We're going to be moving to Germany in a few weeks, so I visited AT&T today and asked them to unlock our phones. They unlocked my Android device, but told me that "Apple did not give [them] the tools to unlock iPhones". I had a little shouting match, but I got nowhere.
I might be able to figure out how to jailbreak and unlock my wife's 3GS (v 4.3.5 8L1, BB 05.16.02 if that matters) but she's really hesitant to "mess with it". I'd really prefer to be able to go through official channels.
I found plenty of questions here about unlocking iPhones, but nearly all of them seem to be overrun with irrelevant answers about how other networks work. I get the impression from other web sites that AT&T is a "special case" and flatly refuses to ever unlock any iPhone, for any reason, period. Is this true? Would I have better luck talking directly to Apple? Do I have any recourse, or is this phone going to magically turn into an iPod Touch after our plane ride is over?
Best Answer
I went through the same process with a 3GS and an iPhone 4 when I moved to China last year. With two phones at stake, I many spent hours searching and tried calling and visiting stores, but no luck.
Unless something changed in the last year, it's not possible. The good news is that you can unlock it yourself.