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Carrier Activating Verizon X on AT&T

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rule62

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 31, 2017
7
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NYC
First time poster/long time lurker. Very grateful to these forums for tons of good info over the years.

I’ve seen conflicting information on this question and hoping y’all can help:

I ordered a Verizon iPhone X (silver 256), with a friends account info, for use on AT&T.

What is the activation procedure? Just pop in my sim from old AT&T) iPhone into the new one before powering on? Power on with a Verizon SIM and then swap?
 
rule62 said:
First time poster/long time lurker. Very grateful to these forums for tons of good info over the years.

I’ve seen conflicting information on this question and hoping y’all can help:

I ordered a Verizon iPhone X (silver 256), with a friends account info, for use on AT&T.

What is the activation procedure? Just pop in my sim from old AT&T) iPhone into the new one before powering on? Power on with a Verizon SIM and then swap?
Click to expand...
Just put your old SIM in and you're done.
 
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Dumb follow up: after powering on with AT&T SIM - will it then be locked to AT&T? (I plan to switch to VZW in 2018)
 
Yes it will stay Unlocked. There is no way for AT&T or Apple to lock your Verizon iPhone X it just because you put an AT&T nano-SIM in to it.

There are only 2 types of iPhones that have specific Apple Activation Profiles that lock to the first Carrier that the iPhone is activated: Apple Service units (warranty replacement) and Third party retailers like BestBuy.

Dave
 
Ocram- i did, and it did work (just had to get past the initial unboxing activation screen which i did while the ATT sim was in). Also i had to enter the credentials for the Verizon account it was purchased under.
 
I heard that the verizon phone will lock to ATT if you power it on with ATT sim first. So I activated it with Verizon SIM then swapped out my ATT one, and works fine. Id go this route just to be safe.
 
rule62 said:
Ocram- i did, and it did work (just had to get past the initial unboxing activation screen which i did while the ATT sim was in). Also i had to enter the credentials for the Verizon account it was purchased under.
Click to expand...
Interesting -- I did use your approach and it said that the activation could not be verified hence the reason why I had to use an unactivated verizon sim and then change to the AT&T one.

Weird how different methods sometimes work and sometimes do not.
 
dave006 said:
Yes it will stay Unlocked. There is no way for AT&T or Apple to lock your Verizon iPhone X it just because you put an AT&T nano-SIM in to it.

There are only 2 types of iPhones that have specific Apple Activation Profiles that lock to the first Carrier that the iPhone is activated: Apple Service units (warranty replacement) and Third party retailers like BestBuy.

Dave
Click to expand...
100% agree with Dave -- AT&T only locks phones when they are being financed by them. Plus anyone can unlock any AT&T phone on their website for free (it takes a couple of days, phone must be fully paid). The only company that I've heard do what you describe is Sprint
 
Last edited:
Newtons Apple said:
Yep, before you turn the X on, make sure that you have inserted you old SIM card. Also destroy the ne SIM card as if anyone uses it it would move your service to their phone.
Click to expand...
boltjames said:
Whoa, I didn’t know this.

You sure about that?
Click to expand...
It varies depending on what information is provided at time of purchase as to the impact of reusing this "New" SIM.

In the case of the OP, their friend's Verizon information would be tied to the new Verizon SIM. In this example, if someone put this new SIM into another Verizon phone and complete activation on Verizon. This action would deactivate the Friend's current SIM, move their phone number to the "New" SIM and require them to get a new Verizon SIM to correct this issue.

Dave
 
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dave006 said:
It varies depending on what information is provided at time of purchase as to the impact of reusing this "New" SIM.

In the case of the OP, their friend's Verizon information would be tied to the new Verizon SIM. In this example, if someone put this new SIM into another Verizon phone and complete activation on Verizon. This action would deactivate the Friend's current SIM, move their phone number to the "New" SIM and require them to get a new Verizon SIM to correct this issue.

Dave
Click to expand...

Interesting.

So my iPhone X was bought from a private seller. Mine is a Sprint A1865 Model MQCV2LL/A. The receipt for the phone is from the Apple Store, shows a price of $1,149, and says:

Sprint Account Information: No Wireless Service Activation During iPhone Sale

I have the Sprint SIM that was in the phone originally. Upon purchase 8 days ago I removed the Sprint SIM and activated the phone with my AT&T SIM and it works flawlessly.

