Sprint to Make All Devices Launched After February 11, 2015 Unlockable

[irnchriz]

I really hope this makes its way across the Atlantic to Britain.

It is such a chore when I want to get a local SIM on my travels, but can't as it doesn't work on my phone!

Ask your carrier and they will unlock it. Depending on the carrier its either free or around £20 to unlock. Its been this way for a long time now.

 

[sirozha]

Nothing. I filed the case myself. Pretty easy to do when you google the proper steps in your state. It cost me $85 in my county in Utah. Other places is as little as $25 to file a small claims case with your local courthouse. 🙂

Plus, I was suing them for a total of $850. I was pretty surprised when they offered to settle for what I was suing them for. Lol

WakeUpNow

Did they compensate you for the court fee?

 

[Parasprite]

And this is surely the time for me to upgrade! 😀

 

[BvizioN]

In the past, in the UK, I have easily unlocked both an iPhone 3G and an iPhone 4 both on O2 (Telefonica) while still heavily within contract. All I had to do was fill out an online form on their website.

You still can with O2, just 6 month after official release of the phone. I just had my iPhone 5S unlocked few weeks ago through same procedure on their website.

 

[Le Big Mac]

If you've signed a contract with a carrier, I don't see why it matters to them if you want to pay another carrier as well. You still have to make the monthly payments.

It's a way for the original contract carrier to enforce you make all your payments to them. They believe that if you had an unlocked phone too many people would skip out to another carrier and they couldn't collect on the contracts.

Yes, I think that is rubbish, but that's the idea - it's a cheaper way to enforce the contract than a collection proceeding.

 

[barkomatic]

If you've signed a contract with a carrier, I don't see why it matters to them if you want to pay another carrier as well. You still have to make the monthly payments.

Because if you are locked to your carrier--then they can charge you exorbitant roaming fees. If you are able to pop a local sim in your phone then why would you pay $150 for 500mb?

 

[hudson1]

I did it with my 4s last year. There are many SIM cards on ebay that allows you to 'override' the Sprint programming and use the carrier of your choice inside the US. I moved from Sprint to Net10. It works great, however, it has its minor shortcomings: MMS does not work, and iMessage no longer can register your phone number to start conversations. Also, the particular SIM I had only worked with iOS 6, so I didn't upgrade to iOS 7.

It was definitely worth it though for me I paid $100 ETF to get out of Sprint terrible service.

I learned my lesson, I'm now on an iPhone 5 AT&T as a stopgap solution, my next iPhone will be an unlocked iPhone 6.

You state it "works great" but I think your experience confirms the comment in the article:

"For eligible devices, Sprint will unlock the SIM slot, to the extent that a device SIM slot is capable of being unlocked. It is important to note that not all devices are capable of being unlocked, often because of the manufacturers' device designs, and that even for those devices capable of being unlocked, not all device functionality may be capable of being unlocked."

 

[2457282]

What a bunch of incompetent idiots. Sprint iPhones are no different than Verizon ones. Verizon has been selling unlocked iPhones with a 2-year contract since iPhone 5. I'm using a Verizon iPhone 5s (issued to me by my employer on AT&T) with all functionality preserved.

AT&T and T-Mobile iPhones do not have CDMA functionality and cannot be used on GSM networks (Verizon or Sprint).

Sprint has been clueless for over a decade now.

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Verizon and Sprint iPhones have both CDMA and GSM functionality. Supposedly, even Verizon iPhone 4s had the GSM capability but Verizon didn't unlock 4s for domestic GSM.

AT&T and T-mobile iPhones are still GSM only. The unlocked iPhones sold in Apple stores are GSM only as well. The only way to get an unlocked iPhone that works on both CDMA and GSM is to get a Verizon iPhone.

I'm not sure if the the Verizon iPhone 5s is unlocked on CDMA so that it could be used with Sprint, but it's sold unlocked on GSM for all carriers - domestic and foreign.

So I did a little research and found out two things. 1. I was saying TDMA which is now part of GSM. On this point you were clear and I was not. 2. Sprint and Verizon are still CDMA only. What both are doing is selling phones that have both CDMA and GSM chip sets so that they work on any network. I guess that Sprint still sells phones that are CDMA only phones and those will be phased out.

So if you buy an iphone that has both CDMA and GSM you should be good to go on any carrier in the US. The only issue is that of locking/unlocking. I think this is mostly a US issue because you buy the phones on contract versus the rest of the world where the phone is purchased seperately from the plan.

