iPhone now software unlocked in 32 countries and 69 carriers
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Sep 13th 2007 1:44AM
posted Sep 13th 2007 1:44AM
Update: Make that 42 countries and 90 local carriers according to our readers! They've unlocked their own phones on the additional country/carrier combos: New Zealand/Vodafone, Spain/Movistar, Poland/Orange, Czech Republic/Vodafone, Bahrain/Batelcom/MTC Vodafone, Israel/Cellcom, Hungary/T-Mobile, Belgium/Proximus/Base/Mobistar, Kuwait/Wataniya, and Ireland/Meteor. Note: the iPhoneDev list included Telus (with a note that it won't work) and double-counted India. Any more dear readers?
Also: SINGPORE: M1 (full services)!! :)
No-one has tried it in Spain yet? Im surprised...i hope it doesn't mean it doesn't work over here!
Works perfectly in Spain! Movistar carrer!
It's GSM phone so you may as well add every GSM nextwork to the list... (Depending on frequnecy bands available in region/iPhone matching)
"you may as well add every GSM nextwork to the list"
Really, you should be able to, but since it's only a trial and error based unlock method, it can't be known for sure as the proper unlocking method had not been released by Apple.
Real example: An unlocked Motorola phone will be locked again if a locked firmware is loaded onto it, but before this, it is possible to reset the unlock code to 00000000 so that the handset is easily unlocked again no matter what locked firmware is applied. There is at lease one exception though, loading Three Australia firmware onto the phone will lock the phone and the phone will not accept the unlock code 00000000 even though any other carrier's software would.
5.3 Telus
wtf?
Telus uses CDMA.
@Mike,
"Telus: I did test the unlocked iPhone with Telus Mike (SIM based CDMA) for kicks, as expected, it did not work at all."
Agree, stupid to include in the list.
Thomas
I'm stuck in a contract with them, and figured as much, but then I saw this list and got my hopes up. :(
"Telus: I did test the unlocked iPhone with Telus Mike (SIM based CDMA) for kicks, as expected, it did not work at all."
And Mike isn't SIM based CDMA anyway - it's iDEN.
Actually, only 31 countries. India appears twice on the list: at #13 and #31.
How does it work on Telus in Canada? Telus is CDMA...
I am curious as well.
ya.. I was just wondering. telus canada is NOT GSM.
fido and rogers are, though they both eat babies.
Telus's Mike service uses SIMs but it is still on the CDMA network. Someone tested one of those SIMs in the iPhone but as you have probably guessed by now it did not work, given that the network is still CDMA.
Your comments: My cousin is buying the iPhone , he will be using it in Karachi,
Pakistan on Warid Telecom and also on Mobilink Mobile
Network!
Yeaaahhhh!
Mudassir
San Francisco, CA
Telus? It's CDMA. Anyone want to explain how the SIM unlock on a GSM phone makes that work?
your like the 90th person to tell us that, was there a reason you felt the need to re-comment that?
Notice there was a five god damn minute lag between the first post and this? There were ZERO comments when I submitter, jerk.
Wait, when I buy an iPhone, do I also have to buy the plan from ATT?
I don't think so... You can go to the apple website and add it to your cart and I'm pretty sure you can order it and not need to subscribe to AT&T right away. I think you need to activate it with AT&T, but that can be gotten around.
Either buy a second hand one, or buy from a Apple Store. There are applications on the net to fake the AT&T Activation and you'll never have to touch AT&T (or more importantly, give them money).
All activation is done using iTunes in the comfort of your own home. You can buy the phone online, or walk into any Apple store and buy it in person (which is what I did). I am not sure about AT&T stores; the activation should be the same, but I've read one person who said they hassled him about it. Dunno if that's true, or what the hassle was. (Maybe the AT&T people were more pushy about cases and other add-ons, which seems likely.)
Buy it from AT&T as a "gift" .. they'll still have to do a credit check but they won't do an activation or anything.
add another one, dobson communications (cellular one) out of ohio!
Dobson offers GSM in OHIO
please, more articles on the iphone unlock. i feel this issue hasn't received nearly the attention it deserves.
