iphone4s can't use China Mobile's sim card after updating to 5.01

Just got my second SIM card after getting my second new iPhone 4s and still not working...

Tried both versions of 5.0.1 and no joy...

Should I try to get a third phone or a third SIM card??

Which sim card are you using, sounds like a cut blue one. If it is then most don't work so save your money, best to get micro card especially for 4s, china mobile do have them, same price. They come set in a card about the size of a standard credit card, should be available everywhere now as the phone is on sale in China. Maybe you will have to go to a large busy shop to get one. They should know about the problem, if not ask them to ring their technical support to find out.

Hope this helps

Incidentally, I assume you have tried the sim card from your 1st phone in the new one to see if it works with that. At least you would know if it was a sim card problem or not.

• First test out your 4S with other SIM like China Unicom and make sure you got an unlock version of 4S.
• Activate it, make sure your 4S is OK before zero in China Mobile SIM card problem. I am in Shanghai and I just got the card from CM for couple of days. I didn't ask for the MicroSIM and they didn't ask me and gave the the old blue regular SIM.
• Make sure you cut your China Mobile SIM with a cutter that's made for it, cost about $5 and no more than $10.

Mine 4S with CM works fine so far. 5.01 has no on-off control of 3G. I don't see any reason to go 5.01(9A406).

I have two 4S one is 9A405 and one is 9A406. No practical difference found.

Thanks for your help

• I started with a cut blue China Mobile SIM but that didn't work in either phone with either software (9A405 or 9A406).
• Both phones work fine in Australia with my Optus SIM with either software (9A405 or 9A406).
• Got a new China Mobile SIM, that came in a credit card size, then you can pop out a regular size SIM, then pop out a micro sim. It's a grey colour with SH-S-YKS & 128K.00.02 on the back. It doesn't work either...

Does my description of the new SIM match your working China Mobile micro SIM??

Appreciate your thoughts

No that's not the one, their card especially for the 4s has no regular size sim, only the micro size and it works in all unlocked 4s phones.. The one i got was blue. I think that micro one you got they have had around for sometime, the same thing happens with them as the cut ones although I think a better success rate of working.

But you said Optus Australia, did you get the phone through them on one of their plans? If so it would be locked to their network. Optus would certainly not supply an unlocked current model Iphone unless you paid in excess of $A900 for it.

As jychan wrote, if you have a friend that has a china unicom micro sim, try that to see if your phone works, they all work. Alternatively, if you have a friend with a 4s that is working on China Mobile, try that.

If either of these don't work you in all probability need to have the phone unlocked. I don't know the best place, somebody on this or another discussion can probably tell you.

Getting back to the question, and of course if your phone works with a friends sim card, there is a specially designed sim card that China mobile have made for the 4s. It works in all 4s phones that are unlocked. You need to go to a shop, not just pay for a sim card, find someone in the shop that knows about them or get them to ring their technical support. These cards do exist. Don't be just pushed off with another card and another 15rmb because they are too lazy to find out. Ask to see a supervisor.

Hope this helps.

There is no unlock method for current locked iPhone4S yet, period.

Locked 4S and unlocked 4S are physically the same except they have a slightly different hidden firmware code which is downloaded when you purchased/register your phone at the store. When the salesperson asked you to sign the purchase agreement and that got sent to Apple server along with your purchase price. Depending whether you pay full price or discounted price, different firmware code downloaded to your 4S and from then on, two phones are different and couldn't be changed.

I was at the Apple store and saw a friend just signing his credit card for a new 4S. He bought it under contract price. I told him Steve was very mean compared to Bill. It is better to buy an unlock 4S since he also travels to China very often. I told him I had a contract price iPhone4 unlocked but got disabled by Apple while I was in Wuxi trying to meet up a friend. I was agonized to find my phone had no signal and stuck with an White Apple during reboot. I had to restore the phone and lost all unsaved data let alone waste a lot of time scrambling in the town. Another time I was passing Hong Kong and the phone acted up and I rebooted it and it got stuck in White Apple and I had to restore the phone again. Bottom line I told him not to save $400 and potentially got into trouble in the wrong place and lost important business notes. He agreed but the salesperson said nothing he could do to reverse it to an unlock phone. He was stuck, could not return the phone without paying contract termination penalty fee. The only thing he could do was to pay a brand new unlock 16G 4S for U.S. $710.

I posted my unlocked 4S model number before. It was a second-hand Australia model bought in China for closed to U.S.$900 because it was before China officially selling 4S. Original owner didn't like it because he couldn't speak English and Siri to him meant nothing.

BTW, the SIM card I had was blue. I used a special cutter to cut it down to micro-SIM. I did the same to my China Unicom SIM card. Both cards have no problem with my iPhone 4S.

Hi Sykes

I should have mentioned that my iPhone is unlocked. I bought if from Apple outright/direct. I was just back in Australia for Chinese New Year

I have had some luck though. I got a normal blue China Mobile SIM and cut it. So far so good, perhaps third time lucky (touch wood!)

I called 10086 several times asking about a special iPhone4 SIM but nobody seemed to understand. At the China Mobile store, the lady there, who spoke slightly more English than I speak Chinese, tried to explain that some other people had the same trouble and the cut blue SIM is better than the micro SIM. So I'm trying that

I'll keep an eye on it, it's been working for 2 hours straight now instead of 2 minutes...

Swad

Hi Swad, that's great news, yes stick with it if it's working. You can always put it back into a phone that only uses a standard sim. In our case, my sim worked but my wife's didn't. We tried about 4 and were told most didn't at that stage.

We were only lucky to find out about the special sim for a 4s when we tried one last time in a local shop, we found a very helpful young lady who rang a friend in a higher position at another branch come administration block to see if she knew anything about it. They had just arrived the day before and we were able to go there and get one. Maybe my wife being a local and speaking Cantonese helped.

So they do have them, should you experience any further problems try and get one. Perhaps you need a translator who understands what you are talking about and take them to the shop. 😁