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Will any used At&t iPhone 5 work on T-Mobile??

I

Iphone4sinwhite

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 24, 2011
307
3
Can any used At&t iPhone 5 purchased from eBay work on T-mobile's network? After purchase, will I have to call At&t to unlock the phone?
T-mobile's LTE network is functional in my area so I'm not worried about the phone being post April 2013/AWS compatible.
 
CEmajr said:
As long as AT&T unlocks it for you then it will work.
Click to expand...

Is something they would be willing to easily do? Is there a different 5 that I can used on T-mobile? To the best of my knowledge, the 5 for was never officially available on T-mobile.
 
Careful, even after unlocking, the older AT&T iPhone 5 will not work with work with T-Mobile's LTE bands.
 
Iphone4sinwhite said:
Is something they would be willing to easily do? Is there a different 5 that I can used on T-mobile? To the best of my knowledge, the 5 for was never officially available on T-mobile.
Click to expand...

Not sure about their willingness, especially for someone not a subscriber etc.

But on the tech side, the iPhone since at least the 4s were fine on tmobile if they were unlocked and you sorted out the proper settings. Once the iPhone went official iOS was updated to include those settings
 
Iphone4sinwhite said:
Is something they would be willing to easily do? Is there a different 5 that I can used on T-mobile? To the best of my knowledge, the 5 for was never officially available on T-mobile.
Click to expand...

They will only do it if you're a customer out of contract I believe. Also yes there is a Tmobile iPhone 5 so if that's the carrier you want to use you should just buy that version.
 
CEmajr said:
They will only do it if you're a customer out of contract I believe. Also yes there is a Tmobile iPhone 5 so if that's the carrier you want to use you should just buy that version.
Click to expand...

That is the catch. This is someone who is looking to buy a phone used due to T mobile not giving subsidies on iPhones. Someone would isn't the original owner of said used phone and may not have ever been a customer of ATT.

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CEmajr said:
They will only do it if you're a customer out of contract I believe. Also yes there is a Tmobile iPhone 5 so if that's the carrier you want to use you should just buy that version.
Click to expand...

That is the catch. This is someone who is looking to buy a phone used due to T mobile not giving subsidies on iPhones. Someone who isn't the original owner of said used phone and may not have ever been a customer of ATT.
 
Yes, it will if it's unlocked.

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kevintech said:
Careful, even after unlocking, the older AT&T iPhone 5 will not work with work with T-Mobile's LTE bands.
Click to expand...

I don't think this is correct. The older AT&T iP5 always had support for 700 and AWS (B4). AT&T had deployed LTE in AWS in some areas as early as a year ago.

The issue was that the older iPhone 5 only supported HSPA 850/1900 (AT&T's bands), and not HSPA 1700/2100 (T-Mobile's bands). So you'd get spotty HSPA on T-mobile in refarmed areas and LTE.

You really need the "upgraded" AT&T/TMobile iPhone5, which includes HSPA and LTE support on AWS.
 
AutoUnion39 said:
Yes, it will if it's unlocked.

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I don't think this is correct. The older AT&T iP5 always had support for 700 and AWS (B4). AT&T had deployed LTE in AWS in some areas as early as a year ago.

The issue was that the older iPhone 5 only supported HSPA 850/1900 (AT&T's bands), and not HSPA 1700/2100 (T-Mobile's bands). So you'd get spotty HSPA on T-mobile in refarmed areas and LTE.

You really need the "upgraded" AT&T/TMobile iPhone5, which includes HSPA and LTE support on AWS.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the correction!
 
AutoUnion39 said:
Yes, it will if it's unlocked.

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.....

You really need the "upgraded" AT&T/TMobile iPhone5, which includes HSPA and LTE support on AWS.
Click to expand...

Are there certain serial numbers or production work weeks that qualify for this "upgrade"? Thanks.
 
it is also my understanding the phone requesting an unlock has to have been activated or used on the account provided through AT&T's unlock process

I speak of this from experience because I bought an iphone 4s off-contract on craigslist, and when I when to submit an unlock request using my AT&T account info, it denied my request.

I called AT&T to ask why, and they said the phone was not attached to my account or phone number, and that I had to contact whoever used that phone on their account, and have them send an unlock request.
 
I think youll have to shell out around 100 buck for an unlock code. Att is not likely to unlock. One of the stipulation is, the phone would have to have been over the contract at that point for them to unlock it.
 
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