Useful Tips For The Unlocked iPhone
I posted a few days ago about my recent good fortune in winning an iPhone. I had already unlocked it and had it working in the USA with my US T-Mobile account without problem. However, I ran into a few issues getting my UK T-Mobile to work as easily. Here are a few tips for anybody having similar problems.
SMS Settings
My main problem was that I couldn’t get SMS (text) messages to send from my iPhone on T-Mobile UK. I had figured out that this was down to an incorrect Message Service Centre number on the phone and I was basically correct. There are a series of codes you can dial on the phone keypad to query and change various settings on the phone. The SMS related settings are as follows:
- Check Service Centre number (SMSC) - dial *#5005*7672# and press call. This will display the current Service centre number. If this doesn’t work you have a different problem; see below.
- Delete Service Centre number (SMSC) - dial ##5005*7672# and press call.
- Set new Service Center number (SMSC) - dial **5005*7672*+nnnnnnnnn# and press Call. N.B. +nnnnnnn is the number of the SMS service centre number that you need to find out from your cell phone provider. It’s in international format and therefore starts with a + sign before the country code.
If option 1 doesn’t work for you, as it didn’t for me, then you have an outdated SIM card. Mine was my original One2One SIM from the days before T-Mobile in the UK and was about 9 years old. I went to my local T-Mobile shop and they replaced it with a new one for a £10(GBP) fee - I then called T-Mobile and they agreed to credit that amount to my bill since I was replacing it for “wearing out” due to old age. Since I switched SIM cards, everything has been hunky-dory with the SMS service.
EDGE/GPRS Internet
The iPhone doesn’t (yet) support 3G internet service but does work over what used to be called WAP - this runs, these days, in some territories over the EDGE network (as in the US) and in others over GPRS (most parts of the UK). I believe that EDGE is currently only available on O2 in the UK. You may need to manually configure the settings for this to work and you will need a Data plan/bundle from your cell phone provider - otherwise it can be ludicrously expensive. Typical prices in the UK run to £7.50/MB transferred - thats about $15 (USD)!! I pay £7.50/month to T-Mobile for a Web’n'Walk plan that gives me unlimited data transfer.
I had some problems tracking down the correct settings to use. T-Mobile UK doesn’t officially support the iPhone and their settings are only available on their website via a service that downloads the settings directly to your phone - and if it’s not supported it doesn’t work! I called T-Mobile Customer Services and the chap who ‘helped’ me tried to put my phone details into the same web-service rather than having any actual information! I did a thorough search online and eventually came up with the correct settings (after many attempts with incorrect ones) at the Carphone Warehouse website. They are:
- APN: general.t-mobile.uk
- Username: user
- Password: wap
Please note the lack of “.co” in the APN - I didn’t spot that straight away and had more problems. If you are on a different UK mobile network, you can find the settings here. To find your way to the right iPhone menu for these settings click: “Settings->General->Network->EDGE”.
iPhone “Unlocking Services”
In the midst of my confusion over the SMS issue I tried a few different packages for unlocking my iPhone. The simplest and best seems to be ZiPhone. I foolishly bought into a package called UnlockiPhoneUK since they promised to unlock all features and provide future-proof support against new iPhone software released by Apple. I paid £29.99 (GBP) for what proved to be a rebranded version of the ZiPhone software (which is free!) and a mediocre help section on their website. I implore you to not repeat my mistake. I will be emailing their “Customer Service” and requesting a refund when I have a moment.
I hope that this information proves useful to anybody trying to get their unlocked iPhone up and running. I have been helped enormously by many sources all over the internet to collect the information above and I thank those who posted it. This is all regurgitated information and none of it is my own work. I just hope that having it in one spot makes it easier to find. I’ll post anything else useful I come across as I go along…
Jim | April 10th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Wow, thanks for this article, would have never figured all that crap out without it!! Thanks again!
Any idea if 3G will be supported on the iPhone which is available now?
steve | April 13th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
i recently bought an unlocked iphone from ebay and everything works (safari, youtube etc) apart from the phone itself, i cant make or receive calls or send sms, im using my tmobile uk sim, any advice?
TrumpetBoy | April 13th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
@Steve:
What error messages do you get from your iPhone, or on iTunes when you connect it to the computer? My suspicion is that the phone has been activated but not unlocked. I presume that none of the network specific functions work including GPRS/EDGE internet. Does the phone show the network name in the top left corner of the screen?
Simplest solution is to download a copy of ZiPhone and unlock it yourself. You may need to restore the iPhone to the latest firmware (1.1.4 at time of writing) first but that’s not difficult to do and you will find ample instructions on the ZiPhone site.
Good luck and let me know how you get on….
TrumpetBoy | April 13th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
@Jim
You’re most welcome, glad it was helpful.
Not sure about the 3G - I read conflicting reports about whether a hard- or software fix is necessary to enable it. Let’s hope for the best….
steve | April 13th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
thank u, when i try and make a call it says “call failed” immedietly and if i try and callmy phone i get a message saying ” the phone u are trying to cll is switched off”, not connected it to itunes yet, iv just downloaded Ziphone and il giv it a go this evening and see what happens, il let u know
cheers
steve | April 13th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
using Ziphone everything works great, used the edge/gprs internet codes aswell and allseems good, thanks
TrumpetBoy | April 14th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Glad to be of assistance. Have just cracked getting your own ringtones for free too! Will be posting about that shortly….
steve | April 14th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
one last thing, my bluetooth isnt working, says its on and “now discoverable” but it just keeps searching for other devices for ages
TrumpetBoy | April 15th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
The bluetooth service on the iPhone seems pretty scant. If you set your Bluetooth headset to pairing mode the iPhone will discover it. Other than that, I’ve not been able to do any kind of file transfer as I have with previous phones. I believe it’s possible to use the iPhone as a bluetooth modem for your laptop but with GPRS speeds only (unless you’re on O2 and in the right 30% of the UK) it hardly seems worth it.
mark | April 21st, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Hi,
Just wanted to say a massive thanks! I’ve had an unlocked I phone on t mobile for a week now but no one could figure out how to do the EDGE thing for me. After reading your web page I had it sorted in a couple of minutes.
Cheers.
TrumpetBoy » Blog Archive » Useful Tips for the Unlocked iPhone #4: Vodafone GPRS settings | May 11th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
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