Thursday, September 06, 2007

iPhone International Use - Disable Edge

If you are traveling Internationally with your iPhone and want to disable Edge and the cell phone service to avoid the costly iPhone International phone charges so that you can use wi-fi, stocks, maps, mail and Safari, here's a recommendation. I've tried it and it works.

Note: There is a rumor the iPhone Firmware 1.1.1 will allow you to disable the iPhone Edge service.

Assign a Pin to your iPhone SIM Card


  • From the iPhone Home screen, choose Settings > Phone > SIM PIN
  • Enter 1111 (The default AT&T SIM PIN or iPhone factory pin number is 1111)
  • Note: If you do not enter the correct SIM PIN, you will be prompted to enter the PUK code. It can be found on the AT&T Wirless website at: http://www.wireless.att.com/, click Phone/Device > Unlock SIM Card (Your iPhone PUK code will be displayed) or by calling AT&T at: 1-800-311-0500. Caution: Once you try and change the PUK code, you must enter the correct code or you will not be able to use your phone! If you enter the wrong PUK code ten times, you SIM will be deactivated and you will need to visit a AT&T store for a new card. Once you get an invalid PUK code message, call AT&T!
  • Once you succesfully enable your SIM PIN, whenever you turn your iPhone completely off (Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button for a few seconds until the red slider appears, then drag the slider), you will receive the following prompt: SIM Locked [OK] [Unlock]
  • [OK] Press [OK] to use your phone with your phone service and AT&T Edge (data) disabled. In this mode, you will be able to use wi-fi (if available), mail, stocks, maps etc.
  • [Unlock] Press [Unlock] and enter your pin to use your phone normally with the phone service and AT&T Edge.

iPhone Apple Care & AT&T Support

I heard you can call AT&T and get them to enable an International service for you. They wanted me to buy an International yearly plan and the Edge data would make it very costly. I understand that Blackberry users get unlimited International data.

I called Apple Care but the support rep I talked to told me that airplane mode was my only option and did not know the SIM PIN 1111. It was also not on page 36 of the iPhone User Guide. The AT&T Rep was very nice but also did not provide this solution. She did tell me that I should look for the iPhone manufacturer's SIM PIN in the iPhone User Guide.

Applie iTunes 7.4

I installed this upgrade today. After the install, I was asked to reboot my PC. I received a brief error message that my iTunes Store was not accessible, but I was still able to access the store. Additionally, iTunes took several minutes to recognize my iPhone in its cradde, but it eventually did. Here are some notes:

  • Ringtones -- There is a new ringtones tab in iTunes 7.4.
  • Software Version 1.0.2 -- There was no update to the iPhone software.
  • Bookmarks -- They synced fine with the new version.
  • OutlookSyncClient.exe -- I still get the OutlookSyncClient.exe error message with my 1GB outlook.pst file. If I use a smaller .pst file, it works. The iTunes 7.4 update did not fix this. I have tried using the scanpst.exe Outlook tool but it didn't fix my .pst file. For now, I have a work-around but I will eventually try and resolve this when I have more time.