Which networks will unlock straight away ?

ryaner777

Hi All,

The mother in law has a free upgrade due but is more than happy with her old nokia. She has told the missus she is entilted to a free iphone on her upgrade and she can have it. I am just wondering which networks will unlock the phone for her straight away ?

She been with vodafone for the past 10 years but they said they'll only unlock it after the 24 month contract and because of this she is willing to switch networks.

will any of emobile/meteor/o2 or 3 unlock the phone for her straight away ?

If not it'll prob be meteor she goes with as her daughter is on this network.

also to throw another spanner in the works, which network offers the best sim only deal for use with the iphone ?

is the €15 per month with meteor still available and is it any good ?

Sorry for all the questions just trying to make sure this works out for both of them as the mother is law has been getting robbed by vodafone for years. average bill of €98.10 per month. not even using data !

CathalDublin

Only the network which supplies the phone can request the unlock from apple.
Ie. if she gets a free phone from Vodafone only they can unlock it.

No network will unlock till they've made the cost of the phone back from you although I'm with O2 and I've requested the unlock for a few of my iphones through their online request and they've always been accepted within 24hours even though still in contract, in saying that I never requested immediately and my plan is quite high

ryaner777

Thanks cathal thats exactly what I was looking for, vodafone said they won’t do it until the 24 month contract is up.

Now I know o2 will do it straight away gives them an extra point on my comparison scale.

I'll check with emobile myself, has anyone had any luck with meteor or 3 ?

jsd1004

CathalDublin wrote: »

Only the network which supplies the phone can request the unlock from apple.
Ie. if she gets a free phone from Vodafone only they can unlock it.

No network will unlock till they've made the cost of the phone back from you although I'm with O2 and I've requested the unlock for a few of my iphones through their online request and they've always been accepted within 24hours even though still in contract, in saying that I never requested immediately and my plan is quite high

Why contradict yourself? Vodafone have unlocked within a month of contract for me.

ryaner777

jsd1004 wrote: »

Why contradict yourself? Vodafone have unlocked within a month of contract for me.

cheers JSD, I think I may have just been speaking to a really annoyed sales assistant in blanch yesterday ( it was crazy busy and I don't think she was really interested in making a sale and doing all the paperwork. )

I may need to just phone all the networks and get an official responce.

Thanks for your help

kensutz

If she moves networks it doesn't exactly mean that she will get an iPhone for free on those networks. Some may require a deposit. As for eMobile/Meteor, you'll be doing well to get it unlocked straight away from them.

AdMMM

I don't think you fully understand the circumstances of this.

She has been with Vodafone so will be getting the upgrade from them. This will lock her into a new contract and Vodafone will be the only operator that can unlock this phone. Moving to o2/emobile/3 straight after getting the iPhone will do nothing as they can't request that this phone is unlocked.

ryaner777

AdMMM wrote: »

I don't think you fully understand the circumstances of this.

She has been with Vodafone so will be getting the upgrade from them. This will lock her into a new contract and Vodafone will be the only operator that can unlock this phone. Moving to o2/emobile/3 straight after getting the iPhone will do nothing as they can't request that this phone is unlocked.

Ok ,maybe I explained this wrong, she is with vodafone and is entitled to an upgrade from them ( so she is out of contract ) she was going to take it until the bad customr service and the fact that they won't unlock the phone for her until after the 24 month contract. Because of this she is now willing to switch networks (use the new sim in her old nokia which is unlocked) get an iphone from another network and give them her €90 odd euro per month.

From reading online , all networks will offer a free iphone and a nearl unlimited plan for this type of money per month.

What I'm trying to do is get her a deal that allows her to get a free iphone and get it unlocked straight away so she can give it to her daughter as a gift. daughter is on meteor.

The major question I have is which network will unlock it straight away for her ?

kensutz

Simply - none. The networks provide the iPhones free of charge but get the customer to sign contracts. They simply won't unlock a phone straight away unless criteria has been met first.

ryaner777 wrote: »

AdMMM wrote: »

I don't think you fully understand the circumstances of this.

She has been with Vodafone so will be getting the upgrade from them. This will lock her into a new contract and Vodafone will be the only operator that can unlock this phone. Moving to o2/emobile/3 straight after getting the iPhone will do nothing as they can't request that this phone is unlocked.

Ok ,maybe I explained this wrong, she is with vodafone and is entitled to an upgrade from them ( so she is out of contract ) she was going to take it until the bad customr service and the fact that they won't unlock the phone for her until after the 24 month contract. Because of this she is now willing to switch networks (use the new sim in her old nokia which is unlocked) get an iphone from another network and give them her €90 odd euro per month.

From reading online , all networks will offer a free iphone and a nearl unlimited plan for this type of money per month.

What I'm trying to do is get her a deal that allows her to get a free iphone and get it unlocked straight away so she can give it to her daughter as a gift. daughter is on meteor.

