will a US iphone5 work in south korea? will a south korean iPhone 5 work in the US?

Thank you for your post and the informative replies. 2 supplemental questions I haven't seen addressed yet. Is there an update as to whether:

1) Verizon iPhone 4S running iOS 7 will work in Korea?

2) LTE is availabe yet for an AT&T iPhone 5?

Thank you.

Few things you need to think about when moving phone to Korea or any country.

LOCKED. Most phones in the past shipped LOCKED by default. Only recently with the iPhone 5 and 5s have they been shipping unlocked. You need to make sure the carrier releases the lock so the device is able to get on other networks. You can call your carrier to see if it is possible to unlock.

• Verizon iPhone 4S. If you can get it unlocked, it should work in Korea.

From verizon forum:

Verizon has confirmed (here and here) they WILL unlock the SIM on the iPhone 4S, allowing for use of local SIM cards while traveling abroad (no word yet on whether this will allow for use on AT&T and T-Mobile.) This is different than the jailbreak unlocking method; SIM unlocking through Verizon is permanent and will not affect your warranty in any way.

Meet the following requirements:

• Must be a Verizon Wireless customer.
• The iPhone 4S being unlocked must be active on a Verizon Wireless line of service.
• The line of service must be active at least 60 days.
• The line of service must be in good standing for the past 60 days.
• Only one SIM Unlock per line every 10 months.

If you don't meet one or more of the above requirements, call anyway. You may still get lucky.

1. Insert a foreign SIM into the SIM card slot on the side of your phone (only required to confirm that the unlock is successful.)
2. Call 1-800-711-8300 (Verizon Global Support) and ask the representative for a SIM unlock. Occassionally a representative may not know exactly what you are referring to; make sure you are not transferred to a different department. You are in the right place. Explain that they should have a walkthrough on how to do this, and that it allows for the use of local, non-Verizon SIM cards while traveling abroad.
3. Get confirmation from the rep that the unlock has been applied to your account, then check your phone to make sure it recognizes your SIM and can connect (if successful it will roam on AT&T, assuming you are calling from the USA.) You will NOT see an unlock confirmation in iTunes as that is for a factory-applied unlock only.

• RADIO. Does your phone have the frequencies/bands that the country/carrier you want to use it on have? This will give you an idea of if it is "technically possible" Just because it is "technically possible" doesn't mean it will work.
• CARRIER. The carrier you will be on in South Korea or whatever country. It really depends what they are willing to do and their experience activating foreign phones.

ALL THREE need to be in place for your phone to work.

Your second question. ATT iPhone 5 -- https://www.att.com/deviceunlock you can request an unlock there to start.

Few things you need to think about when moving phone to Korea or any country.

• LOCKED. Most phones in the past shipped LOCKED by default. Only recently with the iPhone 5 and 5s have they been shipping unlocked. You need to make sure the carrier releases the lock so the device is able to get on other networks. You can call your carrier to see if it is possible to unlock.
• RADIO. Does your phone have the frequencies/bands that the country/carrier you want to use it on have? This will give you an idea of if it is "technically possible" Just because it is "technically possible" doesn't mean it will work.
• CARRIER. The carrier you will be on in South Korea or whatever country. It really depends what they are willing to do and their experience activating foreign phones.

ALL THREE need to be in place for your phone to work.

The Verizon Galaxy S4 doesn't come unlocked from what I understand. I would try this:

http://motoringcrunch.com/news/samsung-galaxy-s4-unlocking/1003005/

Even with my iPhone 5, I had some initial issues. It is really hard to find people at Verizon and/or Korea Telecoms with enough knowledge that is actually helpful. You need to keep pushing and trying. It took me 5-6 trips to get my phone first activated! So stay persistent. Good luck!

Unfortunitly it won't work unless you connect to a US phone holder

Thanks for your tip.

I did use LTE in US before bringing the phone back to Korea.

After the full restore (factory restore), my phone finally works in LTE.

Well I just had to answer your question about, Android phone on verizon, working in Korea, Japan, or anywhere in the world. The only phone on Verizon that supports Multi LTE bands are the iphone 5, and 5s and 5C. Currently no android phone on Verizon does. They can work on GSM networks but only in 3G, but will not work on any 4G network in the world other than, Mexico, Columbia, and other networks that support CDMA, and AWS 4/21 (which support band 4 and 21 lte). While the Iphone 5, could work, in England, Australia, Korea etc, for it support 5 lte bands out the box unlocked..The iphone 5S and 5C support 13 lte bands, if the phone does not support the lte band that is used in your country it cannot work. I hope this helps. Currently only the Samsung Note 3, and Samsung galaxay S4, and phones out, for 4 months or less support AWS, which is a new band support by verizon, that lets us get upto 77 Mbs down, and 35 Mbs up. In NYC. The reason being band 13, has been out for 4 years, and is so full, some people can hardly get 1Mbs down in Manhattan during peak periods. Now if verizon android phones only work on band 13 (700) AWS 4/21, and less than 2 percent of the phones in use are using that(AWS 4/21), good luck getting a android phone to support band 5 850, or what every they use in korea...

Hey Chuck,

I recently just got an iphone 5s from verizon. That same day I tried to go to the local lg u plus store and get the phone activated. They called thier apple care number and I spoke to the person to see if the phone was unlocked. To my suprise they said it was "locked". I called verizon later that day and they confirmed it was "unlocked". It's extremely frustrating as to how this is possible. I've read all of these threads witch are very helpful but I havent even made to the step to get the phone activated and I'll worry about the LTE later on. What is my best chance on getting this problem resolved. Thanks

I'm not a fan of LG+. They gave me nothing but trouble when I tried to do the same thing. I would go with either KT olleh or SKT. I know Verizon 5s's work with LTE on both networks. All I had to do was buy a SIM card, sign up for an LTE plan (make sure they actually classify your phone as LTE in their system), And then I did the complete factory reset. It came back up as 3G for about 30 min then switched to LTE.

Another note: I actually changed my plan back to a 3G plan on KT olleh for the last few months because it's unlimited data. When I changed back last week it came right up on LTE.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for your information about using us I-phone 5 in S.Korea. It's been very helpful. I am trying to visit S.Korea for 2 weeks in September. does Korea has a pay as you go? Can I buy the nano simcard at the airport phone rental booth?

@robinsle

I am back in California right now, but I will be back in Korea later this year. I am looking to buy an iPhone 6. Do you know if the T-Mobile iPhone 6 will work in Korea? I know these things are always a crapshoot until you actually do it. But if you have any thoughts on if it will work or not, please let me know.

From my understanding it should as long as there isn't any lock on the phone. It seems that they have consolidated the iPhone 6 more than the iPhone 5s. Only Sprint seems to be a bit weird with the model number.

based on this http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

it should work just like the 5S.

-chuckishere

sloferggie wrote:

Thank you for your information about using us I-phone 5 in S.Korea. It's been very helpful. I am trying to visit S.Korea for 2 weeks in September. does Korea has a pay as you go? Can I buy the nano simcard at the airport phone rental booth?

Were you able to rent/buy a nano SIM? I'm looking at SK Telecom's FAQ page [ https://www.skroaming.com/customer/faq.asp ] and they say you can't rent a nano SIM card, but it seems like other people have been able to.