SWMBO, who has never used an iPhone for anything other than to make phone calls, has to have the [almost] latest and greatest device, so she bought a used iPhone 5 from her friend in California -- the guy who stood in line for 14 hours to get his iPhone 6.

The phone is no longer under contract, but it is NOT unlocked, and she wants to use it here in Mexico.

The more I research unlocking iPhones, the less I want to have anything to do with the process.

The local cell carrier representative says she will unlock it and set it up with a new sim for $500 pesos, about $40 USD. Is this my best option? What should I do to unlock this phone?

tanstaafl.

What carrier did the iPhone come from in the US? Perhaps the friend can arrange to have the original cell carrier release the lock. Sometimes there isn't even a fee, just the request needs to be made.

In my opinion it was sloppy of him to not arrange for it to be unlocked before selling it, knowing she would want to use it in Mexico.

Once the 'serial number' is officially flagged as unlocked, the next time iTunes updates the iOS the phone itself will be unlocked when it checks the Apple database. This only needs to happen once. After the iPhone is unlocked, it will never become locked again.

Tip: Update the iOS system software using iTines, not via the device itself. iTunes over USB method gives less trouble when doing iOS updates, in my experience.

If it's AT&T it's really easy, they have a website where you request the unlock. Once that's accepted (might take a day) you just connect your phone to iTunes and it unlocks it. This was free.

You *do* need to have a SIM in the phone, but it doesn't have to be the AT&T one (I had a dead AT&T sim in there when I did it on an old iPhone 5).

Verizon iPhone 5's come sim unlocked from the factory. Just put a sim card in it and go!

If you got a Sprint iPhone, you're hosed...it won't work in Mexico as far as I can tell.