iPhone 11 Purchasing unlocked phone for use on AT&T?

[Kung]

I currently have an iPhone XS, and am contemplating purchasing an 11 (yeah, I know) for the battery life, camera, and the PWM effects the XS has caused me.

I've searched the internet far and wide and can't seem to get a consensus on this; half the links I've seen suggest that certain features (VoLTE, WiFi Calling) won't work correctly if I purchase an unlocked phone and use it with AT&T, due to the fact that it won't be 'whitelisted.' The other half seem to suggest "Awh yeah, it'll work fine bud."

Anyone got a 'for sure' answer? I fail to believe it can be made to work; but then again, having been with AT&T for a while, I've also seen some of the dumb stuff they can do.

 

[Prof.]

I have an unlocked 11 Pro Max purchased through apple and have zero issues with any service - VoLTE, WiFi calling, etc. I have VZW.

 

[mrbjr]

I bought an 11 Pro unlocked, sim free and when it arrived I put the sim out of my X. Absolutely no problems and I turned on WiFi calling .. ATT...

 

[AMessy]

Two more data points:

I switched to AT&T earlier this year. Installed and activated the sim they sent me with my Unlocked/Sim Free iPhone X. No issues, all those features worked great. (Had to turn them on in the Setrings>Cellular menu)

Then purchased a new unlocked/sim free Pro on launch day and installed my previous SIM card. Again, no issues with those features. I love the wifi calling feature.

I believe the concern you have stems from the Android side of things, specifically where unlocked Samsung phones purchased direct from Samsung do not have the same network features the same phone purchased from AT&T has. Not sure if this is still the case though (Not my intent to “bash” android).

 

[Kung]

I have an unlocked 11 Pro Max purchased through apple and have zero issues with any service - VoLTE, WiFi calling, etc. I have VZW.

Well yeah, that I expected, but VZW isn't silly when it comes to locking stuff like AT&T is.

I bought an 11 Pro unlocked, sim free and when it arrived I put the sim out of my X. Absolutely no problems and I turned on WiFi calling .. ATT...

Nice - will likely go that route then. I appreciate it.

 

[Kung]

believe the concern you have stems from the Android side of things, specifically where unlocked Samsung phones purchased direct from Samsung do not have the same network features the same phone purchased from AT&T has. Not sure if this is still the case though (Not my intent to “bash” android).

Heh, I can definitely confirm that. I bought an unlocked S10e (I know I know) in March....and had to return it as the unlocked version definitely didn’t support VoLTE/WiFi Calling. I’ve seen far fewer “anecdotes” about the iPhone, however, so I wanted to verify first. Thanks! 👍