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iPhone Unlocking Legal?

G

GhostRaider

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 2, 2014
436
485
So apparently the Cell Phone Unlocking bill will actually be a law now, it's no longer illegal to unlock a phone, but what does this actually mean?

So can I just go to Verizon and buy and iPhone at full price unlocked? Or how about going to a Virgin Mobile store and buy a discounted iPhone 5s at full price. Are they forced to unlock the GSM portion since its legal?
 
If the phone is not subsidized they will unlock your phone. They do not have to unlock the device is subsidized.

Most of the carriers like AT&T would unlock you phone without this new law.
 
GhostRaider said:
So can I just go to Verizon and buy and iPhone at full price unlocked?
Click to expand...
You were aware that as a condition of Verizon's agreement with the FCC for permission to use LTE, Verizon is required to unlock all iPhone 5 series phones and above, right?

This new law has no application to these phones. Pay full price, don't pay full price for a Verizon iPhone 5, 5c or 5s, it's already unlocked, they were and are all sold unlocked, and have been since September 2012 (iPhone 5).

As to your other questions, if you meet the terms of your contract you can request an unlock and they will be obligated to give you one.

Assuming you aren't on Sprint.
 
Last edited:
GhostRaider said:
So apparently the Cell Phone Unlocking bill will actually be a law now, it's no longer illegal to unlock a phone, but what does this actually mean?

So can I just go to Verizon and buy and iPhone at full price unlocked? Or how about going to a Virgin Mobile store and buy a discounted iPhone 5s at full price. Are they forced to unlock the GSM portion since its legal?
Click to expand...

Sprint will unlock the GSM part only for international SIM cards. They will not do this for domestic use. Virgin Mobile is a Sprint MVNO, and my understanding is that they will not unlock their phones either (not even sure if you can use an international SIM card with Virgin phones).

The law has not taken effect yet, and I'm not sure if this covers any phones purchased prior to the law taking effect.

UPDATE: Just saw that it retroactively took effect July 27. Still not sure how the individual carriers will implement unlock requests.
 
Last edited:
eyoungren said:
You were aware that as a condition of Verizon's agreement with the FCC for permission to use LTE, Verizon is required to unlock all iPhone 5 series phones and above, right?

This new law has no application to these phones. Pay full price, don't pay full price for a Verizon iPhone 5, 5c or 5s, it's already unlocked and has been since September 2012 (iPhone 5).

As to your other questions, if you meet the terms of your contract you can request an unlock and they will be obligated to give you one.

Assuming you aren't on Sprint.
Click to expand...

You are right and wrong. Your facts are a little screwy. When the FCC had their auction for the 700Mhz spectrum, Verizon was the top bidder... essentially getting a nationwide 700 Mhz license. But during the auction, Google was also bidding and proposing rules to the FCC... Google really didn't have any interested in obtaining the spectrum... they were there really to stir the pot and make the FCC put conditions for using the spectrum. One of those it forcing Verizon to unlock all devices that use the LTE network and for the LTE network to accept any compatible unlocked LTE phone.

That is why the iPhone 5 and up are unlocked on Verizon. It is not only iPhones... but ALL of their LTE phones.

But... this restriction only applies to their LTE network, not their CDMA network. That is why... if you were to take an unlocked AT&T or T-Mobile iPhone and put a Verizon SIM into it, it would connect to LTE... but not be able to connect to "3G" CDMA.

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Woochifer said:
Sprint will unlock the GSM part only for international SIM cards. They will not do this for domestic use. Virgin Mobile is a Sprint MVNO, and my understanding is that they will not unlock their phones either (not even sure if you can use an international SIM card with Virgin phones).

The law has not taken effect yet, and I'm not sure if this covers any phones purchased prior to the law taking effect.

UPDATE: Just saw that it retroactively took effect July 27. Still not sure how the individual carriers will implement unlock requests.
Click to expand...

The law DOES NOT force carriers to unlock phones. The law makes it legal for you or a 3rd party to unlock your phone. This is fine and dandy for other phones, but iPhone unlocks are stored on Apple's servers and 3rd parties cannot access it. Sure... there are 3rd party iPhone unlock services, but they usually have an inside man who works for the carrier and has access. That is why they charge so much for iPhone unlocks.

I doubt this law will have any affect on Sprint's iPhone unlocking policy.
 
1080p said:
You are right and wrong. Your facts are a little screwy. When the FCC had their auction for the 700Mhz spectrum, Verizon was the top bidder... essentially getting a nationwide 700 Mhz license. But during the auction, Google was also bidding and proposing rules to the FCC... Google really didn't have any interested in obtaining the spectrum... they were there really to stir the pot and make the FCC put conditions for using the spectrum. One of those it forcing Verizon to unlock all devices that use the LTE network and for the LTE network to accept any compatible unlocked LTE phone.

That is why the iPhone 5 and up are unlocked on Verizon. It is not only iPhones... but ALL of their LTE phones.

But... this restriction only applies to their LTE network, not their CDMA network. That is why... if you were to take an unlocked AT&T or T-Mobile iPhone and put a Verizon SIM into it, it would connect to LTE... but not be able to connect to "3G" CDMA.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the clarification!
 
1080p said:
You are right and wrong. Your facts are a little screwy. When the FCC had their auction for the 700Mhz spectrum, Verizon was the top bidder... essentially getting a nationwide 700 Mhz license. But during the auction, Google was also bidding and proposing rules to the FCC... Google really didn't have any interested in obtaining the spectrum... they were there really to stir the pot and make the FCC put conditions for using the spectrum. One of those it forcing Verizon to unlock all devices that use the LTE network and for the LTE network to accept any compatible unlocked LTE phone.

