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Question about getting an unlocked iPhone?

post #1 of 20
6/26/08 at 4:50pm
Thread Starter 
I'm thinking of getting my husband an unlocked iPhone for his birthday since he loves mine but unfortunately has a contract with Verizon for infinity. Are there going to be any issues with buying one of these unlocked phones off Ebay or Craigslist? Is it really as simple as just sticking in his SIM card and now it's all ok? I've tried searching on Google about this but I just get a ton of results talking about "bricking" (have no clue what that means) and other tech speak but no definitive answer if I'll run into a problem using an unlocked phone down the road.

TIA!
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post #2 of 20
6/26/08 at 4:54pm
if u still live n socal pm me ur Qs

i kno someone who can help u out
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post #3 of 20
6/26/08 at 4:58pm
iphones won't work on the verizon network as they use 'CDMA' technology as opposed to the standard and more popular GSM frequency (which iphone uses). are you sure your husband has an infinity contract with Verizon? or 2 years.. ? if theres a ton of time remaining on his contract, you might be able to 'sell' it on of those mobile plan exchange sites. but if i were him, i'd get a better/cooler phone that Verizon supports (LG Voyager?)

and a 'brick' is used to describe an electronic item that has been incorrectly modded or hacked resulting in a broken item which is about as useful as a brick.
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post #4 of 20
6/26/08 at 5:19pm
Thread Starter 
luckee- i live in nor cal now

jetsetter - thanks for the info! yeah, i didn't really mean "infinity" but it might as well be...i guess i can check out the other verizon phones. i just know he really digs the iphone and there doesn't seem to be much in the market right now that matches it.
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post #5 of 20
6/26/08 at 5:31pm
^^ Very easy solution,

Take your iPhone, and Unlock it, ( its easy ) Search for iLiberty in Google and Guide for it how to unlock iPhone ! Once you've done it, stick your husband's sim card and check if its working or not.

I have Unlocked iPhone, I used iLiberty, took me 5 min to do it ! I'm on Orange !
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post #6 of 20
6/26/08 at 5:33pm
if you're on verizon you can't. cdma has no sim card so you can't just put your verizon sim in iphone, because one doesn't exist.
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post #7 of 20
6/26/08 at 5:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mihalis View Post
if you're on verizon you can't. cdma has no sim card so you can't just put your verizon sim in iphone, because one doesn't exist.
So it doesn't have a sim card ??
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post #8 of 20
6/26/08 at 5:40pm
yes, cdma has no sim. with cdma the actual phone is tied to the network. with gsm the sim card is tied to the network.

What is the Difference Between GSM and CDMA?
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post #9 of 20
6/26/08 at 5:59pm
manufacturers make their phones specifically for the providers network. You would need to either pick up an already unlocked device or get it unlocked. Its not a hard thing to do, but his current provider most likely will not be the one to do it as they wanna keep you on their network only.

There are tons of 3rd party independent wireless stores out there that advertise the fact they unlock phones so you shouldnt have a problem finding a place to do it. I know there are countless stores downtown Toronto here that do it, Im sure it would be the same where you live. I would suggest just buying it unlocked. Most usually are and advertise this in their auctions.
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post #10 of 20
6/27/08 at 2:10pm
Even if you did find your way around the other problems, the iPhone could still turn to crap as so many have (mine hasnt thank goodness)
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post #11 of 20
6/27/08 at 3:49pm
^ there really isn't any way to fuck up your iphone by unlocking it other than actually physically breaking the device. should something go wrong with the unlock you can easily restore the firmware and if you need to take it to apple you can virginize the baseband
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post #12 of 20
6/27/08 at 6:57pm
I thought Apple won't do anything if it's unlocked?
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post #13 of 20
6/27/08 at 9:33pm
^ if you restore the firmware (so it's unjailbroken) and virginize the baseband (re-locking it) apple wont know..
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post #14 of 20
6/28/08 at 12:00am
Is it easy to do all that? I was thinking about getting an iphone but I was worried it would break and I'd get fucked over.
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post #15 of 20
6/28/08 at 12:45am
it doesn't matter if she/he can unlock it...

Verizon users can't use GSM phones. Unless the husband changes to Tmobile/AT&T, it wont work period.
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post #16 of 20
6/28/08 at 12:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mihalis View Post
^ there really isn't any way to fuck up your iphone by unlocking it other than actually physically breaking the device. should something go wrong with the unlock you can easily restore the firmware and if you need to take it to apple you can virginize the baseband
I meant the fact that an iPhone can mess up on its own accord. Same reason I'd never buy an Xbox 360 from ebay, they break on their own too often.
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post #17 of 20
6/28/08 at 3:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malencontreux View Post
Is it easy to do all that? I was thinking about getting an iphone but I was worried it would break and I'd get fucked over.
Why would it break ? unless you drop it ! But if you think it'll break if you unlock it. 99% it won't happen !
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post #18 of 20
6/28/08 at 9:38am
Well I'm just worried it just will stop working one day, my friend's iphone did that. Just one day it wouldn't turn on anymore, he got it fixed by going back to the apple store but say I had it unlocked and it did the same thing -- wouldn't I be screwed? Because can you restore whatever stuff you have to when it won't even turn on?
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post #19 of 20
6/28/08 at 11:01am
^^ well probably was a hardware fault. Could happen to anyone. Other than that, nothing wrong with unlocking !
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post #20 of 20
6/28/08 at 11:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malencontreux View Post
Is it easy to do all that? I was thinking about getting an iphone but I was worried it would break and I'd get fucked over.
yes there are 4-5 good utilities with guis that can easily do this. before it was harder and required the command line (i remember having to install ssh through terminal and running the first nes emulator, )

re: the phone randomly breaking - the iphone software is very very stable. i've had no issues that restarting the phone or in an extreme (and rare) case a restore can't fix. i've had one hardware problem (that was my fault) but apple gave me a new phone anyways
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