a friend updated her phone to iOS 5 but relied on the gevey sim unlock.
she is now stuck at activation screen as we all know.
is it still possible to downgrade back to an earlier version?

model is an iPhone 4 not previously jailbroken

using with snowbreez 2.8.b8 you can jailbreak your iphone

I think she's pretty much screwed. Upgrading to iOS 5 without blocking the baseband update has updated the iPhone to the iOS 5 baseband, which blocks the Gevey SIM functionality. The problem is that Apple is not signing any current baseband that is unlockable -- so even if you can downgrade iOS, you won't be able to downgrade to an unlockable baseband, as baseband flashing on the iPhone 4 requires a baseband SHSH which cannot be cached and is not susceptible to the man-in-the-middle attack.

Originally Posted by n1ckn4m3

I think she's pretty much screwed. Upgrading to iOS 5 without blocking the baseband update has updated the iPhone to the iOS 5 baseband, which blocks the Gevey SIM functionality. The problem is that Apple is not signing any current baseband that is unlockable -- so even if you can downgrade iOS, you won't be able to downgrade to an unlockable baseband, as baseband flashing on the iPhone 4 requires a baseband SHSH which cannot be cached and is not susceptible to the man-in-the-middle attack.

thats pretty much what i thought lol
the only option now is to hope for an iOS5 baseband unlock in the near (far) future
if there is even going to be any?

There's definitely a strong possibility of an unlock in the near future for newer basebands, but I can almost guarantee it won't be until near the end of November, until the factory unlocked models come out and the 4S is available across the entire world. They don't want to risk giving Apple a chance to patch the hole before the hardware is in as many hands as it can be.