AT&T to unlock out-of-contract iPhones

According to MacRumors, AT&T as of tomorrow will on request unlock iPhones once they're out of contract. I haven't yet done much research on what all the options are for voice and data service in Europe, but I know AT&T charges exorbitant rates for international service, and that you can get cheap pre-paid microsim cards from local European carriers if you have an unlocked phone. This is great news for me since my iPhone goes out of contract before my planned Sept. ED.

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/06/...unday-april-8/

Scooped by approx 8 hours...see the Travel sub-forum.

Recently I've seen the question of prepaid SIM popped up more frequently. I think we should add this info into the wiki and/or make a sticky.

On a second though, it is not a big deal. When your phone is out of contract, it is at least a year or 2 old, which your phone is getting old. It is getting very slow. You can jail break yourself for this old phone.

Originally Posted by mason

On a second though, it is not a big deal. When your phone is out of contract, it is at least a year or 2 old, which your phone is getting old. It is getting very slow. You can jail break yourself for this old phone.

Jailbreak does not = unlock.

For many very old phones, unlock is very easy after jailbreak. For more recent phones (ones that have been updated to more recent basebands via iTunes) unlock is not possible and hasn't been for some time, with some occasional exceptions.

I also completely disagree that an old 3GS or a 4 would be "too slow" to be useful for travel use. I use an unlocked 3GS on a dozen international trips a year and it's a lifesaver. I'd love to unlock my 4-- it has a baseband they never cracked and that's true for most iPhone 4 owners. Apple have been powerless to prevent new jailbreaks as new software versions that come out but that's -not- to say they haven't been quite successful at preventing home-made unlocks-- they've been excellent at that and that's why this is a very big deal.