How to get an iPhone working on Meteor Ireland
This is my experience with getting an iPhone working with Ireland’s Meteor network. Currently the iPhone is only available from O2, and only with an 18-month service contract. I have been using a simple, pay-as-you-go plan from Meteor and wanted to use that in an iPhone. Here are the steps I took to get it working.
- Buy an iPhone. Not so easy to do in Ireland, but you can find them on eBay, buy them from an Apple Store (in the US or say, London), or talk your way into getting an AT&T store to selling you one without requiring you to sign the activation contract in the store. (Tell them it’s for a friend who will activate it Apple-Store-style using iTunes from home.)
- Jailbreak and unlock the iPhone. This used to be complicated but now it is ultra-easy thanks to the excellent utility ZiPhone. My phone came with version 1.1.4 of the iPhone software, and I used ZiPhone 3.0 (30th of March 2008). You simply connect your iPhone to your computer with the included USB cable, turn off iTunes once it starts up, and run ZiPhone. (I was using the Mac version, but the Windows version is supposed to work similarly.) I chose the first option, “Unlock, Jailbreak, and Activate”. You get a message telling you to wait 4 mins 30 secs, a bunch of stuff scrolls across your iPhone, it restarts a couple of times, and at the end of the process, you have an activated and unlocked iPhone. ZiPhone also automatically installs a piece of software called Installer.app (3.01 on mine, from Nullriver Software), plus the BSD Subsystem and OpenSSH.
- Remove the AT&T SIM card included with the iPhone and replace it with your own SIM card. There is a pin hole you need to push on the top of the phone with a paper clip, and the SIM tray slides out. You simply replace the existing card with your own, and then reinsert. There are plenty of videos showing how to do this on YouTube, for example this one. You can then toss out the AT&T card or keep it for a souvenir. Your iPhone should be working fine with Meteor now. It may ask you to enter the PIN for your SIM card, if you have such a security feature enabled. Just like with any other mobile phone, you need to enter this every time you turn on the phone, although normally the iPhone is just asleep, not turned off. If you want to turn it off you have to hold down the sleep/power button for about 5 seconds and then confirm that you wish to power off.
- Get HTTP working through GPRS. This is the step to get everything except Mail working — everything that uses http, that is: Safari, Maps, Stocks, and Weather. I found that YouTube did not work this way, nor did the iTunes, but I think that is because both work only through WiFi. Probably the 3G version will fix this… In the meantime, here are the steps you need. These are specific to Meteor Ireland.
- Sign up for a data plan. It is possible to enter the wap settings for EDGE and to use the Meteor proxy server (following similar instructions to the ones from a similar page explaining how to do this with Vodafone Ireland), but this method is punitively expensive! I signed up for Meteor’s most basic plan at €20/month and paid for a €9.99 data add-on that gives me 250MB per month.
- Phone Customer Care at 1905 and make sure they turn on the isp networking for you. This is the trickiest part since the Customer Care person may think you are talking about wap, which you are not, and since they must request to a technical support person that they activate this on their system for your account. Evidently by default it is not turned on. I had to make about five calls to Customer Care before Meteor got this right.
- Enter the EDGE settings for Meteor. These are:
APN: isp.mymeteor.ie
Username: my
Password: meteor
- Yes you do need to turn your phone off and turn it back on. Before you do this, be sure to deactivate Wi-Fi if you have been using that, since otherwise you won’t be able to test the EDGE/GPRS function. Once you do that it should work!
- Things that still do not work:
- Voicemail. Visual voicemail will probably never work, but there are ways to hack the phone so that the voicemail button calls Meteor voicemail. I am working on this too.
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June 25th, 2008 at 3:20 am
hey that’s pretty cool. you seem pretty in the know of getting around phone software issues. I came to your page after searching google for using PTT (push to talk) with meteor. I just got the “nokia 6110 navigator” must contact meteor for the ISP functionality. Brill phone but I believe on meteor it isn’t reaching its full potential. don’t suppose you got PTT working.
Also since you know your unlocking software, would you know any for Sony Ericsson. my brothers phone wont start up after using Sony Ericsson (SE) update service. It’s the w910i when ya turn it on it vibrates and the back-light comes on but screen stays black and phone wont turn off red light on back is also on. I believe it needs to be re-flashed but SE’s update service isn’t doing it. After contacting SE brought it to a SE certified phone shop. But SE now include a stupid piece of litmus paper near the phone battery which is supposed to be white. His is red which indicates water damage and voids warranty! Even though this is not the problem the shop wont touch it. In fact I was told to buy a new phone!!!!! eventually they said I could since warranty is already void avail of an uncertified phone shop and pay em to flash it.
