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Bestbuy iPhone 5S unlocked?
- Thread starter arun128
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Oh. But the Verizon iPhone 5 DOES work on TMobile and ATT on their HPSA band. Will the Verizon iPhone 5S?
The Verizon 5s, the A1533, will work in T-Mobile and AT&T on their HPSA band as well as their LTE bands.
http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/
You obviously joined the game late, because that's absolutely incorrect. When the unlock process was out when the 4S first came out, it was $75+ for unlock, but then within about 3 months so many sellers were doing it, it drove the price down to $5-20. When the 5 came out, it caused sellers to jack the price back up, not as high, but they all did it. They quickly dropped because it was like a one up (or down as the case was) to see who could do it for the cheapest ... your comment that it's "always been a couple bucks" is entirely not true.
Not quite. When it first came out it was well over 100. Then it flirted with 50 for a while. The prices never went up for me, ever. They only ever went down. My suppliers never jacked up prices above what I was paying at the time. I never said it's always been a couple of bucks but since the end of summer of 2012, at most, 5-10 dollars.
When it first came out? It first came out just before the iPhone 5, so you completely discredited your comments after that. When the 5 came out it was $50+ ... it dropped rapidly, but watch, they'll shoot up again. You can argue what you want to happen as long as you want, but what you want and what's likely don't match.
the reason they advertise it "T-Mobile Unlocked" is because apple store doesn't sell the iPhone 5 for T-Mobile on their "contract" "Uncarrier" plans -- if you noticed there is no way to sign up for the $99 down and payments plan for T-Mobile via Apple store or Apple site....
Yes its true T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Rogers, Fido, Bell, Telus, Koodo, Virgin mobile canada will all be using the same iPhone 5S but remember like 1429 (One was Verizon + Sprint CDMA Enabled - other was CDMA HARD-OFF and sold by Carriers outside North America) iPhone 5 models....iPhone 5S has TWO exact same models....the ones that will be activated with/for Verizon will have CDMA Enabled - while rest of the ones will have CDMA HARD-OFF (no way to enable and use the phones on Verizon) - that should clear up any doubts anyones having.
IF you want the most valuable iPhone out there....buy the Verizon iPhone 5C/5S because it will truly work on all networks 3G/4G/LTE (Except on Sprint and the few networks that the other model only works on).
The apple store will be your best bet. I don't know if they will sell you one without active service. Worst case scenario sign up for service and just cancel the account, pay the etf. Will be the same at the end.
But they don't have the hspa+ band for att? I live in an LtE area but travel a lot. Hmmmm
The Apple Store unlocked iPhone supports all US, France, Germany, and UK LTE bands. It will work with T-mobile and ATT.
Sprint version is the most appealing as it supports all bands besides 2600. It's just a matter of getting it unlocked.
First of all you must have spend a lot of money at best buy to gain those points. Congrats to you!!
You may be able to pick it up from Walmart, Best Buy, etc or possibly Verizon store it self.
This sounds like an ideal solution. In fact, it seems cheaper than getting a "full price" unlocked phone. Is my math correct here:
Verizon, on contract iPhone 5S 32GB: $299
+ ETF: $350
= $649
vs.
Purchasing the same phone full price = $749
Am I missing something here?
The AT&T and T-Mobile models are the same model. I think his concern is making sure it's unlocked.
I expect activation fee and the first month's service, which you won't be able to get out of.
The way Verizon does it:
The issue is you'll have to wait until 30 days has passed before returning the phone. Verizon states that if you cancel within 30 days, you must return the phone or be billed the full retail amount of the handset. So you'd have to wait till 31 days then cancel, pay the ETF, first month, activation fee, etc. And with their plans your minimum monthly is about $70 for a Smartphone, plus ETF making it about $399 (plus tax in CA at least) so $476 plus $85 for a month of service including taxes plus $36 activation plus $350 ETF, that's $947, almost identical to just walking in and buying unlocked and not having the hassle ($927 taxed out the door).
The confusing issue is they show both an A1533 (GSM) and A1533 (CDMA) as two models in this chart. If you have LTE service it looks like you are OK, otherwise it would appear that there are two incompatible phones.
