not only is the iPhone 6 unlocked, but the t-mobile phones work on verizon!

if someone makes a youtube video or writes a news story about my post, this time around i really would appreciate some credit. saying rigor mortis from apple discussions' is good enough.


it turns out that the iPhone 6 and 6 plus model numbers #1459 and #1522 are universal. and both have the CDMA radio enabled. However, Sprint models are still separate as far as i know. i did not test Sprint. but as far as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, go , it is the EXACT same phone. i was playing around with my iPhone 6 on launch day. i wanted to see if "ask maggie" was right and the phone was locked to a specific carrier. i tried the T-Mobile and AT&T sims that i had. they do not have service.


however when i inserted my LIVE and ACTIVATED Verizon Sim into my iPhone 6 , my iPhone suddenly became a verizon iPhone. i was able to Place and Receive calls using CDMA, i was able to use DATA services, and i was able to send SMS messages. i assumed that VoLTE was not enabled. and it was not. i assumed

that you had to buy a Verizon model to get Volte. but i was wrong. it just took a while to activate. and i did see use VoLTE in settings, for Voice and DATA


however, since the IMEI and MEID serial numbers are not listed with Verizon, you are not able to either Sign up to verizon, or to transfer service to your new iPhone 6. your service is still tied to your SIM card. and when the iPhone 6 is running and active with your sim card, your device listed on "MY Verizon" will be shown as NON VZW device and it will only show the sim card. but a pre-activated sim card pulling from another device will work in the iPhone 6.


this is just like the iPad Air and the iPad Mini Retina. the only difference between these phones is the serial number is put in some list that tells someone which

carrier it supposed to belong to, and if it is locked or not. and which sim card came with the device. other then that. there are no technical differences between them. except for sprint of course.



whenever i inserted a new sim card into the iPhone 6, it automatically got carrier settings and changed its baseband.

Posted on Sep 22, 2014 9:25 AM

Reply
229 replies

Nov 24, 2014 10:34 PM in response to BCSS

Just for a quick update. My full price no contract Verizon iPhone 6 has been running on AT&T since I bought it. So today I decided to try my friends T-Mobile sim in it and as expected it worked without any issues. Visual voicemail, text and calls over LTE worked. It did prompt me to update my carier settings and I accepted and had the new settings installed. It was interesting to place a call and not see the phone switch from LTE to 4G.


Now for the unexpected. After I put my Att sim back in the phone everything switched back. I placed a test call and noticed the call was placed on LTE, the phone never switched to 4G for the call. I restarted the phone and had the same results. So either the carier setting from T-Mobile affected something to sometime In the last 2 weeks Att updated to VoLTE in the Columbus area and I just noticed. My guess is I didn't notice since most calls are placed from my house with the WiFi on so I didnt see the calls were placed on LTE. If AT&T did update my area they havnt announced it yet, I couldn't find anything announced about it.

Nov 28, 2014 12:30 PM in response to rigormortis

Yeah I got stuck with a sprint Model but what does not make any since is that the Sprint one is the same as the Unlocked one the have the same radios and everything so you would think the sprint one would be able to be unlocked as well and used on other US carriers . I hate sprint and am sick of there crappy network. As soon as I get my taxes I'm getting the 6 unlocked on T-Mobile I'm done with CDMA

Dec 13, 2014 4:05 PM in response to rigormortis

For everyone's information, I purchased a 6+ through AT&T. It was some pricing glitch with a refurb 128gb 6 Plus costing 449.99 without contract. They usually cost 300-400 more and I assume it was a glitch since within a couple of hours the price had gone up 350 dollars. I grabbed it at the mistake price and they honored it without any issues.


Since I technically bought it at full price they also agreed to unlock it. After unlocking it I stuck my active Verizon SIM card in it and it works perfectly. As others have noted it shows as an unrecognized device on My Verizon but everything works perfectly: visual voicemail, LTE, VoLTE, etc.. I am now trying to see if this phone will activate on Sprint. I have an existing Sprint account but don't have a spare SIM lying around so they are shipping. FWIW it did recognize the phone on Sprint's online ESN swap portal as an iPhone 6+ but obviously I can't proceed until I get the Sprint SIM. Will be reporting on this as soon as I get the SIM. I'm optimistic this will work as the phone has the 800 and 1900 MHz LTE bands plus all the CDMA bands for Sprint but obviously this model A1522 is missing the 2500 MHz band for Sprint. (For those that have wondered, the reverse won't work: you can't put a Sprint iPhone 6 on Tmobile, VZW, AT&T etc no matter what you do. If you get them to unlock it will only be for non US carriers. There is no workaround at the moment)

Jan 4, 2015 1:09 PM in response to rigormortis

Hi rigomortis,


I was just curious to know if an unlocked iPhone 6 would work for Boost Mobile? I have them and they're out of stock of the iPhone 6. I don't think they use Sim Cards and don't want to buy an unlocked one and have it not work. The reason why I'd rather not switch is because I now pay $40 for my service and get unlimited talk and text, and 2.5GB of data. I just refuse to pay double the money for what I already get. Please help. I really want to get the iPhone 6 badly.

