Hi,

Son bought an s/h Iphone 3gs running 4.3.4 (8k2) and would like to use it on Orange.

Have trawled the net only to find Tethered solutions which are a bit of a pain.

Anyone aware of an Untethered solution?

Or is it just a case of sticking with O2?

Head done in of Stoke..

O2 normally unlock phones if asked so it could already have been done.

Having re-read your post, I'm a bit confused as to what you're after.

Does the phone need unlocking and some way to tether it to your pc or are you just looking for a sim only plan that's not part of a contract?

Yep , it requires unlocking from O2 .

Phone responds with 'sim not supported' when Orange contract sim is installed. Is it a case of getting original owner to call o2 and unlock?

Seen many references to 'do it yourself' method's which dont phase me to be honest but its difficuilt to determine there legitimacy ?

Obviously dont want to render it useless.

Cheers

I would have thought that O2 needed the original sim card to be in to unlock it but I may well be wrong on that. A phone call to them will give all the relevant info.

Would I be right in thinking that the 'tethering' you mentioned was just bad terminology and you didn't actually want to hook your pc up to use the phone's internet signal? If not then I believe it costs extra on an iphone. Jailbreaking could be a no cost option however but I'll leave that aspect for someone else to answer.

P.S. You should still be able to update the phone's firmware (4.3.5) by connecting via wireless to your iTunes account.

Jailbreaking the phone does not unlock it, it will still be locked to the main network. The only way to cleanly unlock an iphone is direct from the phone company, in this case O2. O2 will put the request in to apple, who in turn set a flag on their servers. Then when the phone is connected to itunes (around 10 days later) it will automatically unlock and you'll get a message telling you this. Once unlocked, it will never be locked again and can be updated forever.

Jailbreaking the phone does not unlock it, it will still be locked to the main network. The only way to cleanly unlock an iphone is direct from the phone company, in this case O2. O2 will put the request in to apple, who in turn set a flag on their servers. Then when the phone is connected to itunes (around 10 days later) it will automatically unlock and you'll get a message telling you this. Once unlocked, it will never be locked again and can be updated forever.

Thank you! That has given me the direction I needed!