Comments on: iPhone in India – Breaking, Activating and Unlocking

By: ram

ram — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:00:43 +0000

hi ,
i want to unlock apple iphone ,please can u guide

By: mithun

mithun — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:28:39 +0000

hi
i have been using i phone 32gb 3gs for more than a month. i bought that in australia and i had no trouble usinng wi-fi or my providers interenet services. i came down to india nd recently recharged with vodafone internet package 123rs. But am not sure of my settings and my place doent have a vodafone shope
to enquire can some 1 help me with the settings for gprs in vodafone prepaid…

cheers

By: sandhya

sandhya — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:32:18 +0000

hi venu,
i am new to this iphone stuff. i just bought a iphone for my dad through ebay website in USA. It is an unlocked 3g version. i downloaded itunes. When i read the manual it says that we have to register iphone by downloading itunes and then follow the onscreen instructions to register. Though i downloaded itunes i am not getting any onscreen msgs. i also connected my iphone to the computer and cliked on “itunes” option but it says “itunes store is not supported in this country” (india).
What do i do now? (i am not able to interact with this iphone like for eg transfer photos from comp to iphone etc)
Plzzz help…

By: Dr. Vikram

Dr. Vikram — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:07:32 +0000

Dear Venu your post is an excellent piece of research. I intend to buy an unlocked Iphone 3G-S from US costing $390. My query is:
1. Can I use this unlocked phone with Cellone-(in Himachal Pradesh)?
2. What other procedures I have to follow with this device?
Please guide.

By: Akil

Akil — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:14:20 +0000

Hi Nikam,

I just want to confirm.

Did you bought an unlocked iPhone 3gs from US and simply by using the airtel SIM it is working in India?

Please confirm?

Thanks

By: Tashi

Tashi — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:11:38 +0000

Hi!
I got an iphone 3Gs from the U.S. recently. I want to get it unlocked and use it with Airtel. I read ur piece above but I am not sure if I should do it myself for I am not really good at electronics. what to do?

By: Bala

Bala — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:23:02 +0000

Eshan and others who need to know about iPhone 3GS contract plan:
AT and T would initially charge you $208.95 for the phone – I got my iPhone activated on 9 June
For 9th June to 12 July I got a bill for 178.13 dated for a two month period (They take 1 month advance billing during this first month bill)
Before 12 July – if I cancel iPhone, I would not be charged cancellation fee, but I would also have to return the iPhone
So I waited till it was beyond 1 month and cancelled my service
The cancellation of service is effective only at next billing cycle – I would receive a bill only on 12 August (probably 0(zero) USD since I have already paid in first month for the second month and if I dont use more than alloted minutes and didnt do sms and international calls)
Though my service will get cancelled on 12 August, Not until September end will I get the contract cancellation notice and I would be asked to pay up 175 USD + taxes
I am sure they have deliberately complicated the situation becoz of people cancelling in-between.

If you count the amount it will reach 600 USD, which is as good as the price 650 you can pay and buy (not unlocked) iPHONE 3gs from best-buy.
Also you need credit history and billing address for buying from ATnT with 2 year contract but no such hassles from Best buy.

By: bharath

bharath — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:11:30 +0000

Hi
Just recently I have bought an unlocked iphone in Canada. It has been unlocked by jailbreaking first with quickpwn and installing yellowsn0w. But I am reading articles which say that EDGE does not work in India (Airtel). Also there is no option at all in iphone 3G to configure EDGE. I guess 3G is the higher version of EDGE. How do I make EDGE work with airtel in India

By: madappa

madappa — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:13:26 +0000

hi!! i’m planin to get an iphone frm U.S. and as u know dere it is only supposed to b used wid AT&T network….i wanna know if after gettin it here if i’ll b able to get it hacked and use wid other network providers..also cud u suggest me places in b’lore where it is safely hacked??

By: ravi

ravi — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:48:55 +0000

My friend is getting an iphone from US, can you let me know where i can unlock my iphone in Bangalore…..

By: venukb

venukb — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:48:38 +0000

Sand,
Sorry for the late reply. Missed your comment. Are you using a iPhone now?

Eshan,
Yeah I don’t know how you can get a iPhone from US now. I have heard that you need to activate at the store. Not sure what charges you need to pay if you cancel the contract. If you can cancel the contract and still own the phone, then you can definitely break it and use anywhere.

