Q: not only is the iPhone 6 unlocked, but the t-mobile phones work on verizon!
-
Sep 22, 2014 9:45 AMby rigormortis,the old story about how Apple has disabled the CDMA radio in GSM models like the iPhone 5, 5s, and 5c and that you need to buy a Verizon phone are no longer true, as far as the iPhone 6 goes.
however, verizon won't like your serial number, but the phone will work as long as the sim is activated
-
Sep 22, 2014 4:33 PMby aleman13,This is great info. Thank you for answering this question, as there is so much conflicting information floating around out there.
When you say that you cannot "Sign up to Verizon" or transfer service to the new iPhone 6, can you elaborate on that? Is there some significant disadvantage to using a currently active SIM from Verizon in a T-Mobile iPhone 6?
I'm with Verizon (iPhone 5) but want to buy an iPhone 6 Plus off contract. Verizon won't sell them for full price yet (they force you to reset your plan), and Apple won't sell VZW iPhone 6 online without a contract.
Thanks in advance!
-
Sep 22, 2014 4:47 PMby ChrisStunner,This great news. I also want you to clarify about what aleman13 was asking. I also have this plan on getting a verizon iphone 6 plus. Can I just start a new 2 year contract and pay $300-$500 for the phone and then terminate the contract and pay the $350 fee? Will that work? If that doesn't work, I want more confirmation on if the t-mobile version works with a verizon sim card right out of the box. I heard a lot of conflicting information. i also talked to an apple rep on the phone today and she told me if you get a verizon iphone 6, it will not work with any other sim card other than the one it is activated with when you purchased it at the store. so if i were to buy a verizon iphone 6 with or without contract, it will not work with another verizon sim card. this doesnt sound very true to me. these so called "geniuses" arent really genius
-
Sep 22, 2014 7:19 PMby rigormortis,verizon will not like your t-mobile unlocked iPhone serial number. they will say you cannot sign up - you cannot start a new line of verizon service if you walk into a verizon store with the t-mobile unlocked phone. if you go to my verizon.com and you tell it to change your device from an iPhone 5 or whatever to this phone. they will not accept the serial number (imei or meid number) because the serial number is not on their list.
but if you take a live verizon sim card --- one that has a plan , service and a telephone number associated with an existing customer , and stick it into the t-mobile unlocked iPhone without telling verizon, it magically works. and even VoLTE works and CDMA voice works.
things i did not test was visual voice mail
when your sim card is in the iPhone 6, the only thing listed under "my devices" on my verizon website (where you go to pay your bills, etc or check for an upgrade) is your sim card
i don't know the downside to this. maybe the downside would be that since your imei / meid is not on their list you can't report that phone stolen to verizon????
-
Sep 22, 2014 7:27 PMby rigormortis,if you buy a verizon iPhone you can use it on any other network
if you buy a t-mobile iPhone you can use it on any other network
HOWEVER. you cannot do the same thing to sprint phones. sprint phones are excsluvive to sprint. if you buy a sprint iPhone you are stuck with a sprint iPhone. if you buy a verizon iPhone you cannot bring it to sprint. as long as the carrier is not sprint, boost mobile, or any of their prepaid partners, you can move between different carriers as often as you like
just make sure you don't buy a locked phone , like an iPhone on a payment plan or a contract. if the iPhone is locked, like the AT&T iPhone is on a contract you have to get it unlocked before you can use it somewhere else
my intention is to let everyone know about this unlocked tmobile iPhone and verizon and AT&T on it. a lot of people are standing in line at the apple store and stainding in line for hours just to find out that they are sold out of a particular model. in a pinch, if you want a verizon no contract iPhone and they run out and you have to wait 3 months, you can get away with a t-mobile iPhone. same if you were standing in line for an AT&T iPhone and they ran out, so instead of waiting for a few months, maybe you can get lucky and they will have unlocked full price t-mobile iPhones for you.
-
Sep 22, 2014 9:32 PMby ChrisStunner,okay I understand if you purchase tmobile iphone 6 from T-Mobile it will be locked to t mobile. if you buy tmobile iphone 6 from apple store it comes unlocked and will work for Verizon, but what if you purchase a tmobile iphone 6 from target, radioshack or best buy? will it come unlocked and will work with Verizon?
-
Sep 23, 2014 5:21 AMby rigormortis,i don't know. i am just talking about the standard full price no contract t-mobile phone they sell for $649 and up. if you finance a device from t-mobile it might come locked to t-mobile, until you fulfill your obligation. if t-mobile unlocks your phone then it should work with verizon just like the no contract one. if you buy the full price one without carrier financing at any other store, then it should work with verizon. i don't think t-mobile will finance an unlocked phone.
-
Sep 23, 2014 11:05 AMby ChrisStunner,Can you test to see if visual voicemail works? I am a bit confused by this because all apple representatives will not admit that this is possible. They say all iphone 6s at this time will only work with the sim card that it has been activated with. Putting another sim card in will not work. Is what the op is saying really possible? Anybody else tried this?
-
Sep 23, 2014 11:50 AMby RichmondDan,I'm most confused by the statement in your original post, "...i tried the T-Mobile and AT&T sims that i had. they do not have service."
This says that you bought a T-Mobile phone, which then worked with your previously-established Verizon sim, but that it wouldn't work with T-Mobile or AT&T. That makes no sense. Why would a T-Mobile phone not work with a T-Mobile sim? Please clarify...
-
Sep 24, 2014 9:58 PMby rigormortis,i meant to say that the t-mobile and AT&T sims i have do not have a telephone number or plan associated with them they are not activated. so i was unable to see if inserting one sim locked the phone to that particular carrier. i don't think it does. when i put one of these de-activated sims in the phone. the iPhone 6 sees that is a different carrier and it downloads new carrier profiles. i wasn't able to see if activating the phone with t-mobile with a real live t-mobile sim card prevented me from using verizon. that is what i meant
i'll try visual voice mail in a bit...
-
Sep 27, 2014 11:28 PMby rigormortis,the iPhones 5, 5c and 5s, were all shipped with CDMA disabled in GSM iPhones. this is the first iPhone ever to come out where the CDMA radio was not disabled. that is why i posted this thread. because a lot of people assume that the CDMA is still disabled and they are repeating things from previous models of the iPhone, without bothering to check. if i have offended you by wanting to post a message so more people would know what exactly that LTE page says then I apologize. Heck, I'm seeing a lot of web pages like modern reader that are still telling people they have to wait a few months for apple to release the unlocked iPhones.
which is totally untrue.
here is a good thread where you can see people just assuming that the CDMA was disabled. and the phones had different base bands.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=19926968&posted=1#post19926968
the iPhone 6 sees your sim card and as long as its unlocked, downloads the new baseband on the fly. i don't know if this is a new feature
with all the viral news about bend gate, i don't understand why you seem to want to criticize my positive post and suggesting that apple gives away this information. with all the bad news about bend gate and 8.0.1 bugs. its very hard for a single person like me to get a positive iPhone experience out and offer iPhone tips.
when the iPad air and iPad mini retina came out, the universal support of T-Mobile - Verizon - AT&T and even sprint (under some circumstances) was big news. but now that we have bend gate and iOS 8.0.1 and bloggers who are just copying and pasting what the other blog says. no one seems to notice that the CDMA is turned on.
