iPhone OS4 / iOS on a South African iPhone... What to do!?
Tuesday, June 22, 2010 at 9:48AM I heard this morning that the iOS4 upgrades are starting… The new features look FANTASTIC!
Here’s my dilema.
I have an iPhone 3GS that is unlocked so that I can use it with my MTN sim card (I have my Vodcaom sim card - a work contract that does not have a data bundle loaded) in my Motorola Milestone (a Droid for the rest of the world).
The reason for doing this is simple, I don’t want to use my work’s phone for personal browsing, facebook, twitter etc., I’d rather pay for that usage myself. Hence the decision to put my personal sim card with a data bundle into the iPhone (browsing and social networking are superb on the iPhone)!
I also tether my iPhone to my Macbook in order to access my personal email, blogs, tumblr, twitter and facebook…
If I upgrade my iPhone 3GS to iOS4 will I loose the ability to tether?
Any advice is appreciated! Remember, I am in South Africa and use my iPhone on the MTN network.
Dr Dion Forster
Well, thanks for the feedback (thanks Rowan and a few others who sent me links via twitter, facebook messages and emails). Much appreciated!
I took the plunge and updated my iPhone 3GS to iOS 4.0 - it was quite easy! So, here's the verdict, it WORKS and it is great!
I had to jailbreak my phone using redsn0w, and then having installed Cydia I loaded the UltraSn0w repository and within minutes my phone was up and running on MTN in South Africa, with tethering enabled!
Amazingly after I had done the first install and jailbreak (which didn't allow me to unlock the phone to use on the MTN network (in fact I had to put my old AT&T sim card into the phone to activate it - the sim came with my original iPhone 1G!) So, what I did was to restore the phone to the standard Apple firmware and then used my last backup to restore the content of my phone via iTunes (I created a backup by right clicking on the phone and selecting backup before I did the first firmware update). That backup took about 30 minutes on the standard iPhone Apple firmware. Once the restore was done Cydia appeared! I couldn't believe it. So, I looked up the UltraSn0w repository and then then installed UltraSn0w from there which unlocked the phone).
I love my iPhone! By the way, it also works on Vodacom - I tried it with my other sim card. Just as an aside when I put the Vodacom sim card in iTunes wanted to update my carrier settings. I'm not sure if that is safe or not, so I just cancelled it (I would hate to update the modem baseband and so disable the ability to use it on MTN)!
Standard disclaimer applies! Try this at your own risk - if you get it wrong you may be left with a very sophisticated iPod Touch ;-)
Reader Comments (7)
Hi Dion
I did an upgrade last night, wow, its like a whole new phone, probbaly not everyone's cup of tea but I like it, folders and multitasking are pretty cool, not true multitasking like winmobile but not bad...
I do see my tethering settings are all still there. You have to update your Itunes too.
Hope this helps.
Hello,
I found this article through google. I am an american living in South Africa on the Vodacom network. I have updated to the iOS 4 and my tethering ability has gone away...any suggestions?
Hi Derek,
Is your phone unlocked (I assume that it is since you're using it in South Africa?) - then go to help.benm.at using safari ON YOUR iPhone.
Scroll down the page and select 'Tethering'. Next scroll right down to the bottom (since South Africa is not listed) and select 'Create your own - generator'. Under the Cariername put the name of your carrier (e.g., Vodacom or MTN), then under APN type in 'internet' (without the quotation marks). No username and password are required on South African carriers.
Then press download. Your iPhone will prompt you to install the new profile. Then restart your iPhone (Power it down by pressing and holding the Power button, slide the red bar to switch it off, then power it up again).
Once the phone is restarted your tethering option should return under: Settings -> General -> Network -> Internet Tethering.
I hope that helps!
Regards,
Dion
Hey man,
Thank you so much...I installed it and it didn't work right and then I removed the profile and all of a sudden it started working...not really sure why.
Anyways, this is kinda cool that we met through the iPhone dilemma! My wife and I do work in the Transkei in the Eastern Cape. Crazy how God can pull people together. Talk to you soon man.
Derek
Hey man
New problems with the tethering. It's now telling me I need to contact Vodacom to enable tethering. It also keeps updating my APN settings almost like Vodacom is changing them or something. Any more suggestions? Thanks man!
Dion,
I also love my iPhone! Os 4.0 is great. I was years a go with Cell-C but have import to Vodacom. So my iPhone is working 100% Kan ook nie wag vir iPhone 4 nie. Myne is nog die iPhone 3G
Be blessed in the Cape
hi,
my iphone 3gs was upgraded to os4.1 and i lost my tethering settings. i tried to reinstall it but it will not allow me to install a second setting. How do get it working again. please help.