Paying for a factory unlock for iPhone 4S

Graham_B18C

I found this crowd online http://irishunlock.com/mobile-unlocking.php and I'm just wondering has anyone else ever used them? It's 75 quid and they say it can take up to a week to get codes to you that can unlock the phone but I always thought you needed to connect it to iTunes once a network has requested the unlock from apple. Does anyone know about this way of unlocking? As I can't get Vodafone to unlock mine for another year

guil

The only way to factory unlock an iPhone is with iTunes. There is no codes

Graham_B18C

I thought that alright, but I've noticed a few places advertising factory unlock for iPhones, right up to iPhone 5's.

frozenfrozen

grey market unlocks work. And with the 4S you don't need to plug it into iTunes, it will automatically just let you use a different sim once it syncs with the apple server its self and finds that it is whitelisted. Read about it on this thread http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1398957

I genuinely think they just keep ringing apple until they annoy someone enough to unlock the phone for them.

Graham_B18C

Brill, I reckon I'll go for that so. I'm paying 32 quid a month on Vodafone for 100 mins, 100 texts and 500MB of data so its nothing really. EMobile are offering a hell of a lot more on their 30 day contracts. I'm bloody dreading my bill from Vodafone this month!

frozenfrozen

Graham_B18C wrote: »

Brill, I reckon I'll go for that so. I'm paying 32 quid a month on Vodafone for 100 mins, 100 texts and 500MB of data so its nothing really. EMobile are offering a hell of a lot more on their 30 day contracts. I'm bloody dreading my bill from Vodafone this month!

I've never used that website that you said at the start, so still be wary of it! But the price you said is around the going rate for irish iPhones. Be careful too that you're not still under contract with vodafone so you can actually just stop paying your bill! Three have a good 30 day contract too. 20 euro a month gets you unlimited texts to everyone, unlimited internet, unlimited calls to other three people and calls to all mobiles at the weekend. Also when you top up by 20 you get an extra 10 euro credit added to your account, and when the free stuff is used up you can use your credit, so when I was with them last I was paying once every 45ish days, which is pretty good.

Graham_B18C

I bought the 4S secondhand from a friend so it's still under contract to him, that's why I can't get them to unlock it yet.

I was with three for 18 months until march and I was counting the days to get away from them. I never had 3G and if I had more than 2 bars of coverage I was doing well! I looked at that 48 crowd too, 20 quid a month for unlimited mobile calls and texts, and loads of internet so I may try them. If their coverage is crap I'll try meteor or eMobile.

Also just found out from someone that there's a place in Charlestown that offer the factory unlock for 50 quid. I'm going to pop in and check em out

frozenfrozen

Graham_B18C wrote: »

I bought the 4S secondhand from a friend so it's still under contract to him, that's why I can't get them to unlock it yet.

I was with three for 18 months until march and I was counting the days to get away from them. I never had 3G and if I had more than 2 bars of coverage I was doing well! I looked at that 48 crowd too, 20 quid a month for unlimited mobile calls and texts, and loads of internet so I may try them. If their coverage is crap I'll try meteor or eMobile.

Also just found out from someone that there's a place in Charlestown that offer the factory unlock for 50 quid. I'm going to pop in and check em out

Three are the worst company to deal with but I've no better option in my area, and I get full 3g coverage from my house so 600kb/s down and 400 up... can't say no really. And the price..

I sold my iphone 4 about a month ago to fund an iphone 5, in the meantime I've been using a blackberry on 48, and they're good. I always had coverage for calls and texts, and the price is right. They do only have a limited version of o2s 3g network though, so even though I can't give you a first person experience of the speed, expect it to be slow. emobile seem to be your best choice at the moment.
I think I'll still go back to three just because I haven't had a terrible experience with them as of yet, and it won't be much of a big deal if I do because I'll be on pay as you go.

That unlock for 50 sounds good, and since its an actual place you're going to it means that they won't just take your 50 quid and run off. Make sure that they aren't just jailbreaking the phone though. also check your imei on http://s-url.ro/ before you hand over the cash for it. It's the only way you'll be sure that it's fully unlocked on apples servers. (there are a few other variations on that website for checking too.)

You reminded me that my 5 is coming tomorrow, getting very excited again!

Best of luck getting your phone unlocked

Graham_B18C

Haha, good stuff. I'd love a 5 but I just forked out 560 quid for an iPad on Friday so the 4S will have to do for the foreseeable future!

Went to the guy, he took my IMEI and he said he'd call me tomorrow when it's done and all I have to do is connect it to iTunes and it'll be a proper unlock. How he does it, I do not know!

frozenfrozen

Graham_B18C wrote: »

Haha, good stuff. I'd love a 5 but I just forked out 560 quid for an iPad on Friday so the 4S will have to do for the foreseeable future!

Went to the guy, he took my IMEI and he said he'd call me tomorrow when it's done and all I have to do is connect it to iTunes and it'll be a proper unlock. How he does it, I do not know!

The 4S is still a serious phone! The guy is basically going to send the imei onto someone either on ebay or one of those unlocking websites, and just pay them to do it, but he will get it cheaper from them since he'd be doing it often with them, its like subcontracting.

Graham_B18C

Got a text from the dude yesterday saying the phone was unlocked. Popped the girlfriends sim in and connected to iTunes, all works perfectly! While 50 quid is steep enough I'm happy out!