Airtel Unlocks Your iPhone For Free – Just Wait 12 Months
This is some great news for all of us who want to use iPhone on their personal network like Spice, Idea. So, Airtel declared that the locking period is just for 1year, after which you can unlock the iPhone and use it on any network of your choice. This is what written on Airtel India Website Terms and Conditions
This phone can only be used with an Airtel connection. Customers can enjoy free 500 MB of data download / month for 12 months. The charges beyond this usage will be Re 0.30/50 Kb. After the expiry of 12 months, customer can opt for a plan of his choice from the different plans available on offer. This offer is not valid if used on any other phone. To activate this GPRS offer, please request the Helpdesk at any Airtel outlet. Upon activation of this offer, customer will give up the tariffs and benefits available on the existing plan. After the expiry of the offer period of 12 months, customer may get this phone unlocked free of cost which will allow use of SIM from any other service provider. In case customer unlocks the phone before the expiry of 12 months, all warranties / benefits are null and void. For more details, call 121 from your mobile or log in to www.airtel.in.
I will say that just wait and watch what happens next 
This is not true..read the new terms and condition…
This phone can only be used with an Airtel connection. Customers can enjoy free 500 MB of data download / month for 12 months. The charges beyond this usage will be Re 0.30/50 Kb. After the expiry of 12 months, customer can opt for a plan of his choice from the different plans available on offer. This offer is not valid if used on any other phone. To activate this GPRS offer, please request the Helpdesk at any Airtel outlet. Upon activation of this offer, customer will give up the tariffs and benefits available on the existing plan. In case customer unlocks the phone before the expiry of 12 months, all warranties / benefits are null and void. For more details, call 121 from your mobile or log in to http://www.airtel.in.
My friend the quote is taken from the Airtel site only, they keep on changing the terms and conditions. Read this post to ensure that http://iphone3g-india.com/airtel-declares-dataplans-for-iphone3g-confuses-all/
i bought an iphone .iam using airtel prepaid .500mb gprs is free for prepaid or postpaid customers plzzzzz tell me guys bcozz iam being charged for prepaid
hi ram you should contact Airtel customer care and tell them about your problem. As i am pretty sure they are charging just because you are using iPhone inplace of any other mobile phone.
Let them know about the issue and I am pretty sure they will be able to clear out the issue.
Thanks
Hi Ram,
I bought Iphone with Airtel in Sep 2008. I am getting 500 MB free data package which is for 12 months. To my knowledge this is not applicable for Prepaid.
This phone can only be used with an Airtel connection. Customers can enjoy free 500 MB of data download / month for 12 months. The charges beyond this usage will be Re 0.30/50 Kb. After the expiry of 12 months, customer can opt for a plan of his choice from the different plans available on offer. This offer is not valid if used on any other phone. To activate this GPRS offer, please request the Helpdesk at any Airtel outlet. Upon activation of this offer, customer will give up the tariffs and benefits available on the existing plan. In case customer unlocks the phone before the expiry of 12 months, all warranties / benefits are null and void. For more details, call 121 from your mobile or log in to http://www.airtel.in.
Still there is no mention of Unlock. However when I visited Airtel last month they told me to come after 45 days and will unlock my IPhone free of cost.
Hi All,
I called up Airtel to unlock my Iphone as one year period is over. They forwarded my request to Apple, India and they forwarded to Apple, US and awaiting for the response. Keeping my fingers crossed.. Will update the post on receiving the response.
Hi Shivaram,
Thanks for sharing the scenario. Please do update on what response you get from Apple. Although i do remember reading somewhere recently that Apple is OK with having unlocked iPhones in Asia.
Hello All,
Good News.. I got Iphone unlocked by Airtel. I have written a mail to nodalofficer of Airtel. They have forwarded my request to Apple and today I have received a mail which I am sharing below.
“Dear Mr. Shiva Ram,
Thank you for contacting Airtel contact center.
This is in continuation to the below mail. We wish to inform that, the I phone has been unlocked, hence request you to connect to I -Tunes for confirmation. Please find the procedure below.
1) Download the latest I-TUNES by logging in the site: http://www.apple.com and save.
2) install the itunes application in PC or laptop.
3) connect the iphone to pc or laptop. open the itunes file.
4) Register the iphone & the confirmation of unlocking will be displayed.
