My bro got his phone unlocked..

[jkrc717]

He has the IPhone 5 and decided to switch carriers. He told me all you need is the imei number and your new carrier will unlock it for you. He went with net 10. I asked him how is that possible? Don't you have to get the unlock code from ATT? He says no. The new carrier whether it be net10 or t-mobile or whoever will do it for you as long as you have your ATT account number and imei number.

Sure enough his phone is unlocked and with net10.

Wonder if people are desperately trying to get the unlock code from ATT instead of just going thru another carrier?

 

[Microsoftjunkie]

Thx, didn't know that.

 

[ashram]

they probably didn't unlock it, Net10 has AT&T and T-Mobile compatible sim cards.
Net10 Phones List page
that way, unlocking is not needed.

 

[Sniper1087]

they probably didn't unlock it, Net10 has AT&T and T-Mobile compatible sim cards.
Net10 Phones List page
that way, unlocking is not needed.

is not probably, they did not unlock it, they just put a sim card compatible with the network, seen this too many times, take it to a tmo store and you will see it is not unlocked.

 

[jkrc717]

So then why doesn't those desperate to unlock it just go with net10? I never heard of net10 till yesterday.

If they have the same network and offer affordable plans. Isn't this a no brainer?

 

[drbanks]

iPhones are kind of magic when it comes to unlocking. Apple maintains an IMEI database that says whether or not the phone is unlocked. Get someone to enter your IMEI into that database, put a foreign SIM card into the phone, and it'll ask to be connected to iTunes or something similar to be re-activated. If iTunes finds your IMEI in that database, the phone gets unlocked. I personally unlocked a 4S by paying some disreputable 3rd party to do that for me, and it worked within a day. No magic codes to be typed into the phone. I even found some romanian web site that given an iPhone IMEI can tell you which model, color, amount of storage, and whether it's unlocked (which is to say, shows as unlocked in the magic database).

But that's the iPhone only. Other phone manufacturers, like Nokia, require the magic code, and to my knowledge do not have the magical unlock database back at the mothership.

 

[drbanks]

But yeah, if you move from AT&T to some MVNO that resells aT&T, an unlock is probably unnecessary.

 

[maclancer]

But yeah, if you move from AT&T to some MVNO that resells aT&T, an unlock is probably unnecessary.

does that means my phone 1520 that I purchased in eBay brand new. Didn't said it was unlock or not, but works like a charm with the H20 wireless carrier. They use the AT&T network.