acadiel

Came in 3/2 here in ATL and Wi-Max on my Freedompop device is no more...

My Freedompop WiMAX unit is still working in Atlanta. No usage is being charged on the portal as well. Strange.

I got the "Unlocked Universal" version of this very device from Amazon. The FCC indicates it does indeed support Sprint frequency bands. No reason why it really couldn't work other than Sprint not wanting to whitelist the stupid thing. I made a nice comparison on XDA Developers about the *C7 and *C8. Compiled from FCC information and Wikipedia for two of the Moto E LTE models: FCC ID IHDT56QC8 (XT1528) - This LTE transceiver supports high-speed wireless data communications within LTE Bands 2, 4, 5, and 13, with channels up to 20 MHz in bandwidth. FCC ID IHDT56QC7 (XT1527) - This LTE transceiver supports high-speed wireless data communications within LTE Bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 17, 25, 26, and 41, with channels up to 20 MHz in bandwidth. From Wikipedia: 2 = 1900Mhz (PCS) 4 = 1700Mhz (AWS) 5 = 850 (Cellular?) 12 = 700 a 13 = 700 c 17 = 700 b 25 = 1900 g 26 = 850 (SMR?) 41 = 2500 (old WiMax) So, the Verizon model (1528) will technically support LTE on AT&T and T-Mobile bands 2 & 4. It has all three Verizon LTE bands (obviously) - 2, 4, 13. You would be missing LTE on AT&T band 17 and LTE on T-Mobile band 12. The other model (1527) will support LTE on AT&T in 2, 4, and 17. Will support Sprint on 2, 25, 26, and 41. Will support T-Mobile on 2, 4, and 12. Technically it might also support Verizon on 2 and 4. (Verizon is currently using 4 as part of XLTE in certain markets, and I don't know if think are running LTE on 2 at all. ) It appears that the 1527 model is the better one to get for band coverage, unless you want Verizon LTE on band 13. Found a third model. From FCC docs: FCC ID: IHDT56QC1. This mobile device is also equipped with an LTE transceiver. This LTE transceiver supports high-speed wireless data communications within LTE Bands 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, and 17, with channels up to 20 MHz in bandwidth. This particular variant will work on LTE on AT&T in bands 2, 4, and 17. It will work on LTE on T-Mobile in 2, 4, and 12. It will work on Verizon's LTE on 2 and 4, but is missing Verizon's core band 13 (700c). Not sure which provider is using it with on band 5 (850). This model apparently (compared to QC7) is missing the Sprint LTE bands completely (25, 26, 41).

Woot, 5S is done.!

They just called me and said its now unlocked. Will try tossing a T-Mobile SIM in later Very nice and professional. They were awesome. We will see if it works.

From my discussions with their internal team, it's a limitation of the system and the way the developers developed it. It's supposed to be on a device by device basis.

I had to do a restore on my 4S... it refused to unlock until I did by simply putting a foreign SIM. Not sure about other models right now; and still waiting on them to do my 5S. It's failing Sprint's 'financial eligibility check' even though it's on a current postpaid account, and full paid off, because I have a "WeGo" device on an installment plan ($5/mo) on the same account. Now tell me that isn't a screwed up programming job, there. Nice job, Sprint.

It works OK. There is definitely a difference from using an iPhone 6 to a 4S (I can tell), but it's usable. I went ahead and put it on Ting's GSM network and put some limits on it for my 10-year-old. Even after restoring it with the Sprint SIM in it, it would never seem to want to do hands-free activation any longer, and the ##UPDATE# code no longer works (throws an error, even after restoring with the Sprint SIM). So, the reason Sprint might be saying the 4S and 5 can't be unlocked is because it's a one way street if you do use a GSM SIM in it. When restored with the Sprint SIM (factory defaults even, I entered DFU mode, restored it, and went through setup), you see "Carrier 18.0" instead of "Sprint", and you still do see the MEID in there. Just none of the ##UPDATE# or other codes work, it doesn't attempt to activate with CDMA, etc. Ah well... it's a little more flexible now anyway.

Now the question with the Sprint unlocked 4S is.... do you just do a reset with iTunes (with a Sprint SIM) to get it back on Sprint? Once it is restored in iTunes with a GSM SIM, ##UPDATE# doesn't work any longer, even if you put the Sprint SIM Back in, reset network settings, reboot it, etc.

Haven't gotten any notification yet for my 4S, but I just did a complete reinstall of the OS and restore (with an AT&T SIM in), and it unlocked. I wonder if Sprint changed the international locking policy for the 4S and 5 just to be 'fully unlocked'. Even after saying they weren't doing it. Makes me want to go spend $1.99 on one of those reports to see what activation policy is applied to the 4S. Edit: Here it is... Report Type: Apple GSX IMEI Detailed Report Product: iPhone 4S Model: SVC,IPHONE 4S,MM,64GB,WHT,AE,RPLCMNT IMEI: 99000xxxxxxxxxx Serial Number: xxxxxxxxxxxx Version: 8.1.3 Warranty Status: Out Of Warranty (No Coverage) Warranty Days Remaining: 0 Estimated Purchase Date: 02/03/14 Registration Date: 02/03/14 ICCID: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Mac Address: xxxxxxxxxxxx Bluetooth Mac Address: xxxxxxxxxxxx Unbrick: True First Unbrick Date: 12/15/12 Last Unbrick Date: 02/28/15 Activation Policy ID: 2070 Activation Policy Details: US CDMA Service Picker policy - N94/N92 - 2011 Next Tether Policy ID: 2303 Next Tether Policy Details: Multi-Mode Unlock Purchase Country: United States Sold To Name: APPLE Carrier: Multi-Mode Unlock Find My iPhone: ON

I think they're having internal issues with the tool they developed, from what you both are mentioning above. My 5S (paid off) is on the account with a WeGo (which I'm paying $5/mo for), and the tool sees "Whoa, installment plan!" and doesn't let them unlock my 5S. My rep is trying to work with the developers to fix this. No worries; I know they're trying their best, and I'm only bugging them about once a week.

To your credit, yes, they should put internal bulletins up that they are still having issues and the reps should read these before their shift starts, to let the customers know what's going on. It'll happen. Just be patient. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

No return call today. They've been pretty good about following up on the active 5S, so I'll wait. Also, today is the one week (5 business days) for the international unlock I requested for the 4S. They have two more business days left.

I talked to my senior advisor that is working with engineering today. She had me do a ##clear# - and the 5S shows up as unlocked on Sprint's side, but not on Apple's. So will probably get a follow up tomorrow.

+1 - especially if they never designed the functionality with this in mind. Keep in mind, you have the development of a multi-tiered application. You can easily have the following: The front end part, which needs to be easy for the reps to use The mid tier, which checks device status (blacklisted, paid off, etc), account status, and all the other requirements by tying into other Sprint back end systems. The B2B tier, which interfaces with Apple and changes the activation policy for the phone And all the back end Sprint databases, which house MEID/Account history, and all the stuff that the mid tier relies on to work properly. You get a hiccup in any of that, and yeah, all the front end CS rep sees is an error. And they can't really do anything about it. Could Sprint have planned better and done better system and integration testing before this deadline? Yeah, they probably could have. Did they? Who knows. It might just be a single line of code screwing stuff up once they promoted their dev code to prod that they didn't anticipate. For us IT geeks, it's easy to see all the moving parts that go into these processes... for Joe Blow consumer, though, all they see is that "Sprint won't unlock my phone and keeps stalling because they say their systems are busted."