So in short do you know of any software that will help me out? otherwise its a long wait to send it into SE or availing of a dodgy phone unlocker’s services.
Sony Ericsson brilliant phones crappy update service! Any help appreciated.
Ros
July 9th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Will any of this be on end of year exams?
September 6th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Followed your instructions to the letter and its working for me now thanks. I bought my Iphone in prague so didnt need to sign up to any subscription service just stuck in my meteor sim when i got hme and it worked fine no messing about or unlocking it. After 3 calls to meteor customer care and 1 trip to a meteor shop (Dont bother they cant help and dont really know what your talking about)its working perfectly. Only thing is Explain to them its technical support that need to enable the isp networking otherwise they search their own computers for ages and find nothing. Thanks again
December 30th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Will it work if the phone has been already assigned to a certain provider? is there a way around this?
December 31st, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Yes it will work regardless of the provider – although this does not apply to the 3G iphone, just the original.
January 28th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Thanks for all this information as I spoke to Eircom Mobile for Business customer care as we’ve just migrated our account from O2 and they told me that the EDGE network was dropped in December in favor of G3! Strange because my older style pre-G3 iPhone from the USA has the E (EDGE) symbol on the screen when powered up. I asked him how existing EDGE users were working now and he said they were all migrated to G3! “How’s that possible as the handsets might not support G3?” I asked.. and he said “it’s all the same thing!”. I don’t think so!!
I’ve since insisted (with the knowledge supplied on this page)that I can get the EDGE network and asked them to get technical Support to activate the ISP Network. I’m still waiting?
Meteor/Eircom Business Customer Care also insist that they won’t support the iPhone and don’t want it on their network – A ludicrous statement to match the previous one I think.
Thanks again for the advise as its hopeless talking to anyone within Meteor/Eircom mobile Customer Care without the essential confidence that this page supplies.
I’ll try and send an update when/if it ever gets sorted.
January 29th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Success!!
I called Customer Care again today as they didn’t return my call from yesterday and spoke to Bridget who immediately went through to Technical Support whilst I held……
When she returned I was told to turn off and on again after 10 minutes, she did tell me that the Password was WAP thou! I ignored that advise and hey presto email immediately arrived using the settings supplied above for the APN/USERNAME/PASSWORD.
Thanks again
February 18th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Hi, maybe this is old info but I thought I’d share seeing as this post helped me and came up first when searching on how to use my iPhone on meteor.
To bypass visual voicemail go to the keypad and type *5005*86*171#
hope this helps….
February 27th, 2009 at 4:20 am
Hey ,
I just bought a iphone mini from china! I have a meteor sim bill pay .I put it in and it worked at first but now its saying invalid sim??? Will i have to get an o2 sim ? or is there something i can do to get it to read my meteor sim.
I got the extra add on thing for the data that you said. not really a phone whiz just wondering if you could help me in getting this thing to work .
Thanks a million
Don x
March 10th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
Afternoon all.
I’ve got a Version 2.2 3G iPhone, jailbroken and unlocked.
Just to let people know what worked for me….
First off, there’s no “Edge” setting in my settings. There is a “Cellular Data Network” setting though, and it’s in here that you fill in the APN, name, password details.
Those details are:
APN : data.mymeteor.ie
Name : my
Password : meteor
Still had to ring Meteor to get the ISP Networking setup, but the lad I was talking to (can’t remember his name) knew exactly what I needed, knew exactly the menu layout of the iphone, everything. I did have to tell him about the “no edge option” though, but he made a note of the “cellular data network” option.
So happy days.
March 10th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Yes, that’s right, I think the “EDGE” option was for the 1.x iPhone OS, it has been replaced by “Cellular Data Network”.
I’m curious how did you unlock the 3G iPhone?
March 10th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
@ Ken. Followed some walk through that I found online.
Twas a case of downloading something called Pwange. That has an iphone “backup” that you “restore” to the phone through itunes. It also installs Cydia. All that jailbreaks it.
Then through Cydia, I installed Yellowsn0w, followed some other instructions about yellowsn0w I found online, and that unlocked it.
Not very helpful I know, but I found everything out through Google.
Twas my first time doing anything like this too, so if I can do it, anyone can.
