Apple sells Sim unlocked iPhone 4's and sometime this month will be selling sim unlocked iPhone 4S's for use in the US on the AT&T network WITHOUT CONTRACT so there is no way for AT&T to sim lock them to their network. to can take them to T-Mo (although with Edge only data) or travel any where in the world with GSM service
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Sprint to Lock iPhone 4S SIMs Starting November 11th
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Apple sells Sim unlocked iPhone 4's and sometime this month will be selling sim unlocked iPhone 4S's for use in the US on the AT&T network WITHOUT CONTRACT so there is no way for AT&T to sim lock them to their network. to can take them to T-Mo (although with Edge only data) or travel any where in the world with GSM service
Illusion986
macrumors 6502
You can just not from carrier such as AT&T... But not many people want to play full price when with 2 year contract you can save a significant amount of $
thewitt
macrumors 68020
The factory unlocked phones are NOT sold with the agreement that you will only use them on the AT&T network, however they are not yet available. When they are available you can safely use them forever on any GSM network in the world.
ANY phone purchased in the US up till now includes that carrier agreement, and you can be assured that the carriers WILL lock them now that the activation database issues have been resolved.
Sprint announced it. I doubt AT&T will bother to announce anything.
ANY phone purchased in the US up till now includes that carrier agreement, and you can be assured that the carriers WILL lock them now that the activation database issues have been resolved.
Sprint announced it. I doubt AT&T will bother to announce anything.
Karnivore
macrumors 6502
So will AT&T but with one exception, iPhone
Ugh.. It's not Americans, it's the American carriers who play this silly game. Luckily we now have a choice to buy an unlocked iPhone.
andiwm2003
macrumors 601
Apples sold factory unlocked iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. They will stay unlocked.
Where did you get the idea that AT&T can lock a iPhone 4 that someone bought factory unlocked from Apple?
For all we know many of these phones are running on T-Mobile and are not even on AT&T's network.
Please explain how AT&T would lock these phones and why it would be legal!
Confused
Ok, so explain to me how this works exactly. I bought a Verizon iPhone 4S from a friend who needed to switch phones due to work issues. I sold my iPhone 4 to another individual for significantly less than I had sold my iPhone 4 from AT&T back over the summer (due to, I assume, it being CDMA technology vs world-friendly GSM).
So since my phone is a world phone, I should be able to take this to Sprint and activate it once my two years is over -- right? Or AT&T even? But apparently not?
Not that I'm planning on switching carriers, but rather I'm looking at resell value. I sold my 3G iPhone for significantly more than I paid for it when I upgraded to my AT&T iPhone 4 last year, and despite being "locked" to AT&T it still had value to someone who could unlock it and use on a non-US GSM network.
Is this scenario now not the case with the 4S?
Ok, so explain to me how this works exactly. I bought a Verizon iPhone 4S from a friend who needed to switch phones due to work issues. I sold my iPhone 4 to another individual for significantly less than I had sold my iPhone 4 from AT&T back over the summer (due to, I assume, it being CDMA technology vs world-friendly GSM).
So since my phone is a world phone, I should be able to take this to Sprint and activate it once my two years is over -- right? Or AT&T even? But apparently not?
Not that I'm planning on switching carriers, but rather I'm looking at resell value. I sold my 3G iPhone for significantly more than I paid for it when I upgraded to my AT&T iPhone 4 last year, and despite being "locked" to AT&T it still had value to someone who could unlock it and use on a non-US GSM network.
Is this scenario now not the case with the 4S?
SilentLoner
macrumors 65816
Any CDMA iPhone (Sprint, Verizon, C-Spire) will only work on that network in the US. CDMA phones are provisioned differently from GSM phones. Each phone has to be in that company's database to access it. So in the US, that phone will run only on Verizon (not AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc.). Outside the US, if you get it unlocked (which Verizon will do if you are a customer in good standing), you can put it into GSM mode and use it with any non-US SIM.
The unlocked iPhone sold by Apple will work on any GSM network, but isn't provisioned to work on any CDMA network.
There was a rumor last year that Apple wanted to release a phone with an "e-SIM" around the world that would let consumers sign up for whatever network they wanted to right from the phone, but that the carriers (in and outside the US) balked at that idea.
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I think it is 60 days. They will do this once every 10 months per customer.
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There is such a thing as "country locking." Each SIM identifies its carrier and country of origin. The Sprint phones, when unlocked, will still be country locked so as not to accept the SIM of a US carrier.
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The agreement says you will not modify them to use on other networks (i.e. JB unlock). It doesn't say you can't use them on other networks.
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What happens if you have to restore your iphone? Since I know once the restore process is complete the iphone has to activate, so will that then lock the sim?
koobcamuk
macrumors 68040
That's not entirely true. Here in Japan, SIM cards on the AU network are locked to a specific phone, which in turn is locked to that SIM.
The iPhones are locked. Not the SIMs. The article is unlearn, as is your understanding of the term.
Not a reflection on the product. It's the carrier (AT&T) that is not about choice.
Interesting. However, since the Sprint phones don't even need a SIM to run in the US, the only thing that matters is that the slot is locked. I'm not sure what would happen if someone on Sprint's global plan went outside the US and put the SIM in another phone, but I doubt many people would want to do that. People are more interested in using other SIMs in their iPhones.
Winter Charm
macrumors 6502a
Sweet!!!
