Can a non-big four customer pre-order?

[briloop]

I'm not a customer of the big four (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile). I want to pre-order a T-Mobile phone, throw away the T-Mobile sim, and put in a sim card from my carrier, Cricket.

Will Apple accept my pre-order?
[doublepost=1473349055][/doublepost]I chatted online with Apple. They said:

"If you buy the T-Mobile iPhone it would be unlocked for use with other supported carriers too. It will not work on Sprint or Verizon wireless though."

And:

"We offer the T-Mobile iPhone with no plans attached. So it won’t request your account information to pre-order that version."

 

[james92se]

I'm in the interesting position of being with AT&T yet going to switch to Cricket on the 13th (AT&T contract is up on the 12th). I will be buying a 7 Plus outright.

I'm really curious now though if I should just order the T-Mobile phone. I notice that if I do a dry-run through both, the T-Mobile version says "unlocked iPhone with T-Mobile SIM" whereas the AT&T version says "unlocked iPhone connected to AT&T".

My main worry about "connected to AT&T" is that they will make me enter the account information and then manage to charge me an activation fee on my AT&T account.

 

[yomnym]

I think that if you buy the phone outright and get either ATT or T-mobile version, its unlocked so you could put in any sim. As long as the bands are compatible, since i'm reading that the Verizon/Sprint have more LTE bands.

With that said, when i buy online from T-mo, i get the phone and never get charged an acitivation fee. The day i went to the store to purchase one, they charged me the fee. So im inclined to think that if you order online they wont charge you. Only time will tell though.

 

[westcoastcyc]

I think that if you buy the phone outright and get either ATT or T-mobile version, its unlocked so you could put in any sim. As long as the bands are compatible, since i'm reading that the Verizon/Sprint have more LTE bands.

With that said, when i buy online from T-mo, i get the phone and never get charged an acitivation fee. The day i went to the store to purchase one, they charged me the fee. So im inclined to think that if you order online they wont charge you. Only time will tell though.

The LTE bands are the same for all versions... You are just missing CDMA on AT&T and Tmobile models.