Hi guys,

I received a 3G iPhone from eBay yesterday that didn't have an O2 (the British carrier) sim card but a Turbo-Sim card instead. I stupidly plugged it into my laptop with no sim so I couldn't access anything on the phone itself and I couldn't go any further with out restoring it and updating on iTunes so I'm on the 2.2.1 FW with the baseline 2.30 or something that can't be unlocked.

I then tried my own Orange sim card with the Turbo-Sim but it kept rejecting it - do I need to buy a pay-as-you-go O2 sim card to get the phone started and linked to iTunes then use my original sim card and a turbo-sim?

I seen ones advertised on eBay that can work on 3G phones with that 2.30 baseline or whatever - how reliable are these?

Thanks for your patience - as you can see I'm not exactly on the ball when it comes to these things, I'm pretty good with technology (or so I thought) but I am completely out of my league this time.

Any help is greatly appreciated, I've searched Google and forums like this for hours and hours but to no avail - there are just too many options!

Thanks in advance.

Hi Gawa,

I'll try to be of some help, but sometimes these things work and other times they don't!

If you can get hold of one get an 02 PAYG SIM card which will help you get the phone registered (I’m not sure if this bit is 100% needed though...)

I'm on Vodafone in the UK, and what I've done is first I stick my native SIM card for my carrier into an already unlocked phone (in this case the Nokia N96 handset I got with my Vodafone contract), get the SIM card booted up and make a quick call to get the SIM registered on the carriers cell.

Once you've done this stick your piggy-back SIM in with your carriers SIM and switch the phone on, make sure 3G is DISABLED. It may take a while (60 seconds or so) to get a lock, and I've found that sometimes it gets a lock, then looses is, then gets it back again and repeats this a couple of times before staying stable.

Make sure you get your APN settings for Orange (I've no idea what they are I'm afraid, but giving customer services a bell will get you that info) – Vodafone’s are: APN = 'Internet' Username = 'Web' and Password = 'Web'.

I've tried using the Rebel SIM card first as my unlocking solution, this has worked for a while but became a little unstable. I've since downgraded the Rebel's firmware (as per their instructions on their website) and that has pretty much worked with all features apart from 3G mode (like expected I'm afraid), but with a few occasional times when the lock on the cell fails and I've had to put the Vodafone SIM back into an unlocked phone.

Occasionally toggling airplane mode will sort out any "No Service" errors I get.

I'm now trying out the Gevey version of the SIM cloning solutions, put it in today and so far so good, got a lock on Vodafone straight away, and calls / SMS, web browsing and email all seem to be working ok, but as normal 3G won't work at all.

To be honest, and sadly there is no other alternative at the moment to unlocking a 3G IPhone other than using one of these piggyback SIM cards, and unfortunately non have 100% of features working 100% of the time, but good news is that the basics such as calls, SMS and internet will be fairly reliable.

However, I'm just waiting down my Vodafone contract till I can swap to 02 and not deal with this anymore! lol

Anything else just ask and I'll do my best to help

Regards,
Dale.

What do you Brits recommend for visitors and the Gevey-- Vodafone, O2 or Orange. Would *like* data, but not necessary. PAYG?

Thanks!

Difficult one to answer that. Everyone has their own favourites based on where they live. The coverage maps of the country are a little vague, Vodafone is my preferred in my area, but to be honest all of the providers are on par with each other. Same situation in London, all providers have a 100% presence, along with 3G.

Sorry I can't be more precise, but it all depends on where you are staying.

Go for the Gevey 3G Plus 2 sim matey.

Works brilliantly apart from no 3g.

Jon

...and also, I agree with this. Mine has been working fine so far since I put it in yesterday evening. No cell losses what so ever. (so far! lol)

Thank you all, my friends; we have the Gevey-- I'm just trying to figure out which PAYG provider to use (mostly for maps, location, etc.). Any thoughts on a provider in Paris?

Thanks!!!

Orange, yes? Do you get data too?

Is there a PAYG version I ask for at the Orange? Which exactly-- thanks! Thanks!

Do you also need to input APN settings with US iPhone + Gevey 2?

Thanks.

Orange is working great here except for one No SIM detected episode; but since then nothing. They also throw in benes like 1MB free download (yay.) free movie ticket for a friend on Wed. (forgot to bring the damn phone, even-- duh). Overall, works great with Gevey. Should be an option for all US travelers, honestly. Oh and:

APN: orangeinternet
username: user
password: pass

And then you have data. Every sales person and customer service was clueless.

Be careful on eBay... many people selling cheap out of date unlocks that will not help your 2.30.03 baseband, and some are just too unstable so you can't rely on your iPhone to receive/make calls.

Regards,

__________________
*i-Smartphone TURBOSIM Seller*
khanhpham06@yahoo.co.uk