Can you 'Officially' unlock an iPhone 4 to use on any network?

[Apple Crumble]

Hey all,

As per title, I remember when the iPhones came out and had a carrier exclusive for a long time, you couldn't get them unlocked without the fear of Apple threatening to brick your device, so has all this changed now with multiple carriers selling the phone? I'm in the UK if that makes any difference?

I don't really want to Jailbreak the phone, so an officially accepted solution is what I'm looking for?

Thanks guys

 

[iV1SHAL]

You can buy an officially unlocked iPhone from apple and some carriers. Alternatively you can buy one that is locked and pay extra for the carrier to officially unlock it. In some cases the carrier may not charge.

 

[Apple Crumble]

Cool, thankyou, just what I was hoping for

 

[Fausty82]

You can buy an officially unlocked iPhone from apple and some carriers. Alternatively you can buy one that is locked and pay extra for the carrier to officially unlock it. In some cases the carrier may not charge.

However, just because you have an unlocked phone doesn't mean that you can use it on other carriers.

Sprint and VZW both use CDMA, but Sprint doesn't (or at least didn't) activate devices that were not sold by Sprint.

AT&T and T-Mobile both use GSM, but they use different frequencies for their 3G service... so you can use the iPhone on T-Mobile (after you hack up the SIM to fit in the iPhone), but you will never get 3G speeds... EDGE is the best you can hope for in that situation.

 

[Wallace]

I have a contract with O2 (I live in the UK). You can get O2 to officially to "unlock" you iPhone so it will work on other networks.

It didn't cost me a penny. If I remember correctly, I requested it from a link on their website.

HTH

 

[Alli]

UK carriers will unlock. We're still behind in the US.