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Lockedness and unlockedness in the post-GSM era

R

RobertoG

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 17, 2013
33
0
Hi guys. First post, and I want to pick the collective brain.

Is it wise to hold out from buying an unlocked iPhone 5 now, expecting to get an unlocked iPhone 5S that can switch from AT&T lte to Verizon lte with the flip of a nanosim?

One can dream of a modem that works in all lte frequencies, can't I? :)
 
dont think the chances of that are gonna happen. as it sits now, the verizon unlocked iphone covers all GSM frequencies worldwide, but only LTE for overseas and for domestic verizon. the at&t one i think covers overseas and only their bands. i dont know if its a limitation of the chip or just done to keep some kind of competitiveness among the carriers. i highly doubt you will see an iphone that will include both verizon and att LTE bands. its probably gonna be one or the other.
 
Sure, carrier-sold iPhones will be locked at least in some way, but why not expect a full LTE spectrum iPhone and iPad in the future?
 
RobertoG said:
Sure, carrier-sold iPhones will be locked at least in some way, but why not expect a full LTE spectrum iPhone and iPad in the future?
Click to expand...

I admit that would be amazing -- and might tempt me to buy my first true factory unlocked iPhone, but you'd have to consider not only the LTE bands of the major carriers, but all their fallback frequencies as well.
 
bozzykid said:
It doesn't support AWS, so that isn't true.
Click to expand...

it supports all GSM frequencies. 800/900/1800/1900 and 2100. i said it covers the basic GSM frequencies, therefore will work on any GSM network worldwide. i wasnt talking about newly formed 700 mhz bands or any HSPA+/LTE stuff.
 
dictoresno said:
it supports all GSM frequencies. 800/900/1800/1900 and 2100. i said it covers the basic GSM frequencies, therefore will work on any GSM network worldwide. i wasnt talking about newly formed 700 mhz bands or any HSPA+/LTE stuff.
Click to expand...

It doesn't support 1700 so it will not support 3G on the majority of the T-Mobile network that hasn't been refarmed.
 
Wait for the 5S, it will probably have all the bands required for unlocked world LTE.
 
Voice over LTE is still a ways off so the day when one can switch between Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Tmobile with just a SIM card swipe are probably at least 5 years away. Right now the CDMA carriers still rely on their archaic CDMA networks for voice. LTE only carries data and is still not fully rolled out yet.
 
RobertoG said:
Hi guys. First post, and I want to pick the collective brain.

Is it wise to hold out from buying an unlocked iPhone 5 now, expecting to get an unlocked iPhone 5S that can switch from AT&T lte to Verizon lte with the flip of a nanosim?

One can dream of a modem that works in all lte frequencies, can't I? :)
Click to expand...

Would be nice.

Would be even nicer if the iphone would catch up with the rest of the 4G phones and allow simultaneous voice and data on the best network.

It's either voice and data or a good network
 
RobertoG said:
Hi guys. First post, and I want to pick the collective brain.

Is it wise to hold out from buying an unlocked iPhone 5 now, expecting to get an unlocked iPhone 5S that can switch from AT&T lte to Verizon lte with the flip of a nanosim?

One can dream of a modem that works in all lte frequencies, can't I? :)
Click to expand...

I wouldn't hold out for the 5S for that reason but you can be sure Apple is pushing for an all in one radio. It's a huge kink in the cog to have multiple iPhones only thing being different is the radio.

That said everything will try to block you from switching networks from Apple to the carriers. So hope jail breaking is still possible.

You can get an Verizon iPhone 4S+ to run on AT&T now with jail breaking plus modifying a couple files. I never done it because it sounds like too much of a pain especially if you ever lose the jailbreak, then what? A phone with no network?

We just need to hope carrier in the US get away from contracts more.
 
bozzykid said:
It doesn't support 1700 so it will not support 3G on the majority of the T-Mobile network that hasn't been refarmed.
Click to expand...

i think youre missing my point. all i was saying is that it would get basic GSM/EDGE signal worldwide. i was dismissing the fact that certain 3G/4G/LTE networks that require specific, newer bands may not work. but for basic GSM usage, it can and will work worldwide on any GSM network.
 
dictoresno said:
i think youre missing my point. all i was saying is that it would get basic GSM/EDGE signal worldwide. i was dismissing the fact that certain 3G/4G/LTE networks that require specific, newer bands may not work. but for basic GSM usage, it can and will work worldwide on any GSM network.
Click to expand...

