Are iPhones bought from Apple unlocked?

[TheCakeIsALie]

I'm a Canadian living in the US temporarily, and will be pre-ordering the iPhone 7 next week. I know that the SIM-free versions may not be available on day one. My question is, are the carrier versions of iPhones bought from Apple (at full price) unlocked out of the box?

A side question is, if I'm on Fido/Rogers in Canada, which US carrier version should I buy here? I'm assuming AT&T since that's who I'm roaming with right now. Thanks.

 

[eyoungren]

If you pay full price at Apple no matter what carrier version you buy it will come unlocked.

BUT. Unlocking is irrelevant to the Verizon iPhone. Per an agreement with the FCC, all LTE capable Verizon phones (including non-iPhones) MUST come unlocked out of the box. So, even if you do NOT pay full price for a Verizon phone (you'd still have to establish service) the phone would be unlocked.

As far as the bands, I don't know.

 

[menist]

Yes GSM and Verizion only, not Sprint. Don't get the Sprint version.

 

[eyoungren]

Yes GSM and Verizion only, not Sprint. Don't get the Sprint version.

LOL! The SIM Free version for the iPhone 6/6+ was actually an unlocked Sprint version. That changed with the 6s/6s+ but who knows what it will be this year.

 

[TheCakeIsALie]

thanks guys for the answers. seems like I can safely get the carrier version next week.

 

[menist]

LOL! The SIM Free version for the iPhone 6/6+ was actually an unlocked Sprint version. That changed with the 6s/6s+ but who knows what it will be this year.

Didn't know that on the 6. I remember the 4-5 Sprint were completely locked and Sprint will only unlock for international use.

 

[eyoungren]

Didn't know that on the 6. I remember the 4-5 Sprint were completely locked and Sprint will only unlock for international use.

You are pretty much correct.

The Sprint 4 cannot be unlocked because it has no SIM slot.

The Sprint 4s had a loophole a while back where an international unlock (which you can do) was turning into a full domestic unlock.

The same loophole for the Sprint 4s had a limited availability for the Sprint iPhone 5.

Sprint closed that loophole about a year ago.

With the changing of Sprint's unlock policy in February 2015 however, the Sprint iPhone 5c and up are all capable of being domestically unlocked. The Sprint iPhone 6/6+ had the most bands and so it was the model Apple chose for the SIM Free version.

With the 6s/6s+ it was a different carrier model.