Sprint Offers Clarification on iPhone 4S International Micro-SIM Unlocking

[Finiksa]

let me confirm. if i buy a sprint iPhone 4s like on craigslist or something. i should be able to pop in my AT&T micro sim from my original iPhone 4 and use it with no problem?

Not quite, it'll work temporarily until Sprint remotely lock your phone. Which probably means Sprint will flag the IMEI as locked on Apples activation server and it'll be locked the next time you restore the phone.

That being said I seriously question the legality of selling an unlocked phone and locking it after the fact. I'd be surprised if Sprint go through with it.

 

[viewfly]

ATT will follow

Since the iPhone 4S is available on all the big carriers now (Verizon, ATT, Sprint), carriers will have to compete on service and not hardware.

I think ATT will follow suit domestically. They will revert to their normal policy for other phones, and after a period of time ( 60 days) will allow customers in good standing to SIM unlock the iPhone 4S. You will still be under contract, with ETF's though. This is especially true when they buy Tmobile. Since Apple will begin selling unlocked 4S in a couple of months, ATT will have too.

This is great news for us. Just give it a few months to happen.

 

[miguelroboso]

I pre-ordered the att version, but I am sending it back before the 30 days for a verizon version. The "chance" to have the phone unlocked internationally is better than the "chance" to unlock in other ways.

 

[justperry]

Not quite, it'll work temporarily until Sprint remotely lock your phone. Which probably means Sprint will flag the IMEI as locked on Apples activation server and it'll be locked the next time you restore the phone.

That being said I seriously question the legality of selling an unlocked phone and locking it after the fact. I'd be surprised if Sprint go through with it.

Exactly what I was thinking.
If I got a Sprint iPhone and was unlocked to start with but they would lock it later on I would sue them.
By the way, it should be like in the Netherlands, you own the phone so you can unlock it legally.
Some US people here say the reason it is so expensive is that its costly to have networks so huge, that is nonsense, look at Europe, they have affordable networks.
And then some other people claim that networks lose money on subsidised phones, again nonsense because do you really think they will pay full retail prize for those phones?
No way they do, they pretend to give you a phone but in the end you pay a lot for it.
The best and cheapest way by far is buying one yourself and get a prepaid sim card, by far the cheapest option.

 

[wardy89]

i live in the uk and have a iphone 4 on o2, while they don't give you the phones unlocked they do offer a service where by anyone who has a phone on contract can have there phone unlocked for free at any point in there contract. which works for me!

 

[goosnarrggh]

...By the way, it should be like in the Netherlands, you own the phone so you can unlock it legally.

As far as I know, only one US law was ever put forward as a possible impediment to legally being able to unlock your own phone -- the DMCA. An exemption has been read into the DMCA by the Library of Congress which specifically states that phone unlocking is not considered an offence under the DMCA. So, at the moment it appears that there is no law preventing you from taking the necessary steps to unlock the phone on your own.

The flip side of the coin, though, is that there's also no law making it mandatory for anybody to help you out -- so Apple and their carrier partners don't have to provide the service, forcing you to use unofficial, third-party "hacks" to perform the unlock. And furthermore, Apple and their carrier partners are also perfectly at liberty to go out of their way to try to make the unofficial unlock process as difficult as they possibly can.

They don't appear to be breaking the law by denying you an official unlocking service, and you're not breaking the law by going behind their backs to "hack" the phone to remove the lock.

(Of course, none of this is legal advice. I'm not your lawyer -- in fact, I'm not a lawyer at all.)

 

[nebo1ss]

Sprint is not going to push any software to the phone to relock it. The process if they choose to apply it would be to remove the phone from the apple white list database. This will only lock the phone the next time your restore it or upgrade the IOS.

 

[Apple Big Mac]

let me confirm. if i buy a sprint iPhone 4s like on craigslist or something. i should be able to pop in my AT&T micro sim from my original iPhone 4 and use it with no problem?

According to the information that has been released so far on the CDMA carrier 4Ss, I've read that what you want to do isn't possible. I've read that even if unlocked, the 4S from Verizon or Sprint won't work on US GSM frequency and will only work on the foreign networks. If that's true it's got to be some sort of software baseband restriction from Apple to protect AT&T.

 

[yakapo]

I travel internationally every 6 weeks normally with my T-mobile and two unlocked phones for local cards. So the Sprint phone sounds great for me - lose T-mobile, resolve local sim extra phone carry - get iphone.

Why I'm scared;
1) Early call to sprint store to ask about whether I could insert local SIM when traveling resulted in 4 hang-ups on transfers and 2 wrong answers.

2) Tired to order phone online but as a new customer I could not. So Sprint who desperately needs customers couldn't allow a new customer (400/month usage) to order online? I would think they should have massage girls (or men depending on sex and preferences) hand delivering to new customers.

