iphone 4s unlocking - for use abroad

[MimidogMartin]

Hi,

I have just purchased a used iPhone 4s in good faith at an airport lost property auction. After a trip to the Apple store, they revealed that the carrier was Vodafone UK. The first issue is the phone is not activated and requires a UK Vodafone sim card to bypass the main activation screen to get to home. It will not be possible to complete the final processes of unlocking the phone through the NUC form because i have never used the phone, live way to far to buy a registered sim (i live in Australia) and thus, cannot pay for the unlock or even get a phone number for the phone.

Is there a way to unlock this phone without me having to travel to the UK (which seems silly) to buy a sim. At the moment the phone is just a brick.

IMEI no.: 013071008477461

Please help as Vodafone AU cannot unlock phones from the UK.

kind regards,
Martin K
Sydney, Australia

[63johnw]

Hi there. Vodafone will only unlock an iPhone at the request of the original owner, as you don't know who that is I am afraid you are probably stuck with the brick.

[kids]

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Is there a way to unlock this phone without me having to travel to the UK (which seems silly) to buy a sim. At the moment the phone is just a brick.

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Even if you made a trip to the UK you would not be able to get the phone unlocked as you are not the original owner. If it has been updated to ios8  it also requires the original owner iCloud password to activate the phone, so even with a Vodafone UK sim you would still not be able to activate it.

Your best bet is to sell it on the Internet as an Vodafone locked phone that may be activation locked.

[MimidogMartin]

Lets say for arguments sake, i was to obtain a pre-registered vodafone UK sim, plug it into the phone, and sucessfully activate the phone (assuming iOS 7 or under). Would i then be able to send Vodafone UK a completed NUC form and get it unlocked without being the original owner?

[drey_p]

You cannot request the unlocking unless you are the original owner.  Why? Because the details that you provide in the NUC Request webform need to exactly match the details of the account against which the phone was supplied.  If the details don't match, you can't unlock the handset as the request will be rejected.  The only way around this is to get in touch with the original owner and get them to request the unlocking.

[MimidogMartin]

Cool, that makes sense. I think i'll try to get passed the activation screen and look for the original owners details and go from there. cheers guys, very helpful!:smileyhappy:

[kids]

If the phone is on the activation screen it indicates that the phone has been wiped so there will not be any information about the original owner left on the device. If is is simply on the password screen the chances are that it was lost or stolen and the owner has probable wiped it via iCloud.

As it is a 4s the chances are that it is updated to ios8 so whatever of the above scenarios apply to will not be able to activate it without the owners iCloud password.

[63johnw]

Hi, no there is a strict policy that only the original owner can get it unlocked.