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mellofello

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 1, 2011
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I have a lot of traveling abroad coming up in the next year, and I'm sick of paying att rates. If I just buy a phone outright will I automatically, or in short order be able to drop any sim in and use it?
 
I don't think it will come initially unlocked but you'll be able to get it unlocked easily if you buy it outright. I could be wrong.
 
if you walk into an AT&T STORE and buy an iPhone at full price IT WILL BE LOCKED and you MUST submit an unlock request, which of course will be granted in 2 days minimal. and then you will have to follow the directions to unlock it.

if you walk into an APPLE STORE and buy an iPhone at full price, like the SIM FREE phone, it will be unlocked when you open the box, and it will even be white listed for sprint and Verizon.

if you walk into an APPLE STORE and buy the "t-mobile version" at full price, it will just like the SIM FREE unit, but it won't be white listed for sprint. but it will work for AT&T, T-MOBILE and VERIZON ( verizon started accepting phones this week)


i would recommend going to the apple store and buying the SIM FREE unit

if you have an Unlocked AT&T iPhone 6 it will WORK for verizon, but SPRINT will refuse to activate it
 
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oh man. i just thought of a bad scenario and i ran to my computer!

If you go to the AT&T STORE and buy an iPhone 6/6+ outright. it will be locked and you will have to submit an unlocked request.

worse case scenerio


AT&T has fine print

fine print
  • If you performed an early upgrade, you must wait the 14-day buyer's remorse period before you can request to unlock your previous device.

  • If the device was activated with an installment plan, your account must be active for at least 60 days, with no past due or unpaid balance.

iirc t-mobile had some "70 day period" that you had to pass to unlock iPhones
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...mediately-even-if-you-pay-full-price.1579423/


i would just forget it , and go to the apple store or buy it from apple.com
 
fine print
  • If you performed an early upgrade, you must wait the 14-day buyer's remorse period before you can request to unlock your previous device.
  • If the device was activated with an installment plan, your account must be active for at least 60 days, with no past due or unpaid balance.
What's the issue with waiting 2 weeks? That makes sense since they want to wait until after the return period and the other bullet makes sense since you cannot be on contract to get it unlocked.
 
I have a lot of traveling abroad coming up in the next year, and I'm sick of paying att rates. If I just buy a phone outright will I automatically, or in short order be able to drop any sim in and use it?
As Rigormortis suggested, don't buy the AT&T version. Get the SIM-Free version, and it's unlocked from the outset.
 
I bought three 6's last year on release day. NEXT plan, but I paid them off within a week.

I requested unlocks for the first two right after payoff and they were unlocked in a couple of days. All via AT&T.com. Easy.

For the third, I waited and requested an unlock early January 2015 since I'd hit my four unlock limit in 2014. I think it was unlocked the same day.
 
I ordered the tmobile verison from apple online store last year. works with ATT. do you guys think the 6s tmobile verison on apple online store will be unlocked again?
 
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If you're an international traveler you should consider waiting for the sim free version. In the past, they have included LTE bands used in foreign countries that the carrier versions do not have.

However, I'm hoping this year Apple creates a universal iPhone model in which they all include all available bands so this may be a mute point.
 
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