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"No Service" on a Verizon iPhone using T-Mobile Sim Card?

SPNarwhal

SPNarwhal

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 22, 2009
1,260
156
illinois
My friend just got her iPhone 6, Verizon model.
She put her T-Mobile sim card inside of it and it's giving her "No Service" on the top.

What I've tried so far

1.) Update Network Settings (But no updates were there to be made)

2.) Reset Network Settings

Didn't do anything.

Any idea what's going on? Verizon models are completely unlocked, so I have no idea why it's having trouble getting service from T-Mobile.
 
SPNarwhal said:
My friend just got her iPhone 6, Verizon model.
She put her T-Mobile sim card inside of it and it's giving her "No Service" on the top.

What I've tried so far

1.) Update Network Settings (But no updates were there to be made)

2.) Reset Network Settings

Didn't do anything.

Any idea what's going on? Verizon models are completely unlocked, so I have no idea why it's having trouble getting service from T-Mobile.
Click to expand...

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/t-mobile-sim-card-in-a-verizon-iphone-6s-plus.1934012/
 
SPNarwhal said:
My friend just got her iPhone 6, Verizon model.
She put her T-Mobile sim card inside of it and it's giving her "No Service" on the top.

What I've tried so far

1.) Update Network Settings (But no updates were there to be made)

2.) Reset Network Settings

Didn't do anything.

Any idea what's going on? Verizon models are completely unlocked, so I have no idea why it's having trouble getting service from T-Mobile.
Click to expand...

You are assuming it's unlocked. It's probably not.
 
fr4c said:
If it works fine with your AT&T sim, I would have her go to T-Mobile and get a new SIM card.
Click to expand...
Hey fr4k!!

That's the weird part. I went to T-Mobile with her today and the girl there put her personal sim in the phone and same thing. I really have no idea what's going on
 
I'm pretty sure all the carriers share the same blacklist in the US, so if it's blocked on T-Mobile then it will most likely be blocked on AT&T. I also have been wrong in the past...

To be sure I would just have T-Mobile issue a brand new SIM card. There have been issues in the past with older SIM cards not working. Sometimes even a batch of SIM card from the same shrink-wrap packet are DOA.
 
fr4c said:
I'm pretty sure all the carriers share the same blacklist in the US, so if it's blocked on T-Mobile then it will most likely be blocked on AT&T. I also have been wrong in the past...

To be sure I would just have T-Mobile issue a brand new SIM card. There have been issues in the past with older SIM cards not working. Sometimes even a batch of SIM card from the same shrink-wrap packet are DOA.
Click to expand...

Yep. A blacklisted phone will be blacklisted on carriers across the board. I went to T-Mobile and the girl there pulled hers from her 6plus or 6s plus and tried it but didn't work. Said she could sell me a new one for $20 (ridiculous that they aren't free)

I called apple and they told me to do a restore on iTunes with the sim installed. I planned on doing that earlier but there's an iCloud lock on it and I'm waiting for the password since my friend is at work.

Will post back on my findings.

In other words, it's not actually a Verizon phone. It's an unlocked sprint phone. Definitely unlocked, though, seeing as it's already been confirmed to work on Verizon and att both.

Question, though. If anyone knows. Is there a difference between an unlocked sprint phone and unlocked att phone? I heard the sprint phone was the "truly unlocked" model. Whatever that means. I'm not sure if that's a hardware thing or just an outdated term used back when sprint was very particular on which phones they accepted and such. Then again, sprint used to always refuse domestic unlocking until recently, so I don't see how that would make sense either.
 
JulesJam said:
For the iPhone 6, the AT&T model is Model A1549. The iP6 Sprint is Model A1586.
Click to expand...
... is this a smart alec response or are you genuinely trying to help?
I know there are different model numbers, but is there an actual difference among the phones
 
SPNarwhal said:
... is this a smart alec response or are you genuinely trying to help?
I know there are different model numbers, but is there an actual difference among the phones
Click to expand...
When the phones have different model numbers, the hardware is different. Click on the link in my earlier post.
 
SPNarwhal said:
Oh, you edited it. !

Well then. Is a Sprint Unlocked iPhone better to have over an AT&T Unlocked iPhone?
Click to expand...

Fyi, Apple also sold the "sim free" iPhone 6/6+, which was the same model as the Sprint iPhone 6/6+, but it was unlocked out of the box and whitelisted to work on all 4 carriers.

And from a certain point of view it is better simply because it can be used on Sprint and has that one extra band.
 
Here's an interesting tidbit. I had her over after she deactivated the iCloud and iTunes would not allow me to restore the phone.

I was able to reset the phone from the phone itself, but iTunes would not restore it for me. I put it into recovery mode and restored it, now it restores just fine via iTunes.

I'm wondering if that fixed it? Maybe it was some weird little software glitch. I have 0 idea.
I don't have her or the sim here to test out the network anymore. This whole ordeal has been a pretty strange one.

iTunes also gives me the "Congratulations your iPhone has been unlocked" message. No surprise.

Will take to T-Mobile again and see what's up.

Thank you everyone for the help. :)
 
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SPNarwhal said:
Here's an interesting tidbit. I had her over after she deactivated the iCloud and iTunes would not allow me to restore the phone.

I was able to reset the phone from the phone itself, but iTunes would not restore it for me. I put it into recovery mode and restored it, now it restores just fine via iTunes.

I'm wondering if that fixed it? Maybe it was some weird little software glitch. I have 0 idea.
I don't have her or the sim here to test out the network anymore. This whole ordeal has been a pretty strange one.

iTunes also gives me the "Congratulations your iPhone has been unlocked" message. No surprise.

Will take to T-Mobile again and see what's up.

Thank you everyone for the help. :)
Click to expand...

Not sure where you are located. But it is possible you are in an area with T-Mobile that is Band 12 only. The iPhone 6/6 Plus does not have Band 12. That would give you "no service". The iPhone 6 however does have Band 2 & 4 that T-Mobile also uses.
 
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