Is it true that I can travel anywhere and buy a Prepaid Micro Sim for my iPhone 5 and be able to use my ATT phone with that sim without unlocking the phone?

No that is not true.

AT&T would have to unlock it in order for you to be able to use it with another SIM

If it is locked to a certain network in a certain country ,you can normally only use it for that purpose

but i am fairly sure if you got to any other without that network it should be ok

if you have say t-mobile which is in uk ,europe and america i think you will struggle but other ones might be ok

No. Absolutely not.

Sorry dazbenz. You have no idea what you're talking about.

dazbenz wrote:

If it is locked to a certain network in a certain country ,you can normally only use it for that purpose

but i am fairly sure if you got to any other without that network it should be ok

if you have say t-mobile which is in uk ,europe and america i think you will struggle but other ones might be ok

This is not true at all.

i have friends through out europe who can use their phone on any network with their iphone as long as that network is not in the country that their phone is locked too.

ie if you have a stolen phone blocked in the uk networks it can be used in for example romania no problem

dazbenz wrote:

i have friends through out europe who can use their phone on any network with their iphone as long as that network is not in the country that their phone is locked too.

ie if you have a stolen phone blocked in the uk networks it can be used in for example romania no problem

Blocking a stolen phone has nothing to do with the situation of being carrier locked. Again, if an iPhone or any other cellphone is locked to a carrier, it cannot be used with any other carrier. Your friends either purchased unlocked iPhones, which in some countries are the only ones available (some countries legally prevent carriers from locking iPhones) or they got the iPhone unlocked, either legitimately or by hacking it.

Your friends have unlocked iphones.

Fair enough Varjak

so by saying some countries legally prevent carriers from locking it would suggest that it would be open in some countries ??

where are you based ?? USA ?

"Again, if an iPhone or any other cellphone is locked to a carrier, it cannot be used with any other carrier. "

- its not that it cannot be used with any other carrier; but rather it cannot be used natively with the other carrier, ie: with that carrier sim.

a phone locked to say At&t can be used with another carrier if at&t has a roaming agreement with that carrier. you will just accrue with overhead charges.

I suppose the real answer to the question is ,what countries are you planning to use a prepaid sim ??

dazbenz wrote:

so by saying some countries legally prevent carriers from locking it would suggest that it would be open in some countries ??

It would mean that phones in such countries are unlocked. I don't know what you mean by "open".

In any case, this is a moot pont. AT&T iPhones are locked to AT&T and have to be unlocked unless used with an AT&T partner via their international roaming plan.

Your missing my point ,

if your saying (your words not mine) some countries legally prevent carriers from locking it would suggest that it would be ok to put a prepaid microsim in, in some countries ??

regardless of at&t having locked it ??

this is a good thread and am learning from it

dazbenz wrote:

I suppose the real answer to the question is ,what countries are you planning to use a prepaid sim ??

No

AT&T iphones are locked to AT&T ONLY. You cannot use any other sim in an AT&T iphone.