The phone can still be restored using your own previous backup if it doesn’t work, so you’ve nothing to lose by trying it.
April 7th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Hi,
You seem to know alot of stuff, just wondering the unlocked jailbroken Apple Iphones for sale on Ebay will they work using Meteor sim if I was to buy one of these unlocked version or do I need to do anything else to make it work???
Lorraine
April 8th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Hi,
Bought my iPhone 16gb on ebay last July, jailbroken, Just stuck my Meteor sim in and like you all say Meteor staff had no clue, eventually got technical support and put in settings as detailed above, and hey presto! working fine!
Only downside, have dropped the phone a couple of times in rain, and now screen freezes really often and also can now only receive and make calls with loudspeaker, otherwise hear nothing. A real pain, and can’t see Apple being much help since not bought from o2. Any thoughts,
Dorothy
April 21st, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I find that the best/ fastest data settings are as follows:
APN: data.mymeteor.ie
Username: my
Password: wap
May 18th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Thanks guys,
I just switched to Eircom business and after numerous phone calls etc. I had it working after five minutes on this site.
I used
APN: data.mymeteor.ie
Username: my
Password: wap
Mail and web worked straight away.
June 18th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Currently in Singapore with a chance to buy already unlocked iphone, expensive but cheaper than at home. Anyway, very concerned that I’ll get back to Dublin and it won’t work. Could just as easily buy N97 or Blackberry that will work. Just wondering if anyone has had any recent issues with meteor & their iphone?
August 2nd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Hi,
How can I buy IPhone in shop without signing the contract? What price it will be (even if I stick to your suggestion that friend will activate it)?
Thanks
August 10th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Just a quick answer to the queries about buying an iPhone on ebay.
I just bought an ulocked iPhone from ebay and yes it does indeed work with my Meteor sim-card.
Only thing I’m worried about right now is the prices for the internet. Don’t want to be ripped off.
August 11th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Hi ken,
these are the latest iphone data settings from meteor.
i received this email @ 11 a.m.this morning.
Hi Michael,
The following may help with iPhone queries. Even though we don’t support the handset fully, some of you may already know this.
If a customer rings in wanting internet connectivity on the Apple iPhone we just need to do the following :
1) On our side – The Data APN needs to be set up on the HLR. That should be set up by default on all accounts (unlike ISP APN).
2) In the handset itself:
Go to Settings -> General -> Network -> EDGE and enter these settings
APN: data.mymeteor.ie
Username: my
Password: meteor
Turn the phone off and on and the internet connection should work fine.
Many of you still seem to be advising these customers to set up ISP as an access point and then call CC Tech and ask to activate ISP profile for them. Please note that this is not necessary any more. Meteor Data profile is up-to-date and its data.mymeteor.ie access point has the same functionality as the old ISP access point. Therefore there is no need to ring CC Tech about setting up iPhone any more, if you follow the above stdps.
August 23rd, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Very interesting stuff guys!!! If you are successful in getting your unblocked and jailbroken i-phone to work on a non 02 sim, will one be able to access and use all functions available to those on 02 bill pay? I have heard that you can’t use i-tunes as normal
September 9th, 2009 at 1:17 am
i have an iphone i bought it in england only i haven a clue about all dat u said…???am quite confused can u email me r sumthin plz..wud be much appreciated
September 9th, 2009 at 6:57 am
The best way to unlock modern iPhones using the most recent Apple firmwares is to use RedSn0w. Here is a guide for unlocking the 2G iPhones (such as mine). If you want to unlock a 3G or 3GS, you need to jailbreak the phone first using RedSn0w, and then unlock it using UltraSn0w, the unlocking tool for iPhone 3G.
The general website for unlocking iPhones, from the iPhone Dev-Team, can be found at their blog.
September 14th, 2009 at 9:26 am
For anyone with the 3g and 3gs- setting> General> Network> cellular data…>
APN: data.mymeteor.ie
User:my
Password: wap
September 28th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
For both isp.mymeteor.ie and data.mymeteor.ie, the correct User and Password are:
User:
Password:
You did not think they would care about a password shared across their whole customer base, did you?
October 12th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Thanks guys. This has been extremely helpful. Much appreciated
October 13th, 2009 at 9:26 am
can anyone help me in getting my Tiphone (copy) working on Meteor……???
October 14th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Tried the following settings tonight 14th Oct 2009
1st Generation Iphone, V3.0 Firmware
(NO need to contact Meteor!)