1700Mhz is not a newer band. I guess you could try to use it where 1700Mhz is the primary band but you will not have much luck (like some providers in Canada).
 
bozzykid said:
1700Mhz is not a newer band. I guess you could try to use it where 1700Mhz is the primary band but you will not have much luck (like some providers in Canada).
Click to expand...

i thought that the 1700 is a supplemental AWS band for 4G (HSPA+), like it is for tmobile i think, and not the primary band used for basic GSM transmission. but i guess WIND for example, relies solely on it. however, thats a one off thing. most other world users will still get signal on the basic 850/900/1800/1900.
 
cynics said:
You can get an Verizon iPhone 4S+ to run on AT&T now with jail breaking plus modifying a couple files. I never done it because it sounds like too much of a pain especially if you ever lose the jailbreak, then what? A phone with no network?
Click to expand...

I don't know where you heard that but it is false.
You cannot get a Verizon 4S to run on AT&T by jailbreaking and modifying a couple files.
You can use a hardware gevey sim adapter but that only unlocks certain baseband versions only.
 
dictoresno said:
i thought that the 1700 is a supplemental AWS band for 4G (HSPA+), like it is for tmobile i think, and not the primary band used for basic GSM transmission.
Click to expand...

You're quite right about it being supplemental; no iPhone supports GSM 1700 and I'm not sure whether such a thing even exists (edit: according to Wikipedia, it doesn't). It's definitely used for 3G/4G in America though.
 
Last edited:
Nermal said:
You're quite right about it being supplemental; no iPhone supports GSM 1700 and I'm not sure whether such a thing even exists (edit: according to Wikipedia, it doesn't). It's definitely used for 3G/4G in America though.
Click to expand...

thank you. i figured that. i recall here in the US, tmobile uses 1900 primarily but also has 1700 available for its 4G or LTE. its not a primary band that it uses for regular cellular transmission and is indeed new, as of a few years ago.
 
bozzykid said:
The new unlocked iPhone and Tmobile iPhone supports the 1700 band since April 12th.
Click to expand...

I still don't know where you insist on going with this convo. You missed the point awhile ago. I think you're trying to prove something which no one is even challenging you about.
 
dictoresno said:
I still don't know where you insist on going with this convo. You missed the point awhile ago. I think you're trying to prove something which no one is even challenging you about.
Click to expand...

I was just pointing out the post above mine was wrong is all.
 
bozzykid said:
I was just pointing out the post above mine was wrong is all.
Click to expand...

We weren't talking about 1700 support. We were simply saying that tmobile still uses 1900 as its primary frequency for its basic gsm service and 1700 is for the high speed which isn't fully deployed yet. Just forget it.
 
dictoresno said:
We weren't talking about 1700 support. We were simply saying that tmobile still uses 1900 as its primary frequency for its basic gsm service and 1700 is for the high speed which isn't fully deployed yet. Just forget it.
Click to expand...

no iPhone supports GSM 1700
Click to expand...

How is that not talking about 1700 support?
 
bozzykid said:
The new unlocked iPhone and Tmobile iPhone supports the 1700 band since April 12th.
Click to expand...

That's 3G (aka UMTS, HSPA, WCDMA, FOMA), not GSM. My post was specifically talking about GSM (2G), as was the one that I was replying to.

Contrary to popular belief, 3G is not GSM. It's often (but not always; see NZ and Japan for some examples) paired with GSM but it's almost completely different. A GSM phone can't connect to 3G networks, and a 3G phone can't connect to GSM networks (although a large number of 3G phones also have a GSM radio so that this does work in practice).
 
Last edited:
RobertoG said:
Hi guys. First post, and I want to pick the collective brain.

Is it wise to hold out from buying an unlocked iPhone 5 now, expecting to get an unlocked iPhone 5S that can switch from AT&T lte to Verizon lte with the flip of a nanosim?

One can dream of a modem that works in all lte frequencies, can't I? :)
Click to expand...

Not sure if we'll see it in an iPhone 5S this year but I think Qualcomm was working on an LTE radio that covers most bands.

Its a similar story from the past. For GSM, it took several years for quadband (850, 900, 1800, 1900) to become common. Same with 3G/UMTS. Used to see 850/1900 phones and separate 900/2100 phones for years.
 
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