Official from Apple: iPhone 3GS & 3G in Saudi Arabia is unlocked
Update: The iPhone 3GS from Mobily is unlocked too. You can use STC’s SIM cards.
I have been receiving e-mails stating that Mobily employees are claiming that the iPhone 3G is locked to the Mobily SIM cards. Other employees claim that the next iPhone 3G shipments will be SIM locked. We and others tested the iPhone 3G and we confirmed that it is not locked to Mobily SIM cards. Apparently that was not enough. A friend that went to Mobily in Jeddah yesterday say that Mobily employees still insist that the iPhone 3G is locked to their network.
This page on the Apple support website clearly (and officially) states that the iPhone 3G sold in Saudi Arabia by Mobily is NOT LOCKED TO THE CARRIER. Same in the United Arab Emirates with Etisalat.
Feel free to print that table and present it to the Mobily employee who claimed that the iPhone 3G is locked to their network.
Thanks Rami for the link to the Apple support page.
Related posts:
- iPhone 3G is sold unlocked in Saudi Arabia
- Saudi Arabia iPhone 3G on Apple.com
- Issues with the Saudi iPhone 2: Mobily support
- IPhone 3G in Saudi Arabia
- Confirmed: IPhone 3G will be sold in Saudi Arabia and UAE
Loading ...
Thank you for this info!
I’m so happy that the iPhones sold here are unlocked and that I can use any SIM from any country at that.
Yup, oweynj. At least they are unlocked
plzzzzzzzzzzzzz i wanna buy iphone 3gs from united state so i wanna ask if it works in saudia arabia .(stc) and the second thing what shall i tell the seller so he can give an iphone works in ksa? and one more thing how much does it cost (around? ) plzzzz give me an answer as sooon as possible… and plz tell me if i can unlock it here in ksa….
thxxxx
hello meme and Khaled A.. did you find the answer for your question.. will it be possible to buy an iphone from the US and unlock it there.. i need to know the answer for that please..
keep me posted guys anyone who knows the answer.. thanks..
yes, you can buy iphones from USA, get it unlocked and use it anywhere in the world with ne sim.
I sent few iphones to my friends in KSA and they are using it without any problem.
Couldn’t someone just try a different SIM card? There was the same things going around UAE, I tried a Du SIM card and it worked fine.
@emiratesmac the problem is with uneducated employees making claims. Just like the Etisalat employees claiming visual voice mail is available soon.
Today, my brother went to Saudi Arabia, and I told him to visit mobily and get an iphone 16gb, they claimed that 8gb is unlocked but the 16gb is locked to mobily. I checked the apple site and confidently told my brother to buy the iphone (model:MB500AB/B).
Hope its unlocked and works in dubai.
Keep us updated Yousef…
I have Iphone 16GB from Mobily and it’s unlocked, i think the do not have any locked devices.
Dear yousef,
is the model MB500AB/B unlocked?
Is it working for you?
let me know.
i bought a appl iphone 3g 8GB yesterday ! from mobily Tabuk city of KSA. their back side of mobail written “Disigend by Apply California Assembled in China” why?? m nt getting satis.. by dats words. it make confused to people?? THIS IS orginal?? ????????
that’s normal, really …
guys, the development part is done here in california, US.
The apple head quarters is about 20 minutes drive from my pace.
As the labour cost is less in asian countries, they do assembling part there in china.
So it says, designed in CA, assembled in china.
So Mr. KHALED A. can u tell me its orginal apple iphone 3g or its a fake by mobily??
It’s original…assembled in China….it’s written at the back… is the 16 GIG of Mobily is unlock or what??? i need to know please…Thanks!
It is original, nerozz.
Chester, all the iPhones sold in Saudi Arabia by Mobily (According to the table at Apple.com) are sold unlocked!
Are mobily employees still claiming that the iPhone is locked?
The question now is, would this unlocked phone work with its full potential in other countries where iphone IS locked to a network?
@Raheel it can do whatever you want, it depends on the SIM card
Hi!
Yes, it’s unlocked. But did you try to send sms-text messages? I had a problem in sending text message, I got an error ” error sending message” using al jawal sim.
Thanks for the reply.
@Sanny if you are on STC then you will need to set the service center number.
How much unlocked 8GB 3G i phone in Saudi?
Micromit: Mobily is selling the iPhone 3G unlocked.
i went Mobily in Riyadh, and they still claiming that the iPhone is locked.
Bader, some branches of Mobily claim that the king abdullah road branch is selling accessories … they don’t.
Khaled ur blog a gr8 apple place, i wanted to confirm one thing, that GPS works with iphone 3g by mobily or unlocked iphone 3g in KSA ???? in ksa iphone gps is possible or not ?
techbot: iPhone 3G sold in Saudi Arabia by Mobily does have functioning GPS. Unlocked iPhone 3G GPS work as well. Only Egyptian iPhone 3G have GPS disabled.
thanks,
any news about iphone 2.2.1 unlock ?
coz turbo/rebel sim sucks big time.
Techbot: there is an unlock by software method now, it’s called yellowsn0w I think.
I bought iPhone 3G 16GB MB500AB from Mobily today and its unlocked i can use any sim and when I activate the phone via itunes i got a message at the end on itunes congrats your iphone has been unlocked.
I can even use Al jawal sim. Orange UK sim , o2 UK sim as well as mobily so .. folks buy with confidence as in saudi iphone they are factory unlocked.
McMonkiez: Thank you for being one of the few who actually confirmed it in the comments instead of asking the same question
noooo…that only works till firmware 2.2
Techbot:
the iphone I bought from Mobily yesterday … it came with 2.2.1 with 2.30 modem firmware.
