Wiki
Notes on iOS carrier bundles: what is in them, how iOS picks one, how they are delivered and signed, and what the modem files inside them do. Written from the bundles this site holds, and where a number can be read from them, read live.
| Article | Covers |
|---|---|
| .der.gri | The global_setting files in the Default bundle - regional baseband tables that apply whatever carrier is in the phone, in Qualcomm and Intel/Apple C1 flavours. |
| .der.pri | Baseband override files in iOS carrier bundles: what they hold, the Qualcomm and Intel/Apple C1 formats, and how iOS sends them to the modem. |
| Bundle Selection | How iOS gets from a SIM to a carrier bundle, how MVNOs share one, how per-phone overrides and country bundles are layered on top, and which copy wins. |
| Carrier Bundle | What an iOS carrier bundle is, what is inside one today, where it comes from, and how it is versioned and signed. |
| Carrier Bundle Manifest | The iTunes version plist that lists every published carrier and country bundle, and the lookup tables in it that turn a SIM into a bundle name. |
| Carrier.plist | The main settings file of a carrier bundle today: the common keys, the modern APN type-mask bits, and the strange values in current bundles. |
| Default bundle | Default.bundle - the fallback carrier bundle, and the 18 MB of alert sounds, lookup tables, regional modem tables and motion thresholds that ship in it. |
| IPCC | The .ipcc file a carrier bundle is shipped in, where Apple hosts them, how they are named and checksummed, and how the URL scheme has changed since 2009. |
| PRI | The plaintext .pri files in older carrier bundles - CDMA-era baseband settings as a property list, the sections in them, and carrier.prl. |
| Self-registration | How Chinese carrier device self-registration shows up in iOS: terminal-registration SMS in carrier bundles and ds_autoreg in Qualcomm modem firmware. |
Carriers
What is unusual about the bundles of some of the larger carriers.
| Article | Covers |
|---|---|
| AT&T | What is unusual in AT&T's iOS carrier bundle (ATT_US): its sub-brands, per-phone modem files, a Wi-Fi secret unchanged since 2009, and fast eSIM polling. |
| Jio | What is unusual in Reliance Jio's iOS carrier bundle: Wi-Fi Calling rules for emergency calls, a misspelled key, odd XCAP ports and live ID checks for eSIM. |
| Rakuten Mobile | What is unusual in Rakuten Mobile's iOS carrier bundle: a 50-minute SIP timer, XCAP over plain HTTP, one-minute emergency alerts, and a misspelled watchOS key. |
| T-Mobile US | What is unusual in T-Mobile's iOS carrier bundle: 35 SIM ranges, IoT MVNOs, a lab server in production, text-to-911 test numbers and QuickSwitch. |
| Verizon | What is unusual in Verizon's iOS carrier bundle: MVNOs told apart by GID2, mmWave settings, no Wi-Fi handover during 911 calls, and big MMS video. |
| Vodafone UK | What is unusual in Vodafone UK's iOS carrier bundle: the only default 5G network slice, captive portal bypasses, and a once-a-day eSIM check. |