Verizon's Shipping iPhone 5 Unlocked → Sprint: Are You Listening?

I wish Sprint would do this too and even implement it for existing 4S customers. One way or another they will get paid due to contract conditions including an ETF. Right now I am unlocked for international SIM's but having the option to use a throwaway prepaid SIM domestically would be nice.

At this time, I do not believe Sprint will fully unlock an iPhone 4S even if all conditions of the contract are met and the device is no longer being used.

No, Sprint won't unlock an iPhone domestically, and it's F'ing ridiculous. Every other Sprint world phone I ever owned was fully SIM unlocked. Before I purchased the 4S, I was told by Sprint, numerous tech sites (Engadget, BGR, probably here, everywhere I looked), and Apple themselves that the 4S was going to be SIM unlocked on Sprint. I preordered and had one on the first day, and voila! It was SIM locked. I am still livid to this day about being lied to and probably won't ever purchase another Apple product or ever renew my Sprint contract because of it. Google "Sprint iPhone Unlocked" and you can still find all the reports where they were baiting people like me, just to pull the switch once the contract was signed.

As for why it bothers me: I get poor service in some very rural areas I travel to on a regular basis. On my other Sprint world phones, I kept a prepaid AT&T SIM in the slot so when I lost CDMA coverage, it seamlessly roamed over to GSM. No hassle, no fuss, no worries.

Now I have to carry multiple phones all the time, usually the prepaid phone ends up being dead when I need it, and it's overall just a major hassle. Eventually I will probably just switch that line to a better carrier, but why wouldn't a company like Sprint, who needs every last subscriber they can get, make people's lives easier rather than harder? It's mind boggling, and makes no sense, as even if you jump ship, you still have to pay the ETF, or in my case, actually keep my Sprint service on but use the SIM slot as a backup when I can't get the admittedly-poor (by their own CS's mouth) Sprint native service.

Very few are "fully" unlocked. Even though they are sim unlocked the baseband is programmed to ignore domestic gsm networks. You have to install hacked software to use Att or whomever. Ex. TP2 and Moto Photon (which btw still hasn't been unlocked)

So since I have 4s with AT&T, if I unlock the phone I can go to vz, sprint or any other carrier locally or international and still get good service?

Its not shipping unlocked on verizon, its on www.phonedog.com Verizon iPhone 5 will not be relocked, confirms spokesperson.

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So since I have 4s with AT&T, if I unlock the phone I can go to vz, sprint or any other carrier locally or international and still get good service?

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No. VZW and Sprint won't activate phones not bought from them to use on their CDMA networks. You are free to use any GSM carrier including GSM based MVNO's if your iP4S is unlocked, international or domestic.

And who ordered the baseband to be programmed in such a way? The telephone companies. I'm only salty about it because I was lied to by the telco, Apple, and the media.

Every Sprint world phone I owned *prior* to the release of the iPhone was able to be used on domestic GSM networks with the correct SIM installed. Most were Blackberries, if that has anything to do with it. Just because they've shifted to a "domestic lock" model doesn't make it any less retarded.

If you pay full retail for a phone, the carrier should have no say in locking down features which the phone is fully capable of performing. If you get a subsidy, any locked down feature should be re-enabled at the end of the contract period at the very least.

SIM locks do nothing but cripple functionality. The subsidy is protected by the ETF, end of story. Why put a SIM lock on it on top of that? To be anti-competitive, which when you look that term up in the dictionary it should say "see: telco".

I agree with every aspect of your post but I just wanted to clarify your op as you stated all the others were unlocked. The domestic restriction is for people like me that would gladly take my mopho to the death star if sprint keeps getting closer to the same price for less.

I understand that. Sprint service has been abysmal for years now.

Although I'm never one to be an apologist for these people, I have to give credit where credit is due to Sprint.

I live in an area that has a number of sites live with Sprint LTE and the network upgrades here are phenomenal. A 1-2 bar (I know it's not a technical term, but I have no "before" dBm readings to compare to) increase in signal strength across the board and 1-2Mbit/second downloads on 3G. Compared to the poor signal/non-existent data speeds on the non-upgraded sites, it's night and day.

If this performs as well across the network, and is rolled out nationwide as they expect to do, I'll be a Sprint customer for a very long time.

Just for the record I've been with Sprint since 2002 so I doubt i'm going anywhere either. In my area we are the red-headed stepchild for Sprint. No wimax, no LTE and pretty bad 3g. The other big 3 have either lte (vz) or hspa+ but they have started the network vision upgrades and I have noticed an improvement in signal strength and data speed as well. The only reason I said that the way I did is because if they keep bumping the price up for an inferior network I will pay the same price for a better one. Meanwhile, back OT. Since there is no technical reason to block domestic GSM that would be the only reason that would make sense to me for them doing this.