By: eshan

eshan — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:38:15 +0000

hi..
i was wondering that it is all fine with the unlocking part..but when we buy an iphone in the US then we have to sign the at&t contract…so when the phone is shipped to india..what happens to the cntract..
and also since the contract requires a social security number of the person buying the phone…then will any extra payment is required to be paid..etc..
plz help.

By: sand

sand — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:21:34 +0000

hey venu,
i am totally new to all this so need your help.i want to purchase a new iphone from australia and then use it in delhi.please tell me what do i have to do?will the phone get unlocked and work in india?what is this service provider thing?what is the price if i buy it from australia?

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Where the hell am I ? — Online Diary — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:24:53 +0000

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By: sam

sam — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:25:12 +0000

hey the vinu..wud u plzz help me…i wish 2 buy the latest iphone launched on 22nd aug..in india..from US..wil it easily work in india…wt wud i need 2 do to make it work in India..in Bombay..and suburbs..?

By: Sumit

Sumit — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 09:11:31 +0000

Hi
I am getting Apple new 3G iphone from US…
Just wanted to ask that what i need to to do in order get it work in india….
I have heard that we need to unlock the phone …One is through service pr0vider & one in through software…..
Please let me know is that right or what should i do????
.

By: venukb

venukb — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:39:33 +0000

Kushal – I am sure you can upgrade to 1.1.4. You need to put the phone on restore mode and upgrade the firmware.

Check iLiberty, the interface is pretty straight forward and should help you to easily upgrade to 1.1.4

2.0 upgrade should also be possible once its available and once the iPhone Dev team comes with a tool for the same.

WinPwn is a new tool which is supposedly better than ZiPhone or iPlus/iLiberty (I haven’t had the opportunity to use it)

iClairified has a very good post on using WinPwn here:

http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=957

By: kushal

kushal — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 04:00:58 +0000

Hey venu…!
I am using my 1.1.1 iphone for the last 4 and a half month. Now I am looking to upgrade it to 1.1.4. As iphone 3g in arriving shortly into the market, it will having an advantage of graded with2.0. Pkease tell me, whether 2.0 is compatible with my phone or it is all 1.1.4 which i can upgrade. I have no basic idea of breaking, activating etc procedures. Tell me whether iplus or iliberty or Ziphone is suitable for me. Give me the details of the procedure to follow….!!!
Kushal

By: venukb

venukb — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:35:01 +0000

Tarun - I read that that old versions of iPhone are not available and the new iPhone is coming in on July 11th. The new one has 3G and many other goodies. The new one also has 2.0 version of the firmware which is supposedly already broken by iPhone Dev team. If you buy this, the instructions on my post might not be applicable. I will keep you posted on the 2.0 unlock procedure.

By: Tarun

Tarun — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:55:18 +0000

Hi,
Currenly i am in US and planning to return in another 2 weeks. I am planning to buy one for myself after reading your article (Thanks ). But i read a blog saying the upgrade in 1.1.4 (i mean apatch added by apple) has made it un-hackble. Any ideas on that ?

Also tell me if i need to activate the At&T sim before leaving. Or i can frame it in this way – Will it make a difference if the iphone is activated or not while hacking it ?

Thnaks in advance

By: vaibhav

vaibhav — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:30:51 +0000

@venukb
Is it true if i download something from itunes/apple then it wud lock th phone

By: Venu

Venu — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:18:36 +0000

No vaibhav, the unlocking is pretty safe. If something does go wrong, you can always put the phone in restore mode and put in the actual firmware to get it back to normal.

The phone becomes unusable if the baseband gets corrupted and with iPlus, they don’t touch the baseband and hence is safer.

By: vaibhav

vaibhav — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:00:21 +0000

Hi
I have heard that during unlocking if something goes wrong then the i phone becomes locked and is rendered unusable.

Also if we download something mistakably from apple/itunes then i phone gets locked

Is it true??

By: venukb

venukb — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:06:30 +0000

Vinod,
Glad to know that ZiPhone worked for you. Ziphone didn’t believe in installing the Fakeblank bootloader and you have to compromise on baseband version if you use ZiPhone !

