O2 Begins the Great British iPhone Unlock
Chris from Mobiletech Addicts let us know that, as previously reported, O2 is coming through with the iPhone unlocks. Once their web form is submitted, they send a text (it took all of 15 minutes form him), then:
I put in a Vodafone Sim Card into the phone and fired up iTunes, a couple of minutes later and the [above] message appeared.
Congrats UK residents, you’re free at last!
(Now if only Rogers Canada would find a pair and do likewise right…)
November 13th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Now, let us free it in U.S.!!!
I’m free to hope right?
November 13th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Hope? At least that’s still free. LOL Think a lot of us will win the lottery before we see this in the U.S.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I want it (here in the U.S.), but I doubt I’ll ever get it without JB.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Mine unlocked earlier today, applied on 10th for it. Its even my 3GS thats unlocked not my 3G so i’m double-happy
November 13th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Funnily enough, I just officially unlocked my UK iPhone and popped in a Rogers PAYG SIM to see if it worked. The phone roamed to Vodafone and I got a Rogers welcome message
November 13th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
still waiting on mine :/
November 13th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
“Once their web form is submitted, they send a text (it took all of 15 minutes form him)”
Not quite. He says he got the message about 15 minutes ago, not that he filled in the web form 15 minutes ago. People who filled in the web form between midnight Monday (UK time) and 7am Tuesday seem to have gotten messages throughout today. After 8am are still waiting. No one is getting unlock notice in 15 minutes (hoho). O2 advised it could take two weeks.
November 13th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
iPhone’s 3G frequencies work only on AT&T in the US (850MHz). If you ever have it unlocked it will only work as EDGE on T-Mobile, even if you have T-Mo 3G coverage. Is that right?
November 13th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Weh hey my o2 uk 3gs is now unlocked !!!!
November 13th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Can’t wait to get mine! Good move from o2, starting to like them:)
November 13th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Applied for the unlock late in the evening UK time on the 10th, still no text about the unlock for me yet a shade over 72 hours later. The form states you should expect up to 14 days to receive the text saying the phone is ready to unlock.
Very much looking forward to this so I can stop using ultrasn0w now I’m back in Canada. Nothing against the dev team or their product, it’s beyond fantastic, but I’ll be quite happy to know I’ve got a fully carrier unlocked solution.
November 13th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Even though I don’t want to use it on T-Mobile I wish that AT&T would allow unlocking. I know they won’t – they make too much money on international roaming. But if they won’t unlock the iPhone why will they unlock the other phones? Guess it’s another reason to go to Android.
November 13th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
RON JEREMY says wow Thats really something but here in the sates I don’t really see any advantages unless you want to be on t-mobile I guess.
Either way it would be nice too have. I guess
November 13th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Ive put in a request for an unlock, not because I want to leave o2 or anything, just because having an unlocked phone is very handy. especially when abroad.
Hopefully my unlock code comes through soon
November 14th, 2009 at 12:09 am
I’m ok with AT&T but I’d like to be able to swap SIMs at will when abroad or when I retire this phone for the next one (e.g. payg minutes and no data). They should at least unlock it at end of contract or upon payment of ETF.
November 14th, 2009 at 4:04 am
Filled out the form on Tuesday, yet to hear anything.
November 14th, 2009 at 10:44 am
That last comment about Rogers Canada allowing their customers to unlock their phone….ONLY when Hell freezes over. Three year marriage to their network means they’re going to milk the phone for all it’s worth. Customer Service is NOT Rogers motto. Even with Bell/Telus getting the iPhone plan prices remain high and competition low. I understand that carriers need to make money, but Canadian Telcos make gobbs of it and just screw their customers. Now the the CRTC has taken the win out WIND mobile Canadians are just that much more screwed. Enough of my rant.
November 14th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I would like to pint out that it is NOT as simple as it seems… For ALL those people that chose to purchase the iPhone 3GS as a PAYG phone and then notify o2 that they had done this, it was all well and good, as it was “seen to be an upgrade” but with no extra length on the contract…!!!
BUT when it comes to unlocking they still have the OLD imei registered and will NOT unlock, i have notified o2 of the problem through customer services and it is a different department that deals with the unlocking, i have notified the unlocking department and the still have the old 3G imei, although it is on there system as a 3GS…!!!
Confusion, YES, i have now raised it with o2 as a complaint, and have started shouting as loud as i can about it, as it is unfair on all the people that chose to go the more expensive option and pay £450 for the phone instead of £200 for an upgrade…!
Now some may ask why choose this option anyway, but for me it was about NOT having a new contract so i could just upgrade when the new version comes out next year, but with no expense… So next year is easy, this year however is causing me a headache…
November 16th, 2009 at 7:11 am
Kevin, your situation was the same as mine, I bought the 3GS on PAYG and put in my 3G sim card. When I applied for the unlock I put the IMEI in from the 3GS and a couple of days later I got the sms and the 3GS is unlocked. Don’t know why your having problems
November 17th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Any new datapoints? I requested unlocks (on a business contract with two phones) at about noon last Tuesday–other than a request for IMEI later that day, nothing yet.
