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Sprint 4s empty sim-do I need one for travel?

D

derrick2005

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 8, 2011
140
0
I am on my 3rd 4s. My first one was shipped direct by Sprint and when I switched phones at Apple they gave me the sim to take to the Sprint store to activate the new phone. The Sprint store employees were confised by the whole process, and even denied that there was such a thing as a Sprint sim for the iPhone! Anyway, I showed them then sprint details on it and they agredd it was a sim, called apple themselved and figured out how to get the sim in the phone - that was my second iphone.

After a lot of problems with that phone I got a third and final one and it was activated in the Apple store, no going in to Sprint. Yesterday, I opened the sim card slot and it is empty! I will be travelling in a few days to France, Israel and Italy and need to be able to use my phone in all thosie countries. Do in need the Sprint sim?

To point out, the phone was activated after Sprint said they will be locking the sims, and also my company will pay roaming so I would only use the Sprint roaming anyway, please advise! I did call Sprint, the customer service rep I spoke to had no understanding of what I was asking and said that roaming internationally on sprint didnt require a sim, when I asked why there was a sprint sim my question was ignored.

Not such a happy sprint customer!
 
Yes, you will need a SIM card to roam or use phone service in Italy and France. Israel has CDMA and will probably not require a SIM, but it wouldn't hurt to have one anyway.

You MIGHT get away with being able to use a local SIM *if* the carriers in those countries offer a microSIM that will fit in the iPhone 4S. It all depends on whether your iPhone has been unlocked for international use. Apparently a lot of Sprint iPhone 4S models ordered at launch were shipped unlocked.

In any case, I would definitely get a Sprint SIM to make absolutely sure you can roam internationally.


derrick2005 said:
Not such a happy sprint customer!
Click to expand...

Well yeah... as a former Sprint customer, let me tell you: that probably won't change as long as you're with them.
 
Last edited:
I don't believe you need the SIM while traveling to those countries, unless you want to pay the high GSM roaming fees. You will need to purchase a local sim card from a specific country to call out. Since you have a few days, I'd take care of that sim immediately.

@ Vernon
Do you need the Sim that came with the 4S here in the U.S? I don't think it's tied to local CDMA in anyway, except for roaming International GSM/CDMA networks, correct?
 
You only need a sim card if u travel outside of USA. Sprint's network doesn't use sim cards and phones are activated based on IMEI
 
ET iPhone Home said:
I don't believe you need the SIM while traveling to those countries, unless you want to pay the high GSM roaming fees. You will need to purchase a local sim card from a specific country to call out. Since you have a few days, I'd take care of that sim immediately.

@ Vernon
Do you need the Sim that came with the 4S here in the U.S? I don't think it's tied to local CDMA in anyway, except for roaming International GSM/CDMA networks, correct?
Click to expand...

I'm not a guy, so not Vernon! LOL

No, don't need it in the U.S., however, if it was activated after 11/11 then it needs it to roam internationally, or you have to get Sprint to unlock it to use other ones. They are being very picky about unlocking them for new customers and for people that don't have an account with them, at all.

Since I sometimes go to Canada, I looked into this, before I ordered my phone, then confirmed afterwards.
 
The OP's company is paying for the international roaming so there's no need for him to use a local carrier.

In that case, yes you need a Sprint SIM. If not for all three countries, at least one of those will need the SIM.
 
wordoflife said:
The OP's company is paying for the international roaming so there's no need for him to use a local carrier.

In that case, yes you need a Sprint SIM. If not for all three countries, at least one of those will need the SIM.
Click to expand...

Thanks - indeed my company will pay the roaming so I do need to roam on Sprint - I have emailed them asking for the microsim for the iphone and I hope I will get one in time, the Sprint stores don't carry them. Which is the "at least one" of the countries will need the sim?
 
@Verwon. That W key and N key is far apart. I would have blamed it on mistype. It was one of those Words/Names that appeared familiar, but wasn't. My apologies. Trust me, 99.9% here, I couldn't identify as male or female, unless it had something obvious like dude or chick in their user name.
 
In Israel, Sprint's roaming partner is CDMA-based, so you will be using CDMA roaming and no SIM will be required. Inserting (or removing) a Sprint-branded SIM card while you're inside Israel will not have any impact on your quality of service.

