AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/04/att-confirms-plans-to-begin-unlocking-some-iphones-on-april-8.ars

by jeffreyshaw • 14 years ago

58 35 14 years ago

jnorthrop• 14 years ago

That seems like a fair move on AT&T's part and a nice PR opportunity. The article characterizes AT&Ts requirements as "strict" but I disagree. I think it is completely reasonable that they expect you to finish the contract you signed with them and have no outstanding balance.

pyre• 14 years ago

  > I think it is completely reasonable that they expect
  > you to finish the contract you signed with them

1. What if I want to go abroad and just buy a cheap local SIM instead of paying a small fortune to AT&T for international roaming during my contract period?

2. Unlocking the phone doesn't have the effect of terminating the contract. Once the phone is unlocked, you just have an unlocked phone under a contract. If you decide to terminate your contract at any time, then you still have to pay the early termination fee. It's not like unlocking your phone gets you out of your contractual obligations.

g-garron• 14 years ago

This is going to lower the price of unlocked phones in ebay and the like. (used ones) Good news.

billpaetzke• 14 years ago

I heard there was a difference between factory unlocked phones and phones unlocked some time later (let's call them store unlocked phones). Such that the factory unlocked would retain the unlock if you wiped/reset the phone (for instance, to sell it to someone else), but the store unlocked phone would need to be re-unlocked (because its factory settings are of being locked).

If someone could back me up or refute this, go ahead. For me, I just buy the factory-unlocked phone straight from apple.com and don't have to deal with it. (I go out of the country enough that it's worth it to me).

bshep• 14 years ago

AFAIK the lock( or unlock ) status is stored in a special area of the baseband and should survive updates/restores.

The best people to answer this is probably someone from the Dev-Team.

ben10402• 14 years ago

There should be no difference. "Out of the box" and after a reset, the phone is a blank slate and won't work until it talks to Apple.

Part of that activation process involves getting a token back that instructs the phone how it should be locked, or not at all.

The unlock process that AT&T (and every other iPhone carrier) does is that they instruct Apple to update the record on their activation server to say your phone should be getting a "fully unlocked" response. Next time you tether the phone to iTunes it checks the activation token and unlocks the phone.

joshmlewis• 14 years ago

There's a difference between being unlocked through normal processes and being unlocked with a special sim or jailbrake/unlock.

chollida1• 14 years ago

> According to AT&T, the iPhone you want to unlock can't be associated with a current active term commitment, and you must already be out of your contract terms (usually two years from purchase) or you must have paid an early termination fee. Your account must be in good standing, too—no $700 overdue phone bills for you.

I don't see anything that seems overly strict here. You finish the contract you signed up for, or pay the early termination fee and also make sure your bill is paid.

What is overly strict about this? This seems to be more common sense than anything.

officemonkey• 14 years ago

It isn't even a new policy. These are the same terms AT&T gave me when I needed an old Motorola RAZR phone unlocked in 2006.

gte910h• 14 years ago

However they didn't follow the policy for iPhones for a number of years.

megablast• 14 years ago

I don't see why they insist it is locked if you are already into a contract. What if I want to use my iphone overseas for a few months. I am still paying them what I owe them, there is no way I can get out of it.

Timothee• 14 years ago

"can't be associated with a current active term commitment"

That part is not clear to me. At first sight, it seems to mean that the phone to be unlocked can't be currently associated with a working AT&T account. Meaning, if I use it right now, they won't unlock it even after my two-year contract is up.

If that's what it means, it sucks for people who want to unlock to use it abroad.

chc• 14 years ago

"Active term commitment" = "contract with time on it"

If your contract is up, you're fine.

edj2• 14 years ago

It's strict in comparison to other carriers. T-Mobile, for example, has long had a policy of unlocking phones after the first 90 days of the two year contract.

It's not exactly common sense either. If you unlock your phone, you could theoretically use it with another carrier, but you're still on the hook with AT&T for the full two year contract. Since they get there money from the contract regardless, why should the contract and unlocking have anything to do with one another?

Both the old policy and the new policy are bad for customers with (slightly) unusual use cases, like travelers.

When I had T-Mobile, I could buy cheap SIM cards in any country I went to, and put them in my Blackberry. I had all my contacts. I had one charger and one device. Now when I travel I have to buy a cheap feature phone for calls, but I also need to keep the iPhone around as a very expensive and conspicuous Rolodex. It's definitely a step backward in convenience.

X-Istence• 14 years ago

This is not true at all. I was a loyal T-Mobile customer for almost 8 years, I upgraded my contract, signed another two year contract (at year 6 of being a customer) and 6 months in I asked if they could unlock my phone because I was traveling to Europe and they told me that they don't do that until your contract that is up, and even then it was limited to a small subset of phones.

