Introduction

We don’t offer mobile phone unlocking but a lot of our competitors do.

There are some dubious practices and dealings that go on behind the scenes in the phone unlocking business. For example, if a phone has an FRP (factory reset protection) or iCloud lock set, and you’ve been offered it, how do you know it isn’t stolen? Spoiler- a lot of people do know that it’s stolen or prefer to look the under way when they’re given an obviously questionable cover story- as do many of the people actually unlocking them.

It wouldn’t be fair to say that all companies who offer unlocking are dubious- many are perfectly reputable and entirely legal. Overall, however, the skirting-the-edge-of-legality nature of the business means that it attracts too many of the sort of people willing to indulge in ethically dubious practices. In at least one case (iPhone network unlocking- i.e. untying the iPhone from a specific mobile network) this can come back to bite the paying customer themselves later on.

iPhone Network Unlocking- The Quick Way and the Proper Way

There are two ways to untie or unlock an iPhone from the specific network it was originally sold for. One is much faster than the other- unfortunately, there’s also a nasty drawback as we’ll find out.

The Original Method- Slow But Sure

Doing things the traditional way, a customer gets their iPhone (or indeed, any other phone) unlocked by coming into the store and asking them to do it. The store gives them a price based upon which network the phone was locked to, then submits the IMEI to the unlocking service. Once this is done, the unlocking process can take anything between 24 hours and 14 days to go through. In the meantime, the customer can take their phone away and doesn’t need to return. Once the unlocking is approved, they simply connect the iPhone to iTunes and download an update to unlock it.

This is known as a “factory unlock” and normally can’t be reversed unless the phone has been reported lost or stolen and blacklisted.

The Quick Method- Not as Good as It First Appears

The traditional method of unlocking is reliable- but it’s not exactly fast.

In the iPhone world, a class of SIM adapter has recently become available. These go under various names, including “IG sim”, “G-sim”, “turbo sim” and “R-sim”. (We’ll stick with “Turbo SIM” here). They go between your phone and your own SIM card, and spoof the iPhone into thinking it still has the SIM that it’s locked to installed.

These allow the iPhone to be instantly unlocked to any network- no waiting several days! Many stores use these to offer an “instant” unlocking service. A typical spiel is something along the lines of “we have two unlock options- both cost £20, but one takes five minutes, and the other takes five days”.

It’s obvious that the customer is going to choose the five minute option- why wouldn’t they?

The problem here is that they aren’t giving the customer the whole story. What they usually don’t tell them is that the “five minute” unlock provided by the Turbo SIM and friends isn’t permanent and can be reversed at any time.

All Apple needs to do is to update their software and the Turbo SIM will stop working. This isn’t just scaremongering- it has already happened once. When iOS 11 was released, Apple changed the server unlocking API keys and disabled use of these SIM adaptors.

At the time of writing (late October 2017) any iPhone that’s been activated on Apple’s server will continue to work with the Turbo SIM. However, if you update or restore the phone you will not be able to activate it again, and no new activations will work. There’s nothing to stop Apple making a change to stop all SIM adaptors from working.

Response from manufacturer of “IG Sims” after Apple update caused “unlocked” phones to stop working. Note that they now claim their product was “always seen as a temporary solution”.

Conclusion

We believe that selling these “instant” unlocks as alternatives to the real thing without making the drawbacks clear to the customer is unethical. Had they done that- fine, it’d be the customer’s decision, but as things stand such stores are effectively duping them on the basis of speed.

Will they give you your money back several months down the road when it turns out your “unlocked” iPhone isn’t unlocked at all? We wouldn’t want to rely on that.

Our advice is to get your phone unlocked the proper (i.e. slower) way– and if you want the instant version, you now at least know where you stand. If you’re offered the “instant” service ask them for the details and see if they’re honest and upfront about what it involves- if not, you can decide if that’s a company you want to do business with or not.