Buy sprint 4s and will GSM side be unlocked?

[xraydoc]

This is no different than my Verizon Blackberry was.

It was CDMA in the US (Verizon, of course). It also came preloaded with a Vodaphone SIM card for use on Vodaphone & its partners when outside of the US.

You were advised to purchase an international call and/or data package before leaving on your trip.

The VWZ Blackberry phones were (are) locked to Vodaphone for GSM service, BUT if you had the phone ~6 months and paid your bills, they would unlock it for you. They unlocked my BB Storm 2 when I called and asked.

As an FYI, the CDMA/World BBs, even unlocked, wouldn't run on AT&T or T-Mobile in the US for 3G data as they only supported european GSM data frequencies.

Since the iPhone will support US GSM data networks (AT&T), I don't know if Verizon (or Sprint) will unlock the GSM portion on request like they would with Blackberry. I'm guessing they won't. At least not while you're under contract.

 

[cube]

Can you clarify? When you say, "able to roam among US carriers", based on Sprints "Everything Data", the plan covers roaming in the US. Or did you mean not being able to use an ATT sim into a Sprint locked CDMA is what you meant by roam?

I meant roam or switch between the main carriers.

 

[Big Apple]

No a traditional world phone from your carrier just means that you can use the same phone in multple regions. Think roaming for CDMA in a country where CDMA is not supported. That's where the GSM SIM comes into play for the CDMA carriers they have roaming arrangements with other carriers.


Dave

That's exactly right.

The iphone 4S is a world phone meaning it can be used in all countries. There is nothing misleading about that. However, there is a huge difference in being able to use the phone in different countries and being able to use the phone in different countries cheaply. If you subsidize a phone to get it cheaper you will be locked into a contract and also locked into using a carriers international roaming partners. If you pay full price for an unlocked version you have the flexibility to put in any sim you like. I previously had a Verizon worldphone (a gsm/cdma enabled HTC Touch Pro 2) and though it had a sim slot, the sim was Verizon and it was locked to Verizon. I could use it overseas if I wanted to but could not swap a local sim card into it. If I had bought the full price unlocked verision of that phone I would have been able to put in any sim I wanted.

 

[cube]

World phone means that it is compatible with all networks, not just that it works in all countries.

That a phone is compatible with all networks does not mean you will be able to use it in all of them.

If a tecnnology is supported, but no such carrier can be use, it is as if it didn't exist.

 

[Shanpdx]

Very lame

Apple still locks the phones to the carriers (Verizon, Sprint).

Where is the people who blamed it on ATT?

Verizon and Sprint is doing the same.

Is it Apple or the telecoms?

My wife left her iPhone 4 here in the USA when she left abroad for vacation. I am going to buy only the contract free/Unlocked iPhones now onwards. Paying $120 for two lines does not give any flexibility.

May be next Jun/Jul/2012 iPhone 4 8GB unlocked for $375.Unfortunate t-mobiles 3G frequency is different from what iPhone 3GS/4/4s has.

 

[ps2pk]

Apple still locks the phones to the carriers (Verizon, Sprint).

Where is the people who blamed it on ATT?

Verizon and Sprint is doing the same.

Is it Apple or the telecoms?

My wife left her iPhone 4 here in the USA when she left abroad for vacation. I am going to buy only the contract/Unlocked iPhones now onwards. Paying $120 for two lines does not give any flexibility.

May be next Jun/Jul/2012 iPhone 4 8GB unlocked for $375.Unfortunate t-mobiles 3G frequency is different from what iPhone 3GS/4/4s has.

Wait and see how the sprint iPhone is. They haven't locked any of their previous worldphones so there's a good chance they don't lock the iPhone either.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

It's going to be 100% locked in the US so you can't use it on ATT if you buy it on Verizon or Sprint.

Now overseas no one knows yet. Going by their previous history Sprint has not locked any of their world phones previously (HTC Touch Pro 2/Moto Photon/Blackberry Tour/etc) so just going by that the iPhone shouldn't be locked (meaning if you're in Europe you can just insert the sim and it *should* work). But again Sprint has never had the iPhone so things might change.

http://www.sprint.com/popups/international/devices_advanced_worldmode_popup.html

This is an important piece of info in this thread! The fact that Sprint ships their current world phones unlocked and not tied to a partner means the iPhone might stand a chance.

Verizon is locked to Vodaphone current, see below.

This is no different than my Verizon Blackberry was.

It was CDMA in the US (Verizon, of course). It also came preloaded with a Vodaphone SIM card for use on Vodaphone & its partners when outside of the US.

You were advised to purchase an international call and/or data package before leaving on your trip.