The major question I have is which network will unlock it straight away for her ?

guil

i got the iphone 4 from o2 on release day last year and got it unlocked 16 days later

nava

O2 will unlock it straight away after purchase if in contract (18 months), but she will have to take a Smart phone plan that are more expensive than standard plans and also include data that she probably won't use on her Nokia.

subway

90 euro a month?
If she is willing to switch networks so easily, to get a phone sge doesnt want, it suggests she might oit have shopped around enough to get the best value for her bill. Could ou look at reducing her bill with her as the carrot of free iphone with high bill are not always great deals, but people take bacause they see "IPHONE!!" then never use the mnutes etc.
As your mum doesnt even wnt the iphone, it might be an expensive contrct that doesnt meet her needs, particularly as mentioned, regading data.

To answer the question asked, Once you are locked in contract i imagine most networks will unlock as they are getting your money anyway. I think metror unlocked my bros iphone once the cpntract cooling off period was up

YouTookMyName

24 month contract @ min €45 a month is €1080

2nd hand iPhone unlocked around €400-€500.

Contracts are a scam.

Mister Gooey

YouTookMyName wrote: »

24 month contract @ min €45 a month is €1080

2nd hand iPhone unlocked around €400-€500.

Contracts are a scam.

Got an iPhone 4s as an upgrade from emobile on Christmas Eve. It was unlocked already. The previous phone I got from them was also unlocked when I got it!

Nonoperational

YouTookMyName wrote: »

24 month contract @ min €45 a month is €1080

2nd hand iPhone unlocked around €400-€500.

Contracts are a scam.

It's amazing how many people miss the point of this. What exactly are you going to do with the €500 phone if you don't pay to make calls etc?

The €500 extra doesn't disappear into thin air, you get calls text and data for it and have the benefit of not having to hand over €500 all at once day one.

In my case, €40 a month from Three, unlimited data, lots of calls and texts, phone was free, my bill is always €40-45 per month. over 24 months that's €1060.

If I got the phone new it would be €500 and I'd probably spend around €30 credit a month for 2 years, that's €1220. How is that a scam?

ryaner777

subway wrote: »

90 euro a month?
If she is willing to switch networks so easily, to get a phone sge doesnt want, it suggests she might oit have shopped around enough to get the best value for her bill. Could ou look at reducing her bill with her as the carrot of free iphone with high bill are not always great deals, but people take bacause they see "IPHONE!!" then never use the mnutes etc.
As your mum doesnt even wnt the iphone, it might be an expensive contrct that doesnt meet her needs, particularly as mentioned, regading data.

To answer the question asked, Once you are locked in contract i imagine most networks will unlock as they are getting your money anyway. I think metror unlocked my bros iphone once the cpntract cooling off period was up

We were all in shock when we found out what her average bill was ! she is one of those typical irish people that just pay by direct debit and never check to see if there are any errors or anything on her bill ! I think she presumed thats what everyone pays a month.

I was so annoyed at vodafone though. They hadn't changed her price plan in over 3 years, and even then it went from 100 free texts/minutes per month to 150 for a extra tenner. god knows how long she'd been on the 100 tariff for. now i know it her fault for not checking but they could have done something for her ? a few extra free mintues or text would have saved her a fortune over the 3 years.

What she wants now is a capped bill , so unlimited calls , texts and landlines. Or something that shell never get near like 600 calls/texts per month.

And we have been explaining to her that if this is what she wants she might as well make the most of it and get a free phone from them as well. She's happy with this and wants to give this to her daughter as a present. We just need to get it from a network that will unlock it for us asap.

guil

gpf101 wrote: »

It's amazing how many people miss the point of this. What exactly are you going to do with the €500 phone if you don't pay to make calls etc?

The €500 extra doesn't disappear into thin air, you get calls text and data for it and have the benefit of not having to hand over €500 all at once day one.

In my case, €40 a month from Three, unlimited data, lots of calls and texts, phone was free, my bill is always €40-45 per month. over 24 months that's €1060.

If I got the phone new it would be €500 and I'd probably spend around €30 credit a month for 2 years, that's €1220. How is that a scam?

that wrecks my head when people compare the prices that way, in my own case i got a 32gb iphone 4 for free with an unlimited contract over 24 months with emobile for €74 per month, that comes to €1776 over the 2 years.

if i bought the phone it would be €700 upfront and i'd easily spend €30 per week on credit and which comes to €3120 so in reality it's costing me half the price to go on contract

subway

Fair play, my own mother was paying thru the noise for her phone and only used it for texts and te odd call, when we ound we tried her on prepay for a while and se went from 60 a month bill to 20 cerdit every few months.
If she really is making that many calls thenyopu shoud get a good deal if you ring around.
Meteor over the phone sales reps offer some really good deals if you push thm, for example

t.henno66

Does anyone know for sure if unlock.ie works. I'm tempted to pay the 87.50 to unlock from Vodafone

Nonoperational

subway wrote: »

Fair play, my own mother was paying thru the noise for her phone and only used it for texts and te odd call, when we ound we tried her on prepay for a while and se went from 60 a month bill to 20 cerdit every few months.
If she really is making that many calls thenyopu shoud get a good deal if you ring around.
Meteor over the phone sales reps offer some really good deals if you push thm, for example

That's perfectly reasonable...if someone only uses phones for the odd call and the free texts then prepay is the way to go. For heavy-ish smartphone use contracts definitely have their place.