Goto: setting> General> Network> Cellular Data…>
APN: data.mymeteor.ie
User: my
Password: meteor
go back to home screen
shutdown the phone
re-start & open browser to google or something…
it worked first time!
thanks guys for yer help.
October 19th, 2009 at 8:14 am
I have an unlocked iPhone that I’m using my meteor Pay As You Go SIM card in. Does anyone know if there is a way to get a data package with a pay as you go SIM card? I have an e-mail in with Meteor, but I was wondering if any one else has already tried this? Thanks!
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:55 am
Hey,
i unlocked my o2 3g i phone to be pay as you go meteor about a year ago, i rather stupidly updated it last night, now when i turn the phone on it tells me to plug it in to i tunes when i do this i tunes tells me invalid sim. any advice?
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:14 am
The basic rule seems to be: never upgrade using the stock Apple firmware updates. There is a new version of Pwnage, see http://blog.iphone-dev.org/, and this will unlock your 3G. You use pwnage to create a custom ipsw (firmware) file, and then restore to this through iTumes (you hold down the alt key when pressing the Restore button, then select your customized pwnage-created firmware file.) There are plenty of detailed walkthroughs for this on the web.
I now have a 3GS that I have jailbroken using the new pwnage, but not unlocked, although since I am using O2 now I did not try very hard with the unlocking.
Also there are places in Dublin that will unlock the 3G for you for a small fee, one on Georges St for instance.
November 5th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
Hows the form.
I have an unlocked iphone 2g, my meteor sim works in it fine except for recieving calls/texts.I can call people and text them fine, but i wont recieve their reply untill i send a further text! Also when people attept to call me they cannot get through!
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Damo
November 26th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
[...] Ericsson handset as a mobile modem. The following solution (drawn from various threads, see here, here and here) works but is not optimised technically or economically: (i) in the telephone settings, [...]
December 9th, 2009 at 10:36 am
hi
i am looking to buy an apple i phone 3gs and i was going to get my friend in the US to buy an unlock one,it is for a christmas present so will it work in ireland
December 10th, 2009 at 2:27 am
hey since your so good at unlocking phones
i was wondering
would you know how to unlock a Sidekick LX 2009?
im planning on getting one for christmas this year
and you can only get it on any AT&T service like t-mobile,
im planning on getting it up north,
but would you be able to unlock it to Meteor?
December 12th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
hi damo,
i don’t think there is anything wrong with the phone itself because i have the same problem and i do not have an iphone i am also with meteor. I was also wondering if i jailbreak an iphone 3gs will it definitely work with meteor ?
December 16th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
will this work with an o2 sim card
December 25th, 2009 at 11:58 am
hi im tring to surf the web on my iphone at home by connecting to my eircom wireless broadband. its telling me i am connected to the network but still wont let me to actually connect to the internet?? do i need wap settings or if not do u know what the problem is? thanks
January 5th, 2010 at 9:58 am
Hi,
do i really need to turn off my iphone to activate cellular data network? Both mail and internet not working. Mine is post week 40 3Gs version 3.1.2 (7D11) and I’m told if i turn it off or power goes i’ll need to get it jailbreaked. i have all the setting entered and my previous phone worked fine for mail and internet.
Tops
January 6th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
I travel to Ireland since I am air crew from the US. I have a jailbroken and unlocked 3Gs. Yes you can use a pay as you go sim. I have used the Data/Email and made some calls. Note : I had to turn off that sim pin setting because everytime I turned the phone on it asked for the passcode. I bought my sim at the Meteor Store in Limerick. You do have to add your own APN settings to get the Data/Email to work. I use
APN: data.mymeteor.ie
User: my
Password: meteor
I used it 2 days checking email and using facebook etc and it cost like 1.75 euro out of my $10 credit. Hope this helps.
January 17th, 2010 at 9:33 am
Thanks for this post! I am now happily iPhoning (3g) on Meteor, and I didn’t even have to call Meteor to get data working!
January 27th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
looking for some help activating my 3GSiphone, I have jailbroke the phone and unlocked it using blackra1n and blacksn1w but i still cant activate the phone, any suggestions?? im on o2.. i have tried other ways of doing this using blackra1n as a data pack when restoring the firmware but itunes wouldnt allow me to do this.Thanks.
January 27th, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Blackra1n should activate the phone, and allow you to unlock it using Blackra1n. I have an (Irish) O2 3GS, and I ran it locked with the O2 SIM card for a while before running Blackra1n. Now it works perfectly unlocked, and I usually replace the o2 sim with a 3 sim UK when in London for instance. So I am not sure what your activation problem is.
