Canadian iPhone 5 locked but not really?

jokemjokester said:

apparently I bought a Canadian iPhone 5 off Craigslist yesterday. The guy didn't have the box and so I tested it to see if it was an att iPhone. well, it did work with my att sim. I wanted to unlock it through one of those eBay sellers and to my surprise it says it isn't an att phone. researching it more with the model number, it falls under Canada list. not sure which carrier but it definitely is locked to one of the Canadian carriers. Would someone enlighten me because I thought if it was locked to one carrier it can't be used with another carrier? my att sim works with it but not my tmobile? anyone know where I can factory unlock it?

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Personally I think you have a AT&T iPhone...Im not 100% sure but I don't think you can differentiate between a 'Canadian' and a 'USA' iPhone solely based on model numbers...If your SIM works thats great news but the iPhone seems to be from what information you have provided locked to AT&T Network....being Canadian and knowing how stingy our wireless providers are, All the iPhones Sold by carriers in Canada are locked to either Telus, Bell, Rogers or Fido period....Telus operates Koodo so the iPhones are locked to Telus, Bell Owns Virgin Mobile so our Virgin iPhones are locked to Bell. Rogers Locks its iPhones to Rogers and despite owning Fido it locks the Fido iPhones to Fido.

You can However purchase Factory Unlocked iPhone's here in Canada which work with all carriers, When Switching SIM's make sure you either turn on and off Airplane mode couple times or simply restart your iPhone and turn it back on with the new SIM.

Unlocking situation:
In Canada you can only get Telus (incl Koodo) and Rogers (including Fido) to unlock your iPhone for $50+Tax and Telus is the only easy going one for that price as well.

Rogers has crazy requirements (with very little success stories of people getting their iPhone's unlocked peacefully). That is why many or most online services offer Rogers iPhone unlocking at $100+ and Telus at $50-$70.

Bell (Including Virgin) does not offer iPhone unlocking service and nor can you get it done from anywhere on the internet, most sites either will take your money and waste time or just scam you thats the end of that.

Knowing all this I only buy Factory Unlocked iPhones but have experience with Rogers, Telus and Bell iPhones as most of the people I personally know are using iPhones here in Canada on one of the 3 major carriers and purchased them subsidized.

Thats my Two-Cents and as far as my knowledge goes.

jokemjokester said:

doubt it's an att. the imei checker said it isn't as well. strange.

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Wait... that's a surprise that the canadian phoneyou bought isn't AT&T?
:s

jokemjokester said:

doubt it's an att. the imei checker said it isn't as well. strange.

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then im sure IMEI checker must have said what network no?

jokemjokester said:

I'm going to assume you didn't read my OP.

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I did... and you said it was a canadian phone that doesn't work with tMobile

jokemjokester said:

can you explain the att sim working?

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So it's already unlocked?

jokemjokester said:

can you explain the att sim working?

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My guess is either:

The tMobile SIM isn't going to work with the phone (sometimes they do this )
It's not a canadian phone.

Weird.
I'd buy the att imei unlock and see how it goes.
Worst thing you will lose $3-4.

is there a free website i can use to look up an IMEI and see what carrier a certain iPhone is locked to ?

thanks.

jokemjokester said:

thats what i'm confused. The IMEI check on one of those ebay sellers listing says my phone isn't an ATT iphone. So it either is factory unlocked, which obviously it isn't because I put in a BRAND NEW TMOBILE nano sim and the iPhone goes into the activation phase saying i need a VALID sim. I put in the AT&T sim and it works fine, LTE and all.

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"Valid" implies to me that my first situation was more correct; it might be a bogus sim card. It can happen

iphone 5

hello. I have a similar case.
my iphone was bought in the USA.
spoiled the power button. Apple Brazil replaces it by another, equal to those sold here in the country.
However, after using for 4 months, did the procedure to erase all content and, only now the phone is not active settings, giving the error that the SIM card is invalid, and, sometimes, gives a message that is necessary to replace the device.
check the IMEI, it appears that he is blocking SIM card, Carrier Service Canada, but do not know what this network. Algiem can help me? I want to make it work again, since Apple switched my unlocked by another unlocked.