Does the T-mobile iPhone comes locked or unlocked?

kingweb

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If you search google, you will find many people asking if the tmobile version comes unlocked.
You will find many people speaking with authority saying that it is unlocked, and other people saying it is locked.
So I don't know which to beleive. Does anyone have anyofficial word on this?
After all, if you try to order a 5s, there is both an unlocked version and a tmobile version. This leads me to beleive that the tmobile version is locked.
 

Just_Me_D

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"Typically" speaking, if you pay full price and order from Apple, the device comes unlocked, but if you purchase via subsidy, the device is locked to the carrier. I have no definitive answer for you in regard to T-mobile. Have you tried contacting Apple and inquiring or even T-mobile?
 

ame

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"Typically" speaking, if you pay full price and order from Apple, the device comes unlocked, but if you purchase via subsidy, the device is locked to the carrier. I have no definitive answer for you in regard to T-mobile. Have you tried contacting Apple and inquiring or even T-mobile?
I have read in several places that even the contract free Tmobile one is locked to Tmobile for up to 40 days.
 

kingweb

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Ok, I just got off the phone with Apple. The guy on the phone said that the tmobile version is in fact unlocked, however, for marketing purposes, they do not specify that it is unlocked. An official unlocked version will be available in the near future. But this is the exact same phone. So this is good news.
 

ame

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Ok, I just got off the phone with Apple. The guy on the phone said that the tmobile version is in fact unlocked, however, for marketing purposes, they do not specify that it is unlocked. An official unlocked version will be available in the near future. But this is the exact same phone. So this is good news.
Apple just told me it's locked to Tmobile and requires that you be a new customer or current customer of Tmobiles, and that you have to request it be unlocked.
 

kingweb

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Hehe. Amazing that they didn't properly train their employees to answer this question. I am sure that there are plenty of people out there looking for an unlocked phone, but apple doesn't give any info on it.
The guy that I spoke with made it see like he was telling me off the record info. So maybe officially, they say it is locked, but unofficially, it is unlocked. Only one way to find out I suppose. I guess people in the Apple store will know for sure next week when it arrives.
 

ame

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I am just hoping they'll sell me a full price phone next week. I will be using it on ATT, it can BE locked to ATT, but I don't want it under contract.
 

Ariel Babalao

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If you pay less than 300$ to get a brand new iPhone 5s 6 then it's a locked iPhone. If you pay more than that, it's likely to be a factory unlock one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

sanibel

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If you pay less than 300$ to get a brand new iPhone 5s 6 then it's a locked iPhone. If you pay more than that, it's likely to be a factory unlock one.

And if you paid $299 they'll unlock it half way. But hey: Using one-half of your phone is better than a locked one, and you are ahead a whole $1.

(Listen, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill legalizing cell phone unlocking, following the lead of the US Senate earlier this summer.)
 

LVMHgirl

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I am just hoping they'll sell me a full price phone next week. I will be using it on ATT, it can BE locked to ATT, but I don't want it under contract.

Same here. We want to buy them at full retail, contract-free but stay with AT&T (still under contract with our 5's). And I'd rather have them unlocked just so we won't have to unlock them in the future when time to sell/upgrade or travel.

QUESTION: Our 5's are 16 months into our current AT&T contracts so with the purchase of the new phones at full retail, would they let us swap out the 5's for the new 6's on our accounts and unlock our 5's? Or will they make us wait out the contract before we can sell our 5's? AT&T says we are eligible for the Next Plan but we don't want to use that. Also, we have a third line on our account that will not be getting a new phone because they are happy with their 5 so we don't want to make any changes that would make the plans less favorable.

Also, do the contracts have to be up in order to switch to the shared data plan? And can we switch with the 3rd line not getting a new device? So confusing! ;)
 
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ame

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They told me yesterday the only way you can get the old one unlocked is to upgrade to a new one or wait for your contract to be fulfilled on the old one, even if you buy and activate the new one on the old account. Apparently this buying and activating of the new one only "adds it" to your account, it doesn't supplant and assume the contract time, which is what they used to do.

I ended up just white flagging it and doing an early upgrade, because I now have in writing in a chat that next year I can get my regular full upgrade (ie new customer price) but this year I get it $200 less and then can unlock the 5S and sell it unlocked. So I just did that because I am going to sell the 5S.

And then I totalled my car on the way home.

The data plan changes should not affect the contracts times on each line.
 

ame

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Yep, that happened! Some tool decided IN THE INTERSECTION that he didn't want to get on thr highway after all and just stopped. He caused a chain reaction and I couldn't stop or avoid the guy that hit him. And then he left.

I am bruised badly probably from my seatbelt locking up and have probably a mild concussion from whiplash, we were going to an on ramp after all but I was going 20-25
 

ame

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Yea me too. I'm ready to get this off my radar even though it's gonna drag on. I keep seeing it all play out in my head over and over!
 

itsgusmetropolo

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Last year I got the 5S Gold for my mom, it was really hard to get. I got the T-Mobile one for the full price, no need to do anything, just swap sim cards and you're good to go. As another guy said above, it's only for marketing purposes.
 

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