Sprint's iPhone has GSM?

Yes, all Sprint phones besides the iPhone 4 has GSM abilities. Also, by technical definition, LTE is GSM.

The iPhone itself has a GSM radio. Sprint itself, does not. Sprint is CDMA.

Sprint will unlock for international (GSM) use only. They will never, ever unlock for domestic US use, unless the phone is manufactured after January 2015.

What you need to do to get your phones unlocked for international use…

1. Establish Sprint service. You cannot have an ASL (Account Spending Limit) account.
2. Be a customer for 90 days and pay your bill on time.
3. Call Sprint and ask for the unlock. Be aware that the policy is ONE phone per ACCOUNT per YEAR, although they might waive this.

For more info about Sprint and unlocking see the link in my signature.

CDMA is dead. It's last big thing was EVDO B. CDMA carriers are transitioning to GSM based LTE devices and will one day stop supporting all CDMA devices.

zamudiovsky said:

Just to make sure I got the correct information...they do have GSM abilities and the GSM is unlocked?

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No, Sprint is CDMA. They will unlock the GSM part of the phone, but only if you follow the rules. See my post above.

Sprint has a draconian anti-customer unlock policy. Your phones will NOT come unlocked. You have to meet the requirements first.

EDIT: I see you found my post, never mind!

Hmm, why January 2015?

rui no onna said:

Hmm, why January 2015?

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Because that's when the voluntary rules that all the carriers agreed to goes into affect.

The president's recently signed into law bill makes unlocking legal now that is true. But Sprint (and presumable other carriers) can claim manufacturer issues to prevent unlocking current phones. Sprint already updated their unlock policy a few months back to put all the blame on the manufacturers.

As of January 2015, Sprint won't be able to do that anymore. They will have to provide a full unlock when terms are met and the unlock is requested. But any phone made prior to that date they can waffle on by blaming the manufacturers.

It's a lie of course, because Sprint is the only carrier making that claim. All the other carriers, including Verizon (also CDMA) can unlock. But Sprint blames everything else buy their own draconian unlock policy.

Intell said:

CDMA is dead. It's last big thing was EVDO B. CDMA carriers are transitioning to GSM based LTE devices and will one day stop supporting all CDMA devices.

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True, but this will be later rather than sooner.

eyoungren said:

What you need to do to get your phones unlocked for international use…

1. Establish Sprint service. You cannot have an ASL (Account Spending Limit) account.
2. Be a customer for 90 days and pay your bill on time.
3. Call Sprint and ask for the unlock. Be aware that the policy is ONE phone per ACCOUNT per YEAR, although they might waive this.

For more info about Sprint and unlocking see the link in my signature.

Click to expand...

That's ridiculous. One phone/account/year? What are they thinking?

AutoUnion39 said:

That's ridiculous. One phone/account/year? What are they thinking?

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They're thinking of making it difficult for people to unlock their phones.

eyoungren said:

No, Sprint is CDMA. They will unlock the GSM part of the phone, but only if you follow the rules. See my post above.

Sprint has a draconian anti-customer unlock policy. Your phones will NOT come unlocked. You have to meet the requirements first.

EDIT: I see you found my post, never mind!

Click to expand...

Unless of course you buy a Nexus 5, I can use this phone on any network.

zamudiovsky said:

I was watching the TV Commercial with the $100 a month and 20GB family shared plan.

We travel out of the country a lot so we have AT&T with unlocked phones to use with prepaid SIM cards when we are out of the country.

I remember I read somewhere that Verizon's iPhone 5 had unlocked GSM networks or something like that, i was wondering if Sprint had the same thing, and if you think that the iPhone 6 will have the same?

Saving $60 dollars a month and getting double the data, plus not having to pay for an unlocked phone (or someone to unlock it) would be great! And Sprint has full LTE where I live, so I am very interested!

thanks!

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You might consider looking at T-Mobile's international plans. T-mobile phones don't come unlocked, but they do offer international data and texting at no extra charge and calling at a small charge. I believe this would be on your T-Mobile plan with Tmo SIMs, not international SIMs. Their family plan is $100 for 10GB (2.5GB per line). Not a bad deal if coverage in the US and wherever you travel to is good.

Also, Verizon doesn't willingly have their LTE phones unlocked. The FCC told them they had to in order to expand their network. The CDMA portion is locked so you can't take the phones to Sprint (not that they'd take them anyway) or any international CDMA carrier (you'd have to ask them to unlock in the case, and it's rare that they would or you would even need them to).

Sprint's iPhone has GSM?

Intell said:

Yes, all Sprint phones besides the iPhone 4 has GSM abilities. Also, by technical definition, LTE is GSM.

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LTE is not GSM by technical definition. By technical definition, LTE is OFDM. LTE is a member of the GSM family of technologies.

The oldest member of the GSM family of technologies is GSM itself; a digital or Personal Communications System (PCS), 2G technology that provides voice and circuit-switched data services.