Buying iPhone 5 in the US and bringing to Europe: success.

Hi,

In case any of you is wondering about iPhone 5 models and whether they work in Europe if bought in the US, I would like to share my successful experience:

You can buy a Verizon unlocked phone in an Apple Store in the US. Be prepared for the Apple Store person to be a little confused and ignore the "but that is not GSM" or "CDMA does not work in Europe".
Check and make sure that it is model A1429. Further check that it is a Verizon model [1]. This can be done by parsing one of the ends of the box with all the barcodes without having to open the plastic.
Not sure this makes a difference, but I replaced the stock Verizon SIM with my European SIM before activating in iTunes. <- Is this really needed?
The phone works with my European SIM in the US, UK, FR, and CH.
3G works without a hitch and the rates are much better than in the iPhone 3G.
Enjoy a >10% discount on a fully unlocked phone.

I have not yet tested LTE. From the table at http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/ the Verizon A1429 model supports a superset of the bands supported by the European A1429 model.

Feedback on point 3 and your experiences with LTE are welcome!

[1] Verizon 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB models in black are MD654LL/A, MD658LL/A, and MD664LL/A. The white 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB models are MD655LL/A, MD659LL/A, and MD665LL/A.

iPhone 5, iOS 6.1

Posted on Jan 31, 2013 6:59 AM

17 replies

Apr 28, 2014 9:13 AM in response to KiltedTim

You are right, it was an att device which was unlocked: model NE490LL/A so no LTE for me so it seems..

Thanks anyway

feldon30

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2016 9:46 AM in response to KiltedTim

KiltedTim's response to everyone one of these threads is "Where did you buy the phone?" and then when someone states that they bought the phone from an online provider, he browbeats them into oblivion for daring to buy an iPhone anywhere other than at full sticker price at the Apple Store. Buying refurbished phones is NOT A CRIME.

The iPhone 5 #A1429 exists in two versions:

MS654LL/A (iPhone 5,2) which is the Verizon CDMA model which will NOT work on LTE in Europe. It will work on 3G and 4G on most bands.
MD297B/A (iPhone 5,1) which is one of the two International GSM models which will work on 3G, 4G, and LTE.

There's also an iPhone 5 #A1428 North American model which is:

ME486LL/A (iPhone 5,1 as well) which only works on LTE bands in the USA. It will work on 3G and 4G in Europe but not LTE.

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Buying iPhone 5 in the US and bringing to Europe: success.