There is a way to unlock your iPhone 3G now. How? By using a special sim card adapter. This is what I call a ’semi-unlock’. It is not a software unlock. This is the same idea for those who got their first gen iPhones when the firmware was at 1.1.2 and there was no software unlock available. I bought my iPhone from craigslist and it was sold with a turbosim. Basically what you have to do was cut a corner off of your sim card, put it together with the little microchip (named turbosim, etc.), put it in the sim tray, and then insert it into the iPhone. The microchip will fool the phone into thinking it’s an authorized sim.
It was fantastic to have an iPhone that worked in Canada back then.
Here’s How my old Fido sim and my turbosim looks:
But now, what is the point? We have iPhones that work in Canada now. If you still have a first gen, you can already unlock it. The whole point of an unlocked iPhone was to use it in Canada. That is not relevant anymore.
If you are like me, you like you use a prepaid sim card when you travel. You may want to unlock your iPhone 3G for this purpose. But, if you are like me, you probably already have another unlocked phone for this specific purpose. I plan to use my first gen iPhone for traveling in the USA and other places if I happen to.
My recommendation is that you don’t use one of these sim adaptor unlocks. The only point of them is to have an unlocked iPhone to travel with. If you want to use your iPhone 3G just keep in mind that you won’t get any data as most prepaid sims don’t included any data, in the States especially, I’m not sure about Europe.
They are charging very high prices for products like Stealth Sim SE or YESSIM. StealthSim SE is going for $99 and YESSIM $59. That is quite a high price for a 25 cent little microchip. These kinds of prices flew when there was no iPhone in Canada, now that there is, I can’t see someone paying more than $20 for something like this. Another way to do it would be to re-program your old turbosim or a blank turbosim. This is possible and wouldn’t cost me anything extra, but I have no idea how to do this and the guide I saw doesn’t look easy enough to try.
So please don’t unlock your iPhone 3G. Not right now anyway. These methods are way too expensive. A software unlock is better, but then again it does void your warranty. I can’t recommend these products at such high prices. If you travel a lot, use a different phone. If you are rich, pay the roaming charges. These products are super overpriced and they barely do anything useful now. As they say in the ING Direct commercials - Save your money!
Here’s a video of an unlocked iPhone 3G using turbosim in action from healeydave:
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August 2nd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Yeah you’d have to be dumb to buy one of these things when 3G unlock is around the corner (few weeks to a few months at the most). The dev team recently addressed this issue as well on their blog.
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:13 pm
“way TOO expensive” even…
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 pm
if people are desperate enough to pay over $1200 on ebay for an i Phone 3G i am sure .. they will buy it!
August 2nd, 2008 at 10:45 pm
I’ve used this type of sim card adapter (we called it HyperSim) for my Sharp 904SH for almost six months now in Canada. To this date, there’s still no phone that can beat the 3MP CCD sensor camera. :-)
These type of sim car adapters work very well for people who like high end Japan cell phones.
As for iPhone 3G, it is basically useless.
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:55 pm
That’s why I mean, of course they have some use, especially for phones from Japan. But what’s the point for phones that already work in Canada? It’s like getting a turbosim for the Moto Razr or a blackberry sold from Rogers.
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:57 pm
@ Arif
That’s true, but the ones you can get for $1200 come unlocked from Italy. But like I’ve said before, what’s the point of even buying one on eBay? The contract cancellation fee plus the price of the phone is less than the eBay price.
http://www.ehphone.ca/2008/07/the-iphone-3g-now-available-on-ebay/
August 5th, 2008 at 9:44 am
The point is that you may want to use your unlocked 3G phone anywhere in the world, e.g. Europe. I am planning to go to Spain in a few weeks and am going to get one of these SIMs:
http://prepaid-wireless-internet-access.wetpaint.com/page/Spain+-+Yoigo?t=anon
This gives you unlimited 3G data for only €1.40 a day. Very, very sweet. Much easier to book hostels/get directions/etc from your iPhone than to have to pay €2/hr at an internet cafe.