3) This - unlock - lock via undefined method - unlock if I'm a good customer - sounds like complete failing nonsense. Please define good customer - also what's the point?

Sadly - Verizon and AT&T no better.

The rest of the world - buy a phone - buy a SIM - done.

But any advise from Sprint users before I waste some of my life standing on line tomorrow?

+1 million!!!! I tried calling Sprint to ask them some questions about a family plan. It took forever to wade through all the options: press 1 for English press 2 if you have a problem, press 3 if you want to find a store... I'm not a customer!!! Don't you want my money????

I even called a store and I got the same automated BS. Then finally I got someone who spoke really broken English - they couldn't understand me and I couldn't understand them. They could not answer my questions... On the family plan with unlimited data is it really only $20 to add a phone w/ data? How much will tax be on my $120 plan? At least on At&t their tech support is in some country where the people speak some resemblance of English. (of course I was trying to ask about new service not tech support) How can my cable provider afford to hire real Americans? If only sprint knew that I was going to join with several other family members... At least $150 a month for 2 years... maybe even lifelong customers.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Not quite, it'll work temporarily until Sprint remotely lock your phone. Which probably means Sprint will flag the IMEI as locked on Apples activation server and it'll be locked the next time you restore the phone.

That being said I seriously question the legality of selling an unlocked phone and locking it after the fact. I'd be surprised if Sprint go through with it.

This is what is bugging me. You are buying a phone with a feature, and they are taking that away. I can see going forward they will be locked, but I'd be raising holy he'll if they took a feature away that was present when I bought it.

I have nothing to gain as I'm not a sprint customer, and not in a position to buy a verizon 4s right now either.

 

[Macobius]

As far as I know, you can buy in Europe unlocked IPhones, especially in Italy.
But you pay the full price (starts from 600 €)

 

[flux73]

I think you're going to be in for a surprise...Sprint is trying to make money off you...an unlocked sim slot would defeat that purpose

How so?? As long as one continues to pay their monthly fees to Sprint, why would they care what you do with your SIM slot? Either they should up their ETF fees to cover those who terminate immediately, or they should just let you unlock after 60 days like Verizon to cover that cost. Or better yet, let you prepay the first 2 months of your contract and unlock immediately. I'll happily stick with Sprint and pay my monthly fees for 2 years if they let me use other SIM cards when I travel abroad.

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According to the information that has been released so far on the CDMA carrier 4Ss, I've read that what you want to do isn't possible. I've read that even if unlocked, the 4S from Verizon or Sprint won't work on US GSM frequency and will only work on the foreign networks. If that's true it's got to be some sort of software baseband restriction from Apple to protect AT&T.

The only way that could be true is if some change was made in software, because there's no way that Apple would create separate assembly lines for the iPhone based on carrier. And so if what you're saying is true and it's software based, then it means it's changeable, whether through jailbreaking or some other means.

 

[CodeJingle]

It is locked, I tried my Sprint iPhone 4S with AT&T prepaid micro-sim. So there.

 

[CodeJingle]

It is locked, I tried my Sprint iPhone 4S with AT&T prepaid micro-sim. So there.

Update: I later found this quote from official Sprint statement "Sprint's policy is to have the iPhone 4S SIM locked to our network domestically and internationally. At launch, the International SIM will be unlocked."

So unfortunately thread comments about locking out certain bands is correct. Sprint has the US-only GSM bands locked from the start and forever more. Only international bands are unlocked/unlockable. 850 and 1900 are the primary bands in US. 900 and 1800 are primary international bands.

 

[sprintsucks]

It is locked, I tried my Sprint iPhone 4S with AT&T prepaid micro-sim. So there.

I can verify the same:

Just bought a white 16GB this morning from the apple store and signed up for a new sprint account (took 2 hours just activating the device, and the sprint activation portal is IE only, so they only had one iMac with windows running).

I put in an H2O wireless (They piggyback off ATT's network) sim (I cut it into a micro-sim), and the phone rejected it.

Upon calling Sprint, CSR's put me into an infinite loop: The first person you speak to has no idea what's going on, and they transfer you to tech support department that understands the issue (wanting to unlock the phone), but they transfer you to international department. The int. department has no menu option to unlock, and any option simply leads back to the main US-based menu, starting the process all over again.

I was also told that I cannot cancel my plan until the 14 days are over, but I can return the phone+Cancel my plan within 14 days for a 100% refund. If an unlock is not released on Sprint's part, I will return the device after 13 days and wait for the factory unlocked phone from apple.

 

[mrmoe]

I put in my TMobile microsim as that account is still active and it did not work. So it is US locked as far as I can tell. I am not sure how they did a country lock, but foreign SIMs better work as I will be in India in two weeks.

 

[andiwm2003]

has anybody gotten a written confirmation (email or such) from verizon that they will unlock the 4S internationally for any sim? i don't care about domestic locks because I use Verizon there. But when overseas I want to use local Sim cards.

