Hi,

I'm new to this forum but have read plenty of the posts here. Good job everybody!

I have an Orange contract, which I am using on an iPhone 3G. Felt it's time to get an upgrade. I also do lots of travelling overseas, usually using the country's SIM card.

Hence my plan is to buy an iPhone 4 off eBay, either on O2 or Orange, and then unlocking them.

For O2 iPhone 4
Am I right that I could just get a PAYG SIM, top it up with say £20, use it on the iPhone for a while, then request an unlock (with £15 deducted from my PAYG balance)? I do not have to be the original account holder right?

For Orange iPhone 4
This is quite unclear... I know there is a £20 charge. But do I need to be the original owner of the iPhone 4 to unlock it? Or can I just stick an Orange PAYG SIM into it (so that Orange knows this PAYG SIM has been associated with this iPhone 4 before), wait 3 months, top-up £5 every month, then request an unlock at the end of the 3 month term? (Main point is I was not the original Orange holder).

Thanks for any advice!

Don't know about iphone, but I had a sony on 3 unlocked from a site I found on ebay, cost £7.00 plus p&p if I remember correctly, now using it on vodaphone without any problem. Very quick return as well.
Dave

Don't forget that the iPhone 4 uses a micro-SIM.

Your better going for an O2 iphone just bung an O2 payg sim in topup £20 make a few calls send a few txts keep the balance above £15 then fill out the unlock form.Once you get the unlock txt from O2 cut your Orange sim down to microsim (google it) then put your orange sim in the iphone and connect to itunes where you will recieve the "congratulations your iphone is unlocked" message.

I was looking at iphone4 on ebay and even at £300 they were still ones that were faulty at that price.

Welcome to the forums.

*lights cigarette*

Just buy your iPhone directly from Apple, they all come unlocked.

Do not buy an iPhone off eBay unless you want to risk it being blocked as the seller has reported it stolen in order to claim on insurance

Hi taless

When a customer requests to unlock an iPhone with ourselves, we check with Apple to ensure they are the owner of the phone. If your details do not match the owner registered with Apple, then we would be unable to accept the unlocking request.

I hope this helps.

Darren from Orange Helpers
Twitter: http://twitter.com/orangehelpers
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OrangeUK

I don't see how Apple has the ability to identify the legal owner of an iPhone.

With orange the imei and sim numbers are linked so its easy to find out,

The phone is registered to an iTunes account when first activated

I know that, but it doesn't mean that they own the phone.



Orange also doesn't have the ability to tell who owns a device.

Any standard sim can be cut down to a micro sim - i done 3 myself

Of course they do, they supplied the phone in the first place and have the imei number noted on the users account.

That doesn't establish who legally owns the phone.

If I buy a phone from Orange, register it to my account and then sell the phone, who has told Orange that I don't own the phone anymore?

Orange has no legal right to know who owns the phone - they can only guess based on information that they hold - which could be out of date.