I have done the above process by doing a backup and restored and received a message in Itunes that ” Congratulations, Your Iphone has been unlocked”.. I have tested with Vodafone and Idea sim and working perfect.
Thanks to Airtel.
If you have any queries drop a mail to shivaram95@gmail.com
Can you tell me what you mean by step 4 – register the iphone. I did everything else and airtel tells me it’s unlocked, but I dont see the confirmation page on iTunes and the phone is still locked.
Airtel has unlocked my Iphone 3G, following the end of the one year contract. free of charge!
they asked me to wait 20 days and at the end of the wait, confirmed to me the unlocked status.
Hurrah!
Proof of unlocked status can be seen at
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AQkA-kgsSHPhZGdmOGc1YnhfMGc3NmQ1bnRx&hl=en
you can write to me at my mail address for details.
Dear All,
Shivaram is absolutely correct. With his help i got my iphone unlocked too. I sent an email to the Nodal Officer for Tamilnadu and he told me that it will take a maximum of 30 days time. However, it was done in 6 days including saturday and sunday. I sent an email on the 6th of November and I got a confirmation today i.e. 11/11/09 saying to restore in itunes. here is the confirmation link
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AS7-wMTOciB3ZGNwa2I2NHhfMWNrcTl6M2N3&hl=en
incase you have any questions, please email me at siddharth.j.sheth@gmail.com
I have also tried to unlock my more than 1year old iPhone (Prepaid connection) from Airtel in Kolkata. But they said they had no information available regarding this. I have also written to the nodal officer, but he also doesn’t have any information regarding this matter. Please help.
Hi All,
Thanks to Shivram.
I got my iphone 16GB 3g unlocked officially, as suggested by Shivaram, I sent an e-mail to Nodal Officer on 13 Nov, got it unlocked on 19th Nov, they replied saying its unlocked now. I changed SIM to Vodafone, conected phone to PC/Itunes, got a confirmation saying its unlocked and I made calls using Vodafone SIM and it works absolutely fine.
Hi am shakeel wants to unlock my iphone which is from airtel 16gb iphone.
Have walkin to airtel lobby and the guy of iphone said unlocking of iphone t6hey are not doing from there end. i can jailbreak the handset but wats the fun on tat every update need to be unlocked. please help me this
Regards,
Shakeel
+919849682000
Hi Shakeel,
If your iPhone is one year old, they should do it. You can read above comments and see how people are getting it done officially from Airtel. If they still don’t budge raise a complain.
I would suggest NOT CALLING 121. They are a bunch of idiots or loosers to be very honest. I would rather ask you to send an email to your Circle Nodal Officer. They are the ones who can do this for you in less than a week. Trust me. I got it done through the Nodal Officer of Tamilnadu Circle.
Incase you have any further questions, email me on siddharth.j.sheth@gmail.com and i will be glad to assist you
I would suggest NOT CALLING 121. They are a bunch of idiots or loosers to be very honest. I would rather ask you to send an email to your Circle Nodal Officer. They are the ones who can do this for you in less than a week. Trust me. I got it done through the Nodal Officer of Tamilnadu Circle.
Incase you have any further questions, email me on siddharth.j.sheth@gmail.com and i will be glad to assist you
Sorry i used the wrong name
My bad
Hi as u said have sent the mail to the nodal office got a confirmation mail that they are not doing unlocking of iphone.
Is there any thing writen can mail to me friend so the same i can forwareded to airtel nodel & get my things done bro
Please help me in this
today i mail to nodalofficer.mum@airtel.in for unlock my airteliphon now i wait for reply ty all u people for all this info now see i can unlock or not
Hi as u said have sent the mail to the nodal office got a confirmation mail that they are not doing unlocking of iphone.
Is there any thing writen can mail to me friend so the same i can forwareded to airtel nodel & get my things done bro
Please help me in this
Hi All, I have just sent mail to Airtel nodal officer requesting to unlock my iPhone. I’ll update the blog once I get a reply (hopefully positive!)
hi Nalin any progress with your unlocking.
500Mb was free per month for 12 months, but airtel is taking it as 500MB and deducting may balance. THe nodal officer is also sticking to this opinion. Lot of harrassment caused by airtel. Now i have sent mail to appellate authority. lets see what response they send.
hi guys,
as said by others even i tried and sent an email to airtel for unlocking it. i got the reply in about 6-7 days and now its unlocked. you have to send it to airtel karnataka with your name, iphone serial, imei number, and purchase date and they will email back with the conformation that it is unlocked.
