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<p><img src="http://www.allaboutiphone.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/unlocked_small.jpg" alt="Unlocked iPhone" title="Unlocked iPhone" width="100" height="147" class="floatright" /></p>
<p>I&#8217;ve already looked at <a href="http://www.allaboutiphone.net/2010/01/how-to-get-the-cheapest-officially-unlocked-iphone-in-the-uk/">how to buy the cheapest officially unlocked iPhone in the UK</a>, but what if you already have your iPhone? </p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve decided you either can&#8217;t or don&#8217;t want to use an unofficial unlock, such as <a href="http://ultrasn0w.com/">ultrasn0w</a> from the <a href="http://blog.iphone-dev.org/">iPhone Dev Team</a>, then that leaves you with one option: get it unlocked officially by a mobile network.</p>
<p>So what&#8217;s the likelihood of that happening with the UK iPhone carriers?<span id="more-3892"></span></p>
<p>First port of call is Apple&#8217;s support page, &#8220;<a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1937">Locating iPhone wireless carriers</a>&#8220;. That&#8217;s where I&#8217;ve cribbed this graphic from:</p>
<p><center><br />
<img src="http://www.allaboutiphone.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/uk-carrier-unlock1.png" alt="image of UK carrier unlock availability" title="uk-carrier-unlock" width="403" height="256" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-3900" /><br />
</center></p>
<p>According to Apple, all UK networks lock their iPhones, with only O2 and Orange allowing unlocking. But that&#8217;s not the whole story, as a little digging around their support documents and forums* has shown.</p>
<p><strong>What won&#8217;t they unlock?</strong></p>
<p>To be clear, no UK network will or even can unlock an iPhone bought off eBay, or acquired from another network. If your mate got one free on an upgrade and he&#8217;s on a different network to the one you want to use it with &#8211; you&#8217;re out of luck.</p>
<p>Networks can only unlock iPhones which have been bought SIM-locked to their own network.</p>
<h3>The Unlock Policies in Full</h3>
<p><strong>O2</strong></p>
<p><img src="http://www.allaboutiphone.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/o2.jpg" alt="O2" title="o2" width="100" height="99" class="floatright" /> O2 offer the best unlocking policy of any carrier in the UK, in my opinion, although the less said about their coverage the better. They clearly state what&#8217;s allowed <a href="http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/unlockmyiphone.html">on their unlock page</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pay Monthly customers can unlock at any time, with no charge</li>
<li>PAYG customers must pay £15. If it&#8217;s less than 12 months after you bought your iPhone from O2, you&#8217;ll lose your Web n Wifi bolt-on.</li>
</ul>
<p>You can request an unlock via <a href="http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/unlockmyiphone.html">O2&#8242;s unlock page</a>, and it&#8217;ll take up to 14 days to get your unlock approved.</p>
<p><strong>Orange</strong></p>
<p><img src="http://www.allaboutiphone.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/orange_logo.jpg" alt="Orange logo" title="orange_logo" width="100" height="100" class="floatright" />Orange don&#8217;t mention unlocking anywhere on their <a href="http://help.orange.co.uk/orangeuk/support/selfservice/index.jsp">support website</a>. Even a Google search of the Orange site only provides <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&#038;safe=off&%23038;q=site:help.orange.co.uk+unlock+iphone&%23038;aq=f&%23038;aqi=&%23038;aql=&%23038;oq=&%23038;gs_rfai=">information on how to unlock the iPhone&#8217;s screen</a>. Not helpful. </p>
<p>But <a href="http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=820282">this Macrumors thread</a>, which I&#8217;ve confirmed with Orange by phone, outlines their policy:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pay Monthly and PAYG customers can unlock after the first 3 months of registering their phone with the network</li>
<li>It&#8217;ll cost you £20</li>
</ul>
<p>You can request an unlock via Orange Customer Services, and it&#8217;ll take up to 10 days to get your unlock approved.</p>
<p><strong>Tesco</strong></p>
<p><img src="http://www.allaboutiphone.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/tesco-mobile.jpeg" alt="Tesco Mobile" title="tesco mobile" width="100" height="81" class="floatright" />Despite Apple&#8217;s information, Tesco do offer unlocking.</p>
<p>According to their <a href="http://phone-shop.tesco.com/iphone-help-and-faqs/iphone-help-faqs.aspx">iPhone Help FAQ page</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Can I &#8216;unlock&#8217; the iPhone and use it with another network?</strong><br />
If you wish to use Apple iPhone on another network we will only provide an unlatching code after 12 months or after the completion of any Pay monthly contract period.</p></blockquote>
