Lizzie attempts a Jailbreak

Fail.  Big time fail. 

One of the big things that we “need” to get completed right away is establishing a phone number through the local cell service.  Being the frugal and thoughtful people we consider all the options; a new iphone for 5 Euros, unlocking the old iphone (and by old, I mean OLD), or getting a pay as you go cheap phone.  I have a great phone in our pack out (navy term for packing all of your stuff into boxes and then crates for moving!) that would be perfect to use as a prepaid phone but we have no way of knowing when we will have a home and get our household goods.  Buying the new iphone would require a contract and monthly fees.  Doing the pay as you go requires buying a phone and sim card than adding minutes when you run out.  Since we are going to be here for three years and we are spoiled with iphones, we want something more than just the minutes.  You can see the dilemma…we should probably just get pay as you go and just leave it at that but we want the best deal and the best phone we can get…therefore, jailbreak time!

Many of you may already now about this process but prior to moving to Napoli, I didn’t.  In America, each phone is “locked” so that it can only be used by one cell phone company.  This makes it more difficult for people to change cell companies or buy a cheaper phone than the company has to offer.  In Europe, this does not happen.  No one cares where you get the cell phone, you just buy a sim card and minutes and everything is good to go.  Of course, they want you to buy the iphone and three year contract from them but you don’t have to.  So, all the Americans show up with the nice new cell phones and they become worthless paperweights…at least our phones were not anywhere near new.

 To unlock your iphone, you must first “jailbreak” it and then download an app to unlock it.  Sounds simple right?  I spent three hours googling different “jail breaking” sites and read all the material I could find.  I finally found a program to use and step by step directions on how to do it.  I felt that I could do this.  Matt’s phone works better than mine so we were going to jail break his and use mine as a paperweight (it is really windy in Napoli).  So I got the USB cord and the phone, downloaded the program and was ready to “jailbreak.”  I should have realized that something called “jail breaking” would not be successful from such a rule following goodie two shoes like me!  I plugged in the phone and held the sleep button for three seconds, held both the sleep and the home button for five seconds, released the sleep and held the home button for ten seconds just like the directions said!  The phone should have been free and ready to download the unlocking app….instead it was black.  Nothing happened when you pushed the buttons.  Nothing happened when you plugged it into the computer.  Nothing happened when you plugged it into the wall.  Nothing happened when Matt pushed the reset button.  The phone was not free…it was dead. 

A dead phone does not solve our problem at all.  We searched the internet for solutions because surely someone else has done the same thing.  He was able to get the phone to return from the beyond and turn on.  He was able to recover it with iTunes and he had one phone number left.  One.  One, out of fourteen years worth.  FOURTEEN YEARS!  Not quite sure how the phone could recover just one number but it did or how my husband has been able to maintain every phone number for fourteen years.  I am pretty certain in the past five years, I have lost my numbers at least twice.  I like to think of it as purging.  All the pointless numbers or the people I no longer talk to are removed from my phone.  If I am still talking to you, you still have my number so I am not worried about getting in contact.  Matt on the other hand has had good luck with phones (until he let me touch it!) and has numbers from everything, restaurants, work people, friends, family, and other important business phone numbers.  Or at least he did.  I don’t think I have felt worse about a mistake in a long time.  I destroyed something he had been building for fourteen years. (if you were one of the contacts, send Matt an email!) 

Now we have two paperweights and Matt has every reason to buy a 5 Euro phone. We decide during the break of orientation the next day to go and get a 5 euro iphone 4 and sign the three year contract.  Of course, being Matt this means asking lots of questions about the plan and contract.  This is our third visit to the store and both Italian ladies working look at each other and seem to play mental rock paper scissors to see who has to deal with us!  Poor Daniela loses and asks how she can help.  She starts to show us the different plan options and the differences between pay as you go and contracts.  Matt asks about the 5 Euro iphone (remember we had decided to do it before we went in the store).  Apparently it’s not a 5 Euro phone, its 5 Euro today and 15 Euro a month for 30 months-455 EURO!  Which is about $650!   WHAT!  $650 for a phone!  Both of us think this is outrageous.  I have never paid more than $50 for a phone and Matt has only ever paid for one phone-his first iphone.  So needless to say, we are back to the beginning.  We tell Daniela we will be back.  The part that amazes me is that while talking to other people in the class or in the cell phone store, no one else seems to think this is ridiculous.  Everyone keeps saying, “it is over 30 months.”  Spreading out the cost over 30 months does not make it cost less people. 

The discussion at home that night is to try to jailbreak again and if not, we could consider getting a droid since they are much cheaper.  Crisis averted and decision made.  The next break we go back in to pick out our new phones.  Today the unlucky lady is Linda.  She shows us about ten phones and we each decide on one that we like.  Matt and I both feel like we are spending too much money.  I don’t have any friends here…why do I need a phone?  And none of the phones are going to be able to call home.  But we agreed we would like to have nice phones for three years and access to things like GPS when I get lost in Napoli.  And some phones can Skype which is free if you use the wireless and not the data package.  So we are literally about to tell Linda, I want this phone and he wants this phone when another customer tells Matt not to buy a phone here but to go into town because they are MUCH cheaper.  I literally slumped down and walked out of the store.  She burst my bubble and put us back at the beginning, again!  Although five steps back because we still did not have our car. 

After orientation we continue trying to rescue our truck from the storage lot and find some nice friends in the class who said they would take us out into town because they knew where to go because they are on their second tour in Napoli. To ship cars, you must only have a quarter of a tank of gas but when you get your car back you have just enough gas to get the car to the gas station so the first stop out in town is the full service Italian gas station.  Our new friend drives almost like a native and that means fast and a little erratic.  I didn’t realize how nice it would be to have someone take us to the gas station the first time so we would see how things work and learn how to fill out the gas vouchers. It also helped to realize that I need to learn Italian numbers fairly soon!  When we got our 40 litre of gasoline, the car wouldn’t start.  Yep.  The car battery was dead.  So Matt, the wife, and the gas station attendant pushed the car out of the way and the driver popped the clutch and everything started working.  After a little switching of cars and getting more gas, we made it to the electronic store to find out that phones cost more out in town.  So still no phone.

Matt realizes that I am about to give up and just go without a phone for three years but we have to have a number to coordinate with real estate agents and fill out all the Navy forms that ask for address and phone number.  Having at least one of the two is reassuring.  So, after the last bit of orientation, we return to the phone store.  Daniela is the lucky winner to get us as her customers again!  She walked us through several different decisions and we started the paperwork.  When a problem arose, she looked terrified to tell us, afraid we would just walk out again!  For example, the phone Matt wanted said it had a front camera but it did not.  She thought we would have to start the phone search again for him but instead he talked her into giving us a free case, 10% off another case, a car charger, and screen covers. I asked if there was another store at the other base and mentioned that we could go there (meaning if we had any problems or wanted to add minutes) and the look on her face was priceless.  Now we have Italian phone numbers!