HI all. We are a military family and have recieved orders to spend the next 3 tears in Germany, and possible half of that in Italy. So, we have 2 AT&T iphone 4s, running 4.3.5 Ideally we would like to take our iphone4s to Germany, convert them into a German pre-paid wireless plan, and continue to use the iphones. We currently have at&t, but that contract will be cancelled easily with out military orders, so, the phones will be ours to do with as we please. Does anyone know if this is possible?

The AT&T iPhones will need to be jailbroken and soft-unlocked, however, as you're running 4.3.5, I believe the baseband on the phone is not presently unlockable. Can you let us know the baseband revision on these phones? It's possible that you can convince AT&T to unlock them from the carrier side, but not very probable -- in the years I've been playing with iPhones, only once have I heard of someone successfully getting AT&T to carrier unlock their device. Without a carrier unlock, you'll need to use ultrasn0w, ultrasn0w will require a jailbreak and an exploitable baseband -- and I'm fairly certain 4.3.4+ have basebands that are not unlockable. The jailbreak for iOS 4.3.5 is tethered right now -- meaning that when you reboot the phone, you have to plug into the PC in order for the phone to be usable again.

All in all, I hate to say it, you'd probably have better luck buying a new phone in Germany. It would be expensive, but it would work.

Originally Posted by haymitch

HI all. We are a military family and have recieved orders to spend the next 3 tears in Germany, and possible half of that in Italy. So, we have 2 AT&T iphone 4s, running 4.3.5 Ideally we would like to take our iphone4s to Germany, convert them into a German pre-paid wireless plan, and continue to use the iphones. We currently have at&t, but that contract will be cancelled easily with out military orders, so, the phones will be ours to do with as we please. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Yeah I was beginning to realize that all this may just be wishful thinking. The phone is baseband version 04.10.01

Yep, I hate to say it, with 04.10.01, the ONLY option is a SIM interposer like a TurboSIM or a GeveySIM. We do not recommend either for two reasons:

1) GeveySIM requires a 112 dial in order to get service -- this is illegal in any country where 112 routes to an emergency service number as it is a misuse of an emergency communication system.
2) GeveySIM and TurboSIM both rely on an exploit that has been fixed in iOS 5 -- so the SIM interposers will not work once you upgrade to iOS 5.

Hate to say it but I do think the best bet at this point would be to sell off the phones in the US prior to going and buy a new one overseas.

Good luck!