AT&T Refusal to Unlock Out of Contract 3GS

[GaryKPDX]

In late January I filed a complaint with the FCC (go to http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm to file yours, and why not contact your senators and house representative at the same time) over AT&T's refusal to unlock an out-of-contract iPhone 3GS. On Friday, March 30th I was put in touch with a "J. Mason" from the "Office of the President" of AT&T. My tiny bit of optimism in returning the call--that AT&T might unlock my phone--was quickly squelched.

No, the objective of her call was to "educate" me and remind me... blah blah woof woof. This kind of experience has been widely reported of course, stating that they could not unlock iPhones, that they did not have the unlock codes, etc., a mixture of half truths, complete misstatements and attempts at palliative "customer service speak." After a little parrying, I suggested to her politely that if she was not calling with a solution, then she was wasting her and my time. During the call I mentioned the well-publicized (and we now know, successful) intervention on behalf of a consumer by Tim Cook and she was absolutely unfazed. After an additional attempt on her part to argue for AT&T's policy and its self-imposed limitations, I suggested that we end the call and we did.

To those who may have similar conversations with AT&T, the company needs to be educated and reminded that it is not that they "cannot" unlock out-of-contract iPhones; it is that they "choose not to do so." There is a world of difference.

I recognize that Tim Cook cannot intercede for every iPhone customer. But perhaps AT&T will reconsider their ridiculous policy if enough people complain to the right authorities.

[wingrider01 ACE - Expert]

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New Reality wrote:

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dwill05 wrote:
There are literally millions of people in the US who have iPhones, iPhone 3, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4 that are out of contract and therefore have what would seem to be a legitimate reason for having it unlocked. Somehow I can't see Tim Cook's people reading them all and asking AT&T to authorize unlocking each individual phone. I also can't see them unlocking a few, but not the many; it's either all or none, I think. I'm sure once the Tim Cook story hit the web, a lot of people tried it. Yours and the original person in the story seem to be the only ones who have been successful, and I certainly believe others have tried. Unless a lot more people come out and say it worked, I'm very skeptical. Any of our regular forum members try the Tim Cook method? If so, did it work? Also, this threat of a mass exodus for unhappy iPhone customers bolting AT&T over unlocking has been going on since the first iPhone, which was sold without a carrier subsidy, and yet in all these years, it hasn't seemed to have hurt AT&Ts bottom line. People said AT&T was going to be crushed as soon as Verizon got the iPhone. Didn't happen. People said AT&T was going to die when Apple started selling factory unlocked phones. Didn't happen. People said AT&T was going to lose big time now that both Verizon and Sprint have the iPhone, and will unlock the GSM side for international customers. That doesn't seemed to have happened either.

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You bring up some good points.

But consider this, you didn't see the mass exodus because AT&T increased the ETF in June 2010, just before the iPhone 4 availability. Even a phone in its last contract month would have an $85 EFT, so just wait one month till expiration.

Since then in the USA Print and Verizon have iPhone.

With early adopter iPhone 4 contracts soon to expire, assuming all things being equal,  why would someone with an unlock issue stay with AT&T?

I don't think Tim Cook reads every e-mail,  but someone does as evidenced by my e-mail being forwarded to AT&T

It's possible that AT&T is pilot testing their unlock process and this is why they've quietly selected some from the Tim Cook onslaught. Of course, it's possible that most of you thought the article was a hoax and ignored it.

Buying a full price iPhone after paying AT&T for a phone is a financial hit for many people, in today's (and the past 2 years) economy I don't see many people just off'ing their AT&T phone for an Apple unlocked phone.

Have you ever seen the numbers of Cydia downloads?  That's an indication of something.

All of your "didn't happens" are correct,  but let's see what happens as the first group of 2 year iPhone 4 contracts expire.

It would be hard for anyone to argue that AT&T will not lose customers as contracts expire and unlockers seek a legitimate unlock solution without shelling out mega bucks.

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Print and Verizon do not unlock for domestic use - not a comparision issue

While you claim the "tim cook" senario was true there are numebrous counter statements being made

Iphone contracts have expired already, they still do not have the permsision to unlock.

When it happens it happens, att has not been hurt by it yet and I doubt that if they do not unlock for another year they will not be hurt by that either

You did not see a "mass exodus" when ATT raised their upgrade charge from the 18.00 to industry standard of 36.00 either.

have not seen any count for "cydia" downloads, have no desire to hack the phone nor will any of my employees hack their company supplied iphone, we have a writen agreement on what will happen when and if they do that, and we don;t allow personal cell phones on the building premises.

