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awesomest47

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 24, 2012
77
0
Playing around with my Sprint iPhone 4S I stuck in an AT&T SIM card and watched the top go to searching... and as it did I went to about in general in settings and the carrier name had switched to AT&T! Then, I went to cellular and tapped on "set up personal hotspot." The phone said "please call AT&T at 611 to set up personal hotspot." That's so cool!!! What's going on and have I just found a hack?! What do you guys make of this?
 
Actually US CDMA phones aren't unlocked for AMERICAN GSM carriers (AT&T)

they are unlocked only for international use...
 
Guys, this may seem like a jump but how do you know that my phone WASN'T originally designated for AT&T? When I tapped on personal hotspot without the AT&T sim in, I got call 1-800 whatever. When the AT&T sim is in I get "Call 611" Strange... The phone is used so I don't know when it's from, also Sprint doesn't know what "unlock" means (I've tried calling twice) so I guess we'll never know. LOL!!

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The first batch was...

No, Sprint pushed a lock onto all of it's devices. "Sprint’s policy is to have the iPhone 4S SIM locked to our network domestically and internationally. At launch, the International SIM will be unlocked. We do expect a SIM lock to be pushed to the devices shortly after launch. We will then allow existing customers in good standing to unlock the SIM for international use if needed in the future."

Sorry!
 
Guys, this may seem like a jump but how do you know that my phone WASN'T originally designated for AT&T? When I tapped on personal hotspot without the AT&T sim in, I got call 1-800 whatever. When the AT&T sim is in I get "Call 611" Strange... The phone is used so I don't know when it's from, also Sprint doesn't know what "unlock" means (I've tried calling twice) so I guess we'll never know. LOL!!

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No, Sprint pushed a lock onto all of it's devices. "Sprint’s policy is to have the iPhone 4S SIM locked to our network domestically and internationally. At launch, the International SIM will be unlocked. We do expect a SIM lock to be pushed to the devices shortly after launch. We will then allow existing customers in good standing to unlock the SIM for international use if needed in the future."

Sorry!

I still have my wife 4s (first batch) and it works on at&t.
 
I think that it is locked because I looked at the model number MD377LL/A. Also, when the AT&T SIM card is in there and it tries to reactivate. I get the "please enter a valid SIM card message." :confused: I am so surprised this thread hasn't generated as much attention. This imo is really cool!
 
This is very interesting. I have a launch day Sprint iPhone 4s. maybe I'll pick up an AT&T sim and try it out.
 
I think that it is locked because I looked at the model number MD377LL/A. Also, when the AT&T SIM card is in there and it tries to reactivate. I get the "please enter a valid SIM card message." :confused: I am so surprised this thread hasn't generated as much attention. This imo is really cool!

The thread hasn't generated attention for a few reasons:

1. This isn't a hack (at least not by any official definition of the word hack)

2. It doesn't seem like you are actually getting reception and able to use the AT&T cell signal (by your own omission later in the thread), so really, what is there to get excited about?

3. It is ridiculously easy and relatively cheap to get an officially unlocked 4S. Being able to unlock a Sprint phone would be useful to perhaps the small handful of people (relatively speaking) who haven't dumped their Sprint phones already due to their utterly horrendous service and speeds in most places throughout the US.

4. Everyone is just posting their ridiculous wish lists about what the iPhone 5S will/should come with.
 
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