Old iPhone 3GS question
 

To my TT Experts!

I have an old iPhone 3GS that was on the AT&T network.

My partners' brother in Colombia would love to have it.... is there any actual way for him to use it there? I do not know anything about unlocking or if it is even possible on the Colombian network.

Appreciate any insights.

If it's unlocked, it should work there.

Was the phone originally under contract with AT&T in your name?

If you are still an AT&T customer they will let you unlock up to 5 phones per year. With the phone unlocked your friend should be able to use it on any GSM network.

File your request online here.

If no longer on contract, AT&T should unlock for you. If they refuse, search eBay or CL for factory IMEI unlock service - should be no more than $10-15.

PM if you want referral, all done via PayPal. I just recently got old 3GS unlocked.

It was under AT&T and I am still a customer.

The form is asking for an IMEJ number for the phone; any idea where I would find that?

Sorry for all the questions.

This link might help:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4061?v...S&locale=en_US

Settings - General - About - scroll towards the bottom to find the phone's IMEI.

You can also dial *#06# on any GSM phone to find the IMEI.

A quick call to ATT customer service did the trick for me, for my 3GS & 4S.

OK... follow up question...

I just got the approval via email.... but it wants me to connect the phone and restore.

I have not used this phone in years... if I connect it to my current iTunes account... will it cause any problems?

This phone will be used by someone in Colombia.

Here is the email I got from AT&T:

Thank you for contacting AT&T Customer Care about unlocking your AT&T Mobile device.
We have reviewed your request and confirmed that the device may be unlocked.
Please allow 24 hours upon receipt of this notification to complete the unlock process.
To complete the unlock, simply
1. Open iTunes on your Mac or PC and verify that you have Internet connectivity.
2. Ensure a SIM card is inserted into your iPhone.
3. Connect your iPhone using the dock connector to USB cable that came with your iPhone.
4. Backup and restore your iPhone using iTunes. For information on backup and restore, please visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414.
5. After restoring, your iPhone will be unlocked.

And, is there any way to confirm it is unlocked?

You need to put a non-AT&T SIM in the phone, connect to wifi, and go through the little activation process.

You can also do it AT&T's way. Doesn't matter what account iTunes is signed up with. If you do it through iTunes, it should give you a little screen saying the phone is now unlocked.

HHHHmmm.... Dave, I do not have any sim cards.

I am not going to Colombia... is it possible for him to insert a card down there and activate? without me doing anything?

Just connect to any itunes account and click restore as new phone. It'll just load wipe it and unlock it, and or load 6.0 on there.

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 :D

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 :D

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....!

Old iPhone 3GS question
 

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.

He is going to try today Dave. Problem is he no longer has an active account with Sprint. Not sure if they will do it.

Of course, my partner now has Sprint so wonder if they will do for him even though the phone was not under his account.

Sprint might not if the account isn't active. But your partner might be able to - especially if he tells them he wants to use it as an extra phone while traveling or something like that.

Well, Sprint was no help whatsoever.

They would not unlock for our friend since he is no longer a Spring customer.

We took the phone in last night and asked if they would unlock for my partner as he was a current Sprint customer. They would not do it.

So, does anyone know of any simple/inexpensive way to hack/unlock this phone? Would love to get it done before he leaves for Colombia next week.

GGGrrrr.... why do they make it so difficult?

Check your PM box....

And via CL: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/mod/4111517045.html. One of many hits after searching: unlock sprint iPhone [from NYC area].

Should not cost more than $10-15 and done electronically, usually within an hour or two.

Not an active link.

Well, the saga continues.

Sprint refused to do any unlocking. Partner took it to a store that says it is able to "unlock" any phone.

They tell him Sprint needs to release the serial number before they can do anything.... and Sprint is refusing to do it.

Any other options anyone might know of to resolve this?

We were also told that the original iPhone will not work down there even though it was properly unlocked through AT&T. Supposedly, there was some difference in the original iPhone than subsequent models. He tried putting in a Sim card... and it will not work. The 3Gs phone worked perfectly, but not the original phone.

You might consider getting a second unlocked 3gs.
Today icemonkey.com is offering the 8gb model for $90 & the 16gb model for $100. I picked up the 8gb model a couple months ago for ten bucks more and it has been working fine.

I hate to spend more money of a phone... when we had others sitting around.

He is in Colombia right now.... so trying to resolve issue there. If we have to buy and ship later; it gets expensive.

Sprint phones will not work in Colombia because they are CDMA and not GSM

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...6170242AA6R84D

AT&T phones should work though

Johnny,

I wonder why the "unlocking" people think it should work if Sprint unlocks? Oh well.

The original AT&T phone will not work due to some technical reasons we are being told.

Nope a CDMA phone will not work outside of the USA (maybe Canada in case there are pedants reading)

Who is telling you that the AT&T phone is has a technical issue?