General Iphone unlocking question

Hello,

I'm planning to go out and buy a Iphone from a friend who's selling his.

His iphone is not unlocked but I checked the plan he's using and I can say that it sucks.

Once I get it I will unlock it myself so I can get all the hidden goodies.

Question: it is true that once unlocking/ jailbreaking a iphone, you will be able to use any cell phone plan as you wish and not nailed to one greedy company?

I'm currently using a cell phone provider from a very small company and I want to transfer the plan to the Iphone I'm about to buy.

If unlocking/ jailbreaking question aren't allowed here, mods, feel free to delete this thread

Thanks

You can unlock the iphone4 yourself, just be careful what firmware it is. If it has anything newer than 4.0.1 then you will not be able to unlock it, as there is no unlock yet available for 4.0.2 and 4.1.

If you are buying a 3GS, same applies.

If you are buying a 3G, its ok because you can downgrade that phone's firmware all day long and unlock it

ZEEK said:

You can unlock the iphone4 yourself, just be careful what firmware it is. If it has anything newer than 4.0.1 then you will not be able to unlock it, as there is no unlock yet available for 4.0.2 and 4.1.

If you are buying a 3GS, same applies.

If you are buying a 3G, its ok because you can downgrade that phone's firmware all day long and unlock it

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, it's a 3GS and it's on the 3.0 something firmware right now.

But my question is that if I jailbreak/unlock the iphone, will it allow me to use whatever cell phone plan I want or is it stuck to the same company it was bought from?

But my question is that if I jailbreak/unlock the iphone, will it allow me to use whatever cell phone plan I want or is it stuck to the same company it was bought from?

Click to expand...

Once it's unlocked you can use it with any carrier that transmits GSM; T-Mobile, Virgin, etc. The only difference is that you won't have 3G capability.

chscag said:

Once it's unlocked you can use it with any carrier that transmits GSM; T-Mobile, Virgin, etc. The only difference is that you won't have 3G capability.

Click to expand...

Just to clarify: T-Mobile USA uses a weird frequency for their 3G data service that most phones do not support, so there's nothing that would restrict an unlocked iPhone to only work with the original carrier, it's just T-Mobile US 3G that won't work.