US iPhone in the UK
November 13, 2010 1:52 PM   Subscribe

In a couple of weeks I will be traveling from the USA to England and would like to use my iPhone 3G while I am there. I would like to purchase a sim card from three.co.uk because that's the network all my family (who live in the UK) use. Am I correct in assuming that I'll need to jailbreak first before I can use a different sim card?

What else should I know before deciding to do this? Is there a better solution I'm not thinking of? I expect to be making a fair amount of phone calls to different family members while I am there over a two week period. Will jail breaking cause me any problems when I get back home?
posted by ericthegardener to Technology (13 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Yes, jailbreaking opens the device up for any modifications to the software of the device. Unlocking is one such modification, other than installing apps that are unauthorized by Apple. Doing all of this is legal by the way, in case you were wondering.
posted by antgly at 2:23 PM on November 13, 2010


Best answer: Plus you can always restore in iTunes and that will clear the jailbreak and unlock (but I'm not sure if you'd want to do that or not, it's up to you).
posted by antgly at 2:24 PM on November 13, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks antgly! I was wondering whether I could undo the jailbreak easily.
posted by ericthegardener at 5:18 PM on November 13, 2010


Best answer: antgly is correct; you need to jailbreak to unlock and use another carrier SIM.

There can be some issues with 3G reception with unlocking. Three use 1800Mhz via orange for 2G, and I think AT&T use 850 and 1900.

The 3GS is quadband (850,900,1800,1900) for 2G/GSM, but triband for 3G/UMTS/HSDPA (850,1900,2100). Orange apparently use 2100Mhz for 3G, so you should be ok for both 2G reception (up to edge) and 3G (up to hsdpa) using three.

I don't think three actually use their own network for 2G, but rent it in from orange.

going to www.jailbreakme.com is a simple way to jailbreak your iphone, assuming you haven't upgraded beyond iOS 4.0.1. If you are running 4.1 iphone-developers have a handy wizard for guiding you on how to jailbreak. The forums also have useful info; for example:


1. Connect your iPhone 4 to a wi-fi network. No 3G please.
2. Open the Safari browser on your iPhone 4.
3. Go to Jailbreakme.com and jailbreak your iPhone 4. Make sure you have the iPhone firmware 3.1.3 to 4.0. No less than 3.1.3, no 4.x.
4. Now go to Settings>General>Network and turn off 3G. That’s why I asked to used a wi-fi connections in the first step.
5. Now that you have jailbroken, you have ‘cydia’ installed on your iPhone 4. Press the home button and find ‘cydia’ in your apps in the springboard.
6. In cydia go to search and type ‘ultrasn0w‘. If you are presented with version 1.0.1 or higher skip to step 10 below. If the ultrasn0w version is less than 1.0.1, follow all the steps below.
7. You can’t unlock your iPhone 4 with an ultrasn0w version less than 1.0.1. You’d then need to bring over 1.0.1. For that purpose, press the ‘Manage‘ button at the bottom, select Sources>Edit>add. Then type ‘repo666.ultrasn0w.com’ in the text field without qouts.
8. Reboot your iPhone 4.
9. Go to cydia again, search for ultrasn0w. It must be on version 1.0.1 or higher now.
10. Now press the install button to install ultrasn0w.
11. Your iPhone 4 is now unlocked! Cheers!


As antgly says, this is explicitly legal in the US - though you may want to unjailbreak it before going in for warranty support, as apple rather disagree with it.
posted by ArkhanJG at 1:56 AM on November 14, 2010


Whoops, that should be 'Three apparently use 2100Mhz for 3G' above. Three have their own 3G/UTMS/HSDPA network.
posted by ArkhanJG at 1:58 AM on November 14, 2010


And argg, you have a 3G, not a 3GS. Sorry. The 3G does have the capability as the 3GS in the bands, so you're still ok there. The jailbreaking wizard you want is here, instead.
posted by ArkhanJG at 2:01 AM on November 14, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks for the detailed answer (and corrections) ArkhanJG!
posted by ericthegardener at 7:54 AM on November 14, 2010


Response by poster: Crap! Just went to three.co.uk and for purchase of sim alone they only support iPhone 4 & 3GS not 3G. If anyone is still reading do you have a suggestion?
posted by ericthegardener at 7:59 AM on November 14, 2010


Three do support the iphone 4 and iphone 3GS (they have them for sale!) and as far as I'm aware, there's no 'regional' variations of the iphone, they are all the same hardware worldwide. Yet if you select either the 3GS or the 4 as 'is my phone 3g' on the free pay-as-you-go sim, it claims neither is compatible, despite selling them with 3 contracts!

I suspect this is because for a long time iPhones were O2 exclusive - yet all 5 main 3G networks in the UK (vodafone, t-mobile, orange, 3 and O2) use 2100Mhz for UTMS/HSDPA, and an iphone that's locked won't work with a 3 sim. The 3G is functionally equivalent to the 3GS in this respect, it's mainly that the 3GS has more RAM, faster CPU etc.

I'd just go ahead and get the free PAYG 3 sim, and give it a go on arrival. If worst comes to worst, you can always get a free PAYG vodafone or O2 sim card, as I know for fact both of those work on an unlocked 3GS, so should work fine with a 3G also.

Option B; get a 3 mobile mifi point, and then set up your phone to do voip calls, using say, skypeout over wifi. Total overkill price wise, but you can always use the mifi back home with a wifi only ipod touch or ipad if that would be useful.
posted by ArkhanJG at 10:08 AM on November 14, 2010


Here's the links to the free SIMs, in case that's handy:
three
vodafone
O2

In the UK, pay-as-you-go sims are free, and you just top up with credit either online, or at mobile phone shops, petrol stations, supermarkets etc. You only need to pay for data or outgoing calls and texts; incoming texts and calls are free, so you can test if the sim works by calling from a landline without even putting top up credit on the sim. You can also buy top-up packs (plans differ between operators) which give you 'bundles' of texts, data or calls for a fixed price.

No contract required, which I think is where you ended up on the 3 website, as that's it's default place on the 'sim only' link off the front page.
posted by ArkhanJG at 10:15 AM on November 14, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks again ArkhanJG, you've been a huge help!
posted by ericthegardener at 12:19 PM on November 14, 2010


You never mentioned the baseband of your phone. The above advice will help you if you're running an older version of modem firmware, but if you've updated to version 02.10.04 or 05.15.01 there's currently no unlock available AFAIK. That'll come out after the 4.2 release. Probably next weekend.

Check your modem firmware version via Settings>General>About.
posted by Thoughtcrime at 7:23 PM on November 14, 2010


I have a pay-and-go SIM from O2 in my iPhone 3G. Each time you top up £10, they also throw in unlimited text messages and 500MB of data. No visual voicemail, but that isn't a deal-breaker for me as you just get plain old voicemail.

Only downside is that the keep the unlimited texts and internet, you have to top up £10 at least once a month. If you're someone who is planning to make very few calls, then you could end up with a lot of credit on it - however I haven't found

You may also want to look at GiffGaff which is run by O2. They offer a £10 goody bag which gives you a SIM with unlimited texts, internet and 250 minutes per month. Since they are offering free internet until Feb 2011 you could probably get away with the £5 bag if you aren't planning to make many calls.
posted by mr_silver at 4:45 AM on November 15, 2010


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