I tried that but did not get any "phone unlocked" message.

Get a prepaid TMO sim card for $10, stick it in and test out. Should work fine....if you don't want to spent the $10, PM and I'll send you extra prepaid laying in my drawer to test

Ok, to show my true stupidity. My partner has a Sprint iphone5. Can we use that SIM card to test this phone? Or will that cause a problem for his Sprint service?

iPhone 5 has a smaller SIM than an iPhone 3GS

I cannot help with unlocking but iPhones do work on all Colombian networks.

iPhone data plans are getting more expensive down here though. I just upgraded to iPhone 5 this week (They already come unlocked on my network which is handy) My contract has gone up from $85000 to $99000

If your partner's brother cannot afford a newer iPhone then I doubt he can afford the contract either.

I get quite a few visitors that ask me to organise a voice/data SIM for them when they arrive. This is the best voice and data SIM for prepay but I cannot remember how many minutes/MBs you get for your 25000 pesos

That's one helluva phone bill you have there.

If you don't have a non-AT&T SIM you can go to www.imei.info to find out.

They use a public database of IMEI numbers but you still have to register [free] for them to tell you if your phone is locked or unlocked.

I cannot stop talking once I start

Plus I like to download the entire internet every day just so I have a backup

Johnny,

It is really just to give him a nicer phone for calling/voice. No plans for data now.

He has something my partner calls an Arrow phone, pretty basic as I understand it.

Thanks for the advice. Got the 3GS unlocked.

Now, I have a second iPhone... my original one when they first came out. Thought I would also unlock this one and give it to them as well.

PROBLEM: I charged the phone... just took it out of the charger... but the screen is only showing the Apple icon... will not show anything else... and will not allow me to turn it off or anything. I have tried holding down the home button and the sleep button. Any suggestions for moving forward? Thanks!

Sounds like a candidate for recycling.

Now... THAT was not the answer I was looking for....

I thought giving it away to family in Colombia would be recycling enough....!

Wow I just got back from Colombia. Get the phone unlocked by ATT a phone that old should be OK. When you arrive in Colombia any employee at Tigo will set your SIM in less than 5 minutes and get you going.

They do have iphones 5 and 4s so the 3gs is not the rave at all but you can get @ 150 usd more or less. I kept mine for intl travel But it is so slow in comparison to the 5. Like driving a Smart car after being used to a BMW

Can I ask a related question? A friend has offered to give us an iPhone 4S that is not unlocked on Sprint network. Is there an easy unlocking process similar to AT&T?

Have your friend call Sprint and ask them to unlock the 4S. It will work with any non-US SIM card.

I used an unlocked-by-AT&T iPhone 3GS in Honduras (Claro and TIGO), El Salvador (Claro and TIGO), Costa Rica (ICE), and Panama (Claro) for all of 2012 into 2013. The stores all worried when I said iPhone because they didn't have the 4S-sized sim card, but once I said it was a 3GS and a normal sized sim, they were relieved and helpful. It wasn't always unproblematic. In Honduras (Roatan and LaCeiba) and El Salvador (San Salvador) I had to see several people in stores to find the person who could figure out how to get the data to work. The sim card didn't quite know how to see the data plans. I tried to figure out what they were setting so I could learn and write it up for others but they didn't seem to know what they were doing.

So phone calls will be simple. Be patient with the data part and test it before leaving the store. And go to the company stores to buy the sim and get started. After that you can recharge both voice and data anywhere or with the pre-paid code cards and use texting to renew.

As far as how to unlock your phone, let Apple or AT&T tell you as that may change.