August 8th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
all you need is an any-network sim adapter. It works with the iphone 3g and also lets you update when new releases are out.
check it out http://www.any-network.com.
August 18th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
any-network sim works!!!! Wooohoooooooooooooooo
Dev team have taken too long this time on an unlock, yes they are good, but in my opinion this sim has broken all there records in an unlock, and to be honest, I think there team have fallen apart and do not really care to much on the iphone 3g or they would of had something out by now, all they care about is the old iphones which are much easier to unlock, sheesh to hard work dev team!!
Gl Dev Team anyway!
August 21st, 2008 at 2:18 am
Does anyone know if the fido prepaid sim works with iphone 3g?
August 21st, 2008 at 2:48 am
@ Shen
I have tried switching sims and it works, not a prepaid sim however, but it should work, but you would have to get the iPhone first by either signing a contract to get it normally or by paying a fortune for it on ebay or craigslist which doesn’t make much sense due to the cost for the phone.
August 26th, 2008 at 6:28 am
Do not buy Any-Network SIM it doesn’t work and is a major SCAM.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:43 am
hello I bought a us iPhone 3g (which I believe was never activated ) I did unlock and jailbreak it using pawnge. I tried using a rogers sim however it does work. I heard that rogers and fido will not allow any iPhone 3g which was not activated by them to work with thier sim cards. Does this apply to unlocked 3g iPhones. Do you need special sim cards?. In my case can I use prepaid fido cards? Also is there a workaround ? Thank you
August 28th, 2008 at 1:46 am
The US iPhone 3G won’t accept the Rogers or Fido sim because it is not unlocked. There is no 3G unlock yet unless you do the sim thing. Jailbreaking will bypass activation but it still wont accept the sim. If you used a Canadian iPhone 3G it would work. I’m not sure how long it will be before there is a 3G software unlock but it could be a while.
August 28th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
i was under the impression based youtube that pwnage could unlock the 3g iphone? is this only applicable if you activate the iphone first and only if you use it within the same country?
thank you
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:03 am
hey there, sorry for digging,
but is an unlock even necesarry for use in canada? i mean arent fido and rogers the same and dont both the sim’s work in even a locked phone? for example fido sim card working in a rogers locked phone withohut unlocking.
lol i may be totally wrong, but can someone please confirm/refute this?
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Well, I can see the point- what if you don’t want to have to sign up for a three year contract? If you can buy an iPhone handset from say the states, or china/uk/NZ where they sell them without contract but locked to a particular network, then you get the following advantages;
-you can upgrade to the next iPhone version without worrying about contract
-you can use the phone internationally with local network sim cards and avoid ridiculous roaming charges, without a second handset.
-no contract means you are free to take advantage of new deals and new technology if you want. It makes things cheaper if you like using the latest stuff.
December 8th, 2008 at 11:16 am
@shilpinator
yes they r da same company now but they still do their own thing, meaning no if u place a rogers sim on a fido phone..it wont work, or fido sim on rogers phone…weird but oh well lol, u gotta still unlock
December 13th, 2008 at 2:18 am
you people are idiots, you ask yourself “why would i want an unlocked ipone 3g it it is already supported in canada” well dughhhh the obvious answer is that u dont need to sign a ridiculous cobtract with rogers and have to pay a ridiculous amount for a stupid contract, i may be mistaken but isnt the minnimum plan for an iphone at rogers $60? With a ridiculous plan where you can sen only 125 texts… And some other crap that is made so u accidebtly to over the plan having o pay hundreds of dollars…. Now by unlockin your iphone and putting in you normal sim, which has a descent plan of say unlimited txting and other shit…. Doesnt that come to about 50 bucks a month, without you ever going over… Because its practically impossible…..wow how obvious is that…. And you say whywould you unlock your iphone of its supported in canada?….wow u ppl are wierd…..
