Unlocking an iPhone for Travel????

[sunkmail]

I'm going to be going on a trip to Germany soon and have an iPhone 3Gs on the Bell (Canada) network.
I am hoping to be able to get a pre-paid SIM card while there, for a few local calls and internet access. I'll be there for a month, and moving around.
I figure access to maps and train schedules and such would be pretty helpful.

From my research so far, I'm getting a lot of conflicting information. (ie, It's a scam, no it isn't.)
I don't want to brick the phone, or lose any functionality.

Anyone have experience with this? Any suggestions??

Thanks!

 

[scubamarketing]

It looks like Bell won't do an official carrier unlock, so you'd either be looking at a Gevey sim (I haven't used) or jailbreaking it. Even jailbreaking won't necessarily do it depending on your baseband. Go to Settings, General, About and look at the Modem Firmware number. You can post here or PM me and I'll let you know if it's jailbreak unlockable. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I feel lucky being an AT&T iPhone user, they allow carrier unlocks.

 

[sunkmail]

Thanks.

I've looked into that ... in fact, Bell will do an unlock, if you are past the 1 ys mfg. warranty. Apparently, unlocking would void it. It costs $75 though.


I did come across this: How To Unlock iPhone 3Gs 5.1.1 for Tmobile & Jailbreak Untethered - Redsn0w 0.9.14b1 - YouTube seems they have figured out a fix for the iPad BB GPS problem. (my phone has a '012' mfg date, currently with 05.16.05 BB FW)

 

[graham_s]

This sort of thing is why I buy my phones upfront and use SIM only contracts.
In the long run it's usually cheaper too.

 

[Hank49]

I took my iPhone 4 to the Philippines in May.
I didn't do anything to it but used Talkatone for calling the US (also good for Canada) and Viber for calling Belize or any international, which also included the Philippines but the person you're calling also has to have it. I had to problems connecting to internet anywhere.

 

[scubamarketing]

Thanks.

I've looked into that ... in fact, Bell will do an unlock, if you are past the 1 ys mfg. warranty. Apparently, unlocking would void it. It costs $75 though.


I did come across this: How To Unlock iPhone 3Gs 5.1.1 for Tmobile & Jailbreak Untethered - Redsn0w 0.9.14b1 - YouTube seems they have figured out a fix for the iPad BB GPS problem. (my phone has a '012' mfg date, currently with 05.16.05 BB FW)

Cool, they hadn't figured out the iPad BB GPS issues by the time AT&T was willing to unlock mine, so I didn't research that option beyond that point. I would still personally pay the $75 to have the official unlock because you can update the OS or restore at any time without having to redo the whole process, plus the last time I used a jailbreak, it had a pretty noticeable impact on stability and battery life. Plus, should you ever decide to sell it on eBay, an unlocked phone will fetch more than $75 above a non-unlocked phone

This sort of thing is why I buy my phones upfront and use SIM only contracts.
In the long run it's usually cheaper too.

Me too, and people always look at me like I'm crazy when I say a replacement phone is $850

I took my iPhone 4 to the Philippines in May.
I didn't do anything to it but used Talkatone for calling the US (also good for Canada) and Viber for calling Belize or any international, which also included the Philippines but the person you're calling also has to have it. I had to problems connecting to internet anywhere.

Can't you also hook Talkatone up to a Google Voice account to call people on a standard number? This would still require internet access (wifi), right? Sounds like a good setup.

 

[sunkmail]

For me, the Talkatone idea isn't going to work ... I don't expect most of the folks I'll be calling to be that tech savvy. And, for some reason, you can't get a google voice account going in Canada - at least not the last time I looked into it.

Even the Bell rep, unofficially, suggested using a 3rd party service, as it's the same, and cheaper. Strange that the carrier is essentially saying that they jailbreak your phone for you for $75. At least that is what I got out of it.

I don't tend to get the newest and best phone whenever they come out - I plan to use this one until it dies, or I have a significant reason to change it. In either case, there is a good chance the market for a 3Gs will dry up quite a bit by then.

 

[Hank49]

For me, the Talkatone idea isn't going to work ... I don't expect most of the folks I'll be calling to be that tech savvy. And, for some reason, you can't get a google voice account going in Canada - at least not the last time I looked into it.

The receiver of the Talkatone call doesn't have to do anything but answer the phone, like a normal call. Caller ID will show it as a call coming from California though.
And using Talkatone, once it's downloaded, is just clicking the icon and dialing a number, just as you would in the US but without dialing 1. Just area code and number.

 

[Mark Derail]

You could buy a gray-market, brand new, worldwide iPhone4 8g for 370$ Can.
Look in Kijiji.ca or Craigslist.

Or wait a bit, the New iPhone that replaces the 4s is out soon, and there will be price drops. Last I checked, an iPhone4 16g from Apple Store was 570$.

Fido in Canada sells a iPhone4 sim card for 10$, you can get a line-only service for 20$ per month, add 11$/m for voicemail & caller id.
Forego 3g service for wireless internet, just use the many free WiFi services from restaurants / coffee shops.

When I traveled to Cayman Islands, I bought from LIME a sim + 1month service & 500Mb for 55$ CI, perfect for one week's use. Got a local number and used Google Maps.

 

[scubamarketing]

For me, the Talkatone idea isn't going to work ... I don't expect most of the folks I'll be calling to be that tech savvy. And, for some reason, you can't get a google voice account going in Canada - at least not the last time I looked into it.

Even the Bell rep, unofficially, suggested using a 3rd party service, as it's the same, and cheaper. Strange that the carrier is essentially saying that they jailbreak your phone for you for $75. At least that is what I got out of it.

I don't tend to get the newest and best phone whenever they come out - I plan to use this one until it dies, or I have a significant reason to change it. In either case, there is a good chance the market for a 3Gs will dry up quite a bit by then.

Personally, I'd find out if they're jailbreaking it or doing an official unlock via iTunes. If it's via iTunes, $75 is the cheapest, easiest way to go. All of the other options presented are viable and not too difficult, but hooking your phone to your computer and letting iTunes sync is still going to be the easiest and most reliable (compared to jailbreaking) and cheaper than buying an unlocked phone.