Silly mistake when changing phone network

atstreetlevel

Hi guys,

First time on the forum so please excuse me if this has been covered before. I recently signed up to a new tesco pay monthly deal after my orange contract expired and requested the PAC code which i submitted to tesco, who port the number as of tomorrow. Rather ignorantly I neglected to unlock my iPhone 4 to take the tesco sim, so I'll need to put it in an unlocked handset for the time being.

Once orange unlock it, will I simply be able to put the tesco sim in my iPhone and go from there, or will I need to put an orange sim in first to enter the unlock code? If its the latter, obvious problem that my orange sim will have expired after the number ports (as of tomorrow!)

Any help or past experiences would be greatly received

grumbler

I am no expert, but AFAIK you have to connect to iTunes to get it unlocked after Orange do their job. So you definitely can't do this with Tesco sim, but possibly can do this over WiFi.

However try requesting unlocking ASAP while you still are an Orange customer. I wouldn't be surprised if they refuse unlocking as soon as you stop being a customer.

d123

grumbler wrote: »

I am no expert, but AFAIK you have to connect to iTunes to get it unlocked after Orange do their job. So you definitely can't do this with Tesco sim, but possibly can do this over WiFi.

Actually it is exactly like that, to process the unlock you place the new (Tesco, in this case) sim into the iPhone and connect to iTunes via USB, if the unlock request has been processed onto the Apple database the unlock signal is sent to the phone via iTunes and a "Congratulations, your iPhone is unlocked" message appears in iTunes.

atstreetlevel

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback

NFH

Since Apple stopped mandating iPhone activations via iTunes (also possible via wifi since iOS5), it seems that you don't need to SIM-unlock via iTunes any more. If you put in a new SIM card and turn the phone on while connected to wifi, it should unlock automatically by authenticating over wifi to Apple's servers. I've seen this with an iPhone 4S that was SIM-locked to Vodafone.

The only problem is that Orange can take weeks to send the unlock request to Apple.

Cycrow

apple also take thier time dealing with the unlock. Once they get the request it usually takes them 7-10 days to unlock the phone, sometimes more

NFH

Cycrow wrote: »

apple also take thier time dealing with the unlock. Once they get the request it usually takes them 7-10 days to unlock the phone, sometimes more

Not true. If the request is sent by Vodafone, it can often be unlocked the next day. Also Vodafone don't charge their contract customers for this.

atstreetlevel

I'm fully expecting them to drag their feet on it and I've also paid a mandatory cost of £20.40, all to send an IMEI number to Apple! Hard labour indeed.

FloFlo

Good luck I've been waiting since March!

NFH

If Orange fails to unlock your iPhone within 30 days, then you can demand a refund of the unlocking fee in view of Orange's breach of Regulation 19(1) of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000. When Orange took over 30 days to unlock my iPhone around 18 months ago, they refunded the fee without any argument.

simax

NFH wrote: »

Not true. If the request is sent by Vodafone, it can often be unlocked the next day. Also Vodafone don't charge their contract customers for this.

They tend to charge their customers more for other things though, so it balances itself out.