Here's the situation: My son is going to school in Rome and I bought him an iPhone 4 off of ebay here in the U.S. It was supposedly unlocked and came with a something called a Gevey SIM card, which is supposed to allow you use it in Europe with a SIM card you buy there. Well, according to him, he simply cannot get it to work. He says he's read instructions on the Internet, watched youtube videos, etc. and nothing works. He even took it to an Apple store in Rome and they told him that it needs to be unlocked in the U.S. I'm honestly not even sure what that means. Who here would unlock it for me?

Just wondering if anybody here knows what can be done, if anything? I'm afraid I may have been too superficial at researching this before I jumped in and bought the darn thing.

Thanks

I'm not from the US but iPhones need to be unlocked by the carrier before they'll work. If you got a cheap deal off eBay they could be just saying that its unlocked or otherwise get him to do a full restore and see if that helps.
Otherwise a call to the major us carriers and supplying the imei number may help.

Best thing with Italian sims for iPhone is to purchase there in Italy. I did it last year for my iPhone and easy to recharge and data and coverage was great.

"iPhones need to be unlocked by the carrier before they'll work"

That's the point. There is no U.S. carrier.


"Best thing with Italian sims for iPhone is to purchase there in Italy"

Are you saying purchase the phone in Italy or purchase the SIM card in Italy? because he did purchase the SIM card in Italy.


"get him to do a full restore and see if that helps."

How does one do that?



Thanks

There is/was a US carrier. More then likely AT&T.
Issue is the phone is not really 'unlocked' its been hardware hacked and the hardware hack is not working. The issue is the Gevey Sim is IMHO fragile and some claim a POS. IF it hasn't been updated to the latest ios he could 'jailbrake' it to sim UN-lock it and resolve all issue for the time being.

If it's an AT&T iphone, you may be so out of luck. They will not provide the unlock code for the iphone.

Just trying to understand the terminology, but by "hardware hacked" are you referring to the Gevey SIM card? Also, my understanding of the term "jailbreak" is that allows one to install non-Apple approved apps, but is there something about jailbreaking it that would SIM unlock it as you say? Not exactly sure I understand what you're saying.

So if it isn't unlocked, how does one unlock it? When I google unlocking an iPhone, I get a lot of sites selling software that supposedly does it, but why do I have a suspicion that most, if not all, of those sites are scams?

First, confirm that the iPhone has one of the below basebands (check in Settings > General > About):

4.10.01 | 3.10.01 | 2.10.04 | 1.59.00

If it's anything other than the four listed above, it cannot be unlocked at this time.

If it is one of the above basebands, follow these steps:

These steps will have to be repeated every time the phone is restarted.

Personally what I would do is sell the phone on eBay and just buy an officially unlocked device instead- much less hassle.

OT but just as a comment, its too bad you purchased the phone in the US.... its my understanding that you can get Iphones in Italy that are factory unlocked, I think by law you cant sell locked phones in Italy.

Like I said, I think I didn't do enough research before I bought it. You can also buy unlocked iPhones directly from Apple here in the U.S. now. Of course, I paid less than what Apple sells them for, but for the extra $ I could have saved myself this headache. Stupid decision on my part, just trying to figure out what to do now.

So, I'm just wondering, the people who advertise on craigslist that say they unlock iPhones, how do they do it? I called one guy and he said that it involves something physical as well as some software changes.

There are a few different ways, none of them ideal. Apple is very good at making sure that only carriers can unlock iPhones.

The most common way is to jailbreak the phone and unlock it. Jailbreaking is the process whereby you take advantage of bugs in the operating system to wrest control away from Apple. This allows you to install apps that Apple hasn't approved - including apps that can remove the SIM card lock.

Not sure what physical changes the guy you talk to had in mind -perhaps something like the Gevey SIM.

Another option for your son would be to get a cheaper Android phone. Android is functionally equivalent to iOS and you can get an Android phone for less that would do the same things that an iPhone can. Just a thought - an unlocked iPhone from Apple starts around $700 I think.

OK, so following your advice, and googling around, I think I figured out the details of how to do what you suggest:

1. Jailbreak by using a program such as jailbreakme.
2. Install Cydia
3. Install an app such as UltraSn0w
4. The phone should be unlocked and ready for the Italian SIM.
5. No need for the Gevey SIM card?

Does this sound right? Is there a risk of "bricking" (a term I just learned) by doing this? The material I read about jailbreakme claims that there is no danger of bricking as you can restore the phone anytime.

Thanks

I've never actually needed to jailbreak a phone. Just make sure that the jailbreak solution you use matches your phone exactly: phone model, installed OS version, baseband version. Follow the instructions to the letter.

Or go buy a factory unlocked iPhone or Android phone.

Jailbreaking is not the same as unlocking. Unlocking is something you can do after you jailbreak.

That would work assuming the phone has the applicable firmware and baseband.

The 'people on Craigslist' just use methods posted on the internet. They don't have any special tools or anything like that.

You could try using the Gevey SIM using the instructions I posted too.

Jailbreaking only gives you more control over what apps you can have on your iPhone. Unlocking is what you need to use other SIM cards. Just sell the locked one and buy a factory unlocked one, either in the US at an Apple store or in Europe.