iPhone 5 Unlocking Question

[panthro]

Hi guys need some help. I bought an iPhone 5 off another forum. Its brand new and the guy claimed it was unlocked.

Turned out its not and is locked to EE. The guy I bought it from said he's paid EE £30 to unlock it (last Friday) and is waiting for them to send a confirmation email.

I haven't heard from him since and wanted to know if I need an EE sim card in there to activate the phone, or can it be unlocked to any network before activation?

He said that once EE have unlocked it, you just have to plug it into iTunes and it should unlock. Is this right? Worst case scenario is I sell it and buy another that is actually unlocked

 

[panthro]

Thanks for that, maybe a mod should move this then?

 

[panthro]

Worst case scenario is he lied about unlocking it and thus the handset will be permanently locked to EE. Networks will only unlock an iphone if the original owner requests the unlock.

Yep, I will buy a PAYG sim from EE today and activate it. I've already provisionally sold it though to someone if I can't get it unlocked.

 

[panthro]

Went into the EE shop earlier and activated it using an Orange PAYG sim. I will just keep this sim in it for the meantime and see if the guy follows up on his word of getting it unlocked.

 

[panthro]

You can only get unlocked iPhones from Apple directly. Any other store, claim it's unlocked. But reality is, the first sim you put in will lock it to that network.

Good to know. The giff gaff sim I tried would not allow activation, only the orange sim. Hopefully it will be unlocked soon as he has requested it to be unlocked from orange/EE.

 

[panthro]

Can't get hold of the guy I bought it from and I'm becoming impatient. I think he's on holiday, but I might just sell this one and buy a brand new one, but its grating on me knowing that the next one is just round the corner, but the wife is desperate for a new phone. Arrrrgh.