Except you cannot use AT&T or Verizon with the unlocked phone in the US, which is why this whole thing is stupid.
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Sprint Denies Report of Unlocked Micro-SIM in iPhone 4S
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Except you cannot use AT&T or Verizon with the unlocked phone in the US, which is why this whole thing is stupid.
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If this will roam on international GSM carriers, what's stopping it from roaming locally on AT&T? GPS? Or could it be blocked not to roam on that network?
And what's with everyone not getting the phone just because of this? If all carriers do this, what's keeping you from Sprint?
If this will roam on international GSM carriers, what's stopping it from roaming locally on AT&T? GPS? Or could it be blocked not to roam on that network?
And what's with everyone not getting the phone just because of this? If all carriers do this, what's keeping you from Sprint?
Apple has 1 million pre-orders
they just do not care ...
the only alternate is unlocked GSM iPhone 4S for $649, then we will not upgrade every year, may be once two or three years ...
they just do not care ...
the only alternate is unlocked GSM iPhone 4S for $649, then we will not upgrade every year, may be once two or three years ...
Not possible if you need to have a confidential conversation with proprietary information.
AFAIK, if you sign up for a plan, and later the carrier sends you a letter saying the Terms & Conditions of the contract have changed, you have the right to terminate the contract without having to pay the Early Termination Fee.
Could someone else confirm this to be true?
Could someone else confirm this to be true?
chances are that if you're going to use this for business in another country it's going to be reimbursed by your employer or a tax deduction.
Sprint and VZW want that corporate business travel money
Crap! I didn't know that! It's incredible that none of this non-sense happens with other phones. Only with the iPhone. And I don't believe it's Apple's idea, but the U.S. Carriers forcing their conditions to Apple.
I never had to pay extra to tether my phone with T-Mobile, but now carriers want to charge an extra "tethering fee". All thanks to darn AT&T that keeps coming up with these stupid ideas.
aaarrrggghhhhh....
so now the only option for us international oriented people is to buy a full price $649 iPhone, pay full price for the ATT contract and on top of that we don't even have LTE in our expensive unlocked phone. In three years the lack of LTE actually could matter a lot.
I still don't understand why I can't buy an unlocked iPhone and activate it on CDMA carriers like sprint. Is this a hardware issue or are Verizon and Sprint just bone headed?
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I hate that corporations have to pay off and lobby politicians to not pass laws. Politicians shouldn't be passing regulating this stuff anyway. It's none of their business. If consumers didn't like it, they can go to another carrier who does offer it. I'm glad Dan Hesse talked up less government intervention on stage the other day. Consumers need to get out of this nanny state mentality and start thinking for themselves.
Long live freedom!!
Diode said:
I hate that corporations have to pay off and lobby politicians to not pass laws. Politicians shouldn't be passing regulating this stuff anyway. It's none of their business. If consumers didn't like it, they can go to another carrier who does offer it. I'm glad Dan Hesse talked up less government intervention on stage the other day. Consumers need to get out of this nanny state mentality and start thinking for themselves.
Long live freedom!!
I don't think there is any other phone that currently has both CDMA and GSM capabilities, or at least one worth talking about.
But unlocking has always been an issue.
Edit: Apparently some Androids are dual-mode.
The carriers are free to come up with their own policies. I am upset that they have all chosen to lock their phones (after all, the customers have still signed a two-year contract), but I understand their decision and will live by it. What I find utterly irresponsible, though, is that Sprint "blames" it on "technology differences" when it reality they have chosen to lock the phone. There is no technology difference to be had here (or am I mistaken). Shame on you for intentionally misleading (lying, really) to your customers.
As someone whose company travels internationally:
In some countries, you can score a pre-paid SIM card running about $0.49 USD per minute versus Sprint's international rate packages that are around $1.70 per minute. We have our Blackberry phones' data services deactivated due to the astronomical cost that could be incurred were they to stay on (and at the suggestion of Sprint's international call services department), thus negating the benefit of a smartphone when it would be most useful.
Boo, Sprint. Boo. Let us use pre-paid cards if we choose.
In some countries, you can score a pre-paid SIM card running about $0.49 USD per minute versus Sprint's international rate packages that are around $1.70 per minute. We have our Blackberry phones' data services deactivated due to the astronomical cost that could be incurred were they to stay on (and at the suggestion of Sprint's international call services department), thus negating the benefit of a smartphone when it would be most useful.
