AT&T Unlocking iPhones for Deployed Active Duty

[That Guy]

A couple of days ago we got a tip from a reader who said he'd sent a letter to Tim Cook asking "for help to unlock my wife's iPhone, because she is active duty military deploying to Afghanistan this week. I wanted her to have an unlocked phone in Afghanistan, so that she can get a local SIM and use it. I had tried both AT&T and Apple customer care for it, but no use. The made me go round robin between two support centers."

Worse, our friend Yash was called by someone at Apple to explain that his unlock request was denied because the 4S was still under contract. Apparently he read later that day about unlocks happening for out-of-contract phones, and called again to unlock a 3GS. As luck would have it, the rep "also unlocked my wife's 4S because they now have a new policy to do so for active duty military getting deployed."

So after reading the rumors yesterday I decided to dive back into our reader email and dig up what appears to be proof that AT&T is indeed unlocking iPhones that would ordinarily be denied IF that phone belongs to an active duty military person who is being deployed. Of course, once you are deployed you'll still need service, but that's another story.

http://www.tuaw.com/...active-duty-mi/

[Big Bear]

That sounds cool, but is it worth it to go get a sim card from said 3rd country and pay for their service?

[stract]

it's worth it when you get home, and then you have an unlocked phone!

[Palangi]

ATT will be unlocking ours since we are based in the UK now.

[Swizzle]

That sounds cool, but is it worth it to go get a sim card from said 3rd country and pay for their service?

Yes, I've used pre-paid sim cards from several countries on my unlocked iPhone 3GS. I didn't use data service, but not carrying around two phones while TDY (mostly OST) and having a phone w/ WiFi was great.

[HeyWatchThis]

That sounds cool, but is it worth it to go get a sim card from said 3rd country and pay for their service?

Yep