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"Off Contract" AT&T iPhone 4Ss Already Come Unlocked
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It doesn't.... yet anyway. However, since full price iPhones are factory unlocked, a 360 degree turn around for Apple, it's my belief that the 'unlocked' iPhone to be released November 14 is one that will be able to be used on any US prepaid plan.
Not that long ago an Apple exec. stated that prepaid was a big market even in the US. So, at some point Apple should release a phone for that market.
Virgin Mobile is owned by Sprint and VM is Sprint's most profitable subsidiary. VM charges a premium for the phones they offer and you can only use a VM branded phone on VM's network. Apple of course doesn't allow this so I don't know how they'll work this out. It's possible they'll only offer the iP4 instead of the iP4s and perhaps they'll charge a premium for the iPhone.
Perhaps this is all wishful thinking as I've been wanting an iPhone since day one. However, 300 minutes a month are more than enough and I probably never send more than 100 texts a month, although I do use the internet on my phone every day, but am by no means a heavy user.
I am grandfathered into a $25 a month plan at Virgin Mobile and since it's more than sufficient, it makes no sense to spend an additional $900 a year just to use an iPhone.
For those who got it to work, did you ask for an "AT&T" off-contract phone? Is it going to work if your receipt clearing says iPhone 4S white 64gb AT&T on it with supplemental statement saying that "this iPhone model is configured to work only with the wireless services of AT&T wireless"?
if you put an AT&T microsim card in the phone or have the microsim card inside the phone registered under your old AT&T number, is it going to lock to phone back up?
if you put an AT&T microsim card in the phone or have the microsim card inside the phone registered under your old AT&T number, is it going to lock to phone back up?
I'd guess there are those who want the best iPod Touch possible with a phone built in, but not need the data plan and can get by with WiFi only with only a minimum number of phone calls a month.
I know many students are like that - they often are in the WiFi zone and many of them don't use voice calls all that much. They could conceivably save a ton of money by not signing up with an expensive plan.
At this point, an unlocked iPhone can only be used on ATT and T-Mobile. Apple confirms this on their website by stating that unlocked iPhones can only be used on GSM carriers, not CDMA. That might change in the future, but who knows?
How is it even legal to sell a phone for the full price lockedhere in germany it always has been unlocked if u buy it from apple or 02 and Vodafone r unlocked even on contract
Here in Brazil it is illegal as well. If you buy full price the carrier has to sell unlocked/unlock with no additional costs.
No they won't. I have 2 3GS (mine and my wife) and they refused to unlock them (our contract is expired). I went to a store, I called their service support and emailed them. Same answer each time.
Yes, I restored using iTunes.
On Friday, I set it up straight from my old iCloud backup.
Kris
How is it even legal to sell a phone for the full price locked
because US of A govt is always in bed with Corporation (aka lobbyist)
they care more for the corporation than the consumers (aka people) ...
I hope that all those complaining about the price of the unlocked phones realise that they are so expensive because they're not subsidised by the phone companies... And I hope they understand further that the phone companies do this because you end up paying them a hell of a lot more over the life of the device!
All the carriers here in the U.S. have to do is hook you on data, limit it, and then sell expensive upgrades. As LTE is rolled out, look for the same.
When and if smartphones reach a natural feature plateau, and they will, people will be more inclined to keep their devices longer, and shop around for the most appropriate deal. At this point, carriers will have to compete, at least a little bit, on plans not devices.
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From all the articles I've read: All iPhone 4S' come with Siri and is localized based on the language you set it to. If you set to "US English" it will work as you expect here in the US. If you set it to UK or Australian English, you'll have to do your best Eddie Izzard or Crocodile Dundee.
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I thought this was going to be the case before they came out. It just makes sense that they are unlocked since it's all one phone now. It's less of a pain in the ass for Apple to deal with a different version for each carrier. The combination of the iPhone into ONE device has to be a nice cost savings for Apple. No need for multiple SKUs for each carrier.
Do you have a data plan? Can you confirm your network speeds? If you're getting HSPA+ speeds I may consider getting one.
He'd be on EDGE.
It has been confirmed that the 4S does not support the 1700MHz band required for T-Mobile's 3G service.
I'll be getting my Micro SIM in a little while and will report back on the exact EDGE speeds once I get it running. I picked up a 32GB AT&T 4S this morning from the Apple Store off-contract and iTunes said it was unlocked.
I don't think so, although if apple wants it, they'll have serious leverage against that decision. Most carriers, other than metropcs, are pretty anal about only letting their own devices on their network. For example, both sprint and verizon offered the same HTC Touch Pro 2, however, you couldn't put a sprint one on verizon, since they say that sprint's version is incompatible with their network (which is a lie).
Maybe since the 3GS and 4S use the same plan, it's less of an issue this time?
True. I may be better off waiting for the official unlocked phones and going over to AT&T, to confirm no changes to the plan, before unsealing the box.
I'd take this article with a *huge* grain of salt but perhaps the unlocked chipset supports AWS frequencies. http://www.appleiphoneapps.net/iphone-5-specifications/unlocked-iphone-4s-will-work-on-t-mobile