It has been a month and a half since the last update of this article and I think that some corrections and additions are needed.
For more than half a year, iPhone 3G/3Gs and iPhone 4 owners who have installed iOS 4.1/4.2.1 or even iOS 4.3.x have had their terminals blocked in the mobile phone networks from which they were purchased. The Dev Team has constantly promised to release an unlock solution based on the ultrasn0w program, but so far everything has turned out to be a big lie that culminated with MuscleNerd's statement a few months ago announcing that his unlock solution decoded a the only T-Mobile card he had at home. Given this situation, what options does a person with a coded phone have? The answer is complicated and I will explain some situations below, but we have to divide the "world" into: people with terminals coded in foreign networks and people with terminals coded in Romanian networks.
Coded terminals in a foreign network.
If you have a terminal coded on a foreign network, then your options are quite limited and unfortunately almost all of them require the investment of a sum of money for decoding.
1. You purchase a Gevey SIM 3G/Gevey 3G Pro card that costs $28 in China or around 80-100 lei in Romania, but its use is semi-legal. These cards work in Romania without too many problems, but be careful not to buy them fake cards. Gevey cards ONLY work for iPhone 4!
2. Permanent decoding through a server that deals with such things. You know very well that a few weeks ago terminals could be decoded regardless of the network and that this possibility was blocked. Now you can still decode terminals in certain networks, but the prices are quite high, much higher than in the case of a Gevey card, but you have the advantage of a permanent decoding that does not disappear.
What many of you do not know is that some operators decode terminals for very small amounts or for free. For example, some operators in England or Spain do this, but for decoding you need to call them from a card that has credit in that network and some require the person who purchased the terminal to request decoding. In fact, these decodings cost much less than what is asked of you at a service, but the person from Romania who does the decoding is already the second or third intermediary, so the commissions add up.
3. Wait for the Dev Team to release an unlock solution for the iPhone. At the moment there is not the slightest indication that the Dev Team will release a decoding solution. If you have an iPhone 3G or 3GS, you can decode the terminal installing iPad baseband but this method leads to the loss of the GPS function of the terminal, but you can purchase a GPS module for less than €100 and you can connect it to the phone when you need it.
4. You sell the coded terminal, put some more money and get a new or second-hand/new factory unlocked one. Terminals of this type have become quite cheap, and I for one would prefer to sell the coded terminal, put a few more pennies and get another one factory unlocked because I can jailbreak any version of iOS I want anyway.
5. You can buy a card Rebel Micro SIM Card which works based on the same principle as the Gevey cards. Both methods have chances of success regardless of the version of iOS you have. The big problem is with some fake cards, so be careful when shopping. Rebel cards ONLY work for iPhone 4!
Coded terminals on Romanian networks.
Here things are very simple: if you purchased an iPhone at full price or standard price without any subscription or subscription option, then you can decode it for free because that's what the Romanian law says. If you purchased an iPhone when renewing your subscription or benefiting from an offer then: at Orange, decoding costs €100 if you are still in the contract period and €30 if you have finished it. At Vodafone, decoding costs €50 regardless of the contract period.
I have explained everything you need to know about decoding at the moment, so now you know the options you have and how you can use them.