Hi, I got my iPhone unlocked OFFICIALLY, which I had got from Airtel 13 months ago. It was painful though. For 1 week, I wrote mails to NodalOfficer.KK@airtel.in & 121@airtelindia.com, but it did not help.
Then my friend visited the Airtel Showroom where I had bought the iPhone. And those guys finally got it unlocked. I had send them email at kk.brandshop1@airtel.in.
Total time taken : 2 weeks
Actual unlocking : 1 day (rest of the time went in just emails & visiting Airtel)
The Airtel interface that worked: Airtel showroom where I had bought the iPhone.
Earlier, on request, Airtel unlocked iPhone after 12 months. Though currently it seems that Airtel no longer officially unlocks it http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937.
Now I am successfully using my iPhone in Finalnd with a local operator.
Hi friends,
i was stuck with the outdated people of Airtel customer care executive as well as Nodal officers of my circle. i wrote several times to UP EAST nodal officer as well as to 121@airtelindia.com but they are really toooooo intelligent to solve my problem. rather they suggest me to jailbreak the iphone 3g and unlock it with illegal way. as my contract is over and dont know what to do.,guys help me out to resolve my problem.
Any one interested to fully Unlock their i phone 3gs .contact me on my mail or my no .09985949471
Mr. Deepak, if you know how to unlock iPhone, then please furnish the steps to unlock the iPhone please. it helps lot of people.
thanks
I do know how to do it but still would recommend iclarified.com. You can get unlocking guide for every version of iPhone from there. And they are very good at it.
Unlocking/Jail breaking Iphone is an 30 min job.
I did myself(dont worry, u wont brick it). Dont wait for 12 months. Try googling, you get the answer.
Just one comment. DO NOT UPGRADE to 3.1.3 OS. All other stuff is cake walk.
I am not against Airtel or promoting jailbreaking/unlocking. I just personally feel that sim lock to a carrier is not a fair equation for such a incredible phone and people putting their lumsum money init.
Enjoi
Hi Any one from Bangalore who have had their iPhone unlocked through Airtel, who could assist me in having it done for me as well, As suggested on this forum I contacted Nodal Officer and this is what they responded to me…. so any help here will be most appreciated:
Dear Mr. Gaind,
Thank you for contacting Airtel.
We understand from your previous interaction dated 17th March, 2010 you have Inquired about the procedure of unlocking iphone for your Airtel number 9900100735.
As per the telephonic discussion with you regarding unlocking iphone we have requested you to provide the contact number of other Airtel customer to whom we have unlocked the iphone service and web link enabling us to do the needful.
For further assistance, mail us at 121@airtelindia.com.
We value your association with Airtel.
Warm Regards
Nayeema IBM
Nodal Officer
Bharti Airtel Limited
If any one can contact me on vishal.gaind@gmail.com or call me on 9900100735 it will be a big help.
Thanks
Vishal Gaind
Hi friends,
Finally my iphone 3g 8gb locked by airtel is been unlocked egally,it takes about 3 months because AIRTEL is not offering unlock.yet i have to explain that i am studying in different country so kindly unlock my iphone.finally at 4:05AM(i have a habit of sleeping late night) i just searching for the website http://www.airteldatabase.com,i made the payment but due to low balance,my money was refunded back to my paypal account.after that i was upset and low.i dont know why i just changed my sim(vodafone) and ALAS!!!
i was shocked when i sync my iphone with itune(internet available).messsage is been displayed,Congratulation.your iphone is been unlocked.
i never recv confirmation mail from my airtel (UP EAST).
i dont know a man in airtel company(posted as nodal officer) help me a lot .i dont know his name.but after 2.5 month.
if think in logical way,it took 15 days to unlock my iphone but due to airtel unlocking facility is not there,it takes time.
I purchased an iPhone 3GS in Europe and was using it for the past 10 months on contract but now I am in India and wants Airtel connection for iPhone. Will I get all the benefits and features? Any suggestions?
I am doubtful that you will get all the perks which people get when they iPhone 3G from Airtel. If you want to use the 3G connection, please note that its still not available with Airtel. You can get that with MTNL or BSNL depending on your city.
i just wanted to know if Airtel still unlocks iphones or not, According to the official Apple website “http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937″ it’s not doing it anymore. Also is there any chance of Airtel unlocking iphone 3GS in India ? any help would be appreciated, Thanks…
My iPhone 3G is finally UNLOCKED!