You can add Ireland to the list, the carrier is meteor www.meteor.ie. My meteor sim works fine.
why don't we take a poll of how many engadget users actually have an iphone, and limit iphone news to that percentage? I am an engadget fanboy, but this is starting to get ridiculous.
There are people who don't have the iPhone that are interested in it.
Yahoo Pipes iPhone-less RSS feed, peeps. Use it!
I think you're wrong.. it's not "starting to get ridiculous"... we passed that a few months ago... but hey, Engadget are doing it for their readers and it seems there are a lot of iphone fans on here.
Far outnumbering the general gadget fans.
Guys if anyone is ever planning on getting a job at Engadget, i think you know what kind of writers they like... people with a natural bias towards anything remotely apple. That way they wont have to put out a directive for them to keep posting apple stuff.
I dont know how long this is going on but obviously engadget have worked out that it's worth the risk of losing a bit of general gadget lovers in favor of bringing in more iphone, ipod, i-anything lovers.
We'll know whether it works in a year depending on whether it turns into just another gadget blog, dies off or becomes ever more popular... i personally havent reached the end of my tether yet, but i'm getting there.
I've made possibly just over a dozen comments on this website since i've been on here. half of those are probably on giveaway/contest entries... most of the rest have been to complain about this annoying tendency to treat engadget like an apple forum with post about post of relatively insignificant items about apple products.
Think about this Ryan an all, with so many people saying you are biased towards some companies... there must be some truth to it. "No smoke without fire".
Add this carrier : "Wataniya" in Kuwait. Works fine!
Guysssssss.
Get on the Ball !!!
Telus is not a GSM Carrier...
Tsk tsk, tsk.
i was just about to add that midoe..sick to see another person in kuwait with an iphone
This is great - I'll be over from NZ soon to pick one of these up and use over here. But, let me make a plea for an app in the near future.
A lot of cellphones have the ability to save a 'profile' for each of your GPRS access providers. Let's say you have several SIMS - e.g. in Europe - you travel a lot and don't want to rack up roaming charges so so switch to the local country SIM card you have in your wallet.
So, other cellphones have the ability to save you APN, user, password for each provider under different profiles. SO, when you switch SIM card, you just switch profile to match the SIM, and you cellphone knows which settings to use.
Does the iPhone have this built in? I'm guesing not as it was built by Apple as a device specifically tied to onely one provider, rather than most other cellphones which are build 'vanilla' or with generic settings and then locked (sometimes) by the provider to their own network.
So, as well as breaking the network lock (which is great and I am grateful), I wonder if some bright team could develop a way of storing different GPRS profiles saving you from entering them afresh each time?
It has also been unlocked on Vodafone in New Zealand.
Great - excellent news for me! wouldn't happen to know the link where that was posted do you - I'd like to send them a message.
does this thing even have 3G? why the hell would you want to use it in half of those countries?
sorry, but N95 > iphone period.
Now there's no excuse not to have an iPhone in a gadget give away.
New Zealand - Vodafone confirmed working
Text: yes
Call: yes
Voicemail: yes
GPRS - havent tried / not sure.
nice!
You guys made me think for a second that I missed the news that the iPhone had a CDMA version out...
cauz I don't see TELUS switching to GSM anytime soon...
I was in Vancouver, B.C. roaming on Rogers and my Visual Voicemail worked fine. Cost me $3 to listen to my voicemail (was very important so worth it).
Yvo
I've never heard of this - "I-Fone?" what does it do? Who keeps locking it? So very confusing. . .
Answering from Spain! Yesterday i was all day long trying to free my iphone, until past midnight when it was donde!! It works perfectly with Movistar, don't know with other carriers...
Great thanks to everyone who made it possible!!
You can add Belgium to the list with 3 Providers: Proximus, Base and Mobistar.
Fasten your seatbelts, its going to be a VERY bumpy ride. Pissing off Steve, with his pet no less, has no limits to resources spent regaining his ego. Only a fool thinks this silly drama is over. Apple has long history of vindictive pyschotic warfare weapon preference.
Guys, add Hungary, T-Mobile carrier too. Fully working :)
I don't think Apple is all that worried about this. This only means that they'll sell even more iPhone's. It's AT&T you have to worry about here ;).
