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iPhone Guys PLEASE Help!

iALLOUT4eva

iALLOUT4eva

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 3, 2012
156
0
PlayDay Land
Hi to my iGuys out there. I know this is probably the wrong section but I know you guys will be able to help me out ASAP.

Ok so basically I have an i5 on Sprint. It was jailbroken until i downloaded a bad cydia theme and had to restore it to 6.1.3. So now I can buy another one from a friend but its with Verizon.....can I use it on Sprint's network? What about an AT&T iPhone 5 also? Can I use anyone of those on Sprint or does it have to be a Sprint i5? Thanks in advance.
 
Verizon phones come unlocked and are CDMA, which is what Sprint is. AT&T iPhones are GSM which is incompatible with CDMA. GSM and CDMA are just different cell technologies.

The iPhone 5 (all iterations) is a world phone, so I've heard here that it doesn't matter whether it's GSM or CDMA, you should be able to use it on any network. But, I tend to not believe that as I have yet to hear about anyone bringing an AT&T iPhone to Sprint or a Sprint iPhone to AT&T.

Anyway, the Verizon iPhone should work. Your problem is going to be convincing Sprint to activate the phone. Historically, Sprint has flat out refused to activate any phone that isn't Sprint branded. Now, the iPhone 5 doesnt have any Sprint branding on it of course, but Sprint may be belligerant about it anyway.

I don't know much about SIM cards, but you might be able to just swap SIM cards from your current iPhone 5 with the Verizon iPhone 5. I know that this is what the Apple tech did to my iPhone 5 when I had it replaced at the Apple store. But SIM cards are a relatively new thing with Sprint so I don't know how necessary that was. The Apple Genuis may have just done it reflexively, I don't know. CDMA doesnt usually deal with SIM cards so I wouldn't know for a fact that you could do this. You'd probably have to contact Sprint in some way anyway.

Again, I am no expert on SIM cards so YMMV (your mileage may vary).
 
Its basically like this: any iPhone 4S/5 can be used on GSM networks but for it to work on CDMA you have to buy it specifically for that carrier,if you want to use it on Verizon you buy a Verizon iPhone which you can use on Verizon and on any GSM network(in case its unlocked or roaming on supported partners),if you buy it on a GSM carrier(ATT/T-Mobile,most europeans carriers) you won't be able to use it on a CDMA carrier.
 
Well thanks guys for the speedy responses even though this is not what i wanted to hear. This jailbreaking section of macrumors is full of informative ppl. Thanks again.
 
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