iPhone 5 replacement

When you get a replacement CDMA phone from apple, it will prompt the genius setting it up for the carrier it's to be locked to. It then lists all the CDMA providers stateside and you must select one. When I got my replacement, he obviously chose Verizon. This step cannot be undone and the screen warns of that. This isn't for gsm providers as far as I know.

My guess this is so any apple store anywhere in the us can replace any users CDMA phone, regardless of their location, should they need to replace a local carrier phone which isn't even operating where the store is located. These phones are basically shipped as CDMA ready "blanks" and just need to have the carrier option set upon activation. This will download the correct carrier settings to the device as needed. This will prevent the store from needing to stock a certain amount of each carriers phones and just one simple stock of general CDMA ones.

No matter what you select if its a Sprint iphone then you will get a sprint replacement.
Once they enter the serial number in their system and give you another device even if you select Verizon or AT&T it will still be a Sprint locked iphone.

Abdu said:

If so then how do you explain the 3 carrier options in the pic above?
If anyone experienced this situation please share.

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Just got a replacement Verizon iPhone 5 last week, no carrier option.

Also, your second screen shot (where it shows the carriers + Buy iPhone Unlocked) looks pretty much like the screen you get in the Apple Store iOS app when you use it to go through the process of buying an iPhone.

I can see Apple giving the Genius Bar people the ability to select what CDMA network the replacement phone is for, but it makes no sense to give them an option that says "Buy iPhone Unlocked". "Setup as Unlocked" would make sense, but not "Buy". Really think that might be a screen shot from the iOS Apple Store app.

Yep.

That's a screenshot from the Apple Store app when you're buying a new iPhone within the US.

Mine was thru the mail.

Abdu said:

Yeah I thought so too. But I read in another thread that the person had the option to choose his carrier which he thought was weird.
Was your replacement done in store or over mail? And if in store did they activate it for you?
sorry if im asking too many questions I just wanna get this clearly.

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ill say it again since it didnt register the first time i answered this.....

when you get a replacement at the genius bar (not by mail) for a CDMA iphone, you will get this prompt to select which CDMA carrier the phone is intended for. This is most likely so they dont need to carry 100 replacement phones of each of the 20 or so CDMA carriers across the US.

now as for GSM phones, it may or may not come this way, but i dont know. and i think this is for replacement white box phones only, not retail ones. the retail ones come already locked.

when i got my white box replacement at apple, the menu was there and the genius double checked with me asking if it was verizon and i said yes. he then selected verizon as the carrier, then continued. its at this step that it downloads the carrier settings and either locks or unlocks the sim card tray i bet.

Interesting but it doesn't make any sense since there are different bands used for the different carriers.

codyst said:

Interesting but it doesn't make any sense since there are different bands used for the different carriers.

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I think all of the CDMA providers in the us use/share the same towers and frequencies so it actually makes a lot of sense. All of their phones are exactly the same. Gsm phones however need to be different.

dictoresno said:

I think all of the CDMA providers in the us use/share the same towers and frequencies so it actually makes a lot of sense. All of their phones are exactly the same. Gsm phones however need to be different.

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That's what I mean. I don't understand why GSM and CDMA carriers are both on that selection screen when the phone is 1 or the other.

mikeydeezy said:

Yep.

That's a screenshot from the Apple Store app when you're buying a new iPhone within the US.

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As he mentioned, this is from the apple store app, and not a screen that appears when a phone is replaced. When replacing the phone in the system, the genius selects on their ipad or genius bar device which carrier it's for, which them supplies them with a serial number/imei to go fetch from the drawer of replacement devices every apple store stocks.

codyst said:

That's what I mean. I don't understand why GSM and CDMA carriers are both on that selection screen when the phone is 1 or the other.

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that screen he posted is from the apple's store app for buying a new phone. thats the carrier selection screen for the purchase, NOT the new phone carrier select screen. that screen looks totally different. there are some people in this thread making it alot harder for people to understand than it really needs to be.

Abdu said:

If so then how do you explain the 3 carrier options in the pic above?
If anyone experienced this situation please share.

Click to expand...

So like I posted, when I got my iPhone replaced via AppleCare (FedEx), I had no option like what you're talking about.

Skip to today. I drop my iPhone getting out of my Jeep and shatter the screen. Was able to make an appt at the Genius Bar of the local store and got it replaced there.

I used to work there, and they were busy, so the Genius was like "here, you'll figure it out", which was cool with me. Anyhow, I saw the screens that you were talking about.