The VWZ Blackberry phones were (are) locked to Vodaphone for GSM service, BUT if you had the phone ~6 months and paid your bills, they would unlock it for you. They unlocked my BB Storm 2 when I called and asked.

As an FYI, the CDMA/World BBs, even unlocked, wouldn't run on AT&T or T-Mobile in the US for 3G data as they only supported european GSM data frequencies.

Since the iPhone will support US GSM data networks (AT&T), I don't know if Verizon (or Sprint) will unlock the GSM portion on request like they would with Blackberry. I'm guessing they won't. At least not while you're under contract.

I'm happy to hear they would eventually unlock it!

I honestly don't know why I'm so curious how this plays out, I haven't left the country overnight since 1986. But i really want a world phone with Verizon. I guess it is all in the choices that the consumer should be able to make, and the carriers prevent.

I want apple to sell a world phone period..... No locks at all.

 

[Shanpdx]

Wait and see how the sprint iPhone is. They haven't locked any of their previous worldphones so there's a good chance they don't lock the iPhone either.

ok thank you, i will check out the sprint iPhone 4S.

 

[Shanpdx]

does iPhone 3GS works with t-mobile?

i mean the unlocked $375 iPhone 3GS 8GB work with t-mobile with out the 3G frequency?

 

[ET iPhone Home]

Local Sims Will Work Internationally.

So I phoned Sprint again regarding the GSM WorldPhone feature and the Sprint Rep. I spoke to seemed very knowledgeable about this. In his training on the iPhone 4S, he too was curious about this. Since he travels to Europe quite often, purchasing a local sim card from countries in Europe was something he was going to consider. Anyway, he ensured me that the iPhone 4S is definitely "unlocked" when using and purchasing a local sim card from another country. He reiterated that Apple's definition of WorldPhone is to be able to give users options of using it as a worldphone. This was also told to me by another Sprint Rep. from the International Dept. as well as an Apple Rep. I spoke to at the Apple Store - so there's consistencies to this. As mentioned earlier, your Sprint sim will roam on a GSM network internationally, but it will also allow you to use a local sim card as well.

The Sprint Rep. did say, that in the USA, the iPhone 4S is "locked" to ATT or Verizon's network. You will "NOT" be able to insert a sim card from those carriers, which has been discussed earlier in this thread. But, it will be unlocked for international use.

I'll be able to verify this in a few week, as I am traveling to Sydney, Australia, then to a couple of countries in Asia. I'll be able to then test and find out for myself if using local sim cards work. I'm almost confident with the info. I received is correct. That's 3 people so far from different departments and companies that have been consistent with their information.

 

[wratran]

So I phoned Sprint again regarding the GSM WorldPhone feature and the Sprint Rep. I spoke to seemed very knowledgeable about this. In his training on the iPhone 4S, he too was curious about this. Since he travels to Europe quite often, purchasing a local sim card from countries in Europe was something he was going to consider. Anyway, he ensured me that the iPhone 4S is definitely "unlocked" when using and purchasing a local sim card from another country. He reiterated that Apple's definition of WorldPhone is to be able to give users options of using it as a worldphone. This was also told to me by another Sprint Rep. from the International Dept. as well as an Apple Rep. I spoke to at the Apple Store - so there's consistencies to this. As mentioned earlier, your Sprint sim will roam on a GSM network internationally, but it will also allow you to use a local sim card as well.

The Sprint Rep. did say, that in the USA, the iPhone 4S is "locked" to ATT or Verizon's network. You will "NOT" be able to insert a sim card from those carriers, which has been discussed earlier in this thread. But, it will be unlocked for international use.

I'll be able to verify this in a few week, as I am traveling to Sydney, Australia, then to a couple of countries in Asia. I'll be able to then test and find out for myself if using local sim cards work. I'm almost confident with the info. I received is correct. That's 3 people so far from different departments and companies that have been consistent with their information.

Can you also test the ATT and tmobile sim in the USA?

 

[dccorona]

they want you paying their absurd overseas roaming plan fees, not getting a cheap SIM and popping it in

 

[Shanpdx]

Can you also test the ATT and tmobile sim in the USA?

+1 yup, thank you for any one who can test this out!

 

[Shanpdx]

Unlocked iPhone 4S- Order from Apple Store Canada?

and ship to USA? is it possible?

In Canada it is factory unlocked iPhone 4S

If shipping is available what is the Customs/Import Duty or any other fees? Anyone else did this before?

 

[contempt]

As mentioned earlier, your Sprint sim will roam on a GSM network internationally, but it will also allow you to use a local sim card as well.

Oh man, now I'll be pissed, since I just switched over to Verizon for the 4S from ATT. Now if the Sprint 4S is truly unlocked internationally, that's a huge selling point for us who travel overseas often.

