illJazz
Premium
join:2002-09-04
switzerland
| reply to pepe13126475
Re: This is not an option with iPhone
My cousin unlocked his iPhone 3G last week here in Switzerland. Now he's in China and signed up for a mobile plan with China Mobile two days ago. He says everything works perfectly on his iPhone 3G, including 3G data acess at 3G speeds.
It's a combination of a software and hardware unlock. The hardware part uses a chip that you slide into the phone after placing it on TOP of your SIMcard in the SIM tray. No cutting of the SIM card was required. I thought that was interesting, especially because as far as I'm aware, cutting of the SIM card was required until recently.
I have no idea how he'll deal with software updates... but for now, it works great. Oh, and he's running the latest software on his iPhone, 2.1. |
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pepe2143621
@northwestern.edu
| Sorry, but you have not yet read enough on the topic. Again, I will reiterate, it is a *temporary* solution and may stop working at any time depending on the network he's connecting to in China. Head on over to hackintosh forums if you want more specifics about the hardware/software 'fix' you've alluded to. It's a temporary one unfortunately, and won't help the vast majority of folks wanted to free themselves of the high roaming costs w/ an ATT plan.
-Pedro |
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illJazz
Premium
join:2002-09-04
switzerland
| said by pepe2143621 :
Sorry, but you have not yet read enough on the topic. Again, I will reiterate, it is a *temporary* solution and may stop working at any time depending on the network he's connecting to in China. Head on over to hackintosh forums if you want more specifics about the hardware/software 'fix' you've alluded to. It's a temporary one unfortunately, and won't help the vast majority of folks wanted to free themselves of the high roaming costs w/ an ATT plan.
-Pedro
Why does it matter whether it's temporary? The point is that it works. There is never a guarantee that it will continue to work if you ever were to install 2.2 on a device using the SIM unlock chip combined with a software unlock method, but that's just the risk you have to take if you are going to unlock your iPhone 3G. Looking at it that way, the only thing there IS temporary. I don't see how you could perform a permanent unlock. |
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pepe315352
@northwestern.edu
| Greater perspective here
Look at the broader perspective here.
*Any* of my ATT branded GSM handsets can be unlocked for use abroad w/ foreign networks If you do indeed require your phone to be 100% operational wherever you go, the unlock scheme as it stands now w/ the iPhone is not adequate for most travellers. They generally need a guarantee that their device which is set up for specific purposes is going to always work. The beauty of a truly unlocked handset on GSM loses it's shine w/ the 3G iPhone unfortunately. Some of us need a phone that works(!) |
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