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Carrier Best to purchase from Verizon and or sprint since they come unlocked?
- Thread starter Joho2078
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I think that if you think Sprint phones come unlocked you are crazy.
Sprint only started allowing unlocked phones in February 2015. Sprint is exceedingly good at finding and firing employees who make unauthorized unlocks for pay from third parties, and even though they merged with T-Mobile, T-Mobile still has an unlock policy.
I do not know where you got the idea that Sprint phones come unlocked, but all you have to do is search MacRumors to see that it isn't true.
As it says on Apple's website, all iPhones come unlocked unless bought with AT&T's installment plan. Now, this is buying from apple.com. I don't know how it is buying directly from the carrier.
Even if you buy the phone directly from a carrier they will unlock it if it happens to be locked. The only purpose locking the phone serves now is making sure you pay for that phone and if not can't use it on another carrier or prepaid. If you're doing payments on Verizon and decide I'm not paying their high prices and guess what I'm keeping this phone because I deserve it. Well when you go to Sprint they will be unable to connect your iPhone.
The question you might want to ask is are all the choices identical? In the past the USA Verizon and USA Unlocked versions were the same but I believe the other carriers had specific hardware that related to the bands they use. I don't know if this is still the case
Is it this year's iPhone that makes this so? AFAIK, if you buy a phone direct from T-Mobile you have to have it active for 40 days before they will unlock. I can link to the unlock policy if you like.
I guess each carrier has their policies and this is why it's good to ask them before buying. I'm pretty sure if this is policy it will be on the thing you sign when getting the phone. People don't read it but they should. I've had Verizon and they didn't give me any trouble. I wasn't changing carriers but needed to use my phone in countries where Verizon wasn't lets say practical.
Verizon didn't give you any trouble because up until a couple of years ago they had an agreement with the FCC whereby all LTE capable devices were unlocked out of the box. It's only in the last couple of years that Verizon has 'locked' newly purchased devices - and only for the first 30 days.
The other three carriers all have specific unlock policies. Those aren't printed on purchase receipts, but are easily viewable online.
This was with a locked Verizon phone after they started doing that crap. The policy is it printed on the receipt but at least my experience when buying a phone you have to sign on the terminal where they showed you the policy on the screen. There were multiple pages where are you had to sign or at least when I bought the phone. You have the opportunity to read it but most people including myself wanted to get the phone as quickly as possible
This year there is only one version of each model in the us, no Verizon version, sprint version, etc.
iPhone - Supported 5G and LTE networks
See the countries and regions that have certified 5G and LTE networks on iPhone including the U.S., Canada, Japan, Germany, China mainland, and more.
www.apple.com
