Officially Unlocked iPhone

[wijo]

Anybody has any idea or experience with "Officially Unlocked iPhones"?
I believe you can get one from Apple Hong Kong and their website says you can use it with any carrier.
I just wanna be sure before I get one if I can still use it in its full glory even if I update it when I use it outside of HongKong...like in another country where there is no official iPhone yet?

Appreciate any help...
Thanks.

wijo

[uramaru]

HI there! If you're planning to buy one, check this out: http://myonlineshop2008.multiply.com..._3g_-_openline

You can also ask the users there, Good luck.

[marababol]

I have an officially unlocked iPhone which I purchased from Australia .... and I mean OFFICIALLY UNLOCKED as my IMEI number is stored on the database of Apple as unlocked! I have a legally unlocked phone. I do not use any "piggyback" secondary simcard device. I use the plain old SIM that I insert directly.

I recently have a problem with it and that is when I "accidentally" updated the phone to the latest firmware release 2.2, it began to act up. I am now unable to surf and do 3G internet thru my carrier. I'm on Smart right now. Before the upgrade my phone was on 2.1 and I did not have any problems but when it got updated to 2.2 via iTunes that blasted update bugged up my expensive iPhone. I am furious at Apple now by this "sneaky" tactic they have done.

I tried to downgrade my firmware to 2.1 but still the problem persists. I found on the net similar problems which is traced back to the iphones modem broadband version. It appears the new 2.2 update has a "hidden" secondary firmware updater that also updates the broadband (modem) firmware. Once this is updated there is no current way of downgrading it back to its previous version. You can downgrade the OS back to 2.1 but the broadband firmware stays with the new 2.2 version.

What a pain in the butt!

Anyone out there knows how I can get my iphone fixed and back to working order so I can surf the internet? Either way via 3G, Edge or just plain GSM? I wouldn't want to lose my valuable applications that I have already installed. I have installed the latest jailbreak (Cydia) and they all are working fine except for those that need to access the internet via my carrier.

Incoming calls and outgoing calls including SMS are fine. My wifi works. It is only my carrier that doesn't work which is why I isolated the problem to my iphone modems' firmware update.

I also noticed that if I turn on 3G my SMS acts up and most (90%) of my incoming SMS messages either arrive many hours late or never at all. Outgoing SMS is fine though. That is why I now have my 3G function switched off all the time.

I am now left with an iphone that functions as a low end cellphone since I am unable to surf via my wireless carrier. If I need to access internet I have to locate a free WIFI hotspot and turn on my wifi. Bummer!

Help! Can someone direct me to someone or some way of fixing this problem of mine?

PLEASE!

[quietcynic]

Anybody has any idea or experience with "Officially Unlocked iPhones"?
I believe you can get one from Apple Hong Kong and their website says you can use it with any carrier.

Certain official carriers do not have any locking on their phones, meaning that all the phones they sell are unlocked straight out of the box. Others can have unlocking requested. In order to sell these phones to you, people will sign up for contracts then cancel them, paying the cancellation fee, which is why these phones cost so much.

You cannot just go and buy an iPhone from an Apple store in Hong Kong. Even if the provider does not lock their iPhones, you will still be required to sign up for a service plan before you can buy it.

EDIT: Whoops. I was told you can, through the online store. http://store.apple.com/hk/browse/hom.../family/iphone

Help! Can someone direct me to someone or some way of fixing this problem of mine?

Try doing a restore to 2.2. There is the slight possibility that the baseband update failed; however, this is very unlikely unless something interrupted the update like the cable being yanked out or iTunes being force quit. Do a restore, but do not restore your phone settings, and attempt to connect to WiFi. If it works, it's just some fudged networking settings. If it fails, well, then you have a bigger problem on your hand that you will probably have to see Apple Service about.

I'm not sure how exactly you accidentally updated, since iTunes will never install an iPod/iPhone update automatically, but if your iPhone is officially unlocked, you really shouldn't fear updates from Apple.

[marababol]

Try doing a restore to 2.2. There is the slight possibility that the baseband update failed; however, this is very unlikely unless something interrupted the update like the cable being yanked out or iTunes being force quit. Do a restore, but do not restore your phone settings, and attempt to connect to WiFi. If it works, it's just some fudged networking settings. If it fails, well, then you have a bigger problem on your hand that you will probably have to see Apple Service about.

I'm not sure how exactly you accidentally updated, since iTunes will never install an iPod/iPhone update automatically, but if your iPhone is officially unlocked, you really shouldn't fear updates from Apple.

I've already did a restore before - tried with 2.2 and also tried downgrading to 2.1 but it appears the problem still persists. Like I said earlier I did not have this problem with 2.1. Wifi works ... everything else works except the darned internet access via 3G. If I turn on 3G then incoming SMS is affected so I switch off 3G.

Another thing is that before the update when the phone was still on 2.1, whenever I selected Network - my phone would display a whole sleuth of carriers around the world including that from Globe and Smart. In fact, Smart would have two entries in the list = Smart and Smart3G. Globe and Sun would be there plus a host of other carriers to choose from manually .... just like your regular cell phones ( the cellphone I used to have was a Sony Ericsson K75i and it would display a whole list of carriers). After the update to 2.2, the iphone wouldn't display the whole list now - only the carriers detected in the Philippines = Smart, Globe and Sun .... and the strange thing now is that the listing of Smart would only appear once as Smart. Where has the Smart 3G label gone? I just assumed that the SMart label displayed on my iphone listing would be generic for both 3G and GMS network. Really strange.

