unlocking

Bob wants to know where the best place to get a SIM card is for his Sprint iPhone when he's in Europe. Leo says that Sprint uses CDMA, not GSM, which is what's required for a SIM card. However, the iPhone 5 is a world phone, meaning it has both CDMA and GSM options. With Sprint, however, the GSM slot is locked. He could go to Sprint and explain to them that he's going to Europe and ask if they'll unlock it. Then he could buy a local SIM while he's in Europe. The chatroom says that if he's a customer in good standing, Sprint should unlock it.

Pronav bought an iPhone 5 on Sprint, but hears that Verizon iPhone’s comes unlocked. Would the Sprint iPhone 5 be unlocked as well, since it’s the same phone? Leo says no. Verizon chose on their own to unlock the iPhones that come through them. Leo believes that going forward, this will likely become the norm though. Will he be able to use his Sprint phone on another service when his contract is over? An eager rep at Verizon may be able to do it by unlocking it with software.

Steve unlocked his T-Mobile phone when he went overseas, but when he came back to the US, T-Mobile locked it back down again. Leo said to ask T-Mobile to unlock it again, and they gave him a new unlock code. He can't get to the point where he can enter the code, though. Leo says he can try dialing the code in the dialer as if he's calling it, and that might unlock it.

Leo says when he gets his next phone, he should just buy it unlocked. It won't be subsidized, but then he can put other SIM cards in it and it will never be locked.