Sprint Denies Report of Unlocked Micro-SIM in iPhone 4S

[kjay80]

hey, i am not sure about sprint, but verizon gave a unlock code for my current blackberry storm 2 today.
i dont think i can use on att network, but they confirmed i can use local sims outside of US.
so, unless they have a different policy for iphones, my guess is that vz will unlock it as well as long as your account is in good standning.
but will have to wait until this friday to find out!

 

[scapula002]

stupid is what stupid does....half of these cell company reps are a bunch of idiots....they might screw up selling popcorn on the streets ....."Our SIM does not come out of the device""....frikkin idiots...that is why Steve is what he was an "Ass" ,so that he could shine some light on their asses or brains......
i guess we will have to wait for a week or 2 till someone gets this 4s thingy in their hand, go to canada or mexico and give it a stiff shake.

 

[Shanpdx]

stupid is what stupid does....half of these cell company reps are a bunch of idiots....they might screw up selling popcorn on the streets ....."our sim does not come out of the device""....frikkin idiots...that is why steve is what he was an "ass" ,so that he could shine some light on their asses or brains......
I guess we will have to wait for a week or 2 till someone gets this 4s thingy in their hand, go to canada or mexico and give it a stiff shake.

:d

 

[rjohnstone]

We US mobile customers are being totally screwed.
Why our phones get locked when two years' contract is on with huge ETF?
Why ETF is payed, the phone is still locked?
Why the phone is still locked even after the contract?
So many unfair stupid policies from these ****ing greedy mobile companies!
Yes. Unfortunately we have no choices here!

Most of the above only applies to the iPhone.
The "huge" ETF is to recover the subsidy costs the carrier incurs when they sell you the phone at a discounted price. Sounds like a fair trade to me.
This fee reduces to zero before your contract is up, so I see no issue with it.

You can choose who to blame on the unlocking, but I'm going to go with blaming Apple on this one.

I know for a fact that AT&T and Verizon will unlock any phone they carry except for the iPhone, once you have been with them a certain amount of time.

Why? Who knows, but I suspect it has to do with how Apple controls the lock.

 

[cameronjpu]

Don't forget over half this country does not even have a passport.

Don't forget that in order for half of the country to leave the country, they'd have to travel the equivalent of the distance of London to Morocco. Euros and self-hating Americans seem to neglect that fact, and treat it as a point of pride that a passport is required to travel the equivalent distance of Virginia to Delaware elsewhere in the world.

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It's been well established over the past few years that the iPhone subsidy has averaged about $350 ($325-$375). A month's plan plus the $350 ETF should pay for it.

It sounds like they're charging an extra $75-$100 for selling it unlocked.

In that case it should be very easy for you to provide me some evidence, since it's so well established?

 

[zahrone]

spoke to sprint

I just spoke to sprint customer service... I called a few times.. And they state that the iphone 4s will be gsm unlocked.... For sure... It just confuses me... One says this... Another says another thing... But according to 10 minutes ago they will be providing gsm unlocked iphone 4s... Hope this helps!

 

[WannaGoMac]

I just spoke to sprint customer service... I called a few times.. And they state that the iphone 4s will be gsm unlocked.... For sure... It just confuses me... One says this... Another says another thing... But according to 10 minutes ago they will be providing gsm unlocked iphone 4s... Hope this helps!

LOL, i can't believe you people keep calling Sprint. Flip a coin and get an answer that way, it's about as reliable.

Just wait until Friday, all answers will be provided.

 

[cameronjpu]

LOL, i can't believe you people keep calling Sprint. Flip a coin and get an answer that way, it's about as reliable.

Just wait until Friday, all answers will be provided.

What he said

 

[jca24]

no way will sprint be unlocked

 

[manu chao]

Most of the above only applies to the iPhone.
The "huge" ETF is to recover the subsidy costs the carrier incurs when they sell you the phone at a discounted price. Sounds like a fair trade to me.
This fee reduces to zero before your contract is up, so I see no issue with it.

You can choose who to blame on the unlocking, but I'm going to go with blaming Apple on this one.

I know for a fact that AT&T and Verizon will unlock any phone they carry except for the iPhone, once you have been with them a certain amount of time.

Why? Who knows, but I suspect it has to do with how Apple controls the lock.

