Phone Unlocking Price

Edrof

Edrof

Edrof

Soldato
Joined
16 Nov 2009
Posts
16,034
Location
UK
Hi chaps!

I've recently been given an iPhone 4 but it is still locked to Vodafone. (I know Vodafone will unlock it for free, but I don't want to bother the original owner.) I've asked at one of the market stalls that deal with these things and he wanted £50 to unlock. I nearly choked on my chicken and bean burrito until I looked online, where the price can be anything up to £115 for this service.

Surely, even at £50, this is a massive rip-off? I mean, doesn't the unlocker just run the phone's IMEI number through a database and click his mouse a few times? Or am I being naive and actually there's a lot more to it?
 
Unlocking shops will jailbreak the phone and use a non-permanent method of unlocking which you can do with a bit of googling!

Bother the owner, it'll be a 5 minute phone call or take 5 minutes online:http://m.vodafone.co.uk/mobile/help/network-unlock-code/index.htm

Vodafone will permanently unlock the iPhone as they send the request to Apple who unlock it when you next sync it to iTunes. The unlock is then permanent
 
Last edited:
Edrof said:
Hi chaps!

Surely, even at £50, this is a massive rip-off? I mean, doesn't the unlocker just run the phone's IMEI number through a database and click his mouse a few times? Or am I being naive and actually there's a lot more to it?
Click to expand...

Nope, that exactly how it works for iPhones.

Owners asks network to unlock. Network enters magic numbers into system. Phone unlocked the next time it's synced with iTunes.
 
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