What's new

Need help - Moving out of the country

nevalnola

New Member
Joined
May 19, 2012
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Hi guys. New to the forum here and need a bit of advice. In January I signed a new contract with Sprint and got an iPhone 4.

Little did I know that I'd receive an offer to work in Dubai, United Arab Emirates this week and am thinking about how I'm going to get my phone to work there.

I have an exchange student from China who I spoke to and he said it wouldn't be possible to permanently jailbreak a CDMA phone... something about how I'd need an AT&T phone. So, am I out of big time money here or is there anyway I can get this phone to work for me abroad? I'm already going to be out $350 to terminate my contract with Sprint when I leave in August since my only other option is to put my line on hold for a whopping $8.99 a month.


Any suggestions/advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!


Neve
 
Well unfortunately your friend is right, although he confused jailbreaking with unlocking. Since your phone is a CDMA iPhone there is no way to unlock it(there is no SIM slot either). In order to get a phone you will be able to use overseas, you will have to get a GSM iPhone that has an unlockable baseband.

Hope that helps!

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your job offer!
 
Thanks for the info, Jmills. Where do you suggest I look to buy a GSM iPhone? Is eBay a good place to start? The iPhones in UAE are ridiculously expensive, so I'd rather buy one here and then go abroad if possible.

Thanks again!
 
Ya I use eBay to buy most of my used iPhones. Craigslist is another good place to look. You need to make sure that the phone you buy has an unlockable baseband. There is only 1 iPhone4 baseband that is unlockable via software, 01.59.00. This is a very old baseband(first one for the iPhone4) so the chances you are going to find one with that baseband are slim and none. However there are several basebands that can be unlocked by purchasing a Gevey SIM interposer(02.10.04, 03.10.1 and 04.10.01). Your best bet is to look for an iPhone with one of these basebands.

For more unlocking info check out our beginners guide here: http://www.iphoneforums.net/forum/iphone-unlocking-69/iphone-unlocking-guide-beginners-35540/
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the info. I looked on Apple's website and may just go ahead and buy the unlocked iPhone from them on the GSM network. It seems that this is supported by Etisalat (the major cell phone provider in the UAE).

It's around $650 but I am wondering if I can get an educator's discount on it since I'm a traveling teacher. Worth a shot! :)
 
It's a good choice. Don't buy any apple products from UAE.. Their apple products comes without FaceTime. If you are a viper app person, sorry to inform you, you will not be able to make calls, but you can receive. If you use Skype, make sure you download it before you enter UAE.
Welcome to the GULF..
 
Top