Can the iPhone 3G be unlocked?

Written on 10/14/2008 02:31:00 PM by poison_ivy

UPDATE: iPhone DEV Team finally came up with a software to unlock the iPhone 3G. Read details here.

Okay, so I saw another unlock iPhone website crop up on the internet and I was starting to wonder if a software to unlock the iPhone 3G is really available. Based on extensive googling, as of Oct. 14th, 2008, you can get the iPhone 3G unlocked in three ways:

Simcard. The most common method of unlocking the iPhone is through the use of a sim card. There are lots circulating around the net, be it Turbo Sim or Rebel sim. Some users from the forums claim it works perfectly while for others it will only work for a day.

Buy an unlocked version. In those wonderful countries wherein they value the freedom of choice, such as Hong Kong, you can actually get the iPhone 3G unlocked. Yep, unlocked out of the box, no frills, no calling your service provider, just a pure unlock iPhone 3G. So those unlock iPhone 3G you’re looking at on eBay may be 100% real if they’re from Chinese sellers. Just be sure to check their feedback or you might come upon a scammer.

Have your service provider unlock it for you. In other countries, they don’t provide you with an unlocked iPhone 3G out of the box but you can get the next best thing: your service provider actually unlocks it for you. From what I’ve gathered, Netherlands and Australia do this. You have to pay your service provider a certain amount so that they can unlock it for you then you’ll provide them with your IMEI and then they’ll register your phone with Apple or something, you’ll get a text message, you update your iPhone through your PC and then wa-lah! You got yourself an unlocked iPhone. Now if only the Apple Dev Team can figure out how Apple does this then we’ll be closer to having a software version to unlock the iPhone 3G.

As for the software unlock, if what everybody is looking for is for a free version from the Apple DEV Team, well, it’s not yet available. There are some iPhone 3G unlock websites which claims they can but it turns out to be false. If you’re willing to try it out, if the website accepts paypal, you can easily file for a dispute as this what other brave persons from the macrumors forum have done.

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