February 8th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
got a 3g iphone from America unlocked and jailbroken im on a metoer pay as u go sim it’s texting and calling are perfect but internet not working
iv entered the
APN: data.mymeteor.ie
User: my
Password: meteor
but it still wont let me use the internet.. any idea’s ?
and why im asking iv been told the apps are free when the iphone is jailbroken is this true and if so do u still get them off the apple store ?
February 17th, 2010 at 11:17 am
if a pohone is unlocked but NOT jailbroken do you think it will be ok to use this on meteor pay as you go?
February 17th, 2010 at 11:38 am
That’s an interesting question since I have not heard of a phone being unlocked without being jailbroken. Unless it’s a factory-unlocked phone which should work fine with any SIM card.
Last week I unlocked a 2G iPhone that had been updated to the latest stock 3.1.3 firmware (through iTunes) using the latest redsn0w software Redsn0w 0.9.4. Full instructions are here: http://www.blogsdna.com/6858/download-redsn0w-0-9-4-to-jailbreak-iphone-3-1-3-firmware.htm or http://www.redmondpie.com/jailbreak-iphone-os-3.1.3-firmware-with-redsn0w-0.9.4/, and the redsn0w page is here: http://redsn0w.com/.
Note that this will NOT work on a 3GS iphone running stock 3.1.3 because the upgrade modifies the 3GS firmware, and the latest methods (redsn0w, blackra1n, etc) do not yet work for the 3GS as a result. Fingers crossed though.
February 25th, 2010 at 1:36 am
I have just got an oranage i phone 3gs and its i want to unlock it so where do i start?
March 13th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Im after making huge mistake im after plugging my new locked i phone into my i tunes and pressed update and now its locked locked and really am left with nothing i even went to an unlocking shop and there like you updated it to the newest firmware and there is no way of unlocking it at the moment. Im stuck with an expensive phone any solutions?
March 25th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Carly – i have done the same but apparently it can now be sorted http://iphonejtag.blogspot.com/2009/11/sn0wday.html
March 25th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Hi Carly – i did the same but all is not lost. this will work
http://techpp.com/2009/11/03/unlock-iphone-3-1-2-firmware-with-blacksn0w/
March 28th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
i have an iphone but im on meteor…. i want to be able 2 use it on meteor pay as you go!! do i need 2 get it unlocked from o2 and is jailbreak so i can use the internet etc?? thanks in advane!!
April 7th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Hi,
Im heading to america for the summer and thinking of buying a 16gb iphone 3gs. if i buy the phone lets say a few days before i leave on a contract, and fill out all the required documents like social sec number etc. will i be able to unlock or jailbreak the phone when i return to ireland? thanks for your time,
Regards
Kieran
April 23rd, 2010 at 11:07 am
Hey there I have just posted a thing similar related to How to get an iPhone working on Meteor Ireland | Kenneth Benoit’s Home Page on my journal the other day. How smaller is the internet
May 8th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Will this work for the 3GS? I have one since Christmas and have had no internet (witht he exception of Wifi in my house) since I bout it and its really annoying.
Thanks
May 9th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
basically i’m with o2.irl and i want to move to meteor (because of their new free internet option).
i want the phone to remain the same. no change in menus or layouts or themes just same old apple iphone. do i need to jailbrake and unlock it. i found a site that says it will do it all for €25 or there abouts.
i tried to use the link above on this page but it said the page wasn’t available… annoying
also i believe that meteor are now 3g. will i be able to get this internet on my phone as thats why i want to move. and can i get email, safari, anything really that my iphone can already do. thanks
dont want to mess it up there’s €500 gone down the drain
oh and its an iphone 3g
May 11th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
I have bought an iphone, 3gs, version 3.1.3 on o2, but i hav a meteor sim i wanna use in it… will this unlock work with this or is it a lost cause???
i spent 500 on it so i dont wanna risk messin the fone up either…
July 9th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Hey There,
Thank you so much for all your information on using a Meteor sim with Iphone.
Initially I had to ring Meteor 5 times without any sucess but followed the steps outlined in this blog and Happy Days Mobile Internet!!
thanks again.
July 31st, 2010 at 7:24 pm
hi guys i got a 3g iphone i have it on a meteor sim but i cant connect to the internet it keeps sayin i need a data plan when i ring meteor they have no idea and wont want to help me can any1 explain how to do this please