Most likely just because they (have to) pay a higher subsidy with iPhones:

Sure, Apple might have 'asked' them to pay this $450 subsidy but currently the providers are still clamouring to get the iPhone thus they are in fact willing to pay that subsidy.

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It's been well established over the past few years that the iPhone subsidy has averaged about $350 ($325-$375). A month's plan plus the $350 ETF should pay for it.

No, the subsidy is more like $450, look at the third graph in this article:
http://www.asymco.com/2011/10/09/the-new-iphone-portfolio-and-implications-on-asp/

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Don't forget over half this country does not even have a passport.

Don't forget that in order for half of the country to leave the country, they'd have to travel the equivalent of the distance of London to Morocco. Euros and self-hating Americans seem to neglect that fact, and treat it as a point of pride that a passport is required to travel the equivalent distance of Virginia to Delaware elsewhere in the world.

Except that you don't need any ID to travel inside the EU except for UK/Ireland and Bulgaria/Romania (and for those borders a simple ID suffices, no passport is needed).

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Which ones? I'm looking and I can't find any dual-mode phones currently being sold by both CDMA and GSM carriers in the US.

There only sold by the CDMA carriers, a GSM carrier in the US has little interest to sell a CDMA-capable phone in the US as it might give the customers the option to switch carriers.
AT&T only sells a dual-mode iPhone because Apple does not make a GSM-only phone.

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Wirelessly posted (Palm Pre: Mozilla/5.0 (webOS/1.4.5; U; en-US) AppleWebKit/532.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/1.0 Safari/532.2 Pre/1.0)

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?

Your home carrier (the only you have a contract with, the one managing your phone number) needs a roaming agreement with the network you want to roam on. Without this agreement the roaming network would not get paid and thus will not let you in. But AT&T has no interest in letting you roam onto the Verizon network, it would be generating revenue for Verizon, thus it has no agreement.

 

[kdarling]

No, the subsidy is more like $450, look at the third graph in this article:
http://www.asymco.com/2011/10/09/the-new-iphone-portfolio-and-implications-on-asp/

We will certainly find out if that report's assumption that the subsidy must always be the simple difference between the higher unlocked retail price, and the lower subsidized price, is correct, if/when the next AT&T earnings report matches.

Previously we were able to divide an AT&T quarterly report's iPhone subsidy amount by iPhone sales numbers, to get $375 each. In fact, the same Asymco analyst reported $375 earlier this year. As I said, it was well established for a while.

If the 4 and/or 4S requires a much higher subsidy, then the carriers have a real problem with their current ETF, and might have to raise it again.

 

[JNaut]

I just hope this is figured out within Sprint's 14-day return window. If they're not going to unlock for international use, I'll just take it back and most likely wait for the unlocked phone from Apple.

I'm in the US but will be overseas for at least 2-3 months over the next year. It's not ideal to be stuck with AT&T, but I'd be willing to put up with it.

 

[myPod]

People in general don't like to be restricted or limited especially if its for a device that we paid for.

The 2 year contract that carriers impose on us for their overpriced gouging cellular service is restricted enough.

Once the contract is fulfilled, you end up with a still restricted phone when it's suppose to be a "world phone"? NOT!!

People like to recoup the investment cost of their phone (iPhone) by perhaps selling it to help pay for their next phone (upgrade). But with Sprint going to LTE in two years and a crippled micro-SIM would drastically reduce the resale price of the Sprint iPhone.

Sprint, you're a real turd (and I even own your stock too).

 

[haruhiko]

It's time the US actually protect the consumer for once and pass a law to get rid of this locking crap. It's your phone, you should be able to use it where you want. They all ready penalize you when you leave early to recoup the subsidy. Cell phones in the US are ridiculously overpriced.

In many parts of the world (I think Hong Kong was the first one to do this in 199x), carriers are required by law to unlock mobile phones when they're out of subsidizing contract.

 

[Shanpdx]

In many parts of the world (I think Hong Kong was the first one to do this in 199x), carriers are required by law to unlock mobile phones when they're out of subsidizing contract.

yup, lot of countries follow this rule, another one i can think of Singapore.

 

[ebolamonkey3]

I don't understand why Sprint wouldn't just unlock the phone...