 

[Ayman250]

It will come with a GSM SIM card installed, locked to a partner carrier.

World phone does not mean you can use a SIM card of your choice on a subsidized phone. You will pay Sprint and you will roam internationally.

Unlocked, full price phones are the only way to use the SIM of your choice.

-t

No i believe the idea is that the one and only iPhone 4s will be useable with any carrier that supports it outside of the box.

 

[French]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_10 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E600 Safari/6533.18.5)

Verizon will not be unlocked and it is a global phone because they will let you use the gsm radio but it will be locked to their partners. In other words you are gonna pay out the nose for using it. But technically it's a world phone.

ETA Verizon squarely put the blame of a locked phone on Apple and said Apple would not be providing them the necessary codes. I guess we'll all know this time next week.

Blackberries have historically been unlockable I had 2 storms unlocked that I could throw a prepaid TMobile SIM into.

 

[Shanpdx]

yup, we will know this friday how the sprint unlock policy on the iPhone 4S.

 

[WannaGoMac]

So many people want to know the answer to whether or not the GSM will be unlocked, yet no one knows for certain-- thus why i delayed my purchase until all the answers are available to this and a few other issues (for example, any SVDO in the 4s that's just not documented?)

 

[wordoflife]

Think about how you would roam in a different country before. You take your phone to Canada, you get service, Sprint bills you for it.

Same thing with this, except now you can roam in even more countries (since GSM is more widespread).

 

[Shanpdx]

Boost Mobile

Not sure if the sprint iPhone 4S will work on Boost Mobile (their subsidiary)

$50 unlimited + $10 international call...

I would pay $649 for that in a beat if it can work on Boost Mobile and GSM Portion is unlocked (for my international travels)

more questions than answers, friday is just four days away ...

 

[WannaGoMac]

Not sure if the sprint iPhone 4S will work on Boost Mobile (their subsidiary)

$50 unlimited + $10 international call...

I would pay $649 for that in a beat if it can work on Boost Mobile and GSM Portion is unlocked (for my international travels)

more questions than answers, friday is just four days away ...

Friday is important, but the reviews from hard core tech sites are what are needed which won't be friday. I am waiting for anandtech's review before I do anything. He's the one who documented the iphone 4 antenna problem last time

 

[goosnarrggh]

I meant roam or switch between the main carriers.

Two different concepts.

When you're roaming, you always remain subscribed to your home carrier, and paying your bills to your home carrier. Behind the scenes, if you ever travel to a geographic region (either domestically or internationally) where your home carrier doesn't offer native service, your home carrier executes an agreement with a roaming partner to provide you with service. This may happen with an associated extra fee, or you may be permitted to do a certain amount of roaming on certain partners' networks for free.

(For example, sometimes an AT&T customer may travel outside of AT&T's native network coverage even if they never leave the USA, and they may end domestically roaming on various regional operators' networks, or even on T-Mobile's network. AT&T permits up to 40% of any two consecutive months' anytime talk quota up to a maximum of 750 minutes, and 20% of two consecutive months' data allowance up to a maximum of 24 MB, and 50% of two consecutive months' text messaging allowance up to a maximum of 3000 texts, on a domestic roaming partner, without extra fees. Roaming internationally costs much more.)

You never ask to switch over to the roaming partner, it just happens automatically. You never pay the roaming partner directly, you continue to pay your home carrier. (In turn, your home carrier compensates the roaming partner according to the terms of their side agreement.)

Deliberately switching between carriers, dropping your original provider to start purchasing service directly from a different provider, is a separate concept.

----------

World phone means that it is compatible with all networks, not just that it works in all countries.

That would be nice, but it doesn't fit the industry's generally accepted definition. All the industry requires to fit the definition of "World Phone", is that the phone is capable of working on a relatively large subset of accepted wireless standards throughout a reasonably large subset of international countries.


As long as your carrier has roaming agreements in a reasonably large subset of the world, and has provided you with hardware that is compatible with the wireless standards and frequencies used by each of those roaming partners, then you have a "world phone" even if it remains locked to only accept SIM cards from one specific carrier.

 

[Shanpdx]

Friday is important, but the reviews from hard core tech sites are what are needed which won't be friday. I am waiting for anandtech's review before I do anything. He's the one who documented the iphone 4 antenna problem last time

definitely watching out for that review also. My main goal is to get out of contract and get a unlocked iPhone 4S. (mainly on the GSM side of the things, i can tie with sprint here no issues).

 

[ET iPhone Home]

iPhone 4S Unlocked GSM Confirmed.

Looks like someone is receiving the same information I got about the SIM GSM being "UNLOCKED" for international use. The reps. I spoke to both at Sprint and Apple were right on with their information:

Read from someone's verification on this from another thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1246693/