I am with Spectrum Mobile (prepaid, don't judge) and was going to buy unlocked SIM-free and then use my SIM card. But now I am told it will take 1-2 months to bring IMEI into Spectrum system, and the phone won't be available to use. So they are saying to buy with Spectrum..... Is that true? Is it really so complicated?
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iPhone 12 Pro How long does it take to bring IMEI for iPhone 12 to other carriers?
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it really depends on if the carrier is a GSM or CDMA carrier. If it’s GSM it will most likely work by swapping sims. You may not get the features like 5G until your “small” carrier gets them but it should still work for receiving calls and getting data to work.
hmmm let me be more clear then. Carriers such as boost, metro PCS, and sprint use CDMA that prevents phones from just being able to “swap SIM cards” into new devices because the IMEI needs to be in their system before activating a phone. Verizon however does support sim Swapping so you might be ok🤷🏻♂️
OK, that's what rep said - it will take 1-2 months to add EIMI into their "infrastructure" but then I called again and another guy said there will be no problem. I would just need to order a new SIM card providing new EIMI. Kinda frustrating, I think I am just going unlocked sim-free to get from Apple. I have hard time believing the phone cannot be put on prepaid just because it is new.