The wait probably seems interminable to those waiting for a jailbreak or unlock. Previously, it didn’t take too long after a firmware update for developers to come up with something and publicly release it. However, it appears that the difficulty of doing so has increased dramatically over time and the whole process has slowed down considerably. That said, there’s some good news today, highlighted by iPhone Dev Team’s leader MuscleNerd.
People who need a network unlock on their jailbroken iPhone will be pleased to know that Chinese researcher Loktar_Sun has discovered a method for unlocking jailbroken iPhones using SAM (Subscriber Artificial Module) by Sam Binger. The release of this method is credited to delving deeper into the possibilities provided by the SAM package, something MuscleNerd admits his team did not do effectively.
Please note that the ticket produced by the unlock method is only valid for one SIM card, that is used in the process. If you plan on using some other SIM card in the unlocked iPhone, you will have to repeat the entire process with that SIM card.
A computer, fully functional internet connection and the latest version of iTunes installed is required as is the original carrier information of the locked device. The iPhone will also need to be jailbroken, and it must not be blacklisted. (That means you need a jailbroken iPhone that can be activated in iTunes).
Step 1: Install Sam Bingner’s SAM (Subscriber Artificial Module). To do so, open Cydia on the jailbroken iPhone and add the official repository for the same package, the URL is http://repo.bingner.com. This is recommended because older versions having a different interface may not quite work for this purpose.
Step 2: Launch the SAM interface after ensuring that the SIM card you intend to use is present in the iPhone. You can launch it by tapping the SAMPrefs icon on your Springboard. Alternatively, find the SAM preference bundle through the Settings.app.
Step 3: Navigate to Utilities and select ‘De-Activate iPhone’. Your device ActivationState should now be ‘Unactivated’ – check from under ‘More Information’.
Step 4: With SAM enabled, choose ‘By Country and Carrier’ in ‘Method. Find your carrier, keeping in mind that some carriers work with more than one carrier ID. If this is the case with your network, you may need to select the ‘SIM ID’ option. This is easy to tell since iTunes will not activate if the wrong IMSI is selected.
Step 5:Go to ‘More Information’, note down the IMSI in ‘SAM Details’ and then tap ‘Spoof Real SIM to SAM’.
Step 6: Go back to the main SAM screen and change the ‘Method’ to manual. Enter the IMSI string you saved in the previous step.
Step 7: Connect your iPhone to your computer using the USB cable then and allow iTunes to reactivate your iPhone. Once iTunes is done, double click the ‘Phone Number’ parameter from the main device screen. Ascertain that the displayed ICCID matches the one on the SIM card. If it doesn’t, you will unfortunately have to repeat the process right from the start.
Step 8: If the strings do match in Step 7, you will simply need to unplug your device next. Close iTunes and disable SAM. (Uninstalling SAM and deleting lockdown folders is unnecessary).
Step 9: Connect your phone to iTunes again. Don’t be alarmed by an error popping up – it is normal and to be expected. The error will say your phone cannot be activated. Ignore it and simply close iTunes and open it again.
Step 10: You should see signal bars after a while. This will mean that the unlock has been successful. Congratulations!
If after following the steps correctly, you find that push notifications no longer work, don’t worry about it. Simply select the ‘Clear Push’ option in Sam and the issue will be resolved.
As aforementioned, once you follow these steps your iPhone will only work on the SIM used during the process. If you normally use more than one card and wish to do the same following the unlock, you simply need to repeat the process with the other SIM cards, individually.
Make a manual save of each ticket generated, as recommended by the team behind this unlock, as it could be important going forward. Here’s how to do manually save each valid unlock ticket:
Step 1: Perform Step 1 – Step 10, listed above, successfully with each individual SIM card.
Step 2: SSH into the jailbroken device. Use iFile or a similar desktop client.
Step 3: Navigate to /var/Root/Library/Lockdown. Make a local copy of everything found in that directory, for each SIM card.
That’s all. The method is admittedly lengthy, but it is definitely worth your while if you want to experience the freedom of an unlocked iPhone.
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