 

[KPOM]

let me confirm. if i buy a sprint iPhone 4s like on craigslist or something. i should be able to pop in my AT&T micro sim from my original iPhone 4 and use it with no problem?

i can't seem to get a straight answer.

Thanks in advance!

No. A US SIM won't work since Sprint is unlikely to fully unlock it. They will just unlock it for non-US SIM cards.

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Update: I later found this quote from official Sprint statement "Sprint's policy is to have the iPhone 4S SIM locked to our network domestically and internationally. At launch, the International SIM will be unlocked."

So unfortunately thread comments about locking out certain bands is correct. Sprint has the US-only GSM bands locked from the start and forever more. Only international bands are unlocked/unlockable. 850 and 1900 are the primary bands in US. 900 and 1800 are primary international bands.

So what happens if you call them up and tell them you are going to Canada? Will they unlock it, or will they insist that you use their Canadian roaming plan? Granted, that rate is much more reasonable than what they charge in Europe, but still. Also, I think some carriers in Latin America use the same bands.

They might country lock it (i.e. lock it against other SIMs registered in the US) without locking the 850 and 1900MHz bands altogether. It's worth asking them.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Users held hostage on ability to use a phone outside the U.S. based on financial stability.... Take two unrelated things and tie them together. That sounds so very "Corporate" of them. And people wonder why there's a freaking protest growing around the world against corporate greed and Wall Street. (shakes head)

Please Please Please let me use my phone on my trip to England!

"TOO BAD! You were late on a payment 3 years ago! No phone for you!"

 

[jonfiah]

I activated my iPhone 4S on Sprint and then left 30 minutes later for the UK. Chopped my 3 UK Mobile SIM into a micro SIM, popped it into my iPhone, and now I have voice and 3G data on a local SIM.

 

[thewitt]

There is no push required. The first time you power off the phone, or even go to airplane mode and back, the SIM card goes through authentication and if it has been carrier locked it will not authenticate.

 

[DCAlexandria]

I activated my iPhone 4S on Sprint and then left 30 minutes later for the UK. Chopped my 3 UK Mobile SIM into a micro SIM, popped it into my iPhone, and now I have voice and 3G data on a local SIM.

Awesome! Finally a complete answer! GREAT NEWS

 

[CodeJingle]

So what happens if you call them up and tell them you are going to Canada? Will they unlock it, or will they insist that you use their Canadian roaming plan? Granted, that rate is much more reasonable than what they charge in Europe, but still. Also, I think some carriers in Latin America use the same bands.

They might country lock it (i.e. lock it against other SIMs registered in the US) without locking the 850 and 1900MHz bands altogether. It's worth asking them.

KPOM there is no such thing as a 'country lock' for iPhone, at least not currently. Lock can only be applied at the baseband level. The United States uses different basebands for GSM than most other countries, so locking those basebands is effectively equivalent to 'domestic' lock.

We can safely interpret that to a USer "international" means 'non-US', and Canada uses the same basebands as those other 'non-US' countries, as in 900 and 1800, so international unlock means Canandian SIM will work. So fun to be a USer with a Sprint iPhone 4S living close to Canada.

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I put in my TMobile microsim as that account is still active and it did not work. So it is US locked as far as I can tell. I am not sure how they did a country lock, but foreign SIMs better work as I will be in India in two weeks.

Not a country lock, the US uses different basebands than other countries so they just locked those basebands to remove competition. Though it effectively acts as a 'country lock', but only for US. A more accurate statement of brevity would be 'they locked the US bands for GSM'.

 

[CodeJingle]

There is no push required. The first time you power off the phone, or even go to airplane mode and back, the SIM card goes through authentication and if it has been carrier locked it will not authenticate.

On iPhone 4S you can swap SIM card while phone is on. The phone will automatically reactivate with the new sim card as soon as it is inserted. The phone reactivates every boot anyway so doesn't matter much.

 

[jsolares]

KPOM there is no such thing as a 'country lock' for iPhone, at least not currently. Lock can only be applied at the baseband level. The United States uses different basebands for GSM than most other countries, so locking those basebands is effectively equivalent to 'domestic' lock.

We can safely interpret that to a USer "international" means 'non-US', and Canada uses the same basebands as those other 'non-US' countries, as in 900 and 1800, so international unlock means Canandian SIM will work. So fun to be a USer with a Sprint iPhone 4S living close to Canada.

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Not a country lock, the US uses different basebands than other countries so they just locked those basebands to remove competition. Though it effectively acts as a 'country lock', but only for US. A more accurate statement of brevity would be 'they locked the US bands for GSM'.

Are you 100% sure they can't block at the MCC/MNC level? if they block AT&T at the baseband you will not have roaming in my country.