i possibly bought a stolen iphone? barred?|

[Appledrop]

i bought a "barely used" 3g 16gb iphone off amazon marketplace with the intention of unlocking it using turbo sim and using with a pay-as-you-go sim

i got no service with it so i ordered a different turbo sim and the same thing... then i tried my brothers legit iphone contract sim card in mine and it still said no service.

does this sound like its been imei barred/blocked reported as stolen?
i mean.. i can still use it like an ipod touch so its not totally useless but....

 

[CptCrunch]

US carriers do not block IMEIs when they are stolen or lost. Sounds like it is a broken iPhone. Your brother's sim will not work in your iPhone because the sim is tied to the particular iPhone, it has to be activated with iTunes to work with said sim.

Edit: with the above being said, when you put your SIM into it, what does it do? Does it give you an option to make an emergency phone call?

 

[corkyg]

Take it to a local provider's store and get it activated.

 

[Muadib]

Where did the iPhone come from? Your profile says that you are in England. If you got the phone from the US, it's locked to AT&T. If the phone has the 2.2 software, I heard that some turbo sims won't work.

 

[Spineshank]

Sounds like its not unlocked. But ive been out of the Iphone scene for a couple of months.

 

[OutHouse]

Originally posted by: Muadib
Where did the iPhone come from? Your profile says that you are in England. If you got the phone from the US, it's locked to AT&T. If the phone has the 2.2 software, I heard that some turbo sims won't work.

this.

 

[Pliablemoose]

IIRC, the carriers lock stolen phones through their IMEI # across the pond.

The US carriers do not at this point. I imagine as the market gets more saturated, and the demand for such a service reaches a certain level, they will begin to lock stolen phones through their IMEI #'s in the US.

I also hear phone theft in the UK is very common, like getting the phone snatched out of your hand kind of shit...

 

[Appledrop]

thx for all responses.. yeh i just dont know whether its not unlocked properly, barred, somehow internally broken, or what.. i guess its impossible to tell. oh well.. *shrug*