Unlock iPhone 5 on O2

smitj017

I'm trying to swap my iPhone 5 32GB for a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 through Gumtree, and need to unlock my iPhone 5. It's on O2, and i'm struggling to find any way of doing it! Can anyone help?

Quiet_Spark

http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=Companion,question=ref(User):str(Mobile),CASE=17424

Buzby

Certainly. Only O2 can arrange this for you - there will be a charge, and it will be unlocked via iTunes and Apple servers.

smitj017

The trouble is the website states 'To make sure our iPhone 5 stock is reserved exclusively for genuine O2 customers during launch, we won't unlock the iPhone 5 at this time'. Thing is, it's been out a while now. I was hoping, before admitting defeat, that people may be able to advise me if they had success pestering call centre staff or in store?

smitj017

i've tried the link above, and got an email refusing the 'unlatching request'

d123

You are correct, O2 are not offering unlocking on the iPhone 5 yet, as no one has yet got to their minimum term on an iPhone 5 contract yet I doubt there is anything that can be done about it.

They are upfront about refusing iPhone 5 unlocks in their defence. Unlock and unlatch mean the same thing.

There is no other way to unlock the iPhone 5 yet.

RichL74

Think you have to have it for a minimum of 12 months before they will unlock it.

gjchester

smitj017 wrote: »

I'm trying to swap my iPhone 5 32GB for a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 through Gumtree, and need to unlock my iPhone 5. It's on O2, and i'm struggling to find any way of doing it! Can anyone help?

Others have pretty much covered the issue but one thing to bear in mind is how Apple lock the iPhone, you can't just take it down the market like many other phones.

On most phones the lock is done on the handset and removed by a subsidy code being entered. Once removed they can't be re-locked unless you do it on the handset.

Apple record lock status in their database. When you put in a different networks sim card the phone asks to activate with Apple. Part of that process is it checks the Apple database to see if it's network locked. If it is and the sim card is not for that network the phone will not unlock.

What that means is anyone who claims to be able to unlock a iphone will probably only be able to do it in the handset, any future upgrade (and potentially on every Sync to Apple) could re-lock it to the network defined in Apples database.

There are some sellers who say they have access to Apples database, and that may be true, but at some point someone will do a audit and any phone they have unlocked "on the side" could potentially be re-locked.

smitj017

Went into town, while O2 couldn't do anything, independent phone shops were quoting prices of £80+. I'm doing this with the intention of selling, and while it may increase the value, I don't think it's worth £80.

pimento

Sell it locked to o2.

Plethora_2

CeX might do it, but it's pretty expensive, think it's £60 odd