Purchased AT&T iPhone 5 at Apple store & it works with T-Mobile out of the box!

[bozzykid]

OK, I must have been asleep for a month- I actually had no idea a fully priced at&t iphone 5 comes unlocked right out of the box. This is almost unbelievable to me as I have been waiting for Apple to announce the unlocked phones to become available. I am a T-Mobile customer.

It shouldn't be a surprise as the iPhone 4/4S were unlocked from the Apple store when paying full price for the AT&T version. And technically it isn't unlocked until you hook it up to iTunes the first time.

 

[KittyToy]

It shouldn't be a surprise as the iPhone 4/4S were unlocked from the Apple store when paying full price for the AT&T version. And technically it isn't unlocked until you hook it up to iTunes the first time.

I believe that was sarcasm from the poster lol

 

[jrz]

After making my purchase and checking the phone for nicks/dings (found a very minor one btw) I headed straight to the T-Mobile store. When I arrived I pulled my macbook out along with the iPhone. Once word got around the store of what I was attempting to do, I had an audience of 3 sales people and 2 other customers.

I turned the iPhone on, plugged it into the macbook and before I could even touch a thing on the mac or the phone iTunes popped up and instantly displayed the message “Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked.”

Without doing anything else I unplugged the phone, popped in my new T-Mobile nano sim and after rebooting I had full 3G signal!!

OP- did you first take out the at&t SIM before turning on the phone?

 

[PeterTran]

Tried apple store they say we arent selling at no commitment price. Tried online it asks for the aaccount details. Tried the Other stores like target bb and radio shack they dont have it in the stock. Can anyone tell me these stores receive iphones daily or what?

Try asking for device only. Some apple employees are just stupid and don't know the meaning of paraphrase.

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OK, I must have been asleep for a month- I actually had no idea a fully priced at&t iphone 5 comes unlocked right out of the box. This is almost unbelievable to me as I have been waiting for Apple to announce the unlocked phones to become available. I am a T-Mobile customer.

My questions: Is there any risk at all of me buying an at&t phone at full price, that the phone could be locked (or if really unlocked, that it could be locked later)?

Second: Any limitations (aside from network speed) of the iPhone 5 on Tmo?

It should be unlocked if you buy it full price at an apple store for an att iphone 5. If it isnt, hook it up to itunes and restore it.It should have the unlocked message after

 

[MuGeN PoWeR]

Try asking for device only. Some apple employees are just stupid and don't know the meaning of paraphrase.

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It should be unlocked if you buy it full price at an apple store for an att iphone 5. If it isnt, hook it up to itunes and restore it.It should have the unlocked message after

yeah i am on it. lets see what happens tomorrow!

 

[Applejuiced]

HSPA+ will work when they refarm their network in your area.
Untill then its 2G. Some places do get 3G+ with Tmobile but they're not that many yet.
Visual voicemail will not. You will have to do the old school dial in with your pin or download an app that acts similar to visual voicemail. There's a few available.
iMessage and facetime both will work. Facetime over 3G will work when there is 3G available in your area back again when Tmobile refarms their 3G network.

Yup.

A question for others: Does an unlocked iphone work fully "as intended" on Tmo?

ie:

HPSA+?
visual voicemail?
imessage?
facetime over 3G?

Just curious, not considering changing. I had my iphone 3GS on tmo, and while it was cheap, certain things didn't quite work as intended.

 

[sn0warmy]

Tried apple store they say we arent selling at no commitment price. Tried online it asks for the aaccount details. Tried the Other stores like target bb and radio shack they dont have it in the stock. Can anyone tell me these stores receive iphones daily or what?

Yeah, the first Apple store I tried ended with the same result. They wouldn't sell me the phone even at full price without being an AT&T or Verizon customer.

The second Apple store was much less strict. In fact, judging by the sales girl's comments, I'm pretty sure they sold me a phone that had already been reserved by someone else. I kind of felt bad about that but I had to seize the moment.

OK, I must have been asleep for a month- I actually had no idea a fully priced at&t iphone 5 comes unlocked right out of the box. This is almost unbelievable to me as I have been waiting for Apple to announce the unlocked phones to become available. I am a T-Mobile customer.

My questions: Is there any risk at all of me buying an at&t phone at full price, that the phone could be locked (or if really unlocked, that it could be locked later)?

Second: Any limitations (aside from network speed) of the iPhone 5 on Tmo?

From what I'm reading, and from my experience, I think it's safe to say that you can be very confident in buying an AT&T version at full price and having it come unlocked out of the box. Hell, even it it isn't you can still return it for a full refund within 30 days. The 2 sales people I spoke to both confirmed that there is no restocking fee.

I really don't think they will lock it later. A couple articles I read had quotes from AT&T tech support and other higher ups saying they are fully aware that the iPhone is unlocked and they have no plans on doing anything about it.

OP- did you first take out the at&t SIM before turning on the phone?

Haha to be honest, I didn't even think about the fact that the phone already had an AT&T sim card in it. I just took it out of the box, turned it on, plugged it into the computer and the "Congratulations your iPhone is now unlocked" message instantly appeared. I immediately put my T-Mobile nano sim in, rebooted the phone and instantly had signal.