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10-Dee-Q

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
hi i need help fast.
my sister is in the US for holiday
i want to buy an iphone 5 Verizon CDMA to use it in my country
is there any way that i can buy the iphone without any contract as i dont intend to use it in the US ?

can somebody give a link to the online store or something ?

i just need the phone, i know the verizon's iphone is unlocked.
so i just need the phone without any contract.

thank you so much.
 
Gazelle now has an ebay account and you can buy from them. It will be more expensive than other ebay sellers, but you can trust them. The other way is if you know someone who lives in US and they go into a verizon store and pays full price for phone, or buys on contract for $199, and the cancels right away and pays the ETF and first months fees.
 
You can walk into Verizon and buy a no-contract phone at full price, open an account with them, pay up front for the first month of service, and cancel your service the same or next day. But you can't just walk into a store and buy a phone without service. Otherwise your best bet is ebay or craigslist.
 
I am in the exactly same situation as you. I have read a lot about this case and what I find out is that some Apple stores would sell you an iPhone 5 CDMA model without contract, while others would not. So as I see it you just have to check with your local Apple store. If the refuse to sell you an device only iPhone, you can visit a Best Buy shop and check if they want to sell you a contract.
For me it seems like you have to have a little bit of luck too :)

Good luck!
Hen9ng
 
Better make sure your CDMA provider will activate a phone they don't sell, since it has to be supported and they also have to activate the phones ESN in their network. (No SIM for CDMA)
 
so one can't just go into a verizon store and buy without contract ?
how about best buy ?
i tried their online store and it seems that i can purchase the phone without additional contract
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17005&type=page

all the verizon's iphone 5 is supposed to be unlocked right ?

the thing is this if i buy an iphone in my country, which apple only sell the GSM model, i can only use it for GSM carrier.

but in my country theres a CDMA and GSM carriers, i intend to use it with my CDMA carriers and theres now a new super nano RUIM card that can inject all the CDMA number option eg, ESN, etc onto the RUIM itself.

i've tried it in my friends iphone 5 verizon and i can actually switch from CDMA and GSM by just changing the nano Sim card.
 
As I said instead you have to have a little bit of luck, but I have read about people that have bought iPhones in both an Apple store and a Best Buy store, so it should be possible.

If I had understand it right the Verizon iPhones are unlocked, BUT it is just the GSM part that is unlocked. This means you are able to put in a nano-sim from any carrier. But the CDMA part is probably locked to Verizon.

-Hen9ng
 
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You have to try and hope you get lucky.
Try the Apple store first and then Verizon stores, best buy, target, radio shack or any place that has a Verizon iphone 5 in stock.
Tell them you want to pay full price without opening an account.
 
I re read you post. Verizon locks the CDMA band. GSM is unlocked. So buying the verizon iphone and using on cdma in your country would be impossible.
 
I re read you post. Verizon locks the CDMA band. GSM is unlocked. So buying the verizon iphone and using on cdma in your country would be impossible.

The other issue is that the Verizon CDMA iPhone requires a SIM card for LTE, which is GSM technology. If his carrier doesn't offer LTE and/or a SIM card for the slot, the CDMA radio on the iPhone 5 won't work, even if his CDMA carrier is willing to enter the ESN of phone that isn't supported on their network.
 
You can buy at Bestbuy or Apple store, tell them to pay full price. You will get a CDMA+GSM unlocked phone. If you buy at Verizon with contract, then it will be CDMA locked, GSM unlocked. I am not sure if you can buy at Verizon with full price, and what will happen.
 
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