My unlock iphone does not work with foreign simcards

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BerkErarslan Author

Level 1

0 points

My unlock iphone does not work with foreign simcards

Hello everyone,

I bought unlocked iphone 5s without contract from tmobile store in San Francisco ( now it has IOS 7.1).

I used it with tmobile simcard for 2 months then I switched to att and using with att for 5 months

I'm in vacation in Turkey right now. When I try to use with my turkish simcard, I have this error:

"Sim not valid" "The sim vard that you currently have installed in this iphone is from a carrier that is not current assigned by the activation server......"

I called tmobile, they said they cannot help me since I haven't used tmobile carrier anymore.

I resetted the network settings and tried again but the result is same.

Do you have any suggestion to solve this problem?

Thanks

iPhone 5s, iOS 7.1

Posted on Mar 22, 2014 12:11 AM

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Answer 1

BerkErarslan Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 22, 2014 1:04 AM in response to BerkErarslan

Now, I setup a new iphone via itunes since some people suggest it to solve this problem on internet. Now I even cannot activate my phone with att simcard. Phone looks totally dead till I return us

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Answer 2

Ethmoid

Level 6

11,482 points

Mar 22, 2014 2:08 AM in response to BerkErarslan

Well no, the fact is that you DID NOT buy an unlocked phone in the first place and if your purchased the phone from a T-Mobile store without contract, then that phone is not unlocked, which is why you cannot use a Turkish sim card in the phone and it comes up with sim card error.

The only place that you can buy a legitamately unlocked phone from the start is directly from an Apple store.

If you switched to using AT&T from T-Mobile, then this phone is now locked to AT&T and you need to approach AT&T to get the phone unlocked.

Contact AT&T and request that your phone be unlocked and then you can use it, but you never bought an unlocked phone in the first place - if you buy a phone from a carrier shop such as T-Mobile, then the phone will not be unlocked, but carrier free which is different. Contract/carrier free means that the phone will actually lock to the first sim card that you put in the phone.

If you want an unlocked phone then you need to buy it from the Apple store.

Contact AT&T to get it unlocked.

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