Hey guys I'm new to MacRumors. I have a quick question I hope you guys can help me out.
I was in the market for an iPhone 4S last week, as im going to overseas for quite sometime. I found a great deal on craigslist for an iPhone 4S which was previously a Sprint iPhone 4S CDMA. The seller stated that it was Unlocked and that he used it in Hong Kong with no problems what so ever. So i said great, and did a little research on CDMA. It seems that Sprint can only unlock there iPhone's from apple, and what it does is, it makes it unlocked for any foreign sim card outside the USA, but here in the USA its locked to Sprint no matter what.
So i went on his word, and bought it. I then later called sprint to verify it was unlocked, they told me i couldn't verify it because they don't have an account with me. So they referred me to apple, i called apple, they told me that on there end it said LOCKED. This made me super nervous! So i decided to do a little test... i have my Foreign Sim-Card here in the USA (Its called HOT or CellCom) and i put it in the Sprint iPhone 4S and it Searched for a network, and what appeared was AT&T!!! Is this possible? Can a CDMA iPhone 4S (Sprint) show a connection of AT&T??? Does this confirm its unlocked?
Cellcom / HOT probably partners with AT&T while im here in the USA.
So my question is, is my CDMA Sprint iPhone 4S ready for a foreign simcard? or do i need to sell it or something. I leave in a couple days, and i need a phone overseas. Also does Sprint just unlock them themselves? which is not a factory unlock, just an ESN unlock or something of the sort?
What do you think? Sorry for the long post! i need help. thanks guys
I was in the market for an iPhone 4S last week, as im going to overseas for quite sometime. I found a great deal on craigslist for an iPhone 4S which was previously a Sprint iPhone 4S CDMA. The seller stated that it was Unlocked and that he used it in Hong Kong with no problems what so ever. So i said great, and did a little research on CDMA. It seems that Sprint can only unlock there iPhone's from apple, and what it does is, it makes it unlocked for any foreign sim card outside the USA, but here in the USA its locked to Sprint no matter what.
So i went on his word, and bought it. I then later called sprint to verify it was unlocked, they told me i couldn't verify it because they don't have an account with me. So they referred me to apple, i called apple, they told me that on there end it said LOCKED. This made me super nervous! So i decided to do a little test... i have my Foreign Sim-Card here in the USA (Its called HOT or CellCom) and i put it in the Sprint iPhone 4S and it Searched for a network, and what appeared was AT&T!!! Is this possible? Can a CDMA iPhone 4S (Sprint) show a connection of AT&T??? Does this confirm its unlocked?
Cellcom / HOT probably partners with AT&T while im here in the USA.
So my question is, is my CDMA Sprint iPhone 4S ready for a foreign simcard? or do i need to sell it or something. I leave in a couple days, and i need a phone overseas. Also does Sprint just unlock them themselves? which is not a factory unlock, just an ESN unlock or something of the sort?
What do you think? Sorry for the long post! i need help. thanks guys
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