After tens of emails to Nodal officers, I was disappointed with their responses, lost hope and gave up. But yesterday while upgrading to firmware 3.1.3, iTunes out of nowhere showed ‘Congratulations, your iPhone is now unlocked’. Thats it!
Hi guys..my frend has gifted me the iphone.n its locked..n i dnt live in india..i do have plenty of iphone store over here..bt they r nt able to unlock it..wht shd i do.pl tel me.
Those who had their iPhone unlocked … did you send your IMEI number along with your mails ?
@ vikram
yes, i have send the mail with IMEI and date of purchase and all the details necessary to unlock.
hi all anybody here who bought recently iphone 3gs did get 500 mb offer free ?
me a month before bought it from airtel store chennai almost a month i called umpteen times the seller, mailed 50 times 121at airtelindiadot com and nodalofficer at airtel india dot com still they dint activate my 500 mb offer the reply i am getting is
‘sorry fir the inconvenience’(15times)
‘where did u see the advertisement regarding this offer?
” sorry we are not incharge of this we will forward this mail to our higher officer’
‘surely we will solve this issu and ll revert back to u within 48 hrs’(32 times)
airtel cheated me by false promising 500mb/moth free offer or anybody here who got this offer plz tell me the proper channel to get this offerplzzzzz
Hi OS 4 Is really cool man check it out and also u can jail break the OS its cool
My iPhone is UNLOCKED now!
Well, its been months since its unlocked but I thought i’d post and let others know about my experience.
I called them and emailed the nodal officer (both karnataka and mumbai) atleast 50 times, but everytime they said they couldn’t do it and I gave up, but didn’t stop sending them mails frequently.
When the iPhone OS 3.1.3 came and I updated, it suddenly said “Your iPhone is Unlocked”!
So thats it, you have to do a software update to see if its unlocked, you can’t no otherwise even if they did it.
Don’t give up, they do it sooner or later. Email Nodal officer karnataka, don’t expect their reply, just keep updating the OS in a month and you’ll be surprised.
If you want ur Iphone unlocked from Airtel in delhi than visit Airtel Relationship centre in Sahara Mall, Gurgaon. They have a professional who works for Apple his name is Rajive and you just need to show him ur Iphone’s bill and he sends a request to Apple to unlock it within 7 days.
Has any one got an iPhone Officially unlocked from Maharashtra/Goa Circle. Can I get the respective contact details @ ravina26@gmail.com ???
Unlocking after every update is too irritating!!
I have got it unlocked by sending a note to my nodal officer in Andhra Pradesh. Read about my experience in my blog: http://www.venu.in/blog/?p=267
Thanks
I wrote to Web Bengal Airte office.. He unlocked my iphone from Aritel network.
http://www.airtel.in/wps/wcm/jsp/html/FixedLineNodalOfficer.jsp
Hi i have iphone from airtel bought 14 months ago now i want official unlock but i bought this iphone from unknown person so i don’t have details about airtel sim please help me to unlock my iphone.
Hey Guys, i bought new Apple IPhone 4 from US, i live in INDIA, could some body help to unlock that Iphone pls.
@Pandu, congrats on the purchase. Well unlocking is pretty easy, plenty of how-to guides available, This one should help as well : http://bit.ly/bEi09d. Let me know if you get stuck somewhere and please do note which iOS version you are running before unlocking.
Cheers for this excellent blog post. I look forward more of your writing on this topic in the not too distant future. Cheers again
i have got my iphone 3g unlocked today, which is officially bought from airtel 18 months back .
call the nodal officer of your state, and tell the details about your iPhone date of purchase and IMEI number . They will verify it and unlock it within 24 working hours.
call the nodal officer of ur state directly. u can get the nodal officer number from customer care.
karnataka airtel nodal officer number is 9972534865
he is a very nice guy. he even called me after a day to check whether the unlock is working.
I bought Iphone 3GS from airtel without airtel connection since i already had a airtel prepaid card about a year and half ago.
Can i officially unlock it? If can when and where in tamil nadu?
Can somebody tell me?
I got an iphone 4 from austria and i bought a new sim card here(micro sim card) i unlocked my phone but still i cant use airtel sim card.Any help i can get on this