In both France and Italy, Sprint's roaming partners are GSM-based, so you will be using GSM roaming, and a SIM card will be necessary. If you don't have a Sprint-branded SIM card (and you're not unlocked), then you will not receive any service in these countries.
 
derrick2005 said:
Thanks - indeed my company will pay the roaming so I do need to roam on Sprint - I have emailed them asking for the microsim for the iphone and I hope I will get one in time, the Sprint stores don't carry them. Which is the "at least one" of the countries will need the sim?
Click to expand...

France and Italy for sure (GSM in all of Europe, basically).
 
Just a word of warning, while in Israel, I couldnt get my Sprint iPhone to pick up a CDMA signal.
 
SporkLover said:
Yeah I know. I called international support and they couldnt resolve it while I was there.
Click to expand...

Sorry to bump the thread , Sprint have unlocked the phone for me- I will be getting a prepaid unlimited data sim for France and Israel. In France it will be an Orange sim card with some prpeaid calling and data, in israel it will be cellcom and have unlimited data and some calling time too.

If I undersatnd this correctly, all I have to do when I land is pop the orange or cellcom microsim in my 4s and then i can use all my apps? If so can will my imessage work? My google voice with my us google voice phone number?If not is there any way I can use the data plan with an app that gives us phone numbers? I did jailbreak the 4s too, so will 3g unrestrictor work with the unlimited plan i have?

sorry for so many questions..
 
You may want to contact a company called MRSIMCARD that sells prepaid sim cards for multiple international phone carriers. I purchased one with a monthly unlimited data plan for cellcom in Israel. Works great with very good support.
 
derrick2005 said:
If I undersatnd this correctly, all I have to do when I land is pop the orange or cellcom microsim in my 4s and then i can use all my apps? If so can will my imessage work? My google voice with my us google voice phone number?If not is there any way I can use the data plan with an app that gives us phone numbers? I did jailbreak the 4s too, so will 3g unrestrictor work with the unlimited plan i have?
Click to expand...
My experience using a unlocked Verizon iPhone in Hong Kong was that it took a little futzing to setup. I honestly don't know if any of this will apply to your Sprint phone, but for what it's worth...

Verizon told me the first time you put another SIM into your iPhone, the iPhone will need an Internet connection (either via WiFi, or if your computer has Internet, connected to your computer) to verify that it's unlocked. I didn't remember this, so when I popped in the pre-paid SIM at the store I bought it from, I got an invalid SIM error. When I got back to the hotel (which had free WiFi) and tried it again, it didn't say invalid SIM, but nothing seemed to happen. I rebooted my iPhone and then saw the new carrier logo and signal bars show up. No 3G indicator. Reading the booklet that came with the pre-paid SIM, this carrier requires that you dial a number from your iPhone before they'll activate data for the first time. So I did that, and still no data. Futzed around with it for a few more minutes (including doing some reboots), then I got an unexpected text from the carrier saying that the data had been enabled. Right after that, the 3G indicator came on. I turned Wi-Fi off (so I wouldn't be connected to the hotel Internet), but none of my apps (or Safari) would work. Reading thru the booklet some more, there was a section about APNs, which have to be setup correctly for data to work. I checked in my iPhone, and the APNs that came on the pre-paid card didn't match what the booklet said they should be, so I changed them, and then finally everything started to work.

iMessage worked great, with the exception that txts from the US came from numbers that had a +1 (country code in them), so they didn't usually associate the contacts name with them. So when I got an iMessage from a friend, I'd go to the top of the iMessage and add their international number to their contact.

I also went into the iPhone settings for Messages and turned off the feature that tries to send iMessages as txt, if the iMessage fails.

AFAIK, Google Voice uses regular cell phone minutes. I used Skype to talk with people back home, but I just did Skype to Skype, not Skype to a regular telephone number.

Also, when I got back to the US, I still had my pre-paid SIM in, and my Verizon iPhone started roaming on AT&T! I had to remove the pre-paid SIM before the iPhone would kick back over to Verizon. I didn't have a paperclip with me to remove the SIM, and it was a PITA to find one at JFK. lol Once I got back on Verizon, all txts/calls I received from anyone didn't have their name on it. The only way I was able to fix that was to call *228 ... with the original Verizon SIM back in the slot. Sprint may not use *228, but they should have a similar process. Doing that fixed it so everyone's names associated with their numbers again!

Hopefully the fun I had was all related to the pre-paid carrier I picked + Verizon, and your trip will be way more smooth. :) Safe travels!
 
aristobrat - thanks for your reply, and BBCISprof - the secretary at my office is buying a sim from there now!
 
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