So how do I unlock my iPhone 3GS?

by David on Friday 21st January, 2011 at 05:01 COMMENTS (4)

Thats a good question, and one I have been asking myself for the past 2 months. 

My wife purchased an iPhone for my christmas present back in December 2009, I was happy and Apple were happy to take my money and install an Orange SIM card for me at the time.  Little did I know what that actually meant and how much aggravation I would have a year later when I decided to switch carriers to get a better tariff. 

Several things occurred to make me wish I had never purchased an iPhone, but so many great apps and stuff, oh the dilemma. 

It all started when Orange decided to take £5 from my pay as you go account for their WIFI internet service which I had not requested and even texted STOPWIFI to the appropriate number, with little or no effect.  Orange ignored my texts several times and still continued to take £5 per month and each time it took at least an hour to obtain a refund from their diabolical customer services. 

When I first talked to Orange it turns out for the last year I was on a starter tariff which is the most expensive, they promised to switch me over.  This did not happen either. 

So they ignored my emails, my texts and my requests via their customer services, so I decided to go elsewhere. 

This is when the fun started. 

[IMGD:images/blog/locked_iphone.jpg{So how do I unlock my iPhone 3GS?{image]

The iPhone must be unlocked to be able to use it on another carrier such as O2 or Vodaphone, or even 3 maybe better than Orange.  Tesco do some good deals, triple talktime and Tesco loyalty points, Virgin have a good tariff and good customer services. 

To unlock my phone, which is fully paid up and owned by me, Orange want £20 of my money to unlock it. 

Talking to anyone in Orange, Apple or elsewhere most tell me to use an unlocking service in a market or shop as it is cheaper, I could even do it myself by downloading various utilities from the Internet it has been suggested. 

So I decided to investigate unlocking software. 

iLiberty - George Zhu's Blog
Ziphone - ZiPhone.org
Ultrasn0w - Dev-Team Blog

Others availble include;
RedSn0w
YellowSn0w
PurpleRa1n

Check out this nice little article from Ken's Tech Tips about cow.neondragon.net/index.php/how-to-unlock-your-iphone-from-o2-and-orange with some great comments posted showing how frustrated customers of Orange are, O2 customers seem to be having an easy time and in some cases have their iPhones unlocked for free. 

For a little more information on unlocking and jailbreaking an iPhone check out this blog; 4 easy steps to a better iPhone 3gs unlock thanks purpler1n By Sarah Perez

All are fairly straightforward with videos on YouTube and step by step guides on their associated websites, but all have one thing in common, there is no guarantee as they are not legitimate and could damage the iphone.  Most also expect you to jailbreak the iphone before unlocking it, which for some is a step too far as they do not want to cause any problems with their Apple iTunes account and consider jailbreaking their phone may open it up to potentially unsafe material or hackers to gain access.  So much paranoia around. 

Why is it that a company like Orange, and I am sure all the others are just as bad, can hold us to ransom and extort money from us allowing hackers to gain access to our treasured gadgets making us feel frustrated, annoyed and worse impotent. 

If you pay for an iPhone, and you do pay a lot as they are not cheap, should it not be your right to select who you wish to use as a carrier and be able to switch whenever you like.  Choosing the best supplier maybe because they offer more or are cheaper or give better customer service.  This encourages competitiveness amongst the carriers and allows us to feel like we are in control of our own devices. 

The current situation is dire and makes me sad, customer service is the worst, no-one gives a damn, we are forced on to tariffs we have no idea about and if we wish to change they extort money from us and there is little or nothing we can do about it unless we go underground and use hacking tools to release us from their control. 

Please comment if you have any thoughts on locked phones, for or against, I am open to suggestion and will be willing to accept a good argument. 

Currently my iPhone is a glorified ipod as I have removed the sim until this can all be resolved without me feeling like a criminal. 

Updates will appear here when Orange can be bothered to respond. 

[ *** UPDATES *** ]

Friday, 21st January 2011, 11:01am
A representative from Orange customer service phoned me back and was very apologetic, they have now added £10 credit to my account making the total £20.  I was then transferred to Pay as You Go team who took some more details and organised the unlocking. 

They have said the unlocking code will be sent to me within the next 7 - 14 days (some have told me it is 7 - 10 but I do not know who to believe now). 

Instructions will be given with the unlocking code and apparently all that needs to be done is entering the code as though it was a phone number and the phone unlocks.  Magic.  Sounds like a lot of aggro for such a simple task. 

This is not over yet. 

Monday, 24th January 2011, 19:35pm
Orange have taken the £20.00 so it looks like everything is going through ok now. 

Thursday, 27th January 2011, 13:56pm
Letter came through the post from Everything Everywhere, Orange, detailing the unlocking procedure. 

1.  Insert a non-Orange SIM card. 
2.  Switch ON the handset. 
3.  The handset should display: USB cable and iTunes icon. 
4.  Synchronise device with iTunes. 
5.  Once synchronised a message will appear on iTunes stating "Congratulations your iPhone has been unlocked."
6.  Follow on screen set up instructions to enable new carrier settings. 

[IMGD:images/blog/unlocked_iphone.gif{Your iPhone is now unlocked{image]

Your handset should now be successfully unlocked. 

Yes it is.  It is now unlocked and working on the Tesco network, or O2.  But I should now be able to use any SIM card I wish and switch between networks without any further annoyances. 

Thank you Orange for finally doing the right thing. 

Good luck to anyone else out there with similar problems, and please feel free to comment on your experiences with unlocking iPhones.