Use Your iPhone Without AT&T Service
Most of you here may already know this, but I’m writing this article because an Erik Lacitis from Seattle Times e-mailed us asking how to get service on an iPhone without an AT&T contract. He was specifically asking me this question because he wanted to find out how Harris-Moore (the Barefoot Bandit) could have gotten service on his iPhone without AT&T contract.
Want to use your iPhone without AT&T service in USA? Well you can, but the only service you can use it on is T-Mobile. You’ll need to first jailbreak your iPhone, and then install a free software unlock. Jailbreak sounds like something shady, but it isn’t. Jailbreak is the act of getting root access to your iPhone so you can modify any file on your phone (by default Apple doesn’t give full access because they don’t want people to mess with any files in the iPhone). In fact jailbreak was officially legalized on July 26.
To jailbreak, one can get the redsn0w 0.9.5 download from our jailbreak iOS 4.1 post. Once an iPhone is jailbroken, it can be unlocked using a software based unlock. It’s important to note that no software unlock is out for the new iPhone 4 yet, but the iPhone 3GS and previous generation iPhones can be jailbroken and unlocked. The iPhone Dev Team (creators of the most reliable jailbreaks and unlocks), have created a software unlock called ultrasn0w. Follow the below instructions to install ultrasn0w and unlock your iPhone to be used with T-Mobile:
1. Open Cydia
2. Add repo666.ultrasn0w.com to your sources
3. Install ultrasn0w, and reboot!
4. Now your iPhone should be unlocked. You can insert your T-Mobile sim in your iPhone and use your iPhone on T-Mobile.
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17 Comments
ok but we still cant jb a 3gs on iOS4 right?
yes, if you were broken before and havent updated your baseband… if so, roll back to 3.1.2 w/ firmware… JB and then update using redsn0w.
http://wikee.iphwn.org/howto:rsbeta
Wrong I own a multi carrier store I have simple mobile they use t mobiles towers its no contract $60 flat no tax unlimited talk,text,mom’s,web on a 3g nationwide GSM carrier $25 activation first time everything works on the iPhone..or $40 talk and text
But how does one buy an iPhone without the AT&T contract? Isn’t that a requirement for buying the phone?
you can buy an iPhone from eBay, you can even find them already jailbroken and unlocked.
Amen, thats the bes way to get an JB/Unloced phone :D
But not get the iPhone 4 yet….we still waiting the software.
Jailbreaking aside, I would hope to see a requirement for AT&T to unlock your iPhone as a result of the end user having honored their contract (perhaps by a firmware update created by apple for apple), just as they are now required by law to do on every other phone running on their network made after mid 1999. Perhaps it will take (another) class action lawsuit.
Sorry my email is phoneman14u@Gmail.com for simple mobile
Get your facts straight first! You can switch any iPhone over to H2O or O2 Sim card, from Best Buy, without jail-breaking or unlocking the iPhone. This does work on the iPhone 4 too.
So sad, no one spokes at Dev Team anymore, they are very silent in these days, I hope they are cocking the Jailbreak, since we still too many people waiting for this, or just, maybe, and just maybe, they can’t do it at all or they aren’t figured how to do it. Has been more than 3 months without any real notice. We hope this end soon or maybe is for real they are waiting for the iOS 4.1 :(
IOS 4.1 05.14.01_BL01 Baseband is “Not Unlockable”.
Avoid this Update If You Want the Unlock.
And at this point I believe never will be. Unless apple launch their own unlock, since Dev Team don’t look interested in made some for that realese….thats for now
Remember the iPhone 4 uses micro-sim
My iPhone 4 is jailbroken But I cannot add Ultrasn0w to cydia. Any other tool to unlock iPhone 4? please I need your help.
Au contraire, mon frère Have you Tried an O2 unlimited (Newly Renamed H2O Unlimited) Universal SIM ?
It works in all iPhones, its $10.00 bucks at best buy and you can activate your iphone with it in itunes.
It is not a gimmick, Its a prepaid wireless that works on at&t’s 3G network…..Try it out.
No need to jailbreak unless of course your wanting to install app installer crack for free apps in that case the jailbreak would still be necessary.
hi, I don’t know where to write… I have an iphone 3g with ios 4.1 I jailbreak it with redsnow for installing cydia, I downgraded the baseband with fuzzyband, and I tried to unlock it with ultrasn0w but I keep getting this message : could not activate cellular data network. and beside that, when I have my sim in the phone is working realy slow, but realy realy slow, once I remove my sim it works fine again. I hope somebody sees this :(
Hi, I have bought an iPhone with an AT&T SIM card. I’m in Iraq. I want to use it for the first time, but as you know, no AT&T network is here. How can I run it for the first time, before I will be able to jailbreak and unlock?