4S a "world phone," but at what cost?

[hakr100]

I live in the UK and the US.
If you buy an unlocked iphone, you can put in a microsim card from whoever you want in the UK and when you are in the US you can get a pay and go microsim card from an att store with a $25 top-up and stick that in there for the time that you will be in that country.
The sales person at apple here in the UK confirmed this as accurate for an iphone 4s bought unlocked from apple.

Thank you, Luis. I'm going to wait until the phones hit the stores and then
attempt to get something in writing from my carrier (Verizon) about SIM availability and use while abroad. I was hoping a downloadable manual from Apple on the 4S would be up on the website, but so far, nothing.

 

[cube]

I live in the UK and the US.
If you buy an unlocked iphone, you can put in a microsim card from whoever you want in the UK and when you are in the US you can get a pay and go microsim card from an att store with a $25 top-up and stick that in there for the time that you will be in that country.
The sales person at apple here in the UK confirmed this as accurate for an iphone 4s bought unlocked from apple.

An unlocked iPhone 4S, or a locked "GSM" iPhone 4S won't work on CDMA, that is the point.

 

[jca24]

Thank you, Luis. I'm going to wait until the phones hit the stores and then
attempt to get something in writing from my carrier (Verizon) about SIM availability and use while abroad. I was hoping a downloadable manual from Apple on the 4S would be up on the website, but so far, nothing.

At this point if you really want a world phone, wait for the unlocked version in November and switch to ATT. cdma is not the world standard and with a verizon or sprint 4S you will NOT be putting in a gsm sim card over seas, wont happen. you will have to roam on a verizon partner.

 

[old-wiz]

I really really wish you could just buy ONE iPhone, unlocked, and use it on any carrier; you go to another part of the country or another country, buy a sim card, and pay as you go or a prepaid sim with x number of minutes/data. And no contract!

And while I am dreaming, the monthly fee should reflect that you own the phone at the beginning, so you shouldn't be paying extra. It would be nice if they broke down the monthly cost to show how much you are paying to pay off the cost of the iPhone (or any phone), and then when it's paid for your monthly cost comes down.

Hmm.... why am I seeing pink pigs fly down the street? And why is my cat walking upside down on the ceiling? What did my wife put in my cheerios?

 

[thewitt]

I really really wish you could just buy ONE iPhone, unlocked, and use it on any carrier; you go to another part of the country or another country, buy a sim card, and pay as you go or a prepaid sim with x number of minutes/data. And no contract!

This is the way an unlocked GSM phone works today.

CDMA is not that simple. No SIM card so the phone has to be programmed to work on a specific network. It's just the carriers for CDMA that require contracts. They could go month to month or prepaid if they wished.

The whole "world phone" thing is really not well executed today. It would be nice if we could have one world standard for mobile phones, but even the 4G tech is split between different, competing standards.

 

[Ugg]

Engineers knew that a CDMA radio was the superior choice from the beginning.


A US carrier has far more land to cover... it's the size of Europe, without the population densities to subsidize towers.

Edit: And yet, within a couple of years, Verizon will have most of the US covered by LTE, matching their 3G footprint. Europe is just barely starting with LTE, in comparison.

I'm not enough of a tech geek to argue intelligently about the benefits of CDMA vs GSM. I've heard the statement before and believe you, however my point is that Europe has one standard, the US has two. The phenomenal amounts of money this has cost is unbelievable and I believe somewhat responsible for the enormous premium Americans pay for wireless.

I would argue that Russia and parts of Scandinavia as well as Australia and Canada also have low population density and are equally expensive to provide coverage to. Once again, by having two standards instead of one, unnecessary duplication has resulted with no clear benefit. The same goes for Sprint's wimax build out.

I realize it's not just a matter of unified standards but also a matter of having a competitive playing field. The US has chosen a mostly hands off approach in the erroneous belief that the "free market" will bring about the best choices. We have two standards, no true competition and the highest prices and if you sign a contract, you don't really own your phone. I don't see any of this changing soon.

 

[cruisencode]

I just read this on DroidForums.net (thank you to the poster, goffredo) and it's the best explanation of how this works I've seen. This is in regards to the Droid Incredible 2, but could/should apply to the iPhone 4S on Verizon.

First, when you bought your phone, it came with a Verizon-branded Vodafone SIM installed in the SIM slot (underneath the battery). When you are out of Verizon's CDMA coverage in the United States, and your phone gets switched (more on this in a sec) to Global Mode, that basically means "use the SIM card for voice and data". The phone comes locked to the Vodafone SIM, and as long as you want to use that SIM, you do not need to get a SIM unlock code from Verizon. You do, however, need to call Verizon International Services to enable the Vodafone SIM. You can call collect, 24/7, to +1 (908) 559-4899.

The advantage of using the preinstalled Vodafone SIM is that you keep your US phone number, and any costs you incur "conveniently" appear on your Verizon bill. The disadvantage is that it's ridiculously expensive data & voice rates. It will cost you $2.89 per minute to make calls from Singapore, and something like $5 per megabyte of data usage (I use about 350 megs of data per day working as a remote software developer). See here. Verizon hopes you don't realize you have alternatives, but you do.

If you would like to use an alternative non-Verizon/Vodafone SIM, you can. You need to call Verizon International Services, get and apply the SIM Unlock Code to your phone (I suggest you keep them on the line and walk you through it, it is non-intuitive), and then buy a SIM from a local cellular service provider where you are staying. See here. Caveat: You must be a Verizon customer in good standing for a minimum of 6 months before the will give you the SIM unlock code.

To use the SIM card (either the built-in one, or one you acquire & install), you need to switch it to GSM mode, and optionally tweak your cellular data settings:
Menu : Settings : Call : Preferred Network, set it to "Global Mode"
Menu : Settings : Wireless & Networks : Mobile Network
If you want to use the cellular data service, you want to enable this checkbox, and then go into Mobile Networks : GSM/UTMS Options, and set up your APN and your network operator.
If you do NOT want to use cellular data service, keep this off
Here is a pleasant surprise to all of this. If you are exclusively using the cellular service of a third-party SIM card (such as you would be living in Singapore for 3 months and using a Singaporean SIM), then there's really no point keeping your Verizon voice/data plan active at the same time, since it's not possible for you to use it. Verizon lets you freeze your plan so that you don't have to pay for your service, with one caveat: the interval during which your plan is frozen doesn't count toward your once-a-year-upgrade deal; it pushes that date out respectively. I had to speak to a few reps and get transferred to International Services before I was able to freeze my plan in this fashion, but once I got someone who know what they were talking about, it sounded like they do it quite often.

That's it -- it should work. Good luck.