Jan 4, 2015 4:56 PM in response to rigormortis

I purchased 2 iPhone 6's at launch (T-Mobile/Unlocked from Apple Store),


One was for my fiance' who already has Verizon so I inserted her Verizon SIM and ALL Verizon features work great.


The 2nd phone, I activated on Cricket (AT&T) for 3-4 months, I recently moved over to Verizon as my company pays the bill. They gave me SIM, and only my voice and data work. The Verizon store cannot add the Visual Voicemail, HotSpot feature. I cannot activate the LTE Voice feature either. I've been the Verizon store 4 times with no success. They said it was a T-Mobile phone and it cannot be added to the Verizon database. I also just reset/deleted and completely downloaded > restored iOS via iTunes. No success.


Any suggestions?


Will Apple Genius Bar help me? My fiance's phone works perfectly, but not mine. How is this possible?

Jan 5, 2015 12:20 PM in response to brettnyc

I was trying to find a way to buy an unlocked Verizon iPhone 6 without a contract, since I thought it would offer the most bands and compatibility. However, from what I am reading here, it seems there is absolutely zero difference between the unlocked T-Mobile no-contract iPhone available from Apple stores and online, and the "Verizon" no-contract iPhone.


So going to an Apple store and asking for a "device only, full price" Verizon iPhone 6 will get me the exact same phone model as the "T-Mobile" no-contract phones sold from Apple online.. The Apple LTE info page also indicates this to be true (https://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/)


Reading back through the pages I am 99% sure what I wrote above is correct - just double-checking in case any new information has come to light the last couple of months.

Jan 6, 2015 11:04 AM in response to n808n808

Actually, the Apple store now offers a SIM-free unlocked iPhone 6. This is model A1586, as opposed to the A1549, which you get if you buy the one that comes with a T-Mobile SIM. The A1586 supports a few more LTE bands (38-41) than the A1549 so it should be even more world-compatible than the T-Mobile/AT&T/Verizon flavor. So the SIM-free version is probably the one I will be ordering.

Feb 8, 2015 5:14 PM in response to dpiatek

"dpiatek

T-mobile unlocked phone works perfectly on my existing Verizon account with sim from my Verizon iPhone 5. Question is.. Am I able to sell my old iPhone 5 on eBay? Or for another person to use it, must it be removed from Verizon account? I am thinking since I am using the MEID from my Verizon iPhone 5, to use my t-mobile iPhone 6+, that I wouldn't be able to sell my old 5. Or is the account tied solely to the SIM card and not the MEID? Any thoughts?"



Anyone have any insight on this?

Mar 5, 2015 1:34 AM in response to mattaz02

Question for those who are using the T-Mobile unlocked model on Verizon... I transferred 8 lines over to Verizon from T-Mobile. 6 of the phones were iPhone 6's or 6+'s from T-Mobile(unlocked). I was able to get them all activated using a Verizon branded iphone 5c then transferring the activated SIM card into the iPhone6's. Now since I brought my own phones I should be receiving the $25 off per line on the more everything plan, but Verizon can't seem to get it to work in their system. They are saying that the codes they are using are not being accepted. If I put the sim card from one of the 6's into the 5c(Verizon phone) then they are able to add the discount, but once I put that sim card back into the iPhone6 the discount goes away since it now shows up as a non VZW device. Has anyone been able to get the $25 a month discount added? If so HOW???? Thanks in advance.

Mar 11, 2015 1:24 PM in response to rigormortis

In my case, it is different.

I have model #1549, iPhone 6, ATT.

on websites like checkESN and 'swappa imei check' pages, my phone shows as verizon.

before i checked it with other sim cards/network providers, i got it factory unlocked for 15$. Did anyone faced the same issue?

please check your phone here and see what it shows.
1. http://checkesnfree.com/

2. http://swappa.com/esn


P.S. I got it unlocked because i'm planning to tavel outside country and don't want to buy another phone for my trip, so i got this unlocked.

Please reply if you saved few bucks on unlocking..!

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not only is the iPhone 6 unlocked, but the t-mobile phones work on verizon!

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