Hello,

I have in front of me a brand new I-phone 4 which has been offered me as part payment for a small job I undertook.

If I accept, the phone it will have cost me £125-00.

I am not an I-phone person, this phone comes with no documents, disks, micro sim card, nothing, just the phone and a white charging/data cable.

The present owner can not tell me who the service provider is, she won it and no longer has the box, documents nothing, has never used it.

I have no intention of keeping this phone but will sell it.

When I turn the phone on, it informs me there is no sim card installed, I know nothing about this phone or its operation.

There is nothing on the phone I can tell,---- in settings or anywhere that gives a clue as to the service provider, it is a clean phone in every way and I have checked to make sure the IMEI is not black listed/barred.

With out having to purchase loads of sim cards, armed with just the phone and the cable is there a way I can find out via a PC, who the service provider for this phone is,---which sim card it will accept?

get family or friends
sim and see if it works

It may be unlocked. Apple sell them sim free and if it was a prize there is a good chance that it's a sim free unit

Unfortunately, the only way to find out for definite is to, as you guessed, try it and see. Have fun gathering micro sim cards for all 5 networks

EDIT of all the networks I'd try O2 first as that's the most likely. Though if an O2 sim works you'll want another network's sim just to see if it is unlocked (which will increase the resell value). If it does turn out to be on O2 they will unlock it for free from a contract sim or for £15 from a pay as you go

Did the current owner remove the SIM or did she it win it without a SIM? If she did, it's probably SIM free.

Maybe if you take the phone into the network shops and ask them if they can try a micro-SIM in it, they might do it.

Dont see why they wont, for all they know, if it worked you would be another happy customer.

Thanks fpr the replies,

I don't know if it was a sim free phone and the owner can't remember.

I assume, as with other phones, if it is an an Apple sim free unit, then a micro sim from any of the five providers will do??

It will. But you'll need two different ones to check if it is unlocked. As I said above I'd start with O2 as chances are if it is locked, it will be locked to them