iPhone 5s sim-free (A1453) in Japan

Hi Wmahler, did you ever sort this out? I know it was a long time ago. I have the same model etc. Did the take the phones back, did you get your $ back? Did they unlock the (Network lock) (SIM LOCK) (GEO block).

For 3 years, I have had an iPhone 5s A1453 - ME338J/A, and I want to take it when I leave Japan.

It may end up being used as an I pod if I cant.

Thing is it connects to local networks when i am OS.

So I know it works in other countries with the Japanese Docomo SIM,

Thanks Walt

The real question to be asked here is: If you don't live in Japan or intend to use the phone there, why in the world are you purchasing an iPhone there? Your warranty/support will only be valid in Japan, & it won't support LTE in Europe.

Buy your phone in Europe, & your warranty/support ios EU wide & the phone will support LTE.

But, it's your money, do what you want.

blankblank2 wrote:

So the biggest issue is that it might not support the LTE speeds in Europe?

That's correct.

Buy your phone in Europe.

Hi blankblank2,

I was wondering if you found any answers on this

I am currently in Japan and want to buy the unlocked a1453, but want to make sure that it works in both Europe and in China (China Mobile) before I get it.

Thanks in advance!

Then read your other post

The bands work in Groups not individual That is why Apple have to make different models for differnt regions

http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

Yes and if you purchased a sim free phone rather than an unlocked phone, then your phone will be locked to that European operator and will not now work with any other sim cards.

Unfortunately, sim free does not mean the same as unlocked and if you buy a sim free phone, then it will lock to the first sim card that you put in the phone.

It is a shame that you did not listen to others and purchase your phone in Europe rather than Japan - false economy here really and you may find that you need to purchase another phone once you move to Europe.

Should not be a problem with european operators. I am using this A1453 all over the world and never faced any issue.

I am traveling in asia for 4 months. I just purchased 2 iPhone 5S 64GB devices from the Ginza Apple store. They are both: A1453 models.

When I talked to our Apple Store representative, Josh S, he said that the phone is unlocked and would work on any GSM carrier. I finally just received an AT&T (GSM) sim card shipped to me in Japan. The sim card does not work on either of the phones.

I called the Apple Care, they told me to talk to Japan Apple Care, I'm going to try that tommorow.

If what I'm hearing is correct, the Ginza store told me the wrong information and I just spent a ton of money on 2 phones that are lemons. They had to put a sim card into the phone to get past the activation lock. I feel like they could have then locked both of the devices to SoftBank as my model number comes up as ME338J/A, on the iOS > Settings > General > About > Model information, which appears to be a SoftBank phone.

I am really not happy about this. I will post here when I go to the Apple Store tommorow. The problem is they told me this 30 days ago, and I thought I was fine. I just finally received my sim card and I'm past the 14 day return policy and now I have a 2 iPhone 5S 64GB devices that don't work with a GSM simcard.

I was told the phones were unlocked, I never heard of "sim free", and when they put a sim card to activate the phone they just locked it. Now reading through tons of articles and finally finding this one, I'm almost 100% sure they locked my iphones to SoftBank when they activated the devices.

I called Apple Care again, they infact said my iPhones were both locked to SoftBanki

The Ginza, Tokyo Japan Apple Store locked our iPhones to SoftBank when activiating for us. I'm going in there tommorow, they better remove the SoftBank lock.

I had no idea about "sim free", the rep told me they were "unlocked".