Us people over at Korea/Japan will have to wait until Steve finally get's his precious over here.. Bummer.
The provider i use (India), isn't mentioned... but it works on that... so this list definitely needs some updating to do.
(Provider - BPL Mobile)
Belgium ? brussels the capital of europe ? base,orange,mobistar,proximus ?????
Can we have a moment of silence to honor all the f\/king eBay morons who are buying my unlocked iPhones for between $550 and $700. Thanks, idiots!
@Kevin: those "morons" need their 15 minutes of happiness.. i'm sure they've made you quite happy too :)
Hmm I hope Apple wasn't planning on going international with the iPhone, because it looks like it's being done for them.
what is the website to download the unlock? i must know :-|
Actually add another country, Israel, carrier: Cellcom
Tested Calls, Text, Voicemail and Edge.
Everything is working perfectly.
Bahrain too on both Batelco and MTC Vodafone
Pictures here
http://mahmood.tv/2007/09/10/the-iphone-on-bahrains-networks-works/
you can add CZECH REPUBLIC (Vodafone) to the list :))))
You can add Poland; provider - Orange PL
I'll wait to see what rediculous price Apple gives the UK for the iPhone, then consider if it's worth it to import a US model, that is of course if the 3G Rumours are true, then I may pay a premium for the 3G.
Can anyone tell me how to get my internet working. I have a sim from a t-mobile sidekick 3 now in the iPhone. Please help
This is the company who sued a 100% Mac fan site all the way to one last court just before THE Supreme Court except finally getting shot down by circuit judge with some common sense. It would have been landmark free speech case otherwise.
The blogger's crime worthy of bottomless money spent punishing him? He dared leak details about a $50 Garageband gadget THAT NEVER LAUNCHED.
That 3rd party allow comment was just calculated ruse to flush out underground hacking. It worked beyond their wildest dreams.
Who would want to buy into sweating out a bricked phone every iTunes update bi-monthly? This shit will get so old so fast. Mac madness NEVER stops.
Have the trolls even noticed that they're just pissing into the wind? Why bother?
It's also been unlocked on Vodafone in New Zealand so that makes 33 countries...Or is NZ not a country cos of its size?
NZs not that small. I live here and haven't fallen off once.
Aarun: "...Or is NZ not a country cos of its size?"
Let me guess, you are not smarter than a 5th Grader? We might be small, but we have the best Rugby team bar none - All Blacks FTW!
Well I too live in New Zealand and was merely making a snarky comment to whoever came up with the "32 countries" as I knew the iPhone was working here in NZ. I am smarter than 5th Grader thanks or as we like to say in NZ a Form 1 kid? It's our turn this time! We've been waiting 20 years for this moment and I'm telling you it's going to happen!
works great in austria ONE!:)
Engadget: The iphone does NOT work with MTC in Kuwait. Please strike that out. we do not want people misleaded. thanks.
Has anyone tried this on 02 in the UK and discovered if the Visual Voicemail is working? I guess this would be an indicator of whether the network operators have upgraded their network yet.
You can add Denmark/TDC to the list. Using GPRS here, danish characters on the keyboard. Sweet!
Does anyone know anything about carriers in the Netherlands?
OK - I can confirm Sweden 18.3 - Telenor as well. Did it last night. Tried calling and texting but no data so far. But I cant see why that shouldn't work as well.
This is a basic set of questions that I hope you can help me with.
Does the iphone need activation in addition to the unlock? If so, do you
initially need an AT&T contract to activate?
Specific example: I have a GSM/Sim account in another country (i.e. Canada)from a non-AT&T provider. I want to use the iphone on my account. If I buy an iphone, say from Apple, can I unlock it AND activate it without an AT&T account? If I can, will everything work except for the visual voice mail assuming I have a proper data
plan?
Thanks for your help.
How about first in Dubai since yesterday! Anyone in Dubai interested in buying an unlocked one?
Iran - IR-TCI
Text = yes
Voice = yes
Voicemail = yes
Edge = not tested
The unlocked iphone works very well with Chun Hwa Telecom in Taiwan....
I guess you assume that Engadget dictates what is tech news and what isn't.
