AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow • Hacker News Board

Re: AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

#21

Post by chc » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:28 PM UTC

Timothee wrote: post #20

chollida1 wrote: post #4

> According to AT&T, the iPhone you want to unlock can't be associated with a current active term commitment, and you must already be out of your contract terms (usually two years from purchase) or you must have paid an early termination fee. Your account must be in good standing, too—no $700 overdue phone bills for you. I don't see anything that seems overly strict here. You finish the contract you signed up for, or…

"can't be associated with a current active term commitment" That part is not clear to me. At first sight, it seems to mean that the phone to be unlocked can't be currently associated with a working AT&T account. Meaning, if I use it right now, they won't unlock it even after my two-year contract is up. If that's what it means, it sucks for people who want to unlock to use it abroad.

"Active term commitment" = "contract with time on it"

If your contract is up, you're fine.

Re: AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

#22

Post by sumukh1 » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:30 PM UTC

fourspace wrote: post #19

Well there goes the ~$100 premium I was able to fetch on Craigslist for my last generation iPhones. Good news for AT&T consumers, though. I wonder if this means they'll also unlock iPads since they were never under contract?

Just a quick point: AT&T (GSM) iPads were always unlocked.

Re: AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

#23

Post by edj » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 5:52 PM UTC

chollida1 wrote: post #4

> According to AT&T, the iPhone you want to unlock can't be associated with a current active term commitment, and you must already be out of your contract terms (usually two years from purchase) or you must have paid an early termination fee. Your account must be in good standing, too—no $700 overdue phone bills for you. I don't see anything that seems overly strict here. You finish the contract you signed up for, or…

It's strict in comparison to other carriers. T-Mobile, for example, has long had a policy of unlocking phones after the first 90 days of the two year contract.

It's not exactly common sense either. If you unlock your phone, you could theoretically use it with another carrier, but you're still on the hook with AT&T for the full two year contract. Since they get there money from the contract regardless, why should the contract and unlocking have anything to do with one another?

Both the old policy and the new policy are bad for customers with (slightly) unusual use cases, like travelers.

When I had T-Mobile, I could buy cheap SIM cards in any country I went to, and put them in my Blackberry. I had all my contacts. I had one charger and one device. Now when I travel I have to buy a cheap feature phone for calls, but I also need to keep the iPhone around as a very expensive and conspicuous Rolodex. It's definitely a step backward in convenience.

Re: AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

#24

Post by thought_alarm » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 6:18 PM UTC

Locked hardware really has nothing to do with enforcing a fixed-term contract. I think the day will come when Apple refuses to produce locked iPhones and sells only unlocked devices to the carriers.

In many markets the carriers already do next to nothing to promote or sell the iPhone, so there isn't much they can threaten to take away. And a carrier isn't going to drop the iPhone as long as there's a competing carrier that's willing to sell the iPhone.

Re: AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

#25

Post by pyre » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 6:20 PM UTC

jnorthrop wrote: post #2

That seems like a fair move on AT&T's part and a nice PR opportunity. The article characterizes AT&Ts requirements as "strict" but I disagree. I think it is completely reasonable that they expect you to finish the contract you signed with them and have no outstanding balance.

  > I think it is completely reasonable that they expect
  > you to finish the contract you signed with them

1. What if I want to go abroad and just buy a cheap local SIM instead of paying a small fortune to AT&T for international roaming during my contract period?

2. Unlocking the phone doesn't have the effect of terminating the contract. Once the phone is unlocked, you just have an unlocked phone under a contract. If you decide to terminate your contract at any time, then you still have to pay the early termination fee. It's not like unlocking your phone gets you out of your contractual obligations.

Re: AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

#26

Post by _rs » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 6:29 PM UTC

thought_alarm wrote: post #24

Locked hardware really has nothing to do with enforcing a fixed-term contract. I think the day will come when Apple refuses to produce locked iPhones and sells only unlocked devices to the carriers. In many markets the carriers already do next to nothing to promote or sell the iPhone, so there isn't much they can threaten to take away. And a carrier isn't going to drop the iPhone as long as there's a competing carrie…

Do carriers really need to advertise the iPhone considering the amount of attention it already receives?

