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Question about Sprint iPhone 4S - Carrier Unlock

Want300

Want300

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Oct 12, 2011
1,194
2
St. Louis, MO
First, if anything like this has been posted already, I am sorry... But I am hoping to get help for my specific situation.

Okay, I work for a small company and only three employees have company iPhones. The other company phones are just standard phones, so we will just pick up free phones for them. Each one is a Sprint 16 GB iPhone 4S. We are looking to potentially switch to using T-Mobile (or AT&T, but most likely will be T-Mobile) as our Cellular Provider. I have no control over when this happens or anything along those lines. I have Jailbroken my personal phone a couple times, so I am familiar with that process.

I have one job: Figure out a way to make the iPhone's work for T-Mobile or AT&T. I do not know what the contract situation is, and what my boss plans to do there. I just need to understand "unlocking" the phone. SO....

- What is the different between Factory Unlocked and User Unlocked?
- Does Sprint even other that service? (I know AT&T does when you are out of contract)
- How is a User unlock accomplished?
- Is it currently possible on the iPhone 4S?

I am pretty sure all of them have iOS 5.1.1 currently.

If you do not want to type it all out: Please feel free to post links to other threads or pages that you think explain it well.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: AT&T now, Passing on T-Mobile.
 
Last edited:
Applejuiced said:
Currently on Tmobile USA you will only get 2G Edge service for data and not 3G.
Click to expand...

I just read that a minute ago actually. Hopefully, I can talk him out switching to T-Mobile since he will not want to purchase new phones... Especially after just now getting used to his iPhone.

----------

So lets switch the focus from T-Mobile to AT&T. Thanks.
 
Carrier unlock will allow you to fully update your device anytime to any software build and never loose your unlock. You can use any carrier in the world.

A user unlock ( jailbreak + unlock software or hardware ) will still give you the capability as factory but you will unable to update to latest and greatest software until the iPhone dev team finds a hole in the software that allows the user unlock to work on that build. If you accidentally update your phone to new software the unlock will be lost as apple normally fixes the loop holes with each release.

I paid 90$ to get my iPhone factory unlocked from a website. Basically they have a source that adds the IMEI's into the apples database that gives you factory unlock.
 
TOOFY said:
Carrier unlock will allow you to fully update your device anytime to any software build and never loose your unlock. You can use any carrier in the world.

A user unlock ( jailbreak + unlock software or hardware ) will still give you the capability as factory but you will unable to update to latest and greatest software until the iPhone dev team finds a hole in the software that allows the user unlock to work on that build. If you accidentally update your phone to new software the unlock will be lost as apple normally fixes the loop holes with each release.

I paid 90$ to get my iPhone factory unlocked from a website. Basically they have a source that adds the IMEI's into the apples database that gives you factory unlock.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.
 
If it is a Sprint (CDMA) phone, getting it factory unlocked, will only allow the sim slot to work with International sims, not any US GSM sims

A Gevey Ultra 4S sim interposer claims to unlock the sim slot to work with US GSM carriers.

That is your option.
 
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