Image via Chris
iOS 6? Please head over here.
Have you ever looked at your carrier name in the status bar of your iPhone? Chances are you have. If you’ve ever wondered where this actually comes from – this is really just an image contained in the carrier’s bundle of settings.
This makes it much easier for this to be customised or changed. Carriers can (naturally) and do change how their network appears – Optus changed from ‘OPTUS’ in firmwares lower than 4.x to ‘YES OPTUS’ in iOS 5. Telstra choose to display ‘3TELSTRA’ as ‘Telstra’, (and likewise for 3 – choosing to appear as ‘3’ instead of 3TELSTRA)
This is also handy for users – carrier bundles are easily edited and tweaked by users and can be deployed semi-officially – the same way carriers can deploy themselves on the side.
While in iOS 5 many of the actual carrier configuration data is signed and will refuse to work if the signature is broken – the images are free rein. You can do whatever you want here.
Inspired by a premade Telstra carrier logo installer for jailbroken phones (courtesy of Kin3tiK on Whirlpool), I decided to take a look and see how far I could get. Turns out if you can get your hands on a carrier bundle, you can throw your own images in.
[box color=green]These will only work on retina devices – the iPhone 4, 4S and iPad+Cellular (third generation). Please see my blog post on carrier bundles for more information.[/box](Note that these will only apply to the one carrier – installing the Optus bundle won’t change your Telstra logo, but will appear if you insert an Optus SIM for example)
[box color=blue]As of iOS 5.1, it seems you cannot overwrite a carrier bundle with one of the same version. Therefore, these bundles have a higher version number than than the official release.
This means when your carrier issues their own update, you won’t get it over the air if it’s not higher than the version you’ve got installed. This also makes it harder to go back to stock. As such, the only guaranteed way to go back to stock settings is to restore your iPhone. I’m not responsible if anything goes awry.[/box]
[box color=orange]iOS 5.1 ships with carrier bundles version 12[/box]
[box color=yellow]Please note I have only tested the Telstra logos – I am unable to test the others.[/box]
[box color=orange]All bundles below are version 12.5 (unless stated otherwise)[/box]
Right click on the logo you want for your carrier below, and save it to your desktop.
Telstra
The following are version 12.5.1
iPad – version 12.5 with tethering enabled.
Vodafone
Optus
Virgin
TPG
Telecom NZ
(TPG and Telecom NZ logos via Chris Simmons.)
To install this on your own iPhone, first you must tell iTunes that you can side load your own carrier bundles. Usually iTunes will not let you point your way to a carrier bundle on your own computer. This is easily fixed;
For both Mac OS X and Windows, make sure iTunes is closed before proceeding.
For Mac OS X; open up Terminal.app and paste in the following
defaults write com.apple.itunes carrier-testing -bool true
For Windows, open up Run (Winkey+R) and paste the following;
"%ProgramFiles%\iTunes\iTunes.exe" /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1
If you’re running Windows x64 bit, do this instead:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\iTunes\iTunes.exe” /setPrefInt carrier-testing 1
Done! Now simply connect your iPhone, open up iTunes, select your iPhone from the sidebar, and hold down option (Windows users, hold down Shift instead) while you click on restore. Now simply point your way to the .ipcc file you wish to load. You may also want to repeat the above, but click on ‘Check for Updates’ instead.
Now once that is finished, reboot your iPhone and you should be good to go.
If your phone blows up or won’t turn on, I’m not responsible. You do this at your own risk. 🙂
Enjoy.
Hi Beau,
Any chance of updating the Telstra .ipcc files to the next version 12.2 as Telstra is now on 12.1 and i can’t apply your .ipcc files as they are now. I wish i had a mac!
Thanks!
Agree with this…. Can we get Telstra IPCC updated please?
I too am waiting for Telstra 12.2.0 or 12.1.1 =)
Hey Optus worked on my iPhone which is great! But I tried all three Telstra ones on my new iPad “3” and the colour won’t show up on the first 2. The next g one shows colour but the others no.
