Unlock a 3GS?

[wijit]

I've just upgraded from 3 GS to 4S (I do not do tech very well, I had the 3GS for a good while!) So now the missus wants the 3GS but it is on Orange and she is on Three.
Is it possible to do this?
If so then;
Is it Easy?
Would she just be able to put her Three sim card in and away she goes?
Would the phone lose much of the stuff on it?

Cheers for any advice!

[maltloaf]

If it was your contract with orange, the easiest way is to call them up and get them to unlock it officially.

When they tell you they have done it, you would put the three sim card in, connect the phone to iTunes and apple/iTunes do the unlock for you.

If for whatever reason orange won't do it, some unlockers have access to the proper carrier unlocks, but usually more expensive than going direct to the original network. Mobileman may be able to help, I'm sure he'll be along shortly to confirm either way.

[Clubber Lang]

Ask orange first as already suggested. Mobileman will deffo be able to do it. Alternatively, jailbreak it and unlock it that way

[wijit]

You guys are, as usual, right. Just a quick query though, is it normal that they want to charge £20 to unlock my own phone? Seems a bit steep to me, I have 30 days now for everything to happen, then I have to phone back for the unlock.

[maltloaf]

It's about par for the course and worth it in the long run.

[wijit]

Just for information, if anyone else is doing this then avoid Orange and get it done elsewhere. From an original call where I got told it would be 7-10 days and then I'd receive an email explaining what to do to complete it, I have now been told it will be another 30 days. In terms of customer service Orange have not just fallen short, they didn't even set off.

[Mobileman]

All networks quote 30 days but avg is 7-10 3rd party cuts that down to 3-5 but costs more so makes it irrelevant usually as you thought network was expensive.

IMO jailbreak it and unlock just check the Imei can be unlocked via jailbreak or you can end up with paper weight

[Mobileman]

Update you can now downgrade the ipad basebands on 3G /3GS 6.15.0 worth checking out if want to stay as close to stock is as possible

[plug1]

Only if old boot loader on 3gs

[wijit]

Unfortunately, I have no idea what any of that means!

[Northernbloke]

Just out of curiosity why does it take do long to get these unlocked? Really can't understand how or why it should take a month for the networks to either generate the code or request it from Apple - back in the day it just took a fax to the manufacturer from the service centre and they got the code faxed back in 20 mins or so

Sent from my HTC Sensation using Tapatalk 2

[Mobileman]

volume of requests to apple, volume of network requests, batch submission by networks