Verizon iPhone 5 Confirmed to be Unlocked, Works on GSM 3G Networks

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Posted September 21, 2012 at 8:06pm by iClarified

The Verizon iPhone 5 has been confirmed to be unlocked and working on GSM 3G networks, even if the phone was sold on contract. This means that any user with a nano-sim can place his sim into the Verizon iPhone 5 and use it on a GSM carrier like AT&T.

I can confirm that the Verizon iPhone 5 is indeed GSM unlocked. Even though I bought an iPhone 5 from Verizon under contract, I was able to cut down my AT&T Micro SIM, and use it in my Verizon iPhone 5 to pick up an AT&T signal. By doing so, I was able to hop onto AT&T's HPSA+ network, or "4G" as they so ridiculously name it.

It is not possible to get AT&T LTE however, due to differences in the frequencies that the carriers operate on.

This is great news for those Verizon iPhone 5 owners who often travel the world.

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Verizon iPhone 5 Confirmed to be Unlocked, Works on GSM 3G Networks

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Comments (17)

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tdtran1025 - September 22, 2012 at 5:36pm

Last year after when Verizon unlocked my 4S, putting a ATT or TMobile SIM in the phone did not (still does not) allow me to use any local US carrier but foreign carriers will register, meaning I can only use it outside The US. Something in firmware/chipset combination prevents the registration of any local carriers except Verizon. So it is obvious that they use SIM firmware to register. The new iPhone 5 does not exhibit such behavior. I am going to try to buy a Verizon phone at Apple Store to see if a different carrier's SIM alone is enough to activate. The white paper on the Qualcomm chipset (GSM/CDMA) says it works across systems and frequencies( except LTE). Stay tuned for for more.

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alan - September 23, 2012 at 2:36am

Hey NewOwner, do you think it will work on t-mobiles frequency as well?

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Husain - September 22, 2012 at 9:52am

But the Verizon iPhone is a CDMA phone. Do how's that gonna work if you travel?

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tdtran1025 - September 22, 2012 at 2:58am

More news: Verizon won't sell u just the phone w/o contract but Apple store does. Spread the words.

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fino - September 22, 2012 at 4:39am

thanks for the news can you tell activation process for verizon ? How did you activate ?

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tdtran1025 - September 22, 2012 at 2:55am

Verified 100% true with my new phone bought at Verizon store today. First off, it is SIM unlocked. Second, ATT is aware of the fact that their LTE network is still weak, so they kill off the data feature on prepaid Nano SIM. I bought 1 to try today and was told SIM can only be used for voice and msg. Anyway, V iphone is totally unlocked. Beware of different frequencies if you try to use it as an international phone.

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Bibrahim - September 22, 2012 at 12:01am

When I go to dev. mk it says that my iPhone 5 is unlocked. I just got it today. I will try to do a full restore to check if it really is unlocked. By the way it is on AT

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joaozornig - September 21, 2012 at 11:49pm

Can Verizon contracts be broken?

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AND - September 21, 2012 at 10:54pm

What about phone activation? Do you have to activate it on VZW before using it for 2G/3G?

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icrot - September 21, 2012 at 9:18pm

how would the speed be with T-Mobile ? i am getting only 2G with ip4 around where i live. can any VZ ip5 owner do us a favor to try on T-Mo ? i'll paypal you replacement SIM cost for cutting the T-Mo SIM card.

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SBHauser1 - September 21, 2012 at 9:18pm

Verizon paid us a little more so we locked them - sent from iPhone 5 Stevie

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derrick - September 21, 2012 at 8:57pm

can we pop a tmobile sim in there and use it, it is factory unlocked, meaning we don't have to do anything to it?

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m_thoroughbred - September 21, 2012 at 9:06pm

yep! that what the article stated

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derrick - September 21, 2012 at 9:14pm

that's cool. so we can even take the verizon phone and use it oversea

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Lucas - September 21, 2012 at 8:24pm

I don't understand why will not work with att lte! I toght that the iphone now are not diferent in hardware! So the Verizon Iphone 5 doesn't have LTE!?

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m_thoroughbred - September 21, 2012 at 8:35pm

Verizon has LTE but Verizon's LTE runs at a different frequency then that of AT&T LTE. It's like if you have an iPhone from AT&T and use it on T-mobile's network you won't get 3G cause T-mobile's 3G and 4g runs on a different frequency then AT&T's.

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jef - September 21, 2012 at 8:39pm

no, verizon and att use different LTE technology, so verizon iphone 5's will only be able to get LTE from verizon and same with att. this article states an unlocked verizon iphone will get on 3G for att, which say a lot because the iphone 5 has a versatile network hardware

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