Boo, Sprint. Boo. Let us use pre-paid cards if we choose.
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Buh, you do realize they're passing laws to NOT do this. After all, until the recent exemption, didn't the DCMA make it illegal to do many things?
You mean that regulation was for the consumer?
Corporations more often pay people off to pass laws they want.
I hate Ron Paul, but you really should think about what his arguments are before you spout him incorrectly. I disagree regulation is evil, but Ron does note: It works both ways.
^^ The DMCA exemption for unlocking has been around basically the whole time (since 2006). The one for jailbreaking is new since 2010, mostly because it wasn't an issue the lawmakers understood....
FWIW there are some (that I don't want but someone might). There's a CDMA/GSM Droid 2.
FWIW there are some (that I don't want but someone might). There's a CDMA/GSM Droid 2.
well, I guess most of the confusion comes from two sources:
1
the term unlocked is not fully clear to users and sprint/verizon reps2
a bunch of users ask convoluted questions here in the silly hope to get a unlocked GSM phone for cheap by buying from Sprint and cancelling the contract.number 2
is not likely to happen and confuses the topic needlessly for people with real world need for a phone that runs on verizon/sprint/ATT in the US and that can take any GSM Sim card outside the US.As someone whose company travels internationally:
Boo, Sprint. Boo.
it is actually
Boo, ATT, Boo.
Boo, Verizon, Boo.
Boo, Sprint, Boo.
and more importantly apple is bed in with telecoms in this case
Boo, Apple, Boo.
may be some strong words, but this is 4th iteration of iPhone still locked to the carriers ...
Yes, I just looked that up right after I posted that.
But, it looks like that is only available on Verizon Wireless, just CDMA in the US. So is there any dual-mode phone that is available across both CDMA and GSM carriers in the US? That might be contributing to why this debate seems to be iPhone only.
2
we are not going to buy Cheap iPhone from sprint (it is till $200 + $250 + blah +blah fees), what we are looking a iPhone use here in USA with or with out contract and the same damn iPhone use in international with out breaking the bank ...
It is not funny, my wife's Iphone is at home for 3 months when she traveled outside of USA because we need to pay hefty international roaming plans ...
I think you're right -- Apple may be the first one who has done this as a product simplification (that is, to reduce the number of variants they build, as opposed to as a way to give CDMA phones more international usability).
nope there are other phones available with both CDMA/GSM it is not invented by Apple.
Early termination fees
No one would do that -- they'd still have to pay the early cancellation penalty. I don't know what that is on Sprint, but I'm pretty sure on Verizon it's $350 -- enough to recover the phone subsidy, even at the beginning of the contract.
Again, I don't know about Sprint, but I'm pretty sure that on other carriers cancelling or downgrading any part of the plan results in paying the early termination fee.
No one would do that -- they'd still have to pay the early cancellation penalty. I don't know what that is on Sprint, but I'm pretty sure on Verizon it's $350 -- enough to recover the phone subsidy, even at the beginning of the contract.
Again, I don't know about Sprint, but I'm pretty sure that on other carriers cancelling or downgrading any part of the plan results in paying the early termination fee.
What's the point?
So what's the point of selling locked GSM "World" phone if you can't use other SIM... then it's not a world phone... Crap!
So what's the point of selling locked GSM "World" phone if you can't use other SIM... then it's not a world phone... Crap!
Nope. I've changed and cancelled different parts of my AT&T plans many times over. The only stipulation is that you have a voice plan for the two years.
People on Family Plans who are upgrade swapping are doing exactly this: ordering an iPhone with data plan on one line, activating the phone on another line, then canceling the data plan on the first line.
If you're roaming, then you aren't swapping SIM cards as you move from one nation to another. You're using a single SIM card, issued by one particular carrier in one particular nation.
As you move out of one country and into another, your phone automatically identifies itself to the foreign carriers and says that its SIM card "belongs" to your home carrier. If the foreign carrier has a roaming agreement in place with your home carrier, then the foreign network will accept the connection and you will keep on going as though nothing happened.
As provided out of the box, your phone would not roam on AT&T's network, because AT&T would see that the phone has a SIM in it which "belongs" to Sprint -- and since AT&T doesn't have any roaming agreements in place with Sprint, the connection would be rejected.