I have been offered a new iphone 5c locked to EE that was an unwanted upgrade and is still sealed in the box.

Would I be correct in that the phone will network lock onto the first sim that is used with the phone or will it just refuse all SIM cards that are not EE ?

I don't want to open the box if it's not going to work with my "3" SIM card

Its only the likes of CPW that the iphone locks to the first network.Usually iphones direct from the network will only work on the that network until unlocked.

Yes, it will not accept a non-EE sim card.

The person who acquired the phone needs to call EE, and you have to pay a £20 fee to get the phone unlocked. The person must still be an active customer to do this according to the EE FAQ.

http://help.ee.co.uk/system/selfserv...D=VIEW_ARTICLE

A friend was selling a 5s recently and asked me to get it unlocked, I would have never believed how difficult or expensive it is to unlock an iphone - shocking.

I still have it if any one knows a cheap way.

Through the network it's locked to, for around £20, or for free on O2 if you're a contract customer. It doesn't usually take more than a few days either.

£20 has been the going rate for years now. Worth it if it means the phone is 100% unlocked

Free unlock on Vodafone for contract customers too.

Where can I get it for £20?

Only after the first 12 months. During the first 12 months it's a £20 fee.

As Roush said...






O2: http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-...le),CASE=17424

(free for Pay Monthly, £15 for PAYG)



Three: http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-...Case=obj(4363)

(£15.32)



Vodfaone: https://www.vodafone.co.uk/vodafone-...-code-request/

(£19.99)



EE: https://explore.ee.co.uk/unlock

(£20.42)



All found via Google


I had a previous iPhone unlocked via O2 last year, so I could test a Three SIM. All I had to do was fill in the online form and wait... cost nothing as I was a Pay Monthly customer.

If the person whose iPhone it was is no longer in contract with the network the iPhone is locked to, you could get a PAYG SIM for it for that network, make sure it has enough credit on it, and then request a code...

Matt did it for me, as you can see all networks are no more than £20

Surely the phone will only be unlocked if outside its contract period? If the phone was given away or subsidised for the original customer the network won't then unlock it to be used on a different network?

Really? Vodafone would unlock contract phones for free earlier this year (after two months had been paid). They charged me nothing for my iPhone in March 2013!

PS Seems to be so and an unnecessarily petty and retrograde step by Vodafone - people are committed to paying their contract for the specified time so why not unlock their phone for free?

Nope. They will unlock it, but you obviously still have to finish the contract.

How do phones from CPW differ from other sellers when they are factory sealed by Apple

For iPhones the whole system is driven by an IMEI database which Apple run - the handsets download their lock settings from this on activation rather than it being built in.

When handsets are unlocked the network tells Apple who alter their database and the phone reactivates with the revised settings.

It's Apple who must be supplying CPW with these self-locking handsets. Normally they would lock phones to one network - but this sort of satisfies CPWs dislike of stocking network specific handsets.

So in theory CPW handsets just lock to the first SIM card inserted into them

That seems to be how they are set up! Probably ALL iPhones do it this way but the ones sold to networks are preset in Apple's database to immediately lock to that network only.

Ones sold by Apple shops are the only ones which download an unlocked state when they are first activated.

From Apples perspective it is neat as they do not need to manufacture any network locked handsets at all,

Unrelated to the OPs question, but probably worth a mention.

Note the normal O2 policy of free unlocking for contract customers doesn't apply on the new Refresh tariffs. These tariffs are split into two parts which consist of airtime and phone. While they give you the flexibility to swap to a new phone at any time. The phone portion of the tariff is treated as a separate Consumer Credit Agreement and they simply will not unlock a handset until the total phone portion is paid off in full. You can pay it off in full at any time during your contract though, if you want a new handset, then they will unlock the old one as normal.