Moving IPhone from UK to US

[Marty06]

I have an IPhone ME501B/A

It was originally used on the UK EE network, but was unlocked several years ago.

I am now trying to use it in the US. I inserted a Mint (i.e. T-Mobile) Sim card in. THe Iphone pops up with the message that says activation is required. It then tries to activate and says "Sim Not Supported".

I know this message suggests that the phone is locked to a carrier, but it is not locked.

I spoke to Apple support and they said the phone is unlocked from EE but still "activated" to the EE network in the UK, and I'd need to call EE to request it no longer be activated in the UK but in the US. I've googled this and can't find anything that talks about this issue, and I wanted to get advice before calling up EE. I imagine they won't know what I'm asking and will simply tell me it is unlocked and that is all they can do....so I want to be sure of what the issue is before calling. A couple of people on other forums suggested the problem is actually with Apple's activation servers. Does anyone have any experience of this?

A couple more things to note: once the SIM is inserted, the cellular service for Mint/T-Mobile shows in the top left hand corner above the "SIM not supported" page. Also, if I uninsert the SIM, the carrier shows as T-Mobile. Plugging into ITunes also briefly shows the Mint SIM phone number, but it then disappears.

I've tried restoring from ITunes and it doesn't make any difference.

Thanks for any input you might have.

 

[jpn]

the behavior you describe reminds me of a common practice in the distant past, when many carriers did lock their device when used domestically, but allowed any carrier's sim to be used when abroad.
but yr situation is reversed to this practice.
unless of course it was originally a USA carrier phone which remains locked in the US but in the UK allowed any sim to be used in the UK, but when brought back to the US is locked.

anyway, the situation as you describe is in fact classic locked phone.

 

[Marty06]

the behavior you describe reminds me of a common practice in the distant past, when many carriers did lock their device when used domestically, but allowed any carrier's sim to be used when abroad.
but yr situation is reversed to this practice.
unless of course it was originally a USA carrier phone which remains locked in the US but in the UK allowed any sim to be used in the UK, but when brought back to the US is locked.

anyway, the situation as you describe is in fact classic locked phone.

The phone is a UK model. It works in the US with a UK SIM, but not with a local SIM. It works in the UK with a SIM from any network. So yes, it sounds like it is locked to the UK domestic market. Apple said this was very common -- a carrier "activates it for use in one country only". But I've never heard of this. Ironically, the UK SiM connects to T-Mobile USA, just like the local SIM would!

 

[JPack]

In all likelihood, it's because the iPhone 5c you have doesn't support Band 4 (AWS) required by T-Mobile.

Based on the Apple order number you provided, it is an A1507. That model lacks AWS support.