Using your iPhone on a network that don’t sell iPhones (Like Three)
So you’ve got your fancy iPhone, but your network sucks. Welcome to my world!
If you’ve unlocked your iPhone either by jailbreaking your iphone or getting an unlock from your mobile operator, you can now stuff the SIM card from any mobile network into it and enjoy the benefits thereof… Or can you?
If you want to switch to a network that sell iPhones (O2, Orange and Vodafone in the UK) You’re all set! Stuff in your new SIM card and your iPhone and iTunes work to get you the correct network settings to make the internet, MMS messaging, text messaging and in some cases even internet tethering work automatically.
If, however, you want to switch to a network that doesn’t have the iPhone, like the three (3) network or T-Mobile you’re gonna have a little problem. iTunes and the iPhone don’t know about these network operators and so they won’t be able to automatically add the necessary settings to use text messaging, MMS messaging, the internet or tethering and, your network probably won’t be able to help you set them up, because they don’t know anything about iPhones. Which sucks.
Switching to the Three mobile operator
I’m working on switching to the three network myself and have stumbled across this very problem. But don’t worry! Help is at hand; After some time asking my good friend and dark overlord Google, I came across this handy forum thread that not only tells you how to install the network setting for the three network onto your iPhone, but even gives pre-made files to install the settings from;
http://www.3g.co.uk/3GForum/showthread.php?t=100726
– it’s so easy, even I managed to do it! And I learned about pressing the option button and pressing the ‘restore from backup’ or ‘check for updates’ button in iTunes — It lets you choose a backup file or network operator settings file to install on your iPhone.
So all I did was download the three network settings file from that forum and installed it through iTunes by pressing option or (shift if you’re in windows) and clicking the iTunes ‘Restore’ button, then choosing the downloaded file. The rest was automatic and now I can use Three’s rather generous free internet deals on pay as you go along with free 3 to 3 calls, free texts and all the extra bits.
April 9th, 2010 at 9:36 am
Hi, Thanks for the link to the 3 network settings file.
I’m interested to learn how well data works on 3 with the Iphone. I’ve had an Iphone for 1.5 year on O2 Pay as you go but my main phone is on 3 network. Also my wife is about to buy a pay and go Iphone to use with her 3 sim card.
We both want to take advantage of 3′s low line rental and inclusive internet.
Cheers
April 9th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Hi Colin,
Generally I find the three network ideal for iPhones. In fact, out of my absurdly large collection of mobile handsets and sim cards, the iPhone with a 3 sim is the only one that comes with me everywhere, every time.
It’s worth noting that I had to install the orange network settings from that link in addition to the three settings because the three network rent access on the orange network when you can’t get a 3G connection. This actually doesn’t make any difference to your connectivity to the network, but you might be surprised to see the orange operator logo appear on your handset when you’re connected to three.
The only problems I’ve encountered are;
One: on two occasions I’ve connected to the iPhone app store or iTunes I’ve been connected to the American store instea of the uk one, but I don’t have an American iTunes account, so I can’t buy any lost episodes unforunately.
Two: The other thing I found was that, on just a few websites, I can’t play videos from the web over 3G – I get the error “the server is not properly configured” – videos work fine over wifi though. YouTube works fine on 3G too, but the iplayer doesn’t unfortunately.
It’s not a problem if you’re often in wifi areas or if you don’t bother that much with videos online.
So there you go, I hope this helps.
April 18th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
This theme is called Pixel by Sam Karathanos. I’ve made a few alterations to my setup here, but you can get the original through wordpress.
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Did I mention that those configuration files also enable Internet tethering on the iPhone using the three network?
Well they do.
I should also mention that you’ll need to enable the feature in iTunes to enable the installation of those config files too. Read the forum posts at the end of the above link, all is explained quite well.