UK iPhone reportedly functioning with Vodafone
Yesterday, TUAW posted about using iASign to activate iPhones on non-iPhone AT&T plans. Today, TUAW reader AJ reports that he's used iASign to activate his iPhone with Vodafone. He writes that at first he bought an AT&T prepaid card on ebay and used iASign to get it working. After doing a little thinking (how would he top off the card, and wasn't a US phone number going to be pretty useless in the UK?), he popped the AT&T-branded US SIM out of his iPhone and put it into an old O2 XDA handset, which he brought to the Vodafone store.
At the store, he had them add the phone to his current Vodafone contract. When he returned home, he put the Vodafone-compliant AT&T SIM back into the iPhone, and used iASign to activate it. He reports that he's made a call using the Vodafone network although the iPhone itself still says AT&T in the corner. He's also confirmed that his Vodafone number is assigned to the phone. Visual voicemail is, sadly, a no go but SMS text messaging works fine.
Update: This post is causing quite an uproar over at the #iphone IRC channel. Participants there suggest this method should not have worked. SIM numbers are network specific and Vodafone should not have been able to use an AT&T SIM. Specific questions that remain are: How and why vodaphone accepted the AT&T SIM and "reprogrammed" it and how the network accepted a different CCID (thanks Spoonet). More as this develops.
Update 2: I asked another TUAW reader to try this in Canada. He writes: "Rogers wouldn't take the SIM card number since the network prefix wasn't for Rogers, i.e. 8930. Back to square one." One user, puescho, tried calling T-Mobile in Germany and was told that a technician said this was not possible.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
AJ said 11:44AM on 7-19-2007
Update needed I feel. What I did was ask them to change my USIM number on my contract to that of the AT&T prepaid card (must be a new one with 20 digits).
The iPhone seems to check and confim that it is indeed an AT&T sim (no idea how, i guess thats what the hackers are working on), but the network picks up that sims USIM number (not phone number) as my vodafone contract.
Not perfect without Visual Voicemail, but it works just fine.
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David said 11:57AM on 7-19-2007
Although not to be too sticky you won't be able to buy an O2 XDA at a vodafone store ! They are only available through the O2 network and O2 stores.
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Thomas said 12:02PM on 7-19-2007
Hmmm, wonder if they could do such things in store here in Belgium as well, or on any other network... Would love to get an iPhone and with the non-simlock law here I doubt Apple will be inclined to start selling one here.
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SuitCase said 12:03PM on 7-19-2007
Why did they reprogram the AT&T SIM? Why didn't they just provide one of their own and say "here, put this one in instead"? This is what confuses me most, as I've never really seen a carrier that would do that.. SIMs aren't expensive, and it seems like it'd cause more problems for them to try and reprogram random SIMs from foreign lands (in this case, the UK) when they could just reach into a drawer and give them one with a nice colourful Vodafone logo.
This may be a great way to "unlock" the iPhone if it is true, but right now I'm somewhat skeptical.. it sounds so weird for them to do that!
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AJ said 12:04PM on 7-19-2007
Yeah, they need to reword the post. I got the idea because I had previously used an o2XDA with o2 sim with my vodafone contract by binding the o2 sim to my contract via the USIM number. No hacking needed!
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AJ said 12:10PM on 7-19-2007
to SuitCase - there was no reprograming involved.
If they did just get a new sim out of the draw - it would not work now would it, because the sim knows it's a vodafone one. All sims do is hold info about the brand, type and store phone numbers and stuff... which is why my methord works...
The phone checks and confirms it's an AT&T sim. The reason it works is that vodafone picks it up and knows that that sim card is my contract and my number.
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andy said 12:15PM on 7-19-2007
sorry but i think this post needs rewriting or clarification from the source, too confusing
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SuitCase said 12:16PM on 7-19-2007
AJ - Thanks for the reply. You should visit #iphone, we're all talking about you!
I understand now that the SIM was not reprogrammed, but I remain confused as to why Vodafone chose to take the ID of the SIM and add it to your contract rather than just saying "Oh, here's a new one, put it in your phone and go." Why would they bother to re-use the AT&T SIM? It seems uncharacteristic and weird for a company to do that, and I'm not entirely sure I could rely on my (Australian) carrier to do that for me. Do you think you were lucky to get the AT&T SIM repurposed by Vodafone, or does it seem somewhat normal?
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Josh said 12:22PM on 7-19-2007
That's not possible.
Part of the USIM number as you name it, is the country and operator code. How on earth can Vodafone "capture" this number and assign it to Vodafone in UK when the serial number says it's AT&T in the USA?