That is why the iPhone 5 and up are unlocked on Verizon. It is not only iPhones... but ALL of their LTE phones.

But... this restriction only applies to their LTE network, not their CDMA network. That is why... if you were to take an unlocked AT&T or T-Mobile iPhone and put a Verizon SIM into it, it would connect to LTE... but not be able to connect to "3G" CDMA.

----------



The law DOES NOT force carriers to unlock phones. The law makes it legal for you or a 3rd party to unlock your phone. This is fine and dandy for other phones, but iPhone unlocks are stored on Apple's servers and 3rd parties cannot access it. Sure... there are 3rd party iPhone unlock services, but they usually have an inside man who works for the carrier and has access. That is why they charge so much for iPhone unlocks.

I doubt this law will have any affect on Sprint's iPhone unlocking policy.
Click to expand...
Weren't even iPhone unlocks fairly cheap until unlocking became "illegal" in the last year or two or so?
 
Currently Virgin Mobile is selling iPhone 5S 32GB for $487. Basically you pay for the phone and once you receive it, you pick a no contract plan. It uses CDMA so the GSM portion of it is locked. But technically speaking, you bought the phone, that's the price they were selling it for, you should be able to unlock the GSM portion regardless of what they say. That's what this bill is allowing a customer to do or am I wrong on this? So you'd be saving money if you bought phones from Virgin and activating them with ATT or TMobile.
 
C DM said:
Weren't even iPhone unlocks fairly cheap until unlocking became "illegal" in the last year or two or so?
Click to expand...

That wasn't why they became expensive. They were still cheap while it was "illegal". They became expensive shortly after the 5S was released because AT&T clamped down on access to their unlocking systems. This law doesn't really affect anything in the grand scheme of things.
 
1080p said:
You are right and wrong. Your facts are a little screwy. When the FCC had their auction for the 700Mhz spectrum, Verizon was the top bidder... essentially getting a nationwide 700 Mhz license. But during the auction, Google was also bidding and proposing rules to the FCC... Google really didn't have any interested in obtaining the spectrum... they were there really to stir the pot and make the FCC put conditions for using the spectrum. One of those it forcing Verizon to unlock all devices that use the LTE network and for the LTE network to accept any compatible unlocked LTE phone.

That is why the iPhone 5 and up are unlocked on Verizon. It is not only iPhones... but ALL of their LTE phones.

But... this restriction only applies to their LTE network, not their CDMA network. That is why... if you were to take an unlocked AT&T or T-Mobile iPhone and put a Verizon SIM into it, it would connect to LTE... but not be able to connect to "3G" CDMA.

----------



The law DOES NOT force carriers to unlock phones. The law makes it legal for you or a 3rd party to unlock your phone. This is fine and dandy for other phones, but iPhone unlocks are stored on Apple's servers and 3rd parties cannot access it. Sure... there are 3rd party iPhone unlock services, but they usually have an inside man who works for the carrier and has access. That is why they charge so much for iPhone unlocks.

I doubt this law will have any affect on Sprint's iPhone unlocking policy.
Click to expand...
Up till September 2013 iPhone unlocks were as cheap as $3. Hope it goes back to that.

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C DM said:
Weren't even iPhone unlocks fairly cheap until unlocking became "illegal" in the last year or two or so?
Click to expand...
Yes.
 
617aircav said:
Up till September 2013 iPhone unlocks were as cheap as $3. Hope it goes back to that.
Click to expand...

It won't.... and this law has nothing to do with pricing. The prices went up when AT&T got more strict in enforcing their unlocking policy. It's more risky for the insiders that do it. More risk=more cost.
 
So in reality what difference does this new law makes?
All it does is makes unlocking your phone legal.
It doesn't force carriers to fully unlock their phones if requested by their customers.
 
Applejuiced said:
So in reality what difference does this new law makes?
All it does is makes unlocking your phone legal.
It doesn't force carriers to fully unlock their phones if requested by their customers.
Click to expand...

It doesn't really make a difference in anything. It's just a formality.
 
So what's the best way to go about unlocking a Sprint iPhone 4s?

I moved to Germany over a year ago and Sprint refused to unlock me, even though I was in good standing with them and they had told me when I started my contract that if I moved abroad they could activate the GSM antenna. Apparently that was a lie.

This bit of news caught my eye and I was wondering if it would be easier to get an unlock now. The last time I looked around for info, all I came across were shady websites asking for money and personal data.
 
Carriers really put their foot down and customers get the message. Even if unlocking is legal.

Carriers will be HARD PRESSED to provide an unlock code.
 
Do u think apple will bring out a new rmbp, am looking at buy referb top spec for £1300 but unsure if they will release a new one in oct.

Thanks

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Sorry thought I was writing a new thread
 
Hey guys kinda of confused....I bought a Iphone 5S in Dec. with Virgin Mobile...When they have the IPhone 6 available I want to sell my 5S so under this new law Virgin will unlock my phone? If not I can always sell it back to them in their buy back program....of course I will get less for it....Thanks
 
Evil Z06 said:
Hey guys kinda of confused....I bought a Iphone 5S in Dec. with Virgin Mobile...When they have the IPhone 6 available I want to sell my 5S so under this new law Virgin will unlock my phone? If not I can always sell it back to them in their buy back program....of course I will get less for it....Thanks
Click to expand...
You need to check virgin mobiles unlocking terms. You would be better off selling the phone rather than trading it in.
 
617aircav said:
You need to check virgin mobiles unlocking terms. You would be better off selling the phone rather than trading it in.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply...I am pretty sure they do not unlock the phone but with this new law I was curious.If they don't unlock the phone then I can only sell it to another Virgin Mobile customer or to them
 
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