectly legal.

After I deduct the vat it'll cost me aroun €470 for the 8gb model. So I'm happy enough with that. Then I can claim the rest as an expense from the tax man


iPhone here I come ....

Stephen

grandmaster: any O2 SIM will work with it. I'm on the cheapo O2 clear 50 SIM-only tarriff with 250MB data bundle with mine. That only has a rolling 30 day contract

embraer170

Can't it be unlocked using a turbosim?

G-Money

Interesting. I'm currently with Vodafone so I'll have to port my number if I want to keep it.

What's the online store in Germany to get the unlocked ones from?

Stephen

If you do go to O2, I wouldn't bother with any pay as you go service, as they really screw you for data charges on that.

G-Money

Thanks for the heads up. I don't tend to use the Data thing too much. We have wireless internet at the apartment so I'd mostly just use that, shouldn't incur any data charges that way.

I think I can only move onto that contract you were talking about after 6 months.

KTRIC

grandmaster wrote: »

Interesting. I'm currently with Vodafone so I'll have to port my number if I want to keep it.

What's the online store in Germany to get the unlocked ones from?

www.3gstore.de