AT&T confirms it will unlock off-contract iPhones on April 8

http://www.electronista.com/articles...nlocking.iphon
es.at.last/

AT&T confirms it will unlock off-contract iPhones on April 8
updated 02:20 pm EDT, Fri April 6, 2012
ATT officially unlocking iPhones at last

AT&T confirmed with Electronista Friday that it will start unlocking
iPhones. As of April 8, customers that are either out of contract or bought
contract-free will have the option of derestricting the phone's SIM slot
much like the already-unlocked iPhones sold at Apple retail stores. The
only other condition was to have a healthy account.

"Beginning Sunday, April 8, we will offer qualifying customers the ability
to unlock their AT&T iPhones," a spokesman said. "The only requirements are
that a customer’s account must be in good standing, their device cannot be
associated with a current and active term commitment on an AT&T customer
account, and they need to have fulfilled their contract term, upgraded
under one of our upgrade policies or paid an early termination fee."

The initiative follows a number of complaints that led to Apple's Tim Cook
taking action and arranging for a handful of case-by-case unlocks. Other
carriers worldwide have been offering after-sale iPhone unlocks, most
notably in Canada, but AT&T until now has declined to do it, even for
customers who paid the unsubsidized price.

More incentive exists for AT&T to unlock phones now that its spectrum
refarming gives a real chance that its 3G network, and future 4G LTE
network, will work properly with existing iPhones. A SIM unlock was
previously only useful for those either willing to limit themselves to 2G
data or who were traveling and wanted a much less expensive local SIM card
instead of AT&T's roaming plans. [original leak via Engadget]

--
Tea Party Patriots is to Patriotism as
People's Democratic Republic is to Democracy.

On Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:10:27 -0700, Michelle Steiner <>
wrote:

>
>http://www.electronista.com/articles...nlocking.iphon
>es.at.last/
>
>AT&T confirms it will unlock off-contract iPhones on April 8
>updated 02:20 pm EDT, Fri April 6, 2012
>ATT officially unlocking iPhones at last
>
>AT&T confirmed with Electronista Friday that it will start unlocking
>iPhones. As of April 8, customers that are either out of contract or bought
>contract-free will have the option of derestricting the phone's SIM slot
>much like the already-unlocked iPhones sold at Apple retail stores. The
>only other condition was to have a healthy account.
>
>"Beginning Sunday, April 8, we will offer qualifying customers the ability
>to unlock their AT&T iPhones," a spokesman said. "The only requirements are
>that a customer’s account must be in good standing, their device cannot be
>associated with a current and active term commitment on an AT&T customer
>account, and they need to have fulfilled their contract term, upgraded
>under one of our upgrade policies or paid an early termination fee."
>
>The initiative follows a number of complaints that led to Apple's Tim Cook
>taking action and arranging for a handful of case-by-case unlocks. Other
>carriers worldwide have been offering after-sale iPhone unlocks, most
>notably in Canada, but AT&T until now has declined to do it, even for
>customers who paid the unsubsidized price.
>
>More incentive exists for AT&T to unlock phones now that its spectrum
>refarming gives a real chance that its 3G network, and future 4G LTE
>network, will work properly with existing iPhones. A SIM unlock was
>previously only useful for those either willing to limit themselves to 2G
>data or who were traveling and wanted a much less expensive local SIM card
>instead of AT&T's roaming plans. [original leak via Engadget]

Michelle,

What is the mechanism to get your phone unlocked? Said another way, what is
the best/easiest way to get your phone unlocked.

Is it via a telephone call to 611?

Is it via email?

Is it via a visit to the local AT&T store?

Inquiring minds wanna know. Please pass the information on if you know the
details.

TIA.

In article <>,
wrote:

> Michelle,
>
> What is the mechanism to get your phone unlocked? Said another way,
> what is the best/easiest way to get your phone unlocked.
>
> Is it via a telephone call to 611?
>
> Is it via email?
>
> Is it via a visit to the local AT&T store?
>
> Inquiring minds wanna know. Please pass the information on if you know
> the details.

I have no idea; all I know is what is in that article.

--
Tea Party Patriots is to Patriotism as
People's Democratic Republic is to Democracy.

On Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:10:27 -0700, Michelle Steiner
<> wrote:
>More incentive exists for AT&T to unlock phones now that its spectrum
>refarming gives a real chance that its 3G network, and future 4G LTE
>network, will work properly with existing iPhones. A SIM unlock was
>previously only useful for those either willing to limit themselves to 2G
>data or who were traveling and wanted a much less expensive local SIM card
>instead of AT&T's roaming plans. [original leak via Engadget]
I was under the impression that the Iphone 4s is not a 4G phone, even
though it says 4G on the start screen.

In article <>,
wrote:

> I was under the impression that the Iphone 4s is not a 4G phone, even
> though it says 4G on the start screen.

The iPhone 4S on the AT&T network will say 4G when it has an HSDPA+ signal;
although HSDPA+ is not as fast as LTE, it is much faster than HSDPA, and
because 4G is not well defined, HSDPA+ can be considered 4G.

But that's unrelated to the unlocking of out-of-contract AT&T enabled
iPhones.