Still curious on how you did it though

[wingrider01 ACE - Expert]

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New Reality wrote:

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wingrider01 wrote:

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you link to a trouble shooting a unlock, still see no verification that it was a att supplied locked phone or how you obtained the information, when Apple started selling the unlocked version of the ATT phone there was a shortage of them and it was authorized to unlock the att versions to coverage the shortage.

This is a dead end converstation, suspect that when other people read this your PM box will be full with requests to know exactly how you did this. How did you unlocked it - how did you get the  authorization from ATT to have it done?

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How many times to I have to repeat it:

The Tim Cook letter is legitimate.

If you have a rationale explanation for your need for an unlocked phone possibly an execption will be made.

I will not post to this site, or PM, the e-mail address of the AT&T team that handled these letters.

But, it's clear, someone really reads e-mails to Tim Cook, and in those cases where the writer makes sense, action is taken.

That is why I suggested that you leverage your purchasing power. You seem to have management control of carrier selection, use it with AT&T.

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there are counter claims on the "letter"

Yes I do have "carrier control" since I own the business, will continue to issue ATT, Verizon, Sprint, O2, Orange, Rogers and Globalstar phones.

"rationale explanation"? suspect that has been tried already over the life of the iphone line and no one has posted sucess before now. 

[New Reality]

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wingrider01 wrote:

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New Reality wrote:

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wingrider01 wrote:

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you link to a trouble shooting a unlock, still see no verification that it was a att supplied locked phone or how you obtained the information, when Apple started selling the unlocked version of the ATT phone there was a shortage of them and it was authorized to unlock the att versions to coverage the shortage.

This is a dead end conversation, suspect that when other people read this your PM box will be full with requests to know exactly how you did this. How did you unlocked it - how did you get the  authorization from ATT to have it done?

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How many times to I have to repeat it:

The Tim Cook letter is legitimate.

If you have a rationale explanation for your need for an unlocked phone possibly an execption will be made.

I will not post to this site, or PM, the e-mail address of the AT&T team that handled these letters.

But, it's clear, someone really reads e-mails to Tim Cook, and in those cases where the writer makes sense, action is taken.

That is why I suggested that you leverage your purchasing power. You seem to have management control of carrier selection, use it with AT&T.

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there are counter claims on the "letter"

Yes I do have "carrier control" since I own the business, will continue to issue ATT, Verizon, Sprint, O2, Orange, Rogers and Globalstar phones.

"rational explanation"? suspect that has been tried already over the life of the iphone line and no one has posted success before now. 

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Not sure I understand your counterclaims point.  I can only relate my experience. I have no idea what people may have written or their ability to frame their points in a businesslike manner.

Maybe no one had a reasonable explanation, or maybe they don't know how to write a letter to a CEO, or maybe they don't really need an unlock, or, or, or.

Can't speak for anyone else, I do have a legitimate requirement.

I'm guessing there's some change to the policy in the near future, but there will be similar account requirements to Verzion's.

I could better understand AT&T's policy if there were many competing GSM networks in the USA. Now that the exclusivity is over and there really aren't many real GSM competitors, I don't get it.

[wingrider01 ACE - Expert]

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New Reality wrote:

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Not sure I understand your counterclaims point.  I can only relate my experience. I have no idea what people may have written or their ability to frame their points in a businesslike manner.

Maybe no one had a reasonable explanation, or maybe they don't know how to write a letter to a CEO, or maybe they don't really need an unlock, or, or, or.

Can't speak for anyone else, I do have a legitimate requirement.

I'm guessing there's some change to the policy in the near future, but there will be similar account requirements to Verzion's.

I could better understand AT&T's policy if there were many competing GSM networks in the USA. Now that the exclusivity is over and there really aren't many real GSM competitors, I don't get it.

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only "letter" that is published that "claims" it happened.

the thing is - there have been othe claims of "legitimate requirement" that have never had their phone unlocked, lets just leave this as it is, not worth any more time on it.

The verizon iphone and the att iphone are two different animals, primary communications method on the verizon phone is CDMA with a GSM radio, doubt what you claim will happen.

Enjoy...