I really want the blue one 🙁 please let me know if you can fix it
Dear Beau
Can you do it for Cellcom IL? ( http://www.cellcom.co.il ). I need it mainly to activate the Hot Spot option on the new IPad .
Any news on this being able to allow hotspot feature on iPad 3 with firmware iOS 5.1.1?
I really need this feature and feel that apple has falsely advertised the iPad 3 as having this feature but not telling you it is only for 4G and some countries don’t have a compatible network.
What happens if you update the firmware when you have used this exploit?
Has anyone upgraded to iOS 5.1.1 and had problems that has used the hotspot exploit on the iPad 3?
Hello, I’m on Optus and have tried to install the carrier update a few times for the colour logo. I restart my phone and it doesn’t work 🙁 my iPhone says my Optus carrier logo is 12.0 and my software is 5.1.1. Do you have any ideas what I’m doing wrong?
Hi,
There’s a couple of people who have lost the ability to access APN settings (me too!). I fixed this by downloading the iPhone configuration utility, and setting the APN settings within the application. Worked with iPad 3.
Still can’t do hotspot though with iOs 5.1.1…
Has anyone got the official optus ipcc file?
Cheers
I’m Lost here. Do I Need To Download? From your Site or Chris’s Site? I’m Wanting the Telecon XT Bundle LOGO. Is Yours Better or is Chris’s Better to Use? Or are they both the Same? I have a Jailbroken Iphone 3GS Have IOS 5.1.1 And My Carrier is 12.0 under Settings – General About. Does the latest Version of 12.5 Still Work on my Phone? And Will I Lose my Personal Hotspot?
Many Thanks 🙂
Hi Craig. Either bundle from either site is fine. And 12.5 will work fine unless for whatever reason you’ve already got a version 12.5 bundle!
When I go Shift Update, the computer is looking for .ipsw file and wont show the ipcc file. Any ideas?
Hi there,
Make sure you have set the settings from iTunes from Run (or Terminal on a Mac) first – else iTunes won’t allow you to select an .ipcc file.
What do you mean by have ‘set’ the from itunes from run? Cheers
Hey Jados,
As mentioned in the article, you need to paste a command in run. Go back to ‘For Windows, open up Run (Winkey+R) and paste the following;’ in the article.
where can i get the default factory unlocked IPCC that comes with factory unlocked iPhone 4S. i wish to use the same for the New iPad. Is it possible???
I had read I could use this process to then enable me to use my iPad as a personal hotspot. How do I go about this?
have you got anything for iOS 6 as of yet ? on optus
Hi,
This looks awesome and I really want to do it but I’m still unsure whether it will blow my carrier up or not and I would just like the all clear from you…
I have an iPhone 3Gs (8GB)
on Telstra 12.0 and am running iOS 5.1.1
Is it compatible?
I hope so! 😀
It won’t blow your carrier up. I’m also with Telstra and it worked fine 🙂
Back your iPhone up before doing it, to be safe, but you shouldn’t have any trouble. If it doesn’t work and your phone stops connecting it would be nothing a restore can’t fix.
Sorry, forgot this article mentions iPhone 4/4S only. My mistake! :\
How do you get them for iPhone 3Gs?
(Telstra Blue if possible)
is there one for ios6 on telstra?
Not working here on an amaysim unlimited simcard on both iPhone and iPad – wanting to enable personal hotspot on the iPad 3. Here’s a screenshot: http://d.pr/i/8Ldu – just won’t let me select one of the files 🙁
The .ipcc files seem to be just zip files, so would I be able to piggyback your work to replace the images with blank ones? Or maybe an image of a cell tower or something. This is a good project, but I’d rather use it to remove the corporate logos altogether.
I have managed to set up personal hotspot on my iPad only problem that Optus ver 12.5 has got APN default as CONNECT and my plan was on CONNECTCAP but after update new carrier version the function APN has gone, can’t going in to change APN afterward. To solve this problem can u create another Optus carrier ver 12.5 with APN as CONNECTCAP for optus power pack plan please.
Is there another version for iOS 7?