The iphone 5s unlock A1533

akuska has consistently posted information that is completely wrong. If you follow it you will end up with a worthless phone. The actual facts:

The T-Mobile phone is unlocked, but must be activated with a T-Mobile SIM before use. It does not need a contract.

All AT&T phones are locked regardless of what price you pay for them. And ONLY AT&T can unlock them. Apple cannot. iTunes will not unlock the phone.

Verizon phones are unlocked for GSM use, but you cannot buy a Verizon phone without activating it on the Verizon network.

The other issue is timing. There are no phones available in the US Apple stores currently. It will be 2 to 4 weeks before you can get one.

Then there's warranty. If you buy in the US the phone must be returned to the US for service, both in and out of warranty.

Don't forget sales tax added to the price; 5% to 10% added to the price depending on where you buy it.

And import duty to Italy. Yes, you may be able to smuggle the phone in without declaring it, but if you get caught it will cost you the duty plus a fine.

You may have done it for the last 3 releases, but the 5S and 5C are currently not being sold as "device only". They may be in 6 months or a year, when the demand has dropped. They are in such short supply right now that you can't buy one for any price in an Apple store, unless you get to the store several hours before it opens and wait on line, and hope they have more phones than people on line.

im cThe T-Mobile phone is unlocked, but must be activated with a T-Mobile SIM before use. It does not need a contract.

No. Activating with T-Mobile is not required. I activated my phone with AT&T out of the box, just by replacing the (inactive) T-Mobile SIM card shipped with the phone with an AT&T SIM card. Never activated or created any account with T-Mobile.

Apple changed the description of the phone minutes after it was released for sale with misleading information about it's connection to T-Mobile. Read the description of the iPhone 5C T-Mobile, which is what they said about the 5s before released for sale.

Message was edited by: modular747

Thanks for the update. I was quoting someone who was mistaken.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

You may have done it for the last 3 releases, but the 5S and 5C are currently not being sold as "device only". They may be in 6 months or a year, when the demand has dropped. They are in such short supply right now that you can't buy one for any price in an Apple store, unless you get to the store several hours before it opens and wait on line, and hope they have more phones than people on line.

Stop calling me a troll.

I purchased my Verizon iPhone 5s "device only" from a store in Chicago on 9/21. Yes, with the online reservation system it is harder now to find it in stores, but it isn't impossible. If history is any guide, it won't be anywhere near 6 months before the 5s is readily available in stores. 6 weeks, maybe, but not 6 months. The 5s release seems to be running at about the same rate as the 5 and 4s releases.

Not entirely his fault. I had an online "chat" with Apple support on opening AM, who tried to tell me it could only be used with other carriers when "travelling internationally" and to use it domestically with another carrier required that I get it "released" by T-Mobile.

Knowing that this made no sense and the rep I was communicating with was clueless (or following a script), I later called Apple, confirming that all T-Mobile phones are fully unlocked and apologized for the "confusion"... My experience with the phone confirmed this.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

You are so wrong! You are costing the poster a lot of money by saying this, ending up with a worthless phone. The phone will only work on AT&T, and ONLY AT&T can authorize unlocking the phone. iTunes and Apple have nothing to do with it. Here is what AT&T says about unlocking: http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB414532#fbid=h8Kg6Crkij9

You keep posting completely wrong information, and have been doing it for days. Just stop, troll.

You are the one posting worthless information.

What you say is correct about phones purchased on-contract with AT&T, or from AT&T directly. However, I have never had a problem purchasing an iPhone device-only from an Apple Store, provided they have it in stock. I did it with the 4s and the 5. With the 5s I ended up with a Verizon device, but only because they had only the 64GB Space Gray in stock and I wanted 32GB silver. I never had to sign up for AT&T or Verizon service, ever. I simply took it home and inserted my SIM card and it worked right away.

Apple Store employees parrot a company line. They'll tell you the phones are "locked," even if bought device-only, but that's not true except for the Sprint version. As long as the associate presses the "device only" button on the checkout screen, the IMEI will NOT be added to the locked database.

That said, there are some caveats. AT&T iPhones purchased from AT&T are locked, as are phones purchased from T-Mobile. But AT&T and T-Mobile iPhones purchased device-only from Apple are NOT locked. They sell for full price, and Apple doesn't ask for account information.

Anyway, per AT&T's own policies, anyone who purchases a phone full-price can request an unlock that is usually processed in a few days, but that's not a problem with a phone bought device-only from an Apple Store. Again, I've done it in the past, most recently when my iPhone 5 had to be replaced under warranty. No calls to AT&T were necessary. The phone was never entered into the lock database.

T-Mobile is a bit less convenient. They require you to carry service for 40 days before they'll process an unlock.

Verizon iPhones (and all LTE phones for that matter) are unlocked, whether or not sold on contract. I have heard, but haven't substantiated, that Verizon stores will sell iPhones full price if you sign up for a prepaid plan that can be cancelled at any time.

modular747 wrote:

Not entirely his fault. I had an online "chat" with Apple support on opening AM, who tried to tell me it could only be used with other carriers when "travelling internationally" and to use it domestically with another carrier required that I get it "released" by T-Mobile.

