iPhones, iPods, and iPads forum: ATT unlocking iphone 4s, NOT!

Where did you get the phone ?? Is it a Sprint or Verizon iPhone ??

You have an active contract and not eligible according to the posted article about the unlocking policy.

...even if you got it last summer, you would have had to sign a 2 year contract and the article I posted the link clearly states you cannot have an active contract, it must have been fulfilled in full. Even if you managed to get a 1 year contract, you still haven't met that requirement.

The iPhone 4S has not been available on any cellular carrier more than 12 months. At&t never said they will unlock all iPhones upon request, you must meet certain qualifications and those are clearly spelled out.

Your thread title is entirely incorrect.

After explaining the situation a little clearer, then the issue may not be that you are in contract, but the system is treating your account like it needs to fulfill the original 24 month commitment. I do not believe there is any requirement to purchase the iPhone directly from At&t. I would call Customer Service and escalate to a manager who may be able to override it.

Good luck. You weren't very clear in your previous statements so it sounded like you were trying to play the system.

BTW: I used to be a CS rep for At&t so I do have a little insight. That is also why I was skeptical of your original inquiry.

It would be helpful to have that info here for anyone else being deployed abroad like you are, and in a similar situation regarding unlock eligibility status.

My gut feeling though is you may have trouble getting them to override since although your contract was technically cancelled, they still might look at it from the perspective of only being less than one year since the handset was acquired. ATT in this regard is like a big slow dinosaur .

Right now I believe ATT is simply suffering from overall lack of front line knowledge with their CS reps. I can use the example of my cousins who currently have two eligible iPhones on their family plan the wish to unlock. For some reason ATT refused to unlock the primary account holder's iPhone, but provided an unlock code via email for the second one yesterday. No clear explanation why it wasn't provided other than 'they were looking into it'. Frustrating.

The primary issue I see with that claim is, the vast majority of foreign GSM/UMTS handsets are still using standard SIM cards, and not microSIM cards like the iPhone 4, 4S, and some of the newer Nokias, etc. Did you cut the foreign prepaid/postpaid SIM card to fit inside the 4?

What you were likely experiencing was either a fluke, or someone actually obtained an unlocked version from an alternate source online such as buy.com, etc. In any case the prepaid SIM would have had to have been cut to fit.

Your first and last paragraph seem to differ on the origin of the phone in question. Was it obtained in that country, or was it obtained here in an ATT store?

If the iPhone 4 was obtained in that country, the limitations of the different versions sold in the U.S. by carriers here might not apply in that case if the phone had a non-US carrier ROM. The carrier ROM restrictions in Europe won't be the same as here with SIM card swaps & roaming being the norm there forever.

I can tell you with certainty that unless someone mixed up a factory unlocked iPhone 4 with a standard ATT issued 4 it should not work with a foreign SIM since it would still be network locked to ATT. Even a foreign microSIM shouldn't make a difference since the combination of SIM & what's programmed into the phone is where the rubber hits the road.

comments?

...that one iPhone is perhaps the exception and not the rule.

Just unlock your iPhone with the new SAM solution, no need for AT&T or a GEVEY SIM card. Just unlock it for free!