Re: AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

#27

Post by X-Istence » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 6:44 PM UTC

edj wrote: post #23

chollida1 wrote: post #4

> According to AT&T, the iPhone you want to unlock can't be associated with a current active term commitment, and you must already be out of your contract terms (usually two years from purchase) or you must have paid an early termination fee. Your account must be in good standing, too—no $700 overdue phone bills for you. I don't see anything that seems overly strict here. You finish the contract you signed up for, or…

It's strict in comparison to other carriers. T-Mobile, for example, has long had a policy of unlocking phones after the first 90 days of the two year contract. It's not exactly common sense either. If you unlock your phone, you could theoretically use it with another carrier, but you're still on the hook with AT&T for the full two year contract. Since they get there money from the contract regardless, why should the…

This is not true at all. I was a loyal T-Mobile customer for almost 8 years, I upgraded my contract, signed another two year contract (at year 6 of being a customer) and 6 months in I asked if they could unlock my phone because I was traveling to Europe and they told me that they don't do that until your contract that is up, and even then it was limited to a small subset of phones.

I ended up selling my phone on eBay and purchasing an iPhone 3G from a friend which I unlocked by jail breaking it!

Re: AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

#28

Post by edj » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 7:18 PM UTC

X-Istence wrote: post #27

edj wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's strict in comparison to other carriers. T-Mobile, for example, has long had a policy of unlocking phones after the first 90 days of the two year contract. It's not exactly common sense either. If you unlock your phone, you could theoretically use it with another carrier, but you're still on the hook with AT&T for the full two year contract. Since they get there money from the contract regardless, why should the…

This is not true at all. I was a loyal T-Mobile customer for almost 8 years, I upgraded my contract, signed another two year contract (at year 6 of being a customer) and 6 months in I asked if they could unlock my phone because I was traveling to Europe and they told me that they don't do that until your contract that is up, and even then it was limited to a small subset of phones. I ended up selling my phone on eBay…

I don't dispute your experience; I can only speak from mine.

I had T-Mobile from around 2003 or 2004 to August 2010. Every time I got a new phone (always subsidized with a new contract) I called immediately to ask them to unlock it so I could travel more easily. Each time they told me I had to wait 90 days. So I'd wait 90 days, call back, and then they'd send me the unlock code. Never had a problem.

Re: AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

#29

Post by thought_alarm » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 7:22 PM UTC

_rs wrote: post #26

thought_alarm wrote: post #24

Locked hardware really has nothing to do with enforcing a fixed-term contract. I think the day will come when Apple refuses to produce locked iPhones and sells only unlocked devices to the carriers. In many markets the carriers already do next to nothing to promote or sell the iPhone, so there isn't much they can threaten to take away. And a carrier isn't going to drop the iPhone as long as there's a competing carrie…

Do carriers really need to advertise the iPhone considering the amount of attention it already receives?

That's the point.

The carriers don't have to promote any specific phone. The devices they invariably do push are the ones that make them the most money per subscriber per month, and contain features not found on competing carriers.

Re: AT&T will unlock your iPhone for free starting tomorrow

#30

Post by ben1040 » Sat, Apr 07, 2012, 8:53 PM UTC

runjake wrote: post #16

Verizon will "unlock" the SIM unit in their iPhone 4S units if you've been a customer in good standing for 60 days and the iPhone is on an active plan. However, it's not a real unlock -- it just allows you to use any GSM SIM EXCEPT from US carriers. I went back and forth between Apple and Verizon about it back in December, trying to get a true unlock but each blames the other. It seems clear at this point that it's t…

I am on Verizon and will not switch away (grandfathered into unlimited data, and AT&T coverage at my house is the pits).

Back in November I wanted to get an iPhone 4S. I was not upgrade eligible, so I'd have to pay full retail price.

If you pay full retail for an AT&T iPhone, the phone is automatically fully unlocked (this practice seemed to have quietly began around when the 4S was launched). You're basically buying the unlocked model even if you didn't ask for it. However, there was nothing indicating that this was the case if you bought it for Verizon and paid full retail.

I only keep my phones for a year or so and then sell them on. Not having the phone fully unlocked hurts the resale value. A phone that will only do EVDO a year from now just isn't worth as much as a phone that could do HSPA+.