How to unlock your iPhone running on iOS 5 using Gevey SIM
If you have unlocked your iPhone running on iOS 4 with Gevey Sim, then you are probably asking yourself whether you can do the same for iOS 5. Well, you can but not the official iOS 5 but a custom IPSW created using a tool like Sn0wBreeze or RedSn0w.
To tell you a little bit more about the unlocking process, there are basically 2 methods of unlocking your iPhone (unlocking = removing its carrier restriction). The first one is a software based unlock using a program called Ultrasn0w and the second one is a hardware based unlock using a gadget called the Gevey Sim. The only major difference between the two is that UltraSn0w only supports a limited number of older basebands while the Gevey SIM card supports a limited number of newer basebands.
The Gevey SIM card works with the following iPhone basebands:
- 01.59 – 02.10
- 03.10.1 – 04.10.1
UtraSn0w supports the following iPhone 3GS/iPhone 4 basebands:
- 4.26.08
- 05.11.07
- 05.12.01
- 05.13.04
- 06.15.00 (Special iPad Baseband)
- 01.59.00
You may or may not know what a baseband is, but for those who are not well familiarised with the iPhone community lingo I shall explain. Stored inside your phone there is a wireless modem that sends and receives data, it basically communicates with your carrier and allows you to use it well… to use it as a phone. This modem has a specific firmware version that can be changed by Apple. The probably change the version once very now and then to prohibit their users from unlocking it.
So, it is possible to unlock your iOS 5-running iPhone as long as you use a custom IPSW to upgrade from iOS 4 to iOS 5. With this custom IPSW you will be updating to iOS 5 from iOS 4 without updating your baseband, which if critical if you want to jailbreak or unlock it. You can find a detailed guide on how to do that here.
Also, if you have forgotten how to setup your Gevey SIM watch the video below.