November 18th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Just got my unlock text about 15 minutes ago and nothing happened in iTunes at all (jailbroken, unlocked via ultrasn0w). Restoring to factory settings to give it another try will hopefully succeed though using an O2 phone in Canada makes me wonder if it’ll properly activate. Worst case, I use pwnagetool to create a new ipsw with hacktivation enabled I suppose.
November 18th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
For anyone interested, a restore worked fine, activation went smoothly despite having no access to the O2 network and I didn’t even have to swap out the O2 SIM for the unlock to take. I got the “unlocked” message in iTunes upon restoring to stock 3.1.2, popped in the Rogers SIM and all worked as expected. Hooray!
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:54 pm
i just got the txt from o2 tell me ur iphone now unlocked.connect to itunes as usual,, the story is i tried the first sim ( Voda )and its look like the unlock is ok then i changed the sim with other one (tesco)restart the iphone i thought thats it thne i discover i need to hookit up to the iphone again to unlock it but this time didnt go throught for some reason then i said lets use differnt sim which is another (VODA) sim and do evry thing again throght the iTunes to unlock it but with out any chance… so the quasion here is it not suppose to be ONE TIME UNLOCK with different SiM and the phone will be Unlocked or is it just my phone doing this ????? thnx
November 27th, 2009 at 2:48 am
Does the o2 simcard have to be inserted in the iPhone?
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:00 am
I have a 2G iphone, from O2. I have experienced similar issues to Alex. I now have a Vodafone SIM in my iphone. The unlock process works, but when I power off the phone it appears to ‘forget’ that it has been unlocked and I have to go through the process all over again. I have reported the issue to O2.
December 3rd, 2009 at 5:09 am
Charlie, I had the same issue as you. I did a full restore of the phone from Itunes, unlocked it again and now it seems fine.
Do a full backup first and you can then restore and don’t loose any data
December 6th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Anyone got any ideas how to get a second hand iPhone unlocked ? Before I go further, it’s NOT stolen or lost, just used. O2 won’t unlock it though just refer me to ask the original owner who won’t or doesn’t use his email account to get a reply from.
December 9th, 2009 at 9:41 am
Paul, Thanks for the tip it worked fine, touch wood.
Trevor, O2 are now unlocking iphones on request. They did it for me even though I was out of contract with them. Maybe if you offered to pay they would do it? I do know that Apple will not help, I think you will either have to persuade O2 or go down a jailbreak road. Good luck.
December 10th, 2009 at 5:29 am
Yeah maybe I should try ringing instead of emailing, thing is I have never had a contract with o2. The phone is jailbroken already on 3.0, just wondered if I got it properly unlocked would a later software version sort out a few sporadic crash issues and abismal battery life. Ultimately I would like the phone properly unlocked, I paid £260 for it second hand, but I think that’s fair for a used 16g 3g. Just prefer original software unlock so I don’t upgrade and lose the usage of it.
December 10th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Good Evening Trevor
Thanks for getting in touch with us again.
I understand your concern that the person from whom you bought the iPhone isn’t responding as he may be on vacation. I’m sorry Trevor even if you provide us any of the account details we won’t be able to gain discuss any account related queries with you. This is because the iPhone account isn’t registered in your name. Only the account holder can request for the iPhone to be unlocked.
Please note that account security is very important to us and we need to make sure we’re dealing with the account holder. Due to the ‘Data Protection Act’, we aren’t able to discuss the details of online accounts with anyone other than the registered account holder.
If you want to discuss the details of this account on behalf of the account holder, please ask the account holder to email us with the following information:
your full name your date of birth
When we’ve received this information, we’ll update our records. You’ll then able to discuss the details of this account on behalf of the account holder. You’ll also then be able to email us to unlock your iPhone 3G.
I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you and I appreciate your patience with this matter.
Kind regards
Jeet O2 Customer Service
December 10th, 2009 at 7:38 am
So basically, o2 don’t care if you own it legally, they still won’t unlock it because you didn’t buy it brand new through them, even if you offer them a payment of some fee
January 1st, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Follow up on this, taking the structure of the statement from o2, I have now opened a pay as you go ‘account’, put £20 credit on it and I have reactivated the iPhone withthe sim card. I have made a couple of calls to tally with the 2 favourite numbers requested in the unlock form. I have submitted an unlock request today 1/1/10 at 11am GMT. I shall let you know if I haven’t cut my wrists before they text me back LOL.
January 11th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
i unlocked my iphone 2g and it works fine but once the battery runs flat or i put a different sim card or it loses its signal the phone locks again and has to be connected to itunes is this right or has something went wrong