So I have an iPhone 4S with Unlimited Data AND an Unlocked SIM tray for international travel!?? 😀 😀 😀
I couldn't be happier. I'm glad that Sprint staked the company on the iPhone. They have done great so far, and will hopefully come out on top in the end.
So I have an iPhone 4S with Unlimited Data AND an Unlocked SIM tray for international travel!?? 😀 😀 😀
I couldn't be happier. I'm glad that Sprint staked the company on the iPhone. They have done great so far, and will hopefully come out on top in the end.
chris975d
macrumors 68000
It actually can work exactly as he described. Carriers can "country lock" a sim slot. Verizon in fact does this routinely with their "global" phones. They will only accept SIM cards from non-US carriers. If you put a US carriers SIM in them, they will not accept it. One of my phones, a Droid 2 Global is like this. I can put a US AT&T sim in it and it won't authenticate on the network, but I can take it out of the country and put any GSM SIM in it I want, and it'll work fine.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)
What if i activate (for the first time) the sprint iphone4s in a foreign country? With a foreign simcard. Will sprint still be able to lock it?
What if i activate (for the first time) the sprint iphone4s in a foreign country? With a foreign simcard. Will sprint still be able to lock it?
iPhone 4S unlocked available on Apple site now
I just checked, it looks like the unlocked 4S became available today. It wasn't available yesterday.
I just checked, it looks like the unlocked 4S became available today. It wasn't available yesterday.
I ask Apple retail store rep about the unlocked iPhone4S, and was told you can only activate it on AT&T and any other GSM carrier.
They said you would not be able to activate it on Verizon or Sprint, even though it is suppose to be the same phone. The explanation I got is that Verizon or Sprint would not allow the unlocked phone to subscribe to their network.
Even Apple website said you cannot activate the unlock phone on Verizon or Sprint!
This really sucks. I was considering getting the unlock phone for Verizon (even considering Sprint for unlimited data) without contract; then as I lock switch to other carriers if I don't like their service. Isn't that the point of having no-contract and unlock phones?
With this restriction the only other carrier I can switch to is t-mobile on 2G.
So far for paying $649 in order to have a true-world phone to use on any carrier I want in the US (CDMA & GSM) and around the world (GSM).
I plan on getting better clarification from Apple on this; because there is no technical reason why the same iphone4S couldn't be activated on Verizon or Sprint; unless those phones are different in hardware or software preventing you from using it on those and making the 4S GSM only. --- or Verizon/Sprint are being a pain and refused to allow the use of unlocked 4S in their network.
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Not according to Apple's [store]website, and by a rep at a retail store in MN. 🙁 unlock appear that you can only activate on GSM network, not CDMA so no Sprint or Verizon. Just AT&T or T-Mobile(2.5G only) in the US; and any GSM carrier abroad.
They said you would not be able to activate it on Verizon or Sprint, even though it is suppose to be the same phone. The explanation I got is that Verizon or Sprint would not allow the unlocked phone to subscribe to their network.
Even Apple website said you cannot activate the unlock phone on Verizon or Sprint!
This really sucks. I was considering getting the unlock phone for Verizon (even considering Sprint for unlimited data) without contract; then as I lock switch to other carriers if I don't like their service. Isn't that the point of having no-contract and unlock phones?
With this restriction the only other carrier I can switch to is t-mobile on 2G.
So far for paying $649 in order to have a true-world phone to use on any carrier I want in the US (CDMA & GSM) and around the world (GSM).
I plan on getting better clarification from Apple on this; because there is no technical reason why the same iphone4S couldn't be activated on Verizon or Sprint; unless those phones are different in hardware or software preventing you from using it on those and making the 4S GSM only. --- or Verizon/Sprint are being a pain and refused to allow the use of unlocked 4S in their network.
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Not according to Apple's [store]website, and by a rep at a retail store in MN. 🙁 unlock appear that you can only activate on GSM network, not CDMA so no Sprint or Verizon. Just AT&T or T-Mobile(2.5G only) in the US; and any GSM carrier abroad.
Please answer this.
I bought a Sprint phone last week...
Before 11th November....
I haven't activated it yet...
I'm going to activate it this week..
So will that also be locked by the sprint authorities...??
I bought a Sprint phone last week...
Before 11th November....
I haven't activated it yet...
I'm going to activate it this week..
So will that also be locked by the sprint authorities...??
palmerc
macrumors 6502
There are no rules limiting the kinds of cell phone contracts you can write in the US. As a US ex-pat living in europe one of the first things I noticed is that all the EU countries (at least the ones I can think of) have rules requiring the phone be unlocked at the end of the contract. I'm sure the mobile carriers in the US absolutely love the customer lock-in provided by two year contracts and no requirement to unlock the phone.
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Anyone that thinks their phone will remain unlocked is kidding themselves. If you ever need to restore your phone it will activate with the Apple servers and that will be the end of your unlocked phone. Locking is handled by Apple's activation servers so assume your phone is going to be locked.
I think that they should not be allowed to sell locked phones, period.
I think it is more than a coincidence that this happens at the same time that Apple is beginning to sell unlocked iPhones though.
I think it is more than a coincidence that this happens at the same time that Apple is beginning to sell unlocked iPhones though.
im a newbie to all this Sprint/Verizon thing.. but will the phone work with AT&T or T-Mobile after my contract with Sprint/Verizon is up and I request it to be unlocked (AT&T 3G band, I hope?) If so.. that sounds like you would have a solid US phone.