So if I destroy the Sprint SIM that came with the phone....does that solve any potential issues with the original seller as you describe if he were evil? Or would he be able to call Sprint at any time and do something to affect the phone he sold me months or years down the road?
 
In your case there was no information provided at the point of purchase at the Apple Store. This is what is known as a "Device Only" purchase. No customer information is associated or assigned to your Sprint iPhone. The included nano-SIM is new with no "Customer" information associated to it, and it can be reused by an individual to start or transfer service to Sprint.

Now as to what a malicious individual might be able to do. Anyone that has the Serial Number, IMEI, or ESN information could contact the Carrier and report the device lost or stolen. This could result in the device being "Blacklisted" on the Carrier. This would have no impact on your AT&T usage unless they knew you were using AT&T and could convince a Carrier rep that they were the rightful owner of your iPhone.

Neither of these are likely to happen so don't worry. We do caution individuals not to share the Serial Number, IMEI, ESN and or the ICCID from the SIM to any individual that does not require any of this information to perform a service for you.

Dave
 
dave006 said:
In your case there was no information provided at the point of purchase at the Apple Store. This is what is known as a "Device Only" purchase. No customer information is associated or assigned to your Sprint iPhone. The included nano-SIM is new with no "Customer" information associated to it, and it can be reused by an individual to start or transfer service to Sprint.

Now as to what a malicious individual might be able to do. Anyone that has the Serial Number, IMEI, or ESN information could contact the Carrier and report the device lost or stolen. This could result in the device being "Blacklisted" on the Carrier. This would have no impact on your AT&T usage unless they knew you were using AT&T and could convince a Carrier rep that they were the rightful owner of your iPhone.

Neither of these are likely to happen so don't worry. We do caution individuals not to share the Serial Number, IMEI, ESN and or the ICCID from the SIM to any individual that does not require any of this information to perform a service for you.

Dave
Click to expand...

Excellent news Dave, I really appreciate you taking the time to provide this level of detail.
 
boltjames said:
Interesting.
So if I destroy the Sprint SIM that came with the phone....does that solve any potential issues with the original seller as you describe if he were evil? Or would he be able to call Sprint at any time and do something to affect the phone he sold me months or years down the road?
Click to expand...

Cool -- you are the first case I've heard of using a Sprint phone on AT&T .Congrats

Sprint's activation is different - they require both the phone's IMEI and the Sim's ICCID. This means a SIM card outside of the registered phone is unusable until the customer calls and provides the new phone IMEI.

If you destruct the Sprint SIM, you are safe -- he can't use the phone unless he knows the ICCID of the SIM card inside of the phone + phone's IMEI.

MetroPCS and most T-mobile MVNOs (prepaid sellers) do this. AT&T and Verizon only need the ICCID making your SIM portable.
 
OcramSagev said:
Cool -- you are the first case I've heard of using a Sprint phone on AT&T .Congrats

Sprint's activation is different - they require both the phone's IMEI and the Sim's ICCID. This means a SIM card outside of the registered phone is unusable until the customer calls and provides the new phone IMEI.

If you destruct the Sprint SIM, you are safe -- he can't use the phone unless he knows the ICCID of the SIM card inside of the phone + phone's IMEI.

MetroPCS and most T-mobile MVNOs (prepaid sellers) do this. AT&T and Verizon only need the ICCID making your SIM portable.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much. Great insight. Destroying the Sprint SIM tomorrow.
 
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OcramSagev said:
Was the iPhone unopened (with the plastic seals untouched)? I had no idea Sprint iPhones could do this: It's easier to find a Sprint phone than a Verizon or AT&T phone so this info can help lots of people
Click to expand...

The outer box had been opened but the phone itself had all of its seals intact and to me it did not look like they had ever been removed. They were nice and tight to the phone as I peeled them off.

Before I booted up the phone for the first time I removed the Sprint SIM and put in my AT&T SIM. Within 60 seconds the phone was up and running on the AT&T network, no problems.

A few days after I got the phone I called Apple themselves and gave them the serial number, they confirmed the phone is completely unlocked and legit to use on the AT&T network.
 
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