December 26th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
veedawg what kind of plan are you running and with who? just picked up a 2g iphone from the states and wondering what to go for.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
1. Normal Japanese cell phones manufactured in Japan will not work outside of Japan. It is very rare to find Japanese cell phone that works Globally. Their cell network is different than ours. It is not a locked phone issue at all.
2. Here is food for thought; while we are being lead around by our Rogers and/or Fido COLLARS (ruff,ruff), the typical Asian cell user dictates their term of use to their cell phone providers. A locked cell phone will not sell in the Asian market! It is as simple as that! That’s why no Asian Cell Provider sold the iPhone. Apple’s arrogance (refuse to unlocked iPhones for the Asian market) had cost them potentially millions in sale, a year or two head-start in the cell market and many other opportunities. They have learned their lesson and are now selling unlocked iPhones in the Asian market.
3. While I do agree that these sim card adapters are way over priced (remember supply and demand), they are the only way for us COLLARED users to have a better unlock method for our iPhone. These so call software unlockers are NOT the real deal! They are a temporally software work around; a temporally bandaged solution. They don’t really unlock the iPhone per say. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone in the Asian market needed to re-unlock their iPhone every time Apple comes out with a firmware update?! If memory serves, AT&T is also unlocking all their iPhones after losing a court battle. If that’s true then do all AT&T iPhone owners run back to AT&T to re-unlock their iPhone every time Apple updates the firmware (every two for three months or so)?!
ruffdeezy,
there are so many reasons why some people can’t just swap out phones (especially to a older model) just because it is locked and I wouldn’t brag about it if I were you. If you take away my HTC I would literally be so handy capped that I would not be able to function at my full capacity for days. Like most professionals I do rely heavily on my PDA/phone for its PDA/phone capabilities and functionalities and NOT on its bling factor nor on its bragging rights. For example, can the iphone handle a “live” formula laden 250+ page budgeting spreadsheet, a 20+ page outline document, and a large Power Point presentation? Can the iphone update and recalculate items on the fly and can it also present all three items via a projection system during an annual board meeting without using any other computing hardware?! Now that’s real bragging rights! Now that’s real bling!
At first glance I thought you were an iphone power user but if you can just swap phones at anytime then what that tells me is that you are most likely just a novice to a normal user and you do not have a lot of contacts. The stereotype goes something like this: You have bought the iphone(s) based on its bling factor and bragging rights. You only understand and use about 3% of its features and capabilities. You also think that you have a full understanding of all its capabilities. You go around searching for as much info as you can because it makes you feel like and appear to be an authority on the topic.
Writing a half-ass argument about not needing to unlock a phone shows me that …
There are so many reasons why a phone, especially a smart phone and a PDA/phone, should NOT be locked but there is only one reason why a cell provider would lock a cell phone. Money.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Rogers and Fido operates as two individual company (cell providers) and compete for your business as independent competitors. As far as the public’s concern Rogers is NOT Fido and Fido is NOT Rogers. Double the avenue, double the profit! What’s there not to understand?!
Would you use the same technique to hook up with a guy as you would with a dog? Why not, aren’t they both a subset of the animal family? Then why would you expect that putting a Rogers sim inside a Fido locked phone would make you happy? (Man, I made that sound dirty!! Sorry.)
Putting a “Pay as you go” type sim card from the same provider who your iphone is locked to would work. Unless you somehow “acquired the iphone for free” ;-) or you are willing to pay through your nose for the bling and/or the bragging rights, why bother? It would be short lived anyways because once your buddies ask you to show them something incredible it would bust your bubble because you would be dead in the water without data capabilities. I would estimate that about 70% of iphone’s unique functionality is derived directly from its’ ability to connect to the Internet. Good news is that you don’t have to worry about incurring a second mortgage to pay off your accidental data usage.