iPhone 15/Plus T-Mobile locked iPhone

[celo48]

I have T-Mobile and don’t plan on switching from it for a long time. Not that the service is good, it is just cheap.

Say I buy an iPhone 15 locked to T-Mobile from an individual, would T-Mobile unlock my phone eventually? We assume the phone is paid off and isn’t blacklisted.

Also if I call T-Mobile with the IMEI#, would the info they give on the phone be the most updated info or would the phone be blacklisted later although I was told it was clear to buy?

 

[Bigwaff]

Say I buy an iPhone 15 locked to T-Mobile from an individual, would T-Mobile unlock my phone eventually? We assume the phone is paid off and isn’t blacklisted.

Yes.

SIM Unlock Policy | Unlock Your Mobile Wireless Device | T-Mobile

Learn how to unlock your wireless mobile device for use on other carriers (formerly SIM Unlock). See device compatibility and unlock requirement.

www.t-mobile.com

Also if I call T-Mobile with the IMEI#, would the info they give on the phone be the most updated info or would the phone be blacklisted later although I was told it was clear to buy?

This is a question for T-Mobile. Any information you get from someone other than T-Mobile would be conjecture.

 

[celo48]

Thanks! I actually was trying to get answers from people who had experience. Sometimes even when they put that info on their official website, it doesn’t turn out to be that way. I read yesterday on T-Mobile website saying the phone must be purchased from T-Mobile to be unlocked. Does it mean from them directly or do they mean locked Tmobile regardless where it is purchased. Not to mention when you call CS, you get all different answers. Nowadays, CS is horrible with almost every company.

 

[eyoungren]

If you are not the original purchaser of the phone they will not unlock it for you. They only deal with the original buyer.

That said, the phone being paid off changes a lot. In this case, you can put it on your account for a minimum of 40 days and then ask for the unlock.

Blacklisting is an entirely different matter and unrelated to unlocking. If the phone is not paid off and payments stop then eventually it will be blacklisted.

 

[vince22]

Thanks! I actually was trying to get answers from people who had experience. Sometimes even when they put that info on their official website, it doesn’t turn out to be that way. I read yesterday on T-Mobile website saying the phone must be purchased from T-Mobile to be unlocked. Does it mean from them directly or do they mean locked Tmobile regardless where it is purchased. Not to mention when you call CS, you get all different answers. Nowadays, CS is horrible with almost every company.

Tmobile will only unlock if you're the original owner, buy unlock direct from apple, why take a risk from individuals just to save a few bucks, too many scammers out there.

 

[d5aqoëp]

If you're buying from someone, ask them to send unlock request.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Thanks! I actually was trying to get answers from people who had experience. Sometimes even when they put that info on their official website, it doesn’t turn out to be that way. I read yesterday on T-Mobile website saying the phone must be purchased from T-Mobile to be unlocked. Does it mean from them directly or do they mean locked Tmobile regardless where it is purchased. Not to mention when you call CS, you get all different answers. Nowadays, CS is horrible with almost every company.

I did this about a month ago with my new iPhone 15 Pro.

Steps:
1. Buy phone from t-mobile.
2. Pay it off entirely. Free and clear.
3. Wait 40 days. Phone must be used on the t-mobile network during this time.
4. Request unlock.
5. Done.

As far as what "buying from t-mobile" means. It means through t-mobile or an authorized seller.

 

[TKSX]

I won't buy from anyone other than authorized retailer. Too many scammers out there who can really ruin your day if you are not careful.

 

[Mouklies]

Hope you guys don't go through without having seen my sentence

Hope is not too disturbing with getting just a correct answer!!

Is it impossible to open T mobiles locked to networks for those who traded from the US market and live in Europe ?

Is this alternative choice can be tiring !?

Hard🧔‍♂️👩‍🦲👳‍♂️👳‍♀️👴👨🧒

 

[celo48]

Hope you guys don't go through without having seen my sentence

Hope is not too disturbing with getting just a correct answer!!

Is it impossible to open T mobiles locked to networks for those who traded from the US market and live in Europe ?

Is this alternative choice can be tiring !?

Hard🧔‍♂️👩‍🦲👳‍♂️👳‍♀️👴👨🧒

AFAIK, the only place that can unlock a T-Mobile iPhone is T-Mobile unless there are people who can access to their systems and do it. I think there were some unlocking services for Sprint on Ebay but now I don’t know.

 

[Rose XP]

I won't buy from anyone other than authorized retailer. Too many scammers out there who can really ruin your day if you are not careful.

Wise...

 

[eyoungren]

AFAIK, the only place that can unlock a T-Mobile iPhone is T-Mobile unless there are people who can access to their systems and do it. I think there were some unlocking services for Sprint on Ebay but now I don’t know.

The way it works with the iPhone is that the carrier submits the unlock request to Apple. Only Apple can unlock the phone, but they cannot do that without a request from a carrier. So, Apple inserts the IMEI into the unlock database they maintain, and an OTA profile update is pushed out from the iTunes servers. The next time your iPhone phones 'home' the update applies the profile and your device is unlocked.

My point in mentioning all that is that even if someone COULD access T-Mobile's systems, they'd need to know how to submit the request. Because the carrier cannot unlock the iPhone, they can only request that it be unlocked.

PS…regarding Sprint. I was a Sprint customer for 16 years (1999-2015) and I read up a lot about unlocking from 2012 to 2015 when I left. That's because I had such horrible service during Sprint's LTE rollout I wanted to see if I could get my phone unlocked.

But Sprint didn't start allowing unlocks until February 2015. And even then, they had an internal team that was EXTREMELY good at finding employees who submitted unauthorized unlocks and firing them. The price of a Sprint unlock from a third party service then was very high because the risk of losing an inside contact for unauthorized unlocks was also high. Or, it was simply a scam because no one could get Sprint phones unlocked. Most of the time it was the latter.

PPS. There was a short time period where Sprint discovered that international unlocks for the iPhone were defaulting to full unlocks. Sprint systematically found those people who'd gotten full unlocks through this method and had Apple remove them from the unlock database. Basically, they rescinded the unlocks. Sprint was extremely draconian about unlocking.

 

[eyoungren]

Hope you guys don't go through without having seen my sentence

Hope is not too disturbing with getting just a correct answer!!

Is it impossible to open T mobiles locked to networks for those who traded from the US market and live in Europe ?

Is this alternative choice can be tiring !?

Hard🧔‍♂️👩‍🦲👳‍♂️👳‍♀️👴👨🧒

Nope.

Find a SIM Interposer. R-SIM, Gevey or TurboSIM, if those are still being made.