I still would never buy a plan that is CDMA (verizon or sprint in the USA) due to its limitation where you cant talk and surf at the same time (unless that has been resolved by having both chips in the phone).

 

[hudson1]

Extensive info

There was thread last year which detailed which carriers use which technologies and, importantly, what you can actually do for each iPhone/carrier combo with regard to flashing or unlocking.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1637205/

 

[patent10021]

Would be nice if SoftBank followed suit and lead the way for all Japanese carriers.

 

[scaredpoet]

My question is, why February 11, 2015? There isn't any technical reason that I can see for it to take that long. Devices on the network today can be unlocked, if Sprint simply allowed it.

 

[rjtyork]

Did they compensate you for the court fee?

I guess that's the only part I missed out on for settling. Judge would have made them pay it but since I settled out of court, I guess they saved $85. Go them. -_-

And I guess that's the risk you're taking when you take a big company to court. If they feel they're justified and don't want to pay out, they'll show up with their high priced attorneys and beat the crap out of you in court. If you have a good enough case, they'll just settle since you're obviously one of the smart ones who knows how to take recourse and protect yourself from unfair business practice. I thought it was well worth the risk of losing $85. The worst that happens is I get real court room experience playing attorney.

WakeUpNow

 

[coldfusioneer]

I'm a little confused. The article seemed to suggest that unlocking is a good thing but the title says 'Unlockable' (I read it as permanently locked to Sprint). Which is which? 😕

 

[hudson1]

My question is, why February 11, 2015? There isn't any technical reason that I can see for it to take that long. Devices on the network today can be unlocked, if Sprint simply allowed it.

1) I don't work for Sprint or am even a customer but I can guess that some phones have technical limitations to pulling this off and others may have problems maintaining full functionality.

2) The article doesn't say that no phone will be unlocked before next Feb 11. Rather, it seems to imply all phones sold by then will be fully unlockable. Might take some design changes with their phone suppliers, too.

 

[sirozha]

So I did a little research and found out two things. 1. I was saying TDMA which is now part of GSM. On this point you were clear and I was not. 2. Sprint and Verizon are still CDMA only. What both are doing is selling phones that have both CDMA and GSM chip sets so that they work on any network. I guess that Sprint still sells phones that are CDMA only phones and those will be phased out.

So if you buy an iphone that has both CDMA and GSM you should be good to go on any carrier in the US. The only issue is that of locking/unlocking. I think this is mostly a US issue because you buy the phones on contract versus the rest of the world where the phone is purchased seperately from the plan.

I still would never buy a plan that is CDMA (verizon or sprint in the USA) due to its limitation where you cant talk and surf at the same time (unless that has been resolved by having both chips in the phone).

I didn't buy a Verizon iPhone 5s; my employer issued it to me. I had a choice of getting one on any major carrier via my employer, and I chose Verizon intentionally so that I could get an unlocked iPhone for free. It costs me $15 extra a month to have this phone on my AT&T Value Shared plan; unlimited voice and texting with 10 GB of shared data per month. I can get simultaneous data and voice on this phone with the AT&T SIM. My data bandwidth at my house on AT&T LTE is 66 Mbps download and 21 Mbps upload. Verizon is about 45 Mbps download in the same location.

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I guess that's the only part I missed out on for settling. Judge would have made them pay it but since I settled out of court, I guess they saved $85. Go them. -_-

And I guess that's the risk you're taking when you take a big company to court. If they feel they're justified and don't want to pay out, they'll show up with their high priced attorneys and beat the crap out of you in court. If you have a good enough case, they'll just settle since you're obviously one of the smart ones who knows how to take recourse and protect yourself from unfair business practice. I thought it was well worth the risk of losing $85. The worst that happens is I get real court room experience playing attorney.

WakeUpNow

Small Claims Court is different than regular court. High-price attorneys don't matter much in Small Claims Court because that venue is set up for people to represent themselves. So all the legal mumbo jumbo is pretty much ignored by the judges.

 

[vmachiel]

In Australia, all phones are unlocked when buying on a 2 year contract. Put it this way, your original carrier doesn't care what you do with your new phone, as they will still get the 24 x $60 a month ( or whatever plan you are on)

Amen! Locked phones never made sense to me. You have to finish the contract anyway so why should the SIM be restricted?