I ended up selling my phone on eBay and purchasing an iPhone 3G from a friend which I unlocked by jail breaking it!

po2• 14 years ago

I'm going to go and demand they unlock the first generation iPhone I bought the fist day they were released (for the full $600 price) just on principle. Still a bit annoyed that it was locked since it wasn't subsidized at all, although I knew what I was getting in to.

w1ntermute• 14 years ago

> Still a bit annoyed that it was locked since it wasn't subsidized at all

Wasn't the original iPhone (at release) $600 with contract?

watmough2• 14 years ago

Why yes, yes it was. Mine still works, and is currently playing BBC Radio 4 in the other room. I think I will go get it unlocked.

This is great news from AT&T, but kind of exasperating, since I splashed out $702 for an unlocked iPhone 4S exactly so I could didn't have to pay vastly more money to end up with an iPod Touch / paperweight at the end of a 2-year contract.

I imagine that this scenario, plus the fact that other carriers will do an unlock 'for overseas' (nudge-nudge wink-wink) has driven AT&T into recognizing that they will lose many many customers, unless they start unlocking.

po2• 14 years ago

kind of... It was 'with contract' in that you had to bring it home and activate it with ATT. There were no other options. As far as I know, Apple wasn't paying any subsidies to ATT at that time. That was part of how they could drop the price a few months later.

I believe it was only after the next model came out that they started paying subsidies to ATT. That was how they got the price to 299 and 199.

xnt14• 14 years ago

Does this apply to iPhones that were bought off contract? (From the Apple Store.)

runjake3• 14 years ago

No. Those are already unlocked and will forever remain unlocked.

lawnchair_larry• 14 years ago

Not in the US. iPhones bought for full price from the Apple store in the US were still locked to AT&T.

runjake3• 14 years ago

Verizon will "unlock" the SIM unit in their iPhone 4S units if you've been a customer in good standing for 60 days and the iPhone is on an active plan.

However, it's not a real unlock -- it just allows you to use any GSM SIM EXCEPT from US carriers.

I went back and forth between Apple and Verizon about it back in December, trying to get a true unlock but each blames the other. It seems clear at this point that it's the carriers being the jerks.

I hope Verizon will get similarly bad press about this and follow suit.

ben10402• 14 years ago

I am on Verizon and will not switch away (grandfathered into unlimited data, and AT&T coverage at my house is the pits).

Back in November I wanted to get an iPhone 4S. I was not upgrade eligible, so I'd have to pay full retail price.

If you pay full retail for an AT&T iPhone, the phone is automatically fully unlocked (this practice seemed to have quietly began around when the 4S was launched). You're basically buying the unlocked model even if you didn't ask for it. However, there was nothing indicating that this was the case if you bought it for Verizon and paid full retail.

I only keep my phones for a year or so and then sell them on. Not having the phone fully unlocked hurts the resale value. A phone that will only do EVDO a year from now just isn't worth as much as a phone that could do HSPA+.

yuhong• 14 years ago

I don't think the Verizon iPhone 4 has support for GSM at all.

fourspace• 14 years ago

Well there goes the ~$100 premium I was able to fetch on Craigslist for my last generation iPhones. Good news for AT&T consumers, though.

I wonder if this means they'll also unlock iPads since they were never under contract?

sumukh1• 14 years ago

Just a quick point: AT&T (GSM) iPads were always unlocked.

thought_alarm2• 14 years ago

Locked hardware really has nothing to do with enforcing a fixed-term contract. I think the day will come when Apple refuses to produce locked iPhones and sells only unlocked devices to the carriers.

In many markets the carriers already do next to nothing to promote or sell the iPhone, so there isn't much they can threaten to take away. And a carrier isn't going to drop the iPhone as long as there's a competing carrier that's willing to sell the iPhone.

_rs• 14 years ago

Do carriers really need to advertise the iPhone considering the amount of attention it already receives?

thought_alarm2• 14 years ago

That's the point.

The carriers don't have to promote any specific phone. The devices they invariably do push are the ones that make them the most money per subscriber per month, and contain features not found on competing carriers.

seppo• 14 years ago

I just called AT&T and they gave me a rundown. The phone must:

1. Have been purchased through AT&T 2. Not be stolen 3. Have its 2 year contract fulfilled 4. BE ACTIVE ON YOUR ACCOUNT

The last one is the kicker and something NO news service has reported on up until now. It has to have its own line on your current bill and 'be active'. I asked 3 times what 'be active' meant, and the best they could explain was that it must have service and 'have been used' (i.e. phone calls made/accepted on it).

I asked if I could add it as a line, and she said yes: $36 activation fee, plus $9.99 per month, and then you have to use it. Then they can unlock it. There's no contract minimum time limit that you have to fulfill to do this (I was told...I was transferred to their activation department which was closed today, so I don't have more details), so as best as I can assume - set it up, use it for a couple of days, make sure your bill is paid, then ask for an unlock, and cancel the line.

There's definitely more than AT&T has told all the news outlets, and you have to call to get the details. Surprise, surprise - AT&T not totally forthcoming? Who knew...

fbpcm• 14 years ago

Can you just put your sim card into it and use it?

AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

Related Stories