Friend wants an iPhone 4 but lives in another country

Ferrari · Oct 20, 2010

In his country, they have sim cards.
and my question is, how all could I buy one for him so all he would have to do is plug his sim in the iPhone and have it make calls/texts/etc etc?

From my knowledge:
1) you can either buy a factory unlocked from ebay -- easiest way because you don't have to do anything else to the iphone

but I'm not sure how to actually manually unlock it? can he be on 4.1 and do an unlock or no?
I don't understand all these baseband stuff either

Thank you guys so much in advance

sridhar · Oct 20, 2010

There is no need to unlock if the phone is already factory unlocked. Just ask him to buy a micro Sim cutter so his mini Sim can be cut to fit in the iPhone.

Stannislaus · Oct 20, 2010

OP:

Are you from the states? If so, you have 2 options.
1. Buy iPhone 4 with AT&T contract. This is not your best option. It requires a monthly payment or a hefty cancellation fee (I think) in order to use this option.

2. Buy a factory unlocked iPhone 4. It's quite a bit more expensive than the with-contract phone but you are able to use it with any GSM carrier as long as you can get the sim card to fit inside. You don't have to buy it from ebay, you can get it from stores as well.

The only way you would need to do a manual unlock is if you take option 1, in which you buy a locked iPhone 4. I chose this method even though I'm living overseas at the moment because I will be going back and forth between China and the US. Once I can unlock it with sn0w or whatever its called, all I will have to do is switch SIMs when traveling and I will have a working phone. (Pay-as-you-go is dirt cheap in China, I spend about $15 a month on it, while using AT&T international costs like $2/minute) If your buddy is never, or very infrequently, coming to the US, I would say go with option 2, as paying 50+ bucks a month probably won't sound very appealing to him.

Ferrari · Oct 21, 2010

Stannislaus said:
OP:

Are you from the states? If so, you have 2 options.
1. Buy iPhone 4 with AT&T contract. This is not your best option. It requires a monthly payment or a hefty cancellation fee (I think) in order to use this option.

2. Buy a factory unlocked iPhone 4. It's quite a bit more expensive than the with-contract phone but you are able to use it with any GSM carrier as long as you can get the sim card to fit inside. You don't have to buy it from ebay, you can get it from stores as well.

The only way you would need to do a manual unlock is if you take option 1, in which you buy a locked iPhone 4. I chose this method even though I'm living overseas at the moment because I will be going back and forth between China and the US. Once I can unlock it with sn0w or whatever its called, all I will have to do is switch SIMs when traveling and I will have a working phone. (Pay-as-you-go is dirt cheap in China, I spend about $15 a month on it, while using AT&T international costs like $2/minute) If your buddy is never, or very infrequently, coming to the US, I would say go with option 2, as paying 50+ bucks a month probably won't sound very appealing to him.

Great response!
but what if I just buy a locked one off ebay and do a unlock on it? so that way I wouldn't have to pay the monthly bills and he wouldn't either.
the only downside to that would be that he cant update it in iTunes

Stannislaus · Oct 21, 2010

Personally I don't trust buying anything like an iPhone or expensive things on ebay, so my knowledge is limited. If you still want to do that, try and find out the firmware version and baseband (modem firmware) first. Ask for RECENT timestamped photos of the settings screen showing both pieces of information.

If you're looking for an unlock, you'll have to wait until november sometime when they do the 4.1/4.2 unlocks for the new basebands.

Remember, anyone selling things on the internet besides official dealers cares about their profits first and foremost, and customer satisfaction second. If you show too much interest in a thing and then ask for specifics, many people would fudge a photo to seal the deal. Keep that in mind and good luck!

Edit: And as far as updating it through iTunes, its not such a big deal. Programs like pwnagetool let you upgrade your firmware while retaining your baseband. So you CAN update, just make sure you read up on it first. I *think* someone posted a guide on how to do that somewhere on this forum.

Ferrari · Oct 21, 2010

Stannislaus said:
Personally I don't trust buying anything like an iPhone or expensive things on ebay, so my knowledge is limited. If you still want to do that, try and find out the firmware version and baseband (modem firmware) first. Ask for RECENT timestamped photos of the settings screen showing both pieces of information.

If you're looking for an unlock, you'll have to wait until november sometime when they do the 4.1/4.2 unlocks for the new basebands.

Remember, anyone selling things on the internet besides official dealers cares about their profits first and foremost, and customer satisfaction second. If you show too much interest in a thing and then ask for specifics, many people would fudge a photo to seal the deal. Keep that in mind and good luck!

Edit: And as far as updating it through iTunes, its not such a big deal. Programs like pwnagetool let you upgrade your firmware while retaining your baseband. So you CAN update, just make sure you read up on it first. I *think* someone posted a guide on how to do that somewhere on this forum.

mmk, I'll just get him a factory unlocked then just to be safe and make my life and his life easier

thanks!