 

[AppleScruff1]

Is it just me or is the wording of the title of this article confusing. When I read unlockable, it means that it cannot be unlocked, as in permanently tied to Sprint. To me, it would make more sense if it said all Sprint devices sold after 2/11/2015 will be unlocked. 😕

 

[2457282]

Is it just me or is the wording of the title of this article confusing. When I read unlockable, it means that it cannot be unlocked, as in permanently tied to Sprint. To me, it would make more sense if it said all Sprint devices sold after 2/11/2015 will be unlocked. 😕

good point except that un-lock-able mean you are un-able to lock. I think they meant that they would be unlocked at the time of sales, but not that they would do something to prevent the phone from being locked.

In any case, the editor should change the title as it does seem wrong.

 

[AppleScruff1]

good point except that un-lock-able mean you are un-able to lock. I think they meant that they would be unlocked at the time of sales, but not that they would do something to prevent the phone from being locked.

In any case, the editor should change the title as it does seem wrong.

You are correct. I took it to mean that it was not able to be unlocked. For some reason the wording was confusing to me. Probably because we always talk about unlocking phones that are locked. I still think it would make more sense to say that all phones will be sold unlocked.

 

[SmileyBlast!]

Hooray! for anything that loosens the Carriers strangle hold on the lowly phone owners.

 

[ludalukeerb]

66 Mbps down / 21 Mbps up | on AT&T at my house - getting this consistently. This is better than my cable internet bandwidth with Comcast, where I'm getting 57 Mbps down / 11 Mbps up.

Its all well and nice having all this download speed, but I do honestly wonder what people need more than about 15-20mb for, I mean your on a phone lol (not even for tethering unless your using multiple devices concurrently)

4K streaming via Netflix only needs around 15.5mb capable supposedly.

I get around 40mb on my broadband connection at home and about 8mb upload (the upload is of more interest to me for streaming music and video from home, and despite getting faster speed on 4G than on my home connection, the latency I get is of far more interest to me than outright speed), and yes I mostly use that myself but honestly I don't see the real need to be able to download at that speed, surely latency for quicker loading webpages and data in apps is what people want? (which yes comes with newer technology as does the bandwidth) I mean I struggle really to properly abuse 40mb download, and I use anywhere between 300gb-2Tb of data a month downloading and uploading

Luda

 

[flur]

So if you buy an iphone that has both CDMA and GSM you should be good to go on any carrier in the US. The only issue is that of locking/unlocking. I think this is mostly a US issue because you buy the phones on contract versus the rest of the world where the phone is purchased seperately from the plan.

I still would never buy a plan that is CDMA (verizon or sprint in the USA) due to its limitation where you cant talk and surf at the same time (unless that has been resolved by having both chips in the phone).

The CDMA issue is resolved in that both Sprint and Verizon use LTE as their 4G tech. If you are out in the woods and only have 3G, then you will have the talk/surf issue, but if you are within the LTE network, you're good to go.

Verizon told me that my 5s was unlocked as soon as I activated it (they ship locked and when they're added to the V network they are automatically unlocked). I have not tested it though. Also, I bought without a contract, so that might be a factor.

It's my understanding that the Verizon iphone is the only iphone sold right now that fully works on all major US carriers (because it sports GSM, CDMA, and LTE tech).

 

[lincolntran]

What a total LOAD! The fact that I'm using my Sprint iPhone 4S on T-Mobile with hardly any problems tells me that Sprint is flat out LYING. In fact, as far as I know, the ONLY iPhone that can not be unlocked from Sprint right now is the iPhone 5. The 4S, 5c and 5s can all be unlocked. (although with a LOT of hassle) Sprint needs to just unlock them. I am NEVER going to Sprint again after my last experience with them.

Luckily, I was able to sue them for $850 for inferior service and devaluation of my devices by their refusal to unlock. I just wish they would have actually came out and defended themselves on the stand instead of settling outside of court less than 24 hours before we were supposed to duke it out. What wussies.

Oh, well. They probably won't be in business much longer. I'm usually getting 7-12mbps on T-Mobile's 3G network and my uncle is seeing over 40 Mbps sometimes on his 5S. I can actually see T-Mobile becoming a huge threat to AT&T and Verizon over the next 3 years as they keep building their infrastructure so aggressively. I'm excited to see that happen. I LOVE COMPETITION!



WakeUpNow

How much did the legal fee cost you for suing them for $850?

 

[peglegjack]

I got pretty fed up with all of this and just switched my Sprint iPhone 4S to Ting. Now I'm paying about $17-23 a month depending on my use. And I don't have to think about any of this crap anymore, because frankly better things in this world are worth my time.

 

[ianj1972]

How much did the legal fee cost you for suing them for $850?

Is it just me or is there an echo in here? 😀