i phone 3g 8mb, no instructions

[katiecarol]

ive got a iphone 3g today but ive no instructions for it. problem i have is when sim is in ive found out by process of elimination how to turn on but there's a little locked lock symbol on it and it also is saying emergency calls only. when it is switched on it shows low reception but when the screen goes black and i press the round button to show the screen again it says no service. am i going to be able to use this? can someone explain what it all means. never had iphone before and am no a technically minded person, just thought id work it out by 'playing' with it but can't even get a home screen just the no service bit with pic of charger wire going to a musical note that says itunes under ti.

[ChuckFickens]

Sounds like it's locked to a different network than the one your SIM is for.

Take it to that guy that has the market stall selling phone bits on your local market (every market has one) and they'll unlock it for you for a small fee.

[porilo]

Better still, take it back to the shop where you bought it from and make a complaint.

[shooty]

do you live in uk katie. if you do, your sim card will probably be on orange. (orange is a service provider along with many others. eg vodaphone, o2 etc) Iphone only works with the sim card that the phone was purchased with originally. so if your phone was made for vodaphone, your orange sim card will NOT work unless you have the phone unlocked (this costs about £50.00) you can get the phone jailbroken for about £25.00 this will also open the phone to ALL service providers. this is why you are getting the EMERGENCY ONLY CALLS message : )

[ChuckFickens]

I somehow don't think a 3GS would have been bought from a shop.

[ChuckFickens]

"do you live in uk katie. if you do, your sim card will probably be on orange"

How on earth do you come to that conclusion?

"unless you have the phone unlocked (this costs about £50.00)"

Jeeez! you've been going to the wrong places to get your phones unlocked.... more like £10

[shooty]

CF. i don't know how much you know about phones. but an OFFICIAL UNLOCK on an Iphone through a genuine high street service provider shop IS £50.00.

most back street mobile phone shops will not have access to OFFICIAL UNLOCK CODES. therefore, they do what is known as jail breaking. on average, this service from the backstreet boys is approx £25.00. this used to be illegal until about a year ago when apple lost a court battle to stop it from happening. I used to jailbreak Iphones for extra income. but then again, it looks like you know more than me. so i will leave Katie in your capable hands. good luck with your phone Katie

[ChuckFickens]

unlocking or jailbraking iphone was never illegal in this country. It was against the terms and conditions that the purchaser agreed to when they bought the phone, but breach of contract is a civil matter, not a criminal matter and also the contract terms never passed onto any later owners of the phone.

[shooty]

CF. i tied to put things in laymans terms for Katie as the Iphone sim lock
scinario has been around for a long time and she is obviously unaware of the very basics of the phone.
i suggested she would probably be on orange (so i could explain what a service provider is. i'm assuming she is in her very early teens and may not have known what i was talking about.
I do not know 100 percent if it was EVER illegal, but do recall several articals like this one
http://www.computerwo...e_iPhone_jailbreaking
SO please give Katie the contact details of the person/shop that will unlock the phone for £10.00
even better, give her a contact for any of the many numbers of free unlocks as advertised on the net.
put in your details and watch £25.00 to £50..00 pop up
supprise, supprise.

[shooty]

ps. if you want to be pedantic.

''I somehow don't think a 3GS would have been bought from a shop.''

this is off the orange webpage 2 mins ago
http://shop.orange.co.../iPhone-8GB-3GS-black
they are still selling new in abundance due to the fact that they are approx £250.00 to £300.00 cheaper than the 4s

and in relation to what i said earlier

''even better, give her a contact for any of the many numbers of free unlocks as advertised on the net.
put in your details and watch £25.00 to £50..00 pop up''

i wonder if that includes P&P both ways. i doubt it

[ChuckFickens]

LOL, are they really still selling them! :), I apologise, I didn't know that.

But none the less, jailbraking doesn't remove a network lock at all, and on checking.... most networks will "officially" remove the network lock from an Iphone for under £15 (some for free), so if the OP bought the phone from a friend and they were the original owner then the first point of call for them probably should be the last owner and get them to try and remove the lock...

If not, I bet the "bloke on the market with the phone stall" would charge less than £50... my local one has a board outside saying "all phones unlocked £10" (with disclaimers about phones that just can't be unlocked at all, as there are several, but the iphone isn't one of them)

[shooty]

correct. jailbreaking does not unlock a iphone. but without an OFFICIAL unlock code, the only way to unlock an Iphone is to jailbreak it first with a piece of software (pwnage tool) like blackrain and then you can unlock it with redsn0w. I have used old toolage here as i don't want to encourage people to try and unlock the phones as it is quite easy to BRICK a phone if you are not used to doing it.
and i bet if you pop in that shop on monday morning and ask him how much to unlock an Iphone, it will be more than the £10.00 he is advertising. just out of curiosity, also ask him how muck it is to unlock a sony erricson. I know that it costs £8.00 for a credit. it takes an average of three credits to unlock some of the older sony's and more for the smartphones. really can't see him doing them for a tenner either(unless he bought a job lot of credits very cheap)

[ChuckFickens]

I'll concede.... you seem to know more about the scripts/software to run than me, and at the end of the day the info we provide should benefit the OP and this probably isn't doing that.

So to answer the question... it's locked to a different network than your sim and you need to get it unlocked. (we both agree on that)

If you bought it from the original owner I will stick by my assertment that the original owner is the best place to start...

If you didn't.... oh crap.... the disagreements start again :)

[shooty]

I concur : )

[bednobs]

sorry katie but lol at assume she is a young teenager. I think Katie has children that are older than a young teenager!

[shooty]

oops :/