Rishi,
I unlocked a phone bought in US itself, and it should work with any GSM network in India.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:26:41 +0000

Hi Venu,
Thanks for such a nice review. I have MTNL network with me. An US brought Iphone unlocked in india will work with MTNL network. i heard that there is some network problem in US brought iphone??
is it so
pl help
rishi

By: vinod

vinod — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:32:50 +0000

n yaa u can download the awsum prgram frm http://www.ziphone.org/
njoy life

By: vinod

vinod — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:31:25 +0000

i was a bit late to c this forum but hey the ziphone did the trick for me it was fast n simple u hve video demonstrations of hw simple it is in youtube jst type in ziphone…n yaa use ziphone3.0 versioin
it was a walk in a park
well i still hvnt used mine in india but using it in uk in t-mobile no prbs
itz perfect i dnt regret getting mine

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By: Venu

Venu — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:21:03 +0000

Sorry forgot to mention about that in the earlier reply.
you should leave it at 3.9Fake Boot loader and in case new firmware updates come from apple, you might have to upgrade to 4.6.

Until then you don’t need to do anything.

By: vaibhav garg

vaibhav garg — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:10:41 +0000

hi venukb
is there any need to restore the bootloader to 4.6 from 3.9 after unlocking the i phone.
What is the firmware version of latest i phones

By: Venu

Venu — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:39:29 +0000

Vaibhav,
Yes follow all the steps as in that article. Note that as mentioned in step 1, I did not restore to 1.1.4 (Since my phone firmware was already 1.1.4, I skipped that step)

Also before running iplus -u, ensure that you copy/use the international payload

By: vaibhav garg

vaibhav garg — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:51:09 +0000

Hi venukb
D0 I need to flow what is given in ” How to activate, jailbreak and unlock 1.1.4 firmware with iPlus (3.9 / 4.6 bootloader)” word by word.
After we downgrade the bootloader to 3.9 then is there any need to upgrade it.
Also what is the firmware version in new phones.

By: Venu

Venu — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:20:34 +0000

Vaibhav,
Use iPlus, its worked for me with no trouble and since its loads a fake bootloader it is easily upgradable to the actual version

You can even use Ziphone and stay on the same bootoloader version, however you need to downgrade the baseband

If you are not comfortable using the command line interface of iPlus, try iLiberty+

By: vaibhav garg

vaibhav garg — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:20:01 +0000

hi
I need help. I am a bit confused. I have read all the posts and i am bit confused. What should be used ( i plus or zip phone). My phone will be here within 2 weeks and will ahve latest firmware ( i think 1.4). So pls guide me

By: venukb

venukb — Sat, 10 May 2008 18:05:28 +0000

Prakash,
Very glad that you found the article useful.
Yes after unlocking everything is working fine, no complaint on ANY feature.

One you startup your unlocked iphone, you should see on installer app. Use this to install the Bigboss preferences application, using which you can turn off the SSH service and save battery.

Do share your unlock experience once its done..

By: Prakash

Prakash — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:28:50 +0000

hey venu,

fantastic article man.. really helpful
i’m right now goin to unlock the iphone i bought from US.
Just a question though, I wanted to know after u unlocked it were u able to use all features such as caller ID etc
Also u said in yr last comment about installing services app to turn of bigboss…can u tell me how to do it..
btw thanx again for such a simple post…this should certainly come out as the first result in google for iphoners in india

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By: nikman

nikman — Thu, 01 May 2008 08:04:00 +0000

Awesome! Thanks Venu for the help!

By: Venu

Venu — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:46:44 +0000

Congrats Nikman !

The baseband version seems, regarding the Bootloader, you can install an app called BBInfo.

You should probably be on 3.9Fake Boot loader (if iPlus was used) and you don’t need 4.6 till iPhone comes with the next firmware upgrade.

Also do remember to install Services app or BigbossPref app to turn off the SSH; its one big battery sucker

By: nikman

nikman — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:53:50 +0000

Hey Venu, got the unlocked phone last week and I had to just pop in an airtel sim to get it up and running.

The firmware version is 04.04.05_G. How do I know whether the bootloader on this is permanently downgraded or not? And if it is, any words of advice as to how I can try upgrading it to 4.6?

Youtube, Wifi are working just fine.