I had UK iPhone too which was 2.2.1 with 2.30 and baseband 5.9 and this one cannot be unlocked ever even with yellowsnow.
only yellowsnow works with 2.2 or 2.2.1 with 2.30 or 2.28 modem firmware but BASEBAND must have 5.8
if you have baseband 5.9 or 6.02 yellowsnow will never work and even iPhone dev team have confirmed that possibly iphone never can unlocked again especially the one from US or UK one as they have change the hardware and have installed special RAM within the iPhone motherboad which contains specialy info with the baseband and that wont even allow to run any small fiel deamon or yellow snow to ubnlock iphone.
I was really stuck and finally bought iphone 3g 16 GB with 2.2.1 modem firmware 2.30 and it was factory unlocked i confirmed with APPLE support in US as well as the apple site which confirms saudi sell iphone unlocked.
then i went ahead and bought iphone in Saudi.
I will be selling my UK version iPhone on ebay as its no use to me at all.
so forget everything you hear and bottom line is iPhone 3G is UNLOCKED in SAUDI AND UAE ! ‘period’
and few other countries sell unlocked iphone its all depends of the law of the country… why we have unlocked iphone in saudi coz Saudi Arabia have Nokia market and apple have to sell unlocked iphone here this is some kind of politics…
anyway cut long story short.
I am happy with unlocked iphone that i dont have to worried about updating iphone 3.0 and all the crap with yellowsn0w
i have just installed iPhone 3.0 final release as which was released today but 3.0 will be released to everyone on the 17th june.
i confirm its has arabic language support and works like a charm.
So you are a developer? What do you think of it so far?
Hey guys,
I just want to ask if this mobily IPhone can work here in egypt with vodafone sim card note:( vodafone here selling locked IPhones)
The iPhone 3G sold by Mobily is unlocked and any SIM card should work!
hey
have any new/info/leaks as to when the iphone 3G S will be available on mobily
The wwdc Keynote showed August as the saudi launch – no specs or dates
REALLY hope it is unlocked like the iphone3G – i used the O2 network sim in UK and it worked like a charm
someone on this forum said he had a problem about messaging – yup ur reply was right – change the message center number – in o2 it auto updated actually…
i have swirlyMMS (which i bought) and boy oh boy – it works like a charm on mobily and in o2 uk – WE DO NOT NEED it anymore do we after we get 3.0
also am hoping that the low cost 8G model is available on the saudi market as well !!!
NOW we only need a TRUE apple store here in saudi and i can think about getting a NEW 13′ macbook pro !!!!!!
iPhone 3G S from Mobily will be available August
did any body tried to activate the unlocked Iphone with another network where iphone IS locked the network?
i try to upgrade the software of my iphone to new software version 3.0, but suddenly cannot upgrade and when i try to restore my iphone gives me an error “cannot restore” pls help to find the solution
plzzzzzzzzzzzzz i wanna buy iphone 3gs from united state so i wanna ask if it works in saudia arabia .(stc) and the second thing what shall i tell the seller so he can give an iphone works in ksa? and one more thing how much does it cost (around? ) plzzzz give me an answer as sooon as possible… and plz tell me if i can unlock it here in ksa….
thxxxx
plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz i’m waiting for ur answerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
iPhone 3GS sold in the US is LOCKED. Sorry you cannot use STC sim card with it. (without jailbreaking/unlocking)
Can u tell me the latest price sale of Aplle iphone in riyadh & where i can purchase?.the reason is,.i dont want to purchase anywhere maybe i can get fake.thank you..
http://www.saudimac.com/2009/02/21/mobily-price-plan-for-iphone-3g/
Hello…can anyone please tell me how much does the iphone 3G and the iphone 3GS costs now??! and if it is a good idea to buy it here in saudi?? and where can i get it from ??
4000-5000 SR for the 3GS but it’s not from Mobily
well i just want to know how much the i phone 3g 8g costs in mobily cuz i am planning on buying it today
these are the prices
http://www.saudimac.com/2009/02/21/mobily-price-plan-for-iphone-3g/
they didn’t change until now, so I suggest you don’t buy it
is any iphone been unlock can be used in any country?
yeah, that’s what it means to be an unlocked phone
Hi,
I looks like will be coming to Saudi Arabia later this year to train some people Military Freefall and have an unlocked Iphone 3GS I want to know what the best way would be to call and sms back to Australia without using international roaming.
Thank you for your help
Bill
then you should probably get a local number.
where are the prices?!?!?! how much does iphone 3gs cost?????!?!?!!?!!??!?!
No I have ask one of developer to register me in his developer account he charge $10 and he add ur iphone UDID in his account and then you should be able to download and install.
but so far its great faster and alot alot smother then 2.2.1 safari seems to be running fast loads pages quicker.
it has MMS enabled too. Arabic font read and write is fantastic
its got iphone shake to change music track
if you want to get ur hand on 3.0 i can send u the link of the developer u can register with him and he should be able to to get your access but if you can wait until 17th that its fine…
it’s Ok, I already have an account!
By the way you are welcome to write on SaudiMac!
I am going to make my own account too shortly as i want to build some apps as i have some great ideas and if you have some we can work togeather on something and make on?
Thanks Khaled this thread was really useful to me , it seems that i will buy an iphone from mobily because i can’t find the 8 gb Iphone here in Egypt and also a bet cheaper . Vodafone told me they sold all of them
and they are waiting for the new Iphones 3GS sure they will double or triple their original price as usual. do u know if mobily have a stock of the 8gb iphone in jidah or not?