Come on guys, stop reporting the news already! I'm sick and tired of being up-to-date with tech news stories already! I'm tired of being forced to read articles that don't interest me! I can't make choices on which articles to devote precious seconds of my life to, and which ones to avoid. STOP THE MADNESS!!!
(Seriously, whiners... there are bigger and better things to be concerned about...)
Spenrock: You don't need to activate using iTunes. If you own a Mac, the application iNdependence will activate it for you. Afterwards, iTunes recognizes your iPhone as an activated one.
Similar functionality is most definitely available for the PC.
I don't get it, all of you bought one before unlocking even launched for overseas locations hoping it would work by throwing down $500 just gambling?
Sorry to piss on your joy, but hardly buying decision to be proud about. The envy you expect might look reckless and foolish instead. When the firmware lockout makes all these bricks you can bet on that.
No one has ever made Steve look foolish and the stakes have never been higher. Worldwide hacking only fuels faster damage control to protect whole brand image. That cannot be underestimated how powerful this outcome became now.
The worst thing to do is make the list longer and more newsworthy. The press loves dirt after their fawning. If your iFhoney works in Tahiti don't brag about, just use it while you still can.
"No one has ever made Steve look foolish and the stakes have never been higher. Worldwide hacking only fuels faster damage control to protect whole brand image. That cannot be underestimated how powerful this outcome became now."
@TB
Yeah, 'cause Steve looks real foolish selling a million phones in the first 3 months they are in the market. Apple won't deter people from unlocking their phone, it just helps them sell more iPhones. You might want to take a business course or something. Oh, and as for the people who took the gamble, iPhone unlocks have been available for the last 2-3 weeks if not longer.
By the way, a proud iPhone owner using it on Rogers in Canada thanks to iPhoneSimFree!
Text: yes
Call: yes
Voicemail: yes
GPRS: yes
Read about my experience at artofgeek.com
WTF? Who here in NZ has the iPhone already? Who's the lucky little bastard?
I am currently unlocked in the Czech Republic on T-Mobile and everything works fine.
Just to question the listings again-
Three networks (UK, Australia, Italy and others) use 3G SIM cards that won't work in non-3G phones. From the T&Cs:
5.3 Each sim may only be used in handsets which are enabled for 3 services and are authorised by us for connection to the 3 network. Any attempt to use the SIM in other handsets may result in serious damage to the handset and may prevent you from being able to use it, including the making of emergency calls.
On top of this, what's the point of using an EDGE phone on a network built for 3G?
Philippines/Globe, Smart & Sun has been tested to work on the iphone
For god sake, STOP POSTING ABOUT THE iPHONE UNLOCK !!!!!!!!!! I am an apple fanboy, but i'm starting to have an overdose of iPhone-iPod news. (95% of the posts are not even news... just every fucking minor development is post)
Someone knows an apple-less gadget blog?
Yahoo Pipes creates a completely Apple-free RSS feed. Go knock yourself out.
Should work with Sonera and Elisa too in Finland.
Maybe but it's definitely uglier!
Correction: Won't work on Three in the UK because the phone won't accept a 3G simcard and our Three sims don't operate in GSM mode.
MTC Vodaphone is now "Zain" here in Bahrain :(
it's a shame that they changed the name.........
one more, Hungary/Pannon
thanks engadget:)
Checkout Youtube for brazilian operators, TIM and CLARO :)
happy iPhoning!!!
anybody from the philippines tried this yet? smart or globe?
Add Norway and both NetCom and Telenor to that list...
I have my iPhone working on i Wireless (a regional GSM carrier in Iowa) with EDGE and Youtube.
Video of it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qRt9a1hNA
Dammit! I've got Claro in Puerto Rico: the only place where it's running of CDMA. I believe this is the first time in six years I regret having CDMA...
Trinidad and Tobago - THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN
bMobile and Digicel
Qatar, Q-Tel.
(I can send photos if requested).
Two members (amnesia and Katari from iQTR) also managed to install arabic!
yes, I just unlocked in Thailand, AIS network, using the iphonesimfree software!
add 1 more to your list with 2 carriers... I have just tried the unlock in the UNited ARab EMirates with 2 carriers ETisalat and Du... And it working better than I expected