120_Minutes

In my experience Vodafone only unlock iPhones in the following fashion:

1, prepay, after you've spent a certain amount of credit.(150 I think)
2, billpay, after, AND ONLY AFTER your contract is up.
3, the rare cases where people in number 2, have gods smile upon them, planets align, and some hidden notes on their account decree that their phones be unlocked early. Doesn't happen often though.

That someone can spend close to 600 quid on a phone, 150 more in credit, and bugger off to another network if you want and I had to wait 18 months, when there was no danger of me buggering off till they thought it was safe enough to unlock my phone is one of the reasons I'm not on Vodafone anymore.

subway

gpf101 wrote: »

That's perfectly reasonable...if someone only uses phones for the odd call and the free texts then prepay is the way to go. For heavy-ish smartphone use contracts definitely have their place.

Yep, the thing was, she seemed to have an assumption that prepay was just for kids and that mobile phone bills were meant to be high.
It was only when we pointed out that her usage could be covered at a fraction of the cost that she realised she didnt need to be on one of the more expensive packages !

CathalDublin

jsd1004 wrote: »

Why contradict yourself? Vodafone have unlocked within a month of contract for me.

Not really a contradiction, why does it bother you? I'm just telling the op my experience

IR1SH RANG3R

Hi,

I'm in the same situation. Can I just ask, if someone got an upgrade from vodafone to an iPhone could someone else use a vodafone pay as you go SIM in that iphone without any unlocks? Same network and the person that got the upgrade is still paying the bill just that they are still using their old phone instead of the new iphone.

nava

IR1SH RANG3R wrote: »

Hi,

I'm in the same situation. Can I just ask, if someone got an upgrade from vodafone to an iPhone could someone else use a vodafone pay as you go SIM in that iphone without any unlocks? Same network and the person that got the upgrade is still paying the bill just that they are still using their old phone instead of the new iphone.

Yes they can use the Iphone as Pay as you go, the phones are lock to the network itself.

kilianmanning

ryaner777 wrote: »

Hi All,

The mother in law has a free upgrade due but is more than happy with her old nokia. She has told the missus she is entilted to a free iphone on her upgrade and she can have it. I am just wondering which networks will unlock the phone for her straight away ?

She been with vodafone for the past 10 years but they said they'll only unlock it after the 24 month contract and because of this she is willing to switch networks.

will any of emobile/meteor/o2 or 3 unlock the phone for her straight away ?

If not it'll prob be meteor she goes with as her daughter is on this network.

also to throw another spanner in the works, which network offers the best sim only deal for use with the iphone ?

is the €15 per month with meteor still available and is it any good ?

Sorry for all the questions just trying to make sure this works out for both of them as the mother is law has been getting robbed by vodafone for years. average bill
of €98.10 per month. not even using data !

there will be an untethered jailbreak out soon for the 4s. A Newer version of ultrasn0w could come out to support the newer basebands too.:)

guil

kilianmanning wrote: »

there will be an untethered jailbreak out soon for the 4s. A Newer version of ultrasn0w could come out to support the newer basebands too.:)

i wouldn't hold my breath, it's being over a year and a half since they updated ultrasn0w to support the iphone 4 bb 01.59.00 and just over a year since it was updated to unlock the ipad bb 06.15.00

kilianmanning

ryaner777 wrote: »

Hi All,

The mother in law has a free upgrade due but is more than happy with her old nokia. She has told the missus she is entilted to a free iphone on her upgrade and she can have it. I am just wondering which networks will unlock the phone for her straight away ?

She been with vodafone for the past 10 years but they said they'll only unlock it after the 24 month contract and because of this she is willing to switch networks.

will any of emobile/meteor/o2 or 3 unlock the phone for her straight away ?

If not it'll prob be meteor she goes with as her daughter is on this network.

also to throw another spanner in the works, which network offers the best sim only deal for use with the iphone ?

is the €15 per month with meteor still available and is it any good ?

Sorry for all the questions just trying to make sure this works out for both of them as the mother is law has been getting robbed by vodafone for years. average bill of €98.10 per month. not even using data !

if you are going to go with vodafone i know a way you can get it unlocked.
If someone you know that is on vodafone prepay that has spent sufficient credit to request an unlock and is willing to, get them to request the code. When they ring just say that they bought the phone off adverts. vodafone will have to request the unlock from apple. has worked for me before with vodafone for a 3gs. Could be worth giving it a try with a different bill pay account too

ryaner777

Cheers. May have to try this method. Thanks everyone for you assistance.