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Oops, it looks like you did not read the article. The person in question owns an officially-unlocked iPhone. This involves an anti-competitive practice where th

by runjake 14y ago

Oops, it looks like you did not read the article. The person in question owns an officially-unlocked iPhone. This involves an anti-competitive practice where the APN settings are locked to a specific carrier, AT&T -- even in the case of an unlocked phone. You really seem to be venturing into an area you're not educated in.

russell_h 14y ago
Apreche acknowledged that the settings shouldn't be locked on an unlocked phone, his point seems to be that when you use an "unofficial workaround" as the author claims to have done, you shouldn't be that surprised when it stops working.
- runjake 14y ago
  Configurable APN settings on a device sold unlocked should be a given. APN settings configure your device for the given network you are connecting to. It's not so much an "unofficial workaround" as a mandatory component of the unlocked device.
ricardobeat 14y ago
So what happens when you use a different SIM card? Surely it won't work with AT&T APN settings?
- nathana 14y ago
  It all depends on who the IIN is that issued the SIM card. If it's an AT&T-issued card (which would include all of AT&T's MVNOs, such as Straight Talk), the iPhone just sees an AT&T SIM card, and applies the Apple-signed AT&T carrier profile to it, and in that carrier profile is a bit that controls whether the phone allows access to the Cellular Data Network menu or not, which AT&T has set to "deny." If you put in a SIM card that the iPhone has no clue about (such as T-Mobile U.S.)., then iOS will fall back to a generic carrier profile, which does allow access to the APN editing submenu. The problem is that Straight Talk is an AT&T MVNO, and so Straight Talk SIMs are indistinguishable from AT&T SIM cards from the iPhone's perspective. The iPhone engineers made a bad assumption, which is that all cards issued by carrier X should be treated exactly the same.
  - ricardobeat 14y ago
    If the SIMs are indistinguishable, what else could be done (without removing the APN blocking, which is AT&T's will, not Apple's)? A solution for this should be part of MVNO agreements, either providing their own SIMs or dealing with it in their infrastructure.
    - nathana 14y ago
      I asked the same question elsewhere, and someone came up with this hypothesis: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16266984#post16266984 http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16266984#post16... ...I still think APN blocking is entirely irrational on the part of the carrier. There's no way a user can subject their carrier's network to fraud or abuse by having access to the APNs (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16266682#post16266682 http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16266682#post16...)

by runjake 14y ago

russell_h 14y ago

Apreche acknowledged that the settings shouldn't be locked on an unlocked phone, his point seems to be that when you use an "unofficial workaround" as the author claims to have done, you shouldn't be that surprised when it stops working.

runjake 14y ago
Configurable APN settings on a device sold unlocked should be a given. APN settings configure your device for the given network you are connecting to. It's not so much an "unofficial workaround" as a mandatory component of the unlocked device.

ricardobeat 14y ago

So what happens when you use a different SIM card? Surely it won't work with AT&T APN settings?

nathana 14y ago
It all depends on who the IIN is that issued the SIM card. If it's an AT&T-issued card (which would include all of AT&T's MVNOs, such as Straight Talk), the iPhone just sees an AT&T SIM card, and applies the Apple-signed AT&T carrier profile to it, and in that carrier profile is a bit that controls whether the phone allows access to the Cellular Data Network menu or not, which AT&T has set to "deny." If you put in a SIM card that the iPhone has no clue about (such as T-Mobile U.S.)., then iOS will fall back to a generic carrier profile, which does allow access to the APN editing submenu. The problem is that Straight Talk is an AT&T MVNO, and so Straight Talk SIMs are indistinguishable from AT&T SIM cards from the iPhone's perspective. The iPhone engineers made a bad assumption, which is that all cards issued by carrier X should be treated exactly the same.
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  If the SIMs are indistinguishable, what else could be done (without removing the APN blocking, which is AT&T's will, not Apple's)? A solution for this should be part of MVNO agreements, either providing their own SIMs or dealing with it in their infrastructure.
  - nathana 14y ago
    I asked the same question elsewhere, and someone came up with this hypothesis: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16266984#post16266984 http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16266984#post16... ...I still think APN blocking is entirely irrational on the part of the carrier. There's no way a user can subject their carrier's network to fraud or abuse by having access to the APNs (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16266682#post16266682 http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=16266682#post16...)