US iPhone 3GS can be activated on UK service?

[brain26]

Hello,

New to this forum and have been reading for the last 2 days but I can't find the answer to this one. I jailbroke my 16GB 3GS and it went smooth. I am learning many new things and getting a good understanding of what needs to be done. My question is that I am located in the USA and have AT&T but moving to the Cambridgeshire area in the UK. I should be able unlock the phone once I arrive in the UK and activate it with O2 correct? If this is the case, snow will allow me to do this (I used blackra1n to jailbreak) right?

Please guide me on the correct way for me to activate my phone on the correct network. I will be in the UK for 3 years.

Thanks for your help and I am reading trying to catch up to some of you guys.

 

[mr.reggaeton72]

yes, you said it yourself, after you jailbreak, just open blackra1n on your phone and use blacksnow, then you should use your phone fine in the UK

BUT!

make sure that you don't do any kind of upgrades, cause upgrades tend to re-lock the phone, and if you upgrade, and a unlock hasn't been released yet for that firmware version, then you will have to wait until someone comes out with an unlock so you can unlock your phone an continue to use it with your carrier in the UK....

and how things been going lately, it migth take a long time for an unlock to come out with future firmware updates, so if i were you, i would just stay away from updating, and if you do, just make sure that the firmware that your upgrading to, theres already an unlock for it...

 

[brain26]

yes, you said it yourself, after you jailbreak, just open blackra1n on your phone and use blacksnow, then you should use your phone fine in the UK

BUT!

make sure that you don't do any kind of upgrades, cause upgrades tend to re-lock the phone, and if you upgrade, and a unlock hasn't been released yet for that firmware version, then you will have to wait until someone comes out with an unlock so you can unlock your phone an continue to use it with your carrier in the UK....

and how things been going lately, it migth take a long time for an unlock to come out with future firmware updates, so if i were you, i would just stay away from updating, and if you do, just make sure that the firmware that your upgrading to, theres already an unlock for it...

I really appreciate the response. I don't plan on doing any upgrades to my phone until I get service on it in the UK.

 

[iNinja]

I think you may have misunderstood, so to clarify; Once you unlock, you should not update your iPhone firmware through iTunes until you know its unlockable.

Check back here to make sure.

 

[JoeT]

FYI, when I spent some time in England I unlocked my 3G and had it working fine on Orange (had better rates).

 

[iphonewarrior]

There are plenty of UK networks which support the iPhone now.

Personally, I think Orange have shot themselves in the foot, they were the second network in the UK to get the iPhone, they could have done something brilliant with there contracts, but they didn't. Typical money grabbers...

I'd get a pay-as-you-go o2 iPhone sim card available directly from an o2 store or online. Do not go for anything but an iPhone related contract, or you will get charged for using data, whereas the iPhone contracts (PAYG or Monthly) have inclusive data allowances.