I am american but live in London at the moment and want to buy a US iPhone 5 for full price unlocked. I want the Verizon model so I am not stuck with AT&T when I move back to the US. My question is if I pay full price for the Verizon iPhone can I activate it with any sim card? I know it's unlocked but does this mean it can also be activated with a foreign sim?
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Full price Verizon iPhone
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Expanding on that, I think what you want to do will work with the Verizon model, but you may not be able to buy the Verizon model, even at full price, unless you're adding it to a Verizon account.
If you don't currently have a Verizon account, see if a friend is willing to buy it using their account number at full price. This shouldn't upgrades. Set it up on their line, then switch that line back to the friend's current phone. Take the iPhone 5 to Europe. You should be able to activate it on a new Verizon account when you move back to the States.
If you don't currently have a Verizon account, see if a friend is willing to buy it using their account number at full price. This shouldn't upgrades. Set it up on their line, then switch that line back to the friend's current phone. Take the iPhone 5 to Europe. You should be able to activate it on a new Verizon account when you move back to the States.
yup but you still have to activate it on verizon to use the GSM and verizon doesnt do prepaid on the ip5
so either
A) get a contract, wait 30 days pay ETF
B) have a friend who has vzw to add a line for you.. suspend service/pay ETF
Go into the apple store, but a Verizon iPhone 5 "device only". You'll pay the full price, but the SIM on those phones ship unlocked, so any GSM network will work, and the speeds will be up to HSDP+ (which is all of the UK carriers, anyway). Then when you come back to the states, it'll go right on Verizon LTE with the swap of an activated SIM.
but when you turn it on or restore it its going to ask for it to be activated on verizon..
Wrong. My Verizon iPhone 5 "device only" came with a Verizon nanoSIM preinstalled. As soon as I turned my iPhone on. It immediately activated to the network. In fact it was already activated on my account when I logged on to check to see if my old iPhone 4 was still activated.
well applejuice is saying he thinks it well. Just get one and have him try it? if not just return it immediately
Mine came with Verizon SIM inside. I put AT&T sim inside and than turned it on and it got activated.
Regarding the LTE it will work in the States on Verizon, but in Europe as well. Verizon model supports the bands that sell in the international version (1, 3 and 5) and Verizon specific bands. It is an international iPhone version with the support of CDMA and extra two (Verizon specific) LTE bands. I'd say the best iPhone model one could get.
So I just bought my verizon iphone for full price at the apple store. The employees told me it wouldn't be unlocked but I didn't believe them. I promptly cut an old t-mobile sim card that I had down to size to see if it would work and it gives me a t-mobile signal. However when I cut down my ATT simcard that I am currently using and stuck it in the iPhone 5 I got a sim failure measage and a sim invalid message appears at the top where it should say AT&T. I used an adapter to stick the At&t sim back in my iphone 4 and it still works. Any ideas why the AT&T sim does not work in the iphone 5 and the t-mobile sim does. My concern is that when I take the phone back to the UK I will not be able to use my giffgaff sim and the phone will be useless until I move back to the US in May. I am considering trying to get another AT&T sim, but wanted to get input here before wasting my time. Is the verizon iphone preventing the use of AT&T sims?
Update, so the ATT sim does not work in another iphone 4 that I have either. I'm guessing the sim is locked to the original phone it was activated in. This is a gophone sim so if anyone has any idea how to fix this i would appreciate the help.
Update 2: Called ATT and they unlocked the sim. Everything works now for anyone that runs into the same problem in the future.
Update, so the ATT sim does not work in another iphone 4 that I have either. I'm guessing the sim is locked to the original phone it was activated in. This is a gophone sim so if anyone has any idea how to fix this i would appreciate the help.
Update 2: Called ATT and they unlocked the sim. Everything works now for anyone that runs into the same problem in the future.
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