Knowing that this made no sense and the rep I was communicating with was clueless (or following a script), I later called Apple, confirming that all T-Mobile phones are fully unlocked and apologized for the "confusion"... My experience with the phone confirmed this.

Hence I'm the one (not Lawrence Finch) posting the correct information. True, it's hard to find iPhone 5s in stores right now, but if you can find a T-Mobile, Verizon, or AT&T model, the Apple Store should sell it to you device-only. Some stores can be picky about it, particularly in NYC if they suspect you are a reseller, but even there last year I didn't have an issue.

Lawrence Finch wrote:

You may have done it for the last 3 releases, but the 5S and 5C are currently not being sold as "device only". They may be in 6 months or a year, when the demand has dropped. They are in such short supply right now that you can't buy one for any price in an Apple store, unless you get to the store several hours before it opens and wait on line, and hope they have more phones than people on line.

As for the 5c, Apple is selling the official, SIM-Free "unlocked" version on its online store. Try it right now.

http://store.apple.com/us/buy-iphone/iphone5c

For the 5s they removed the "Unlocked and Contract Free" from the website, but posters on other forums have said the T-Mobile version is unlocked. However, it still just has the "October" shipping estimate.

Zisave wrote:

Lovely!Buyin it in the us means saving a lot of money(and I'm gettin it sooner). In Italy the 16 gb will unfairly be almost a thousand dollars!!!

Thanks a lot!

As others have alluded to, right now it is hard to get in the US since they instituted the online reservation system. You can't reserve a "device only" purchase online right now, and there are very few iPhone 5s in stock. If you order on contract using that system, the phones, unfortunately, are locked (except for the Verizon one).

However, I suspect that in a few weeks it will be easier to walk in and buy one in store again, like you can do right now with the 5c.

You might ask your friend to see if he can order a phone through Verizon with a prepaid cellular plan. That way he can get the phone, and then cancel the prepaid plan once the phone ships. If he's on Verizon and is about ready to renew his contract but doesn't want a 5s, he can renew on his plan with the 5s and you can pay for the full-device phone that he really wants. Verizon iPhones are unlocked, whether or not sold on contract, because of a deal they reached with the regulators here.

Also, according to http://ltemaps.org, 3 of 4 Italian LTE providers use the 1800MHz band, which the US iPhone 5s supports.

I bet it won't be that easy but I'm not too worried.. My friend is leaving tmrw and comin back the 20th... (Hopefully with my phone).

Plus I'm askin for the black one (which seems to be the less interesting for people). My only worries were in regards of the wording on apples site. But I bought my 4s from the us, and the 5 too. This actually came with an AT&T SIM card but never had a problem.

Anyway I like what u said about verizon I'll ask to give it a look and see what's best.

Thanks again

Awesome!! Made my day!

Best of luck. Hopefully by the 19th he's able to find one in a store. What cities is he going to? If he's in NYC I'd suggest trying out the Grand Central store. It's usually less crowded than the 5th Avenue Store. If nothing more, he can ask if there is a time to go when they release orders that haven't been picked up and give it a shot.

NYC has a lot of tourists, so supplies are usually tight. In other large cities supply might be a little better, but right now it's tough to find anything anywhere right now. Space Gray is the most common, but my advice is that if they have silver, take it.

He can try a Verizon carrier store and see if they will sell him a device-only phone and a prepaid account. As a "last resort" he can also try an AT&T store, but be sure he keeps the receipt! The phone will be locked, but if you submit a receipt through a form on their website showing you paid full price they will process an unlock. It might take a few days, and requires restoring the phone through iTunes, but it does work.

fyi, "device only" seems like one of those terms that a cell phone provider would use to mean no-contract but doesnt neccissarily mean unlocked. it would still be tied to the specific carrier, even without the contract. you should do your research, contact the carriers, explain exactly what you need and want you want and make sure that they are selling you a solution that fits your needs. i would hate to see anyone be misled by marketing terms and end up with a $600 device they can't use after they leave the country

-mvimp

My voice is my password wrote:

fyi, "device only" seems like one of those terms that a cell phone provider would use to mean no-contract but doesnt neccissarily mean unlocked. it would still be tied to the specific carrier, even without the contract. you should do your research, contact the carriers, explain exactly what you need and want you want and make sure that they are selling you a solution that fits your needs. i would hate to see anyone be misled by marketing terms and end up with a $600 device they can't use after they leave the country

-mvimp

Technically, that's what they mean by "device only," and the T-Mobile and AT&T phones are indeed locked if you get them from a carrier store. However, my experience has been that when an Apple Store sells an iPhone "device-only," except for Sprint they aren't carrier locked. Note that no Verizon LTE phone can be locked. Not just the iPhone 5/5c/5s. Verizon has a separate agreement as part of their LTE license not to lock their LTE phones. I purchased an AT&T iPhone 5 last year "device only" and exchanged it a few days later for a different capacity (also AT&T "device only") from Apple and neither were locked.

Absolutely the buyer should check with a foreign SIM to make sure it works, but asking a carrier won't make it clearer because their CS reps and salespeople either won't know or will give a stock answer that it is locked.