<p>There&#8217;s no mention of any cost or time to provide the unlock approval.</p>
<p><strong>Vodafone</strong></p>
<p><img src="http://www.allaboutiphone.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/vodafone1.gif" alt="Vodafone logo" title="vodafone" width="100" height="91" class="floatright" /></p>
<p>As per Apple&#8217;s support page, Vodafone don&#8217;t offer unlocking in the UK &#8211; although they do in other countries, <a href="http://vodafone.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2909">such as Australia</a>. But perhaps that should read they don&#8217;t offer unlocking <em>at the moment</em>.</p>
<p>According to two posts on Vodafone&#8217;s eForum, an unlocking option <em>may</em> become available once the first iPhone contracts approach expiration. Vodafone eForum admin Trev_Vodafone <a href="http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/topic/59944-iphone-unlock/page__view__findpost__p__391887">posted the following</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>I can confirm that our stance on unlocking iphones is as follows:</p>
<p>The iPhone can only be unlocked if the customer has purchased a &#8216;box only&#8217; device without a Vodafone contract. This means that if you purchased an iphone, from Vodafone, with a contract we would not be able to unlock this device.</p></blockquote>
<p>It was was <a href="http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/topic/59830-iphone-can-i-unlock-it/page__view__findpost__p__390661">confirmed previously by eForum admin MartinB_Vodafone</a> that:</p>
<blockquote><p>VF do not offer unlocking at the moment, they say that as the first contracts issued come to an end it &#8216;may&#8217; be offered, but until then you are tied to VF.</p></blockquote>
<p>There are no details on the cost, but for Vodafone in Australia, there is a few options:</p>
<ul>
<li>iPhone less than 6 months old, unlocked online: AU$75 (£44)</li>
<li>iPhone less than 6 months old, unlocked by customer services: AU$100 (£59)</li>
<li>iPhone more than 6 months old, unlocked online: AU$25 (£15)</li>
<li>iPhone more than 6 months old, unlocked by customer services: AU$50 (£30)</li>
</ul>
<p>Ouch! Let&#8217;s hope Vodafone don&#8217;t charge such prices in the UK, if they do allow unlocking.</p>
<p><strong>The Real Picture</strong></p>
<p>With all the little details taken into account, the actual unlocking situation is more like this:</p>
<p>
<table id="wp-table-reloaded-id-2-no-1" class="wp-table-reloaded wp-table-reloaded-id-2">
<thead>
	<tr class="row-1 odd">
		<th class="column-1">Carrier</th><th class="column-2">Locked to Carrier</th><th class="column-3">Carrier offers authorised unlocking</th><th class="column-4">Unlockable during contract?</th><th class="column-5">How much does it cost? (Pay monthly)</th><th class="column-6">How much does it cost? (PAYG)</th>
	</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
	<tr class="row-2 even">
		<td class="column-1">O2</td><td class="column-2">Yes</td><td class="column-3">Yes</td><td class="column-4">Yes</td><td class="column-5">£0</td><td class="column-6">£15</td>
	</tr>
	<tr class="row-3 odd">
		<td class="column-1">Orange</td><td class="column-2">Yes</td><td class="column-3">Yes</td><td class="column-4">Yes</td><td class="column-5">£20</td><td class="column-6">£20</td>
	</tr>
	<tr class="row-4 even">
		<td class="column-1">Tesco</td><td class="column-2">Yes</td><td class="column-3">Yes</td><td class="column-4">No</td><td class="column-5">?</td><td class="column-6">?</td>
	</tr>
	<tr class="row-5 odd">
		<td class="column-1">Vodafone</td><td class="column-2">Yes</td><td class="column-3">Maybe</td><td class="column-4">Doesn't look like it</td><td class="column-5">?</td><td class="column-6">?</td>
	</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br />
<strong>Anything else?</strong></p>
<p>For an official unlock, you&#8217;ll receive a text confirming the unlock has been approved. Then, connect through iTunes and Apple&#8217;s server will authorise the unlock. If it doesn&#8217;t happen straight away, then just wait a bit &#8211; your carrier simply hasn&#8217;t got notification that your iPhone can be unlocked to Apple yet, or conversely, Apple has actioned the unlock request from your carrier. Patience grasshopper.</p>
<p>Also bear in mind: an unlock will occur every time you restore your phone, as iPhones are restored to a locked state.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re thinking of using your iPhone abroad, and want to get your it unlocked to do so &#8211; <strong>don&#8217;t wait until you&#8217;re at your destination</strong>. The first time you unlock, it can only be done through iTunes <em>and</em> on your home network. So once you&#8217;re abroad, that&#8217;s it!</p>
<p>(Although there&#8217;s always <a href="http://ultrasn0w.com">the unofficial route</a>!)</p>
<p>&#8211;<br />
<em>*Yes, I know the correct plural is fora, but give it up on that one.</em></p>
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