AT&T's off-contract iPhone 5 can be unlocked with an easy reset Off-contract AT&T iPhone owners can skip waiting for the carrier to unlock their smartphones
(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET ) One would think that if you bought an iPhone 5 at full price and off-contract that it would already be unlocked. Apparently, that is only partially correct. While Verizon sells Apple's next-generation smartphone at full price already unlocked out of the box, that is apparently not the case with AT&T. Normally, AT&T customers who opt to pay the full $649 price instead of agreeing to a two-year contract for a subsidized iPhone must follow a lengthy process to get handset unlocked. Those AT&T customers must fill out a Web form, send a fax to AT&T, and wait as long as a week for word on whether it will allow the device to be unlocked. However, it now appears that unsubsidized AT&T iPhones ship unlocked and that off-contract customers can save a lot of hassle and time by simply restoring the device in iTunes. This little bypass was first reported by Tech Crunch, which says it confirmed the process with AT&T technical support and successfully reset an iPhone 5 with a T-Mobile SIM card, getting the usual unlock message: "Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked." iPhone users can confirm the unlock by swapping in another GSM-compatible SIM card, Tech Crunch's Romain Dillet explained: After receiving the notification my new iPhone was unlocked, I cut a micro-SIM card into the shape of a nano-SIM by using the AT&T SIM card that was already in the iPhone 5 as a guide. The most difficult part was to make it narrower so that you can close the tiny nano-SIM tray, though some have reported that this step may be optional. In a couple of seconds, the iPhone was able to pick up the T-Mobile network, and calls and EDGE data connectivity worked as expected. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en.