[gparedes]

I call to At&t, explain that i have bought my iphone on some vacations on the united states, she told me my device wasnt elegible, but i ask her to open a case, explaining I live in Chile, and here we dont have AT&T. 3 days later i received an email that they approved the unloking of my phone, and the steps to do it.
So it works.

[Bass528]

You sound like you work for AT&T. if a customer has finished their 2 years contract I see no reason AT&T cannot unlock their phones, as you mentioned its tottaly up to them not to unlock, and its tottaly up to the customer to start seeking other options such as buying a cheap iphone on ebay and using T-Mobile as a carrier. So they dont and the customer also dont have to stay and be a slave to this company, begging to have their phone unlocked. You can now get straight talk which will work on a locked ATT phone. T-Mobile on an unlocked one, and your just throwing your cash away buying a CDMA phone, unless its the iphone 5 which comes already unlocked as ordered by the FCC, which was for a reason to avoid the same situation above, people begging to have their phones unlocked and are completely at the mercey of these fools who are loosing customers by the day.

[dwill05]

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Bass528 wrote:

You sound like you work for AT&T. if a customer has finished their 2 years contract I see no reason AT&T cannot unlock their phones, as you mentioned its tottaly up to them not to unlock, and its tottaly up to the customer to start seeking other options such as buying a cheap iphone on ebay and using T-Mobile as a carrier. So they dont and the customer also dont have to stay and be a slave to this company, begging to have their phone unlocked. You can now get straight talk which will work on a locked ATT phone. T-Mobile on an unlocked one, and your just throwing your cash away buying a CDMA phone, unless its the iphone 5 which comes already unlocked as ordered by the FCC, which was for a reason to avoid the same situation above, people begging to have their phones unlocked and are completely at the mercey of these fools who are loosing customers by the day.

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Not sure what you are talking about.  This is an old thread.  AT&T has since started unlocking phones on request for their customers after they have completed their contracts.  Also, the iPhone 5 does not come "unlocked as ordered by the FCC".  Although Apple does sell unocked iPhones at full price as an option, they also still sell phones that are locked.  Also, there is no FCC order requiring that phones be sold unlocked, or that locked iPhones be unlocked at all.

[youngjm ACE - Master]

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dwill05 wrote:

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Bass528 wrote:

You sound like you work for AT&T. if a customer has finished their 2 years contract I see no reason AT&T cannot unlock their phones, as you mentioned its tottaly up to them not to unlock, and its tottaly up to the customer to start seeking other options such as buying a cheap iphone on ebay and using T-Mobile as a carrier. So they dont and the customer also dont have to stay and be a slave to this company, begging to have their phone unlocked. You can now get straight talk which will work on a locked ATT phone. T-Mobile on an unlocked one, and your just throwing your cash away buying a CDMA phone, unless its the iphone 5 which comes already unlocked as ordered by the FCC, which was for a reason to avoid the same situation above, people begging to have their phones unlocked and are completely at the mercey of these fools who are loosing customers by the day.

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Not sure what you are talking about.  This is an old thread.  AT&T has since started unlocking phones on request for their customers after they have completed their contracts.  Also, the iPhone 5 does not come "unlocked as ordered by the FCC".  Although Apple does sell unocked iPhones at full price as an option, they also still sell phones that are locked.  Also, there is no FCC order requiring that phones be sold unlocked, or that locked iPhones be unlocked at all.

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This is an old thread but the reference to the FCC order I believe is in regards to the CDMA version sold by Verizon where it's SIM is unlocked but the frequencies do not support ATT's LTE frequenceis.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

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Model Number2	LTE Band Support3	Country	Supported LTE Networks
Model A1428 (GSM model)	4 (AWS) 17 (700b MHz)	United StatesAT&TCanada Bell (including Virgin) Rogers (including Fido) Telus (including Koodo)
Model A1429 (CDMA model)	1 (2100 MHz) 3 (1800 MHz) 5 (850 MHz) 13 (700c MHz) 25 (1900 MHz)	United States Sprint Verizon JapanKDDI
Model A1429 (GSM model)	1 (2100 MHz) 3 (1800 MHz) 5 (850 MHz)	GermanyDeutsche TelekomUnited KingdomEEAustralia Optus (including Virgin) Telstra JapanSoftbankKorea KT SK Telecom Hong Kong CSL Hutchison SmarTone Singapore M1 SingTel StarHub

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3. LTE band support is based on the iPhone 5 model number and configuration for either CDMA or GSM networks. Band support does not guarantee support on all LTE networks running on the same bands.

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