iPhone 4S Sprint Unlocked iPhone help

[masoudm]

Hey guys, I bought an iPhone 4S Sprint unlocked on eBay that I bought for my cousin for a gift. The seller states that according to Apple this phone in USA can be used only on Sprint but out of USA it can be used with any cellular network. I couldn't tell if the seller was telling the truth or he was scamming me so I researched more on sprint unlocked iPhones and there were plenty of them so I thought he must be telling the truth. Now I took this to Iran and I popped in my sim card and it doesn't read it. To be sure I tested my sim card on another iPhone I brought (that one was factory unlocked) and it read the sim fine. I also asked a different seller selling sprint unlocked iPhones and he said that he takes 2-3 of them to India and it works fine.

My question is that how do people get their sprint unlocked iPhone to work outside of the country, I don't think it wouldn't work because of the Iranian cellular network because it works fine.

[Wilsonium]

What do you mean "it doesn't read it."? Do you get a sim read error or does the phone tell you to use a supported sim? Have you tried restoring the phone back to factory? If you restore and it's truly unlocked for international use you should see an iTunes message stating the phone is unlocked. Once unlocked it should work on virtually all GSM networks except those in the USA.

[antoniolcrd]

Hi, you can only use gsm outside usa if you have a active account with active roaming pack. Otherwise, take to any cell shop to unlock it with gevey. It´s the only way to use its gsm part outside usa.

Rgds,

8)

[masoudm]

@Wilsonium: When I connect it to iTunes, it says the sim is not supported, and I have updated it to 5.1.1 and still no luck. I don't think it would say that its unlocked because its technically locked to Sprint.

@antoniolcrd: When you say active account with active roaming pack, you mean from Sprint or from the cellular Sim I'm using.

[38115-2]

Hi, you can only use gsm outside usa if you have a active account with active roaming pack. Otherwise, take to any cell shop to unlock it with gevey. It´s the only way to use its gsm part outside usa.

That's not true.

If it's unlocked you can, and if you unlock with Gevey, you just pop in an active sim, you don't take it to any shop.

OP, just because there are plenty unlocked Sprint iPhones doesn't mean you should believe him. If it was unlocked, you shouldn't be experiencing any problems.

If you can, contact the seller and ask what method was used to unlock it, I can tell you more after that.

[masoudm]

Well the seller just said that according to Apple this phone is Sprint Unlocked but I didn't believe him so I called Sprint to request for an unlock (it was useless) and I'm guessing Sprint done something to lock it internationally but the seller didn't take it out of the country to test it, he just believed what Apple told him.

BTW, I tried using SAM on the phone and for a second it got one bar and it said the carrier name but it left so I'm not sure if thats a sign for something.

[38115-2]

Well the seller just said that according to Apple this phone is Sprint Unlocked but I didn't believe him so I called Sprint to request for an unlock (it was useless) and I'm guessing Sprint done something to lock it internationally but the seller didn't take it out of the country to test it, he just believed what Apple told him.

BTW, I tried using SAM on the phone and for a second it got one bar and it said the carrier name but it left so I'm not sure if thats a sign for something.

Ya, the Sprint iPhones came internationally unlocked, but they locked it back up. You need to have an account in "good standing" in order for them to unlock it for international use.

SAM doesn't work anymore, unless you had it while it was working and saved your activation ticket.

[masoudm]

So are you saying that when I called Sprint to request for an unlock, they locked it for international use? If thats the case, then its my mistake on calling Sprint to request for an unlock.

[Blaziu]

no, I think what he meant was it used to come lock free status, but after the SAM fix and others, most of the phone company started to lock their iPhone to keep the customer within their service.


Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk

[masoudm]

Well I don't know because I purchased it before the SAM Unlock came out (I even tried to unlock it using SAM but I had to get a sim card but I was too late for it) Anyways I don't know what else to do.