[abstrait]

Hi

Firstly please excuse my ignorance. I'm not technically gifted.

I'm posting to ask the forum to help me understand what unlocking and jailbreaking of the iphone 3Gs means? Are they referring to the same thing? From reading other posts on the forum and the website my understanding so far is that you have to jailbreak an iphone and then unlock. If that holds true does jailbreaking refer to breaking through the "security wall" Apple builds, and unlocking refer to the process of implanting code through the jailbreak that then allows sim cards other than AT&T in the USA or O2 in the UK to be used? If both are successful does that allow the user to use all the features of the unlocked phone if supported by the new network?

Does this process work for the iphone 3GS? A couple of the articles in macnn mention two or three companies offering unlocking solutions free or for a fee, but for the iphone 3G, not iphone 3GS. Did I read this correctly?

The reason I'm asking is because I'm considering buying an iphone 3GS in the UK where I'm studying, but I have to complete several months of field work in countries across the world for my research. I don't want to be stuck paying O2 roaming fees for this period which can last up to two years. O2 is the network provider the phone is locked to in the UK. My ideal would be to use a network in the country I'm based in that has the capability of supporting the iphone, and may even be the iphone representative in that country, e.g. Vodacom in South Africa, but without having to work through O2, i.e. popping a local Vodacom sim card into the iphone and getting on with business. I see that there are several countries that offer iphones for sale that arent locked or that can be officially unlocked. I don't want to go into the discussion as to why Apple doesn't offer this service across the board, but I would like to know if its this easy for these companies to unlock the iphones legally why is it apparently so difficult to do so when the network carrier isn't au fait with the idea?

Thanks for your replies in advance.

[romeosc]

Jailbreaking an iPhone is simple and free (5 minutes).

You then can unlock iphone after jailbreaking. (simple and free also (5 minutes))

I did that after buying a new 3G S.

The unlocked phone will not do data except on wifi unless you pay with buy a data package with your new carrier.


It works as an ipod touch with Skype capabilities on WIFI.

I don't know how you can get out of original contract, unless you buy an unlocked phone and then sign up for service.