The new iPhone (5) Nano SIM card. Sprint?

[MacinJosh]

If I recall correctly, I tried this between sprint and att when the 4s came out (I had one from each).

 

If you swap sims, you have to factory reset with the new sim for it to work.

 

to clarify, I put the att sim in the sprint phone and factory reset via the settings screen, then my att sim worked in the sprint phone.

 

Really? I wondered if that was possible. Glad to know that Sprint didn't lock down the domestic GSM bands on their 4S.

[dedub]

I think at launch, the sprint 4s's were 'unlocked', so it was possible to swap in a different sim. I remember them saying they would be locking them after launch, but I did not keep either of my 4s so I don't know if they ever did.

 

It is quite possible that they may be baseband locked from the start this time around, but what I suspect is that it will be the initial sim that will determine what carrier and if it will be locked.

 

When I reset the device, I first tried to boot with no sim but if I recall it would not go pass the no sim/emergency call only screen.

 

So what I extrapolate from that is, if you had an unactived iphone 5 and a working compatible sim that was not iphone5/carrier specific, you could boot up with that sim and have an unlocked phone. I suspect this is what tmobile will be doing.

Edited September 15, 2012 by dedub

[xenadu]

When you activate iPhones it contacts Apple's servers and downloads it's configuration, so if the phone was sold on Sprint it will use that configuration. The initial 4S devices were shipped unlocked and IIRC unless you did a factory reset/reactivation it doesnt download the file again... Or maybe they never updated the info for the old phones, not sure about that. Either way it is unlocked and can be used on another GSM carrier. They tell people it won't work on AT&T but I think it actually will.

 

On the 4S (and presumably the iPhone 5), the CDMA radio still operates on the ESID # and neither Verizon nor Sprint will activate IDs not approved by them. This is not a technical limitation, it is a business decision to prevent people from switching between the two carriers. Looking back at it, I think Sprint wishes (or should be wishing) they had worked out a deal with Verizon to allow it as a hedge against ATT. I'm sure Verizon doesn't care at this point. The iPhone won't let you complete setup without a SIM but when operating on CDMA it doesn't consult or use it. When roaming internationally, both Sprint and VZW SIM cards have carrier IDs and your SIM has a customer ID that they can tie back to your account so they can bill you.

 

 

LTE uses a SIM so in theory if you have an unlocked iPhone 5 and put a Sprint SIM in a Verizon phone it should work on the Sprint network, so long as the phone is unlocked. Whether Apple has allowed the carriers to set this kind of flag for LTE SIM cards I have no idea. But with the iPhone 5 you will need a working SIM or you can't get on the LTE network at all. CDMA still uses the phone's internal ESID # stuff, they did not adopt the CDMA SIM standard (I forget what this is called... RSIM?)

 

All of this is really stupid; the only thing that should matter to the carrier is if you are paying your bill and fulfill your contract. If we still had a functioning, properly-funded government the FCC would pass regulation requiring all phones to be automatically unlocked when you finish your contract and require all CDMA carriers to accept any FCC-certified device so you could take your phone between carriers. If they tried it the carriers would sue them and it would be a huge kerfuffle, not that they'd attempt it anyway. The fact that the same people who own the pipes get to control the airwaves, or own the content, or both is absolute insanity and ripe for abuse but what else is new.

[dedub]

xenadu, I pretty much agree entirely, however I highly suspect that 4/4s (and looks like 5) are exactly the same between vz/sprint and ESID should work on EITHER carrier with the appropriate sim card.

 

I highly doubt that apple has or is going to segregate the same model device by ESID just so vz/sprint can squabble over who bought which phone where, when it can be much simpler by sim card. Even then, I also suspect the sim card itself is exactly the same (CDMA generic, not sprint/vz specific). (I expect) The carrier locking to be coming from the activation process.

 

Segregating by ESID would be logistically stupid, then you have to get into guessing supply volumes between sprint/vz, ie we ship 50m vz specific, vs 30m sprint specific or whatever the case may be, instead of just shipping 80m units of cdma. I don't think apple would allow that to affect their supply logistics.

 

 

I suspect it goes like this;

 

- apple creates/ships cdma phones (carrier agnostic)

- pallet of devices goes to;

-- apple stores (carrier agnostic)

-- vz stores (ESID's scanned into vz and locked to vz via itunes and vz inventory systems)

-- sprint stores (ESID's scanned into sprint and locked to sprint via itunes and sprint inventory systems)

Edited September 15, 2012 by dedub

[WiWavelength]

See www.cellcom.com, they roam on vzw lte.

Do they roam on Verizon LTE, or are they a Verizon Rural Partnership or Verizon MVNO?

 

Cellcom is a VZW LTE in Rural America (cough, Trojan horse, cough) network partner. Cellcom is using VZW's Upper 700 MHz spectrum to deploy LTE. In turn, both Cellcom and VZW get reciprocal roaming agreements.

 

AJ

[el_oh_el88]

this is still a very interesting question to me. it will be something new if sprint is forced to NOT embed the sims this time around

[dedub]

this is still a very interesting question to me. it will be something new if sprint is forced to NOT embed the sims this time around

 

neither the 4 or 4s have embedded sims, the 5 is not likely either. The carriers cowtow to apple, not apple to the carriers.

[el_oh_el88]

Thats not entirely what i meant. I mean that since Vzw uses sim cards for their cdma/lte handsets instead of the ESN to activate it, i was wondering if sprint would be forced to take the same route

[MacinJosh]

Thats not entirely what i meant. I mean that since Vzw uses sim cards for their cdma/lte handsets instead of the ESN to activate it, i was wondering if sprint would be forced to take the same route

 

As a person who owned a VZW LTE device, they still use the ESN to activate the device, and to block it from using the service if the ESN is registered in their block list.

[el_oh_el88]

Oh ok, i had figured