--
Tea Party Patriots is to Patriotism as
People's Democratic Republic is to Democracy.

wrote:

> What is the mechanism to get your phone unlocked?


Since Apple has a central database with the lock information for every
phone sold, I have to assume that AT&T has to access some Apple system
to declared that your phone ins now unlocked.

Whenever you get a software update from Itunes, the lock status is
obtained from the apple servers and the lock is embedded into the new
software being installed on your phone.

I am not sure how they unlock the phone "right away" though. On real
phones, the customer would have to enter some special * code, and then
enter a very long password to unlock it.

On Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:10:27 -0700, Michelle Steiner <>
wrote:

>
>http://www.electronista.com/articles...nlocking.iphon
>es.at.last/
>
>AT&T confirms it will unlock off-contract iPhones on April 8
>updated 02:20 pm EDT, Fri April 6, 2012
>ATT officially unlocking iPhones at last
>
>AT&T confirmed with Electronista Friday that it will start unlocking
>iPhones. As of April 8, customers that are either out of contract or bought
>contract-free will have the option of derestricting the phone's SIM slot
>much like the already-unlocked iPhones sold at Apple retail stores. The
>only other condition was to have a healthy account.
>
>"Beginning Sunday, April 8, we will offer qualifying customers the ability
>to unlock their AT&T iPhones," a spokesman said. "The only requirements are
>that a customer’s account must be in good standing, their device cannot be
>associated with a current and active term commitment on an AT&T customer
>account, and they need to have fulfilled their contract term, upgraded
>under one of our upgrade policies or paid an early termination fee."
>
>The initiative follows a number of complaints that led to Apple's Tim Cook
>taking action and arranging for a handful of case-by-case unlocks. Other
>carriers worldwide have been offering after-sale iPhone unlocks, most
>notably in Canada, but AT&T until now has declined to do it, even for
>customers who paid the unsubsidized price.
>
>More incentive exists for AT&T to unlock phones now that its spectrum
>refarming gives a real chance that its 3G network, and future 4G LTE
>network, will work properly with existing iPhones. A SIM unlock was
>previously only useful for those either willing to limit themselves to 2G
>data or who were traveling and wanted a much less expensive local SIM card
>instead of AT&T's roaming plans. [original leak via Engadget]

Here is a link about it:

http://news.yahoo.com/t-unlock-contr...154501586.html

It still doesn't say how to do it. Guess I'll buster on over to my
local/favorite AT&T store on Monday and find out.

In article <>,
wrote:

> It still doesn't say how to do it. Guess I'll buster on over to my
> local/favorite AT&T store on Monday and find out.

The method will be all over the web twenty minutes after it's revealed.
You might not have to make the trip.

leo

On Sun, 08 Apr 2012 01:22:18 -0700, Leonard Blaisdell
<> wrote:

>In article <>,
> wrote:
>
>> It still doesn't say how to do it. Guess I'll buster on over to my
>> local/favorite AT&T store on Monday and find out.
>
>The method will be all over the web twenty minutes after it's revealed.
>You might not have to make the trip.
>
>leo

I have not seen it anywhere on the net so far.

Went to my local AT&T store this afternoon. Asked about the process. The
droid behind the counter started lecturing me about he could not give me
instructions on how to unlock my iPhone because it is illegal. Boy did I
send him to school one time. He checked on line and found out what I was
talking about. He told me I had to call customer care to verify my account
was eligble for unlock.

So I called customer care and asked for an AT&T iPhone Care Representative.
They verified my identity. They checked the status of my account. They
checked to verify I have not reported my phone as stolen. They checked that
I had not excessively used data on the system. They verified my contract
had expired and a bunch of other stuff that excapes me at the moment.

Then they forwarded my call to another representative. This rep verified my
identity. They asked me for my email address. They sent me email with
instructions on how to unlock my iPhone.

Here are those instructions.

© 2012 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T and the AT&T
logo are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property. All other
marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.
Completing Your Authorized iPhone Unlock
Thank you for contacting AT&T Customer Care about unlocking your iPhone.
We have reviewed your request and confirmed that you are eligible to have
the requested iPhone unlocked.
To complete the unlock, simply:
1. Open iTunes on your Mac or PC and verify that you have internet
connectivity.
2. Connect your iPhone using the dock connector to USB cable that came with
your iPhone.
3. Backup and restore your iPhone using iTunes .
For information on backup and restore, please visit
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414.
4. After restoring, your iPhone will be unlocked.
Additional information on unlocking can be found at
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3198.
For questions regarding AT&T’s wireless service and iPhone, please visit the
Phone/Device Learning Center.
We thank you for your continued business and look forward to providing you
with the best customer service.
Sincerely,
AT&T Customer Care Team
<END>

Will let you know how it goes.

I'm off to see the wizard right about now HEHEHEHEHEHE

wrote:

> 3. Backup and restore your iPhone using iTunes .

What this means is that AT&T will have sent a command to Apple to update
your IMEI to "unlocked" status prior to sending you the email. Once you
restore, you get the software image from Apple which reflects the
unlocked status associated with your IMEI.