My dilemma is how do I contact and get my less-than-a-moth old iphone fixed by Apple when there is no longer an Apple Philippines? I know Apple is now in APple Singapore. I am also not ready and happy to send this back to Australia - geesh! I have to pay again for expensive tax and freight just to get this back to Australia? Bummer indeed! I thought Apple had very good products .... now I am very disappointed with them to the point that I have deferred my plans of getting an iBook and just thinking of sticking with good old reliable PC (and easier to maintain and troubleshoot). What use is user-friendliness if I can't even get in control of my phone and set the settings properly and get it working the way I want it to work?

As for the "accidental updating", the culprit was on iTunes as the option to "Automatically sync when this phone is connected" was checked and I when the dialogue box popped up saying that "there was a new version of the iphone software to 2.2", I clicked yes. Only a few hours later after the update when I started actually using the phone for browsing did I notice its strange behavior with 3G internet. Later I had read in the official iphone blog (http://blog.iphone-dev.org/) NOT to update because of the hidden modem firmware update that Apple slyly sneaked into the 2.2 firmware update and that there was another way of updating the firmware to 2.2 without having to get the baseband firmware updated. I got disappointed when I read that there was no way of downgrading the baseband back (as of the moment) to the previous version although they said it was possible to downgrade the OS firmware back but the baseband (modem) firmware would remain unchanged.

I have written several emails to Apple but they have note even replied. Nada! nothing! What kind of customer service do they have? Personally I feel Apple is regressing and not the same Apple I used to know way, way back. I have even posted my problem on the official Apple forums ( I use ManilaByNight) as my forum name in the Apple forums. What really disappoints me is that I am not alone with problems regarding the 2.2 update specially on the baseband issue. There are dozens of complaints on the different iphone blogs on the net including the official Apple forums and there has been NO response from Apple not even one that I have read that they will be fixing this problem thru their software update. Really really disappointing and I after so many years in the past of being a Mac person, I am now disappointed with them and sad to say I am reverting back to old reliable PC wheer I can have more control of my machine.

Sorry about what I have said but I am feeling very frustrated and CHEATED by my probelm with my iPhone 3G. Ang mahal mahal pa naman nito kasi officially open line - had to pay for the extra to get this officially SIMFree and unlocked!

[IronMan]

@marababol: I don't understand why your "officially" unlocked iPhone 3G will be affected by the recent iPhone 2.2 update. Maybe i missed something?

Also, iTunes is no way "sneaky" with the update as it prompts you if you wanna update to the latest firmware.

One last thing, there's no Apple Philippines in this lifetime, yet.

[marababol]

@marababol: I don't understand why your "officially" unlocked iPhone 3G will be affected by the recent iPhone 2.2 update. Maybe i missed something?

Yes the recent iPhone 2.2 update has a hidden firmware update that also updates the baseband which it never did in any of the previous udaters before.

Also, iTunes is no way "sneaky" with the update as it prompts you if you wanna update to the latest firmware.

I wasn't referring to iTunes itself. What I was referring to is the "hidden" baseband firmware update that Apple included in their iPhone OS firmware 2.2 update which their previous OS firmware updates didn't have before. They could just have packaged the modem baseband firmware update separately instead of including it with the base 2.2 updater. Now, once anyone updates to 2.2 they have no way of downgrading the baseband back to the previous version in spite of the ability of iTunes to be able to downgrade the system back to the system 2.1 - the broadband (modem) version remains unchanged.

One last thing, there's no Apple Philippines in this lifetime, yet.

Excuse me, I am an I.T. Tech Support person and my 2 I.T. companions here were formerly one of the best I.T. technicians (veterans) with the now defunct DPSI. There was an Apple Philippines here sometime in 2000-2003 but was just a small office hidden somewhere.

The head of Apple Philippines visited my company 6 years ago so I know what I am talking about here. I'm a technical person myself although I'm a bit rusty on the Mac side ever since OS9 disappeared.

[antz]

I wasn't referring to iTunes itself. What I was referring to is the "hidden" baseband firmware update that Apple included in their iPhone OS firmware 2.2 update which their previous OS firmware updates didn't have before. red.

I disagree. All iPhone 3G software updates include a new modem firmware:
2.0.0 Firmware - 01.45.00
2.0.1 Firmware - 01.48.02
2.0.2 Firmware - 02.08.01
2.1.0 Firmware - 02.11.07
2.2.0 Firmware - 02.28.00

[marababol]

I disagree. All iPhone 3G software updates include a new modem firmware:
2.0.0 Firmware - 01.45.00
2.0.1 Firmware - 01.48.02
2.0.2 Firmware - 02.08.01
2.1.0 Firmware - 02.11.07
2.2.0 Firmware - 02.28.00

Hmmm .... okay so I may be wrong here .... but obviously the baseband may have a bug somewhere. Why did my iphone work well with the previous baseband versions? And why can't the baseband (or why can't we have control) be downgraded back? I mean we can downgrade the firmware back to 2.1.0 but the baseband stays at 02.28.00 which doesn't seem proper.

[bacchus_3]

Sorry about what I have said but I am feeling very frustrated and CHEATED by my probelm with my iPhone 3G. Ang mahal mahal pa naman nito kasi officially open line - had to pay for the extra to get this officially SIMFree and unlocked!

@marababol, seems like you have an UNOFFICIALLY Unlocked iPhone from what you're saying here. This thread is for 'OFFICIALLY' Unlocked iPhone. Sorry for your problems but that's what you get when it is unofficial. You might want to try other forums to help you but talking about anything related to UNOFFICIAL Unlocked iPhones, especially fixes isn't allowed here anymore. Don't get me wrong on this, it's just our policy here