Weird iPhone Unlock Problem

So I've searched all over google, and these forum pages and haven't found anyone with a similar problem to me. I got my sister's old iPhone 3G after she got a new phone. Considering I was using an LG Chocolate... the very first one... needless to say, I was psyched. I'm a hoser, so I'm not sure if people on here will know the companies I'm talking about, but I doubt that will really matter. My sister is on Rogers, and I'm on Telus. I wasn't concerned because Telus also carries the iPhone, so I figured a simple unlock was all I would need, and it would be smooth sailing for me. This has not been the case at all.

I downloaded blackra1n, restored the iPhone, jailbroke, ran ultrasn0w, unlocked it, and as I expected, my service carrier switched from No Service to TELUS. So all was well and good I thought. The problem seems to stem however from when the phone loses contact with Telus, any time it loses reception. Considering my house has the equivalent reception quality to an underground bunker coated in lead, this happens often.

So the first couple times this happens, I just reran ultrasn0w and it reunlocked the phone it seems, and picked up Telus again. Then that stopped working, so I restored the iPhone and re-jailbroke/re-unlocked it, and it was back to TELUS again. Rinse, repeat and I've just restored it again.

So has anyone out there experienced or at least heard of this problem before? It seems like anytime the phone loses service it reverts back to its old locked settings. I've now restored the iPhone three times in two days. I've tried the process on both a Mac and PC computer and same results occur, so I feel it's got to be the phone.

Can anyone lend a hand. It'd be hugely appreciated. Going back to the LG would be like trading in a Bentley for a Pinto.

A separate, and quick question: When I got the SIM card for the phone, the Telus employee told me that a data plan wouldn't work on an unlocked phone. True or Untrue? Is he lying to me because I didn't buy a phone off of him. He seemed like a bit of jerk the whole process and was always telling me everything I wanted to do wouldn't work etc; perhaps out of spite from me not buying a phone off him. Who knows.

Anyway, thanks to anyone who can lend a hand... or even anyone that takes the time to read this WOT.

I've never come across this problem before, but I don't see how it would revert back to being locked again when it loses connection. All I can suggest is speaking to Rogers about getting the phone legally unlocked from them, as many companies that have been carrying the iPhone have been doing this free of charge for a few months now. If they do it, see if it happens again.

When it "reverts to being locked", what does it say instead of TELUS? Does it say No Service? Have you tried restarting the phone when this happens before restoring it? And how long did you leave it with No Service before you restored it?

And yes, the Telus employee was lying. Carriers tend to bend the truth regarding unlocking iPhones or using SIM cards in iPhones if they weren't bought from them.

When I say it reverts to its locked settings, this is what is happening. It says No Service in areas that I should have service. I've tried restarting it, and resetting it, and eventually break down to decide to restore. I try calling it and it goes straight to voice mail. And when I go to the carriers settings, the only thing that shows up is Rogers. Telus is nowhere to be found.

Glad to hear that on the data plan if I can figure this out.
And also glad to hear that I can get the phone potentially officially unlocked. I'll try that first thing tomorrow. Do they do it right in the store, or do I call them? I'm a little lost on how they actually unlock it...

Thanks for the advice though, it's all definitely a step forward. ;D

Everyone I know that have had theirs legally unlocked have had it either done OTA (over-the-air) after being notified that the service was available to them or gone into the store to inquire and had it done there. To be on the safe side, I would suggest calling Rogers and speaking to customer services about it (I spoke to customer services with AT&T about unlocking and they gave me an unlock code for my AT&T Tilt over the phone), and even if they say no, go down to the store and inquire again. However, they may need proof of purchase, and it may be safe to put your sister's Rogers SIM card inside it when you give it to them (it may tide them over to unlocking it more if they think it's a paying Rogers customer's phone).

You probably have, but just in-case: Have you gone into Settings and searched for a Network? If you haven't, try it; Telus may come up. But normally it should find it automatically, so I'm not guaranteeing anything.

Ya, I've searched for Telus and it doesn't come up after it's been lost. I'll get my sister to call in tomorrow when they open. I'm assuming I should restore the phone to factory defaults and put her SIM in before getting the OTA unlock done. It seems so weird that this is happening to be honest considering how many times I've restored and unlocked the thing. I'm getting worried that it's a Telus issue, but that doesn't seem to make sense either considering they carry the iPhone. Is it remotely possible that there's a hardware issue in the phone? I mean it worked fine for Rogers, so I have to assume the hardware is fine... everything that I can come up with for a possible explanation seems to have a logical reason why that's not the case. I'm crossing my fingers on the legal unlock of the phone.

Just to keep anyone who's interested in the dilemma I'm having informed, I may have figured out the issue.

So because a data plan won't kick in until later in December, I've been turning the 3G network option off to conserve battery power. It holds a weak signal after that for a while, and then reverts to no signal soon after and loses Telus on my carrier list. I guess I wasn't noticing because after turning 3G off, the phone still seemed to be fine for long enough for me not to put the two together.

Anyway, the problem seems to be solved. I still am a little confused as to why turning 3G off would cause the phone to lose service entirely, but for a free iPhone, I think I'll focus on the positives and let that one slide.

Hopefully if anyone comes across this problem again, they'll be able to give it a quick fix instead of jumping through hoops like I did.

Thanks for taking the time to give me a hand nonetheless. Cheers.

DriftNismo said:

And yes, the Telus employee was lying. Carriers tend to bend the truth regarding unlocking iPhones or using SIM cards in iPhones if they weren't bought from them.

Click to expand...

So I tried adding on the data plan today and it wouldn't work apparently. He set it up and told me to test it, and it said I had no data service with the phone. It appears that he was telling the truth now. So he told me to take it to the Apple Store and have them unlock it... sounds kind of sketchy to me. Anyone have any ideas for either why it can access my telephone service but not my data, or whether it's a good idea or not to take the unlocked iPhone into the Apple Store?

elad said:

So I tried adding on the data plan today and it wouldn't work apparently. He set it up and told me to test it, and it said I had no data service with the phone. It appears that he was telling the truth now. So he told me to take it to the Apple Store and have them unlock it... sounds kind of sketchy to me. Anyone have any ideas for either why it can access my telephone service but not my data, or whether it's a good idea or not to take the unlocked iPhone into the Apple Store?

Click to expand...

The most likely thing is that the data settings haven't been put in correctly, or the wrong settings have been put in. I have heard of some CDMA / HSPA Telus problems though, and the Telus employee may have entered the CDMA settings. Go into Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network and try typing in these settings:

Cellular Data
APN: sp.telus.com
Username: (leave these blank)
Password: (leave these blank)

And taking an unlocked iPhone into the Apple Store isn't going to make a difference, they can't deny you service for that, but if they see that it is jailbroken they may deny you help as it goes against the Apple EULA, so if you're going to do it, blackra1n it, and only unlock it - don't put Cydia or Rock on.

Let me know how you do with those settings. However, it is possible that a normal Telus SIM card cannot receive those settings if it's a different 3G network than every other phone, so you may need a pay-as-you-go or contract iPhone SIM to try it with.

Alright, I've changed the settings, but after it didn't work I told him to take the data plan off, so I'll have to wait and see if this works until tomorrow. I also just noticed after you sent me to this screen that I have data roaming set to off. Is this a potential reason for it not to work as well? Anyway, I'll let you know if this work.

No, Data Roaming won't effect it; Data Roaming being off just means you don't end up with $500 data bills if you go to other countries with it . And ok, if I think of anything else I'll let you know.