Besides, the operator systems have limitations and won't allow to use a SIM card out of that operator's range: even within the same operator there are different serial number ranges and a sim card from, say, range A cannot be replaced by a sim card from range B.
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Erica Sadun said 12:23PM on 7-19-2007
Over at the #iphone discussion, quite a few people are writing that this should not have worked because SIM numbers are network specific. Vodafone should not have been able to use the AT&T SIM.
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AJ said 12:26PM on 7-19-2007
SuitCase - 100% lucky. If you get a arsehole on the front desk at the store, they wont help you because they dont want it to work and have authority issues. But lucky for me, the vodafone store guys i talked to are as excited to see the iphone working on their network as I was. It's simple, I saw the dude do it. Take down my phone number, do a few security checks to make sure I'm who I say I am, then edit the details of my account.
Phone turns on. Sim gives iPhone no problems (as it's AT&T) Network picks it up. Simple.
Im sure this will work with any other phone locked phone, as like i said, i did it before with my XDA that was locked to o2 when I first had my contract with vodafone. I wanted to keep the phone, so they used the o2 sim.
I'll try and take some pics and visit you guys as soon as i work out what #iphone is! Or someone else could do the same and take pics. Whatever. I just wanted to share the news. It's very very simple when you think about it. And best of all, no hacking. Even a simpleton can ask their network to change the USIM number on their contract to a new one.
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Austin_yeahbaby said 12:34PM on 7-19-2007
I work in the UK for a company linked to Vodafone and O2. I find it hard to believe that a mobile number an be provisioned onto another operators sim card.
Sim card numbers have a specific number range for each operator such as O2 in the UK start 8944.
The systems I work on typically only allow the users to perform a connection or sim change where by they enter the last 9 digits of the sim card hence you can only provision to a sim card in the same number range (and same network).
I'm not saying this is impossible just not a common exploit that could be used on all operators.
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H. Bennis said 12:30PM on 7-19-2007
DIDN'T GET IT!
Okay here is a question:
Could the iPhone work in a country where the carrier does not lock its own cellphones ?
I live in a country that has one and only carrier. Their business model is not being subsidized by phone purchases (you buy the contract and the phone on separate contracts).
Now can someone explain a step-by-step method for dummies to get this damn iBendforATT work for my carrier ? (BTW my carrier has roaming partnerships with ATT on GSM, EDGE, and 3G)...
Thaaaaanks!
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AJ said 12:30PM on 7-19-2007
Josh - I'm not a tech guy. So i dont have answers to headache worthy questions, but I asume that even tho it's a got a USA number or whatever, its just like a AT&T phone roaming over here.
I was told it only works because I got a new sim with 20 digits. It's got a little 3g logo on it, which i find funny seeing as i can't even get 2.5g on this thing!
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AJ said 12:35PM on 7-19-2007
H. Bennis -
iPhone NEEDS an AT&T sim. my methord probally would work with a contract sim. who knows. but i used a prepay.
1 network or 800 in a country, you will still get the same result.
The trick is to get the phone happy thats it's an AT&T sim. and the network to use the same sim for your uk contract/number.
Can someone else in the UK please try this out... I'm tired of this already. I just wanted to share my super-simple methord.
This would work with any locked phone even if the iphone never existed.
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AJ said 12:37PM on 7-19-2007
Austin_yeahbaby - intresting stuff. I guess voda staff can just enter any USIM number with no error checking.
But have you even tried signing up a customer to voda and typing in a o2 USIM number?
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Stephen Forde said 12:38PM on 7-19-2007
One thing I dont understand is that here in Ireland I thought the UK also we have SIM cards that only have 19 numbers where as the AT&T SIM has twenty??
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Daze said 12:40PM on 7-19-2007
Just tried to get Rogers to activate an AT&T SIM on their network. They said no, as I suspected. FWIW, Rogers network prefix is 8930. Back to square one.
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H. Bennis said 12:42PM on 7-19-2007
AJ -
Okay, so what can I go say to my carrier with my local, ATT SIM, and iPhone ??
Can you please word it in a way that I can explain and the dudes behind the counter of my stupid carrier can understand, say in a 5 y/o words.
You might just save the world from this mess of unlocking THE iPhone...you'll be famous, LOL.
Tx,
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Alex said 12:42PM on 7-19-2007
The 3 and 4th digit of an USIM/SIMs number are the country code. The AT&T USIM/SIMs will start with 8901 where 01 is the Country code.
UK is 8944, CH is 8941, etc. It is highly unlikely an operator will do this. Even if you find an employee willing to, the system will stop him.
If of course Vodafone allows this through (which again I highly doubt), technically it can work as the phone number is not on the SIM (well it is, but not the part that is relevant for network connectivity)
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