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Not only is the T-Mobile iPhone 6 Plus unlocked, but it works on Verizon!

rigormortis

rigormortis

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 11, 2009
1,813
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i never tried this with gsm iPhones before. all i know about older iPhones was that the CDMA radio is disabled on GSM models. and they say if you want to use an iPhone on verizon you must buy the CDMA version.

well. i tried to go to my account and i tried to tell verizon to change my phone from a iPhone 5 to the iPhone 6 plus i bought today. they wouldn't accept the imei, because it is not a verizon phone.

but guess what. if i take my pre-activated sim card out of my iPhone 5 and put it in my iPhone 6 plus, it works. it turns on the CDMA radio. and i can make calls. and i can send texts and i can browse web pages

it seems the iPhone 6 plus is just like the iPad air and iPad mini retina. and its universal.

i was going to sell my verizon phone 5 today !! but i am worried about it being on my account so i cancelled selling it until i cancel verizon in October

when you go to my verizon with the iPhone 6 running. all it says is "NON VCW device" and it lists your sim card.

no matter what device has your sim card, you cannot officially switch your account to this iPhone. but it works.

YMMV
 
wow seriously? was about to buy the t-mobile version from apple.com today bc I had heard this may be possible, but was shot down by many saying no way. interesting
 
it works. but your phone won't be officially activated for service, it won't be listed on your account . only your sim card will be activated. but, the gsm and cdma radios are activated., otherwise the phone works!!!!!

the verizon sim has to be a live sim , if you don't have verizon service then you won't be able to add the iPhone 6 tmo to your account.
 
ok so what does that mean? Would that affect anything negatively? I have no knowledge about any of this.
 
HoosBruce said:
ok so what does that mean? Would that affect anything negatively? I have no knowledge about any of this.
Click to expand...


the only thing that comes to mind is that the imei won't be listed as being owned by you by verizon. meaning if you lose or your iPhone gets stolen , i don't think verizon will be able to block your imei from being used.. verizon will have no knowledge that the phones serial # is assigned to them

one negative thing is I'm kind of scared selling my verizon iPhone 5.if i can't switch phones then i don't think its a good idea to sell the old one


otherwise nothing negative seems to be affected

i did not try visual voice mail, though
 
rigormortis said:
the only thing that comes to mind is that the imei won't be listed as being owned by you by verizon. meaning if you lose or your iPhone gets stolen , i don't think verizon will be able to block your imei from being used.. verizon will have no knowledge that the phones serial # is assigned to them

one negative thing is I'm kind of scared selling my verizon iPhone 5.if i can't switch phones then i don't think its a good idea to sell the old one


otherwise nothing negative seems to be affected

i did not try visual voice mail, though
Click to expand...

Interesting. If that's the case, the "device only" Tmo and Verizon phones should be interchangeable? And so that means the A1549 GSM vs A1549 CDMA are truly same phones with nothing hard locked or disabled.
 
cnotes2019 said:
So you get lte on verizon???
Click to expand...

yes i was able to get a verizon lte signal

----------
dopke said:
Interesting. If that's the case, the "device only" Tmo and Verizon phones should be interchangeable? And so that means the A1549 GSM vs A1549 CDMA are truly same phones with nothing hard locked or disabled.
Click to expand...

i didn't try anything advanced like Volte on verizon. it looks to me to be interchangeable. however, verizon won't officially like your MEID.



i put my verizon iPhone 5 on ebay upon finding out this tmo phone i was planning on keeping locked up till 10-25 worked on verizon. but i was nervous about not being able to make sure the old meid was removed from my account , that i cancelled the sale and decided to wait a month, and go back to my iPhone 5 and keep the 6 plus in a safe plus until i can cancel in october

i bet it wouldn't work for sprint though. i want to see someone with sprint put in a pre-activated live sim card in the iPhone 6 and see if it works. i dont think it would work. .. but i have seen reports where you can take a iPad air that is listed as the universal part and a receipt from the apple store and sprint will activate your iPad even though its not a sprint one.
 
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I bought an At&T 64 gig iPhone 6 here in the US. Put in my Canadian Sim card and it worked. Doesn't seemed to locked at all. I did purchase the phone so maybe that was the difference. The sales guy at apple never even took the phone out of the box with me. I told him what I wanted to do with it, he sold me the phone and told me to just insert my sim card before turning it on and connecting it to iTunes. Everything is working as is. Just can't access At&T LTE, seems they block LTE on foreign sims.
 
oh man, if only the Sprint phone were to come unlocked, it would definitely become the hottest phone out there! Looks like I went through the trouble of getting a Verizon phone for my AT&T account for no reason :D
 
The equipment is the same in the phones it's just Verizon won't let a phone that's not pre registered on their network your sim is acting as the registration so that's why it's working been this way since iphone 5
 
johnparjr said:
The equipment is the same in the phones it's just Verizon won't let a phone that's not pre registered on their network your sim is acting as the registration so that's why it's working been this way since iphone 5
Click to expand...

Previously the 5 and 5S "GSM" models, even though they had the same radio chipset as the "CDMA" models, had CDMA frequencies and MEID disabled. The 6 and 6+ no longer have this restriction, and model A1549 GSM = A1549 CDMA. (Interesting number, BTW)

You were able to use a Verizon phone on other networks, but not the other way around. Now you can use a T-Mobile phone on Verizon! (if the Verizon SIM is an already activated line of service)
 
So I just got the iPhone 6 model # A1549 on Verizon. Can I use this model, purchased from Verizon, on AT&T or GSM networks and have full functionality, 3G, Edge, LTE, voice, etc?
 
MacVault said:
So I just got the iPhone 6 model # A1549 on Verizon. Can I use this model, purchased from Verizon, on AT&T or GSM networks and have full functionality, 3G, Edge, LTE, voice, etc?
Click to expand...

Yes it will work with full functionality as if it was purchased from AT&T or T-Mobile.


iPhones are all designed equal (Except some models that have more bands than less, to accommodate special carrier needs like Sprint).

Only thing that comes in the way is carrier locks for iPhones. Otherwise all iPhones are capable (given you have the correct model GSM or CDMA or CDMA+GSM = Verizon). Otherwise its just plug and play.

----------

On the side note, those of you that are excited to discover about T-Mobile / AT&T iPhone 6/6+ working on Verizon well....guess what:

The only way to use T-Mobile / AT&T iPhone 6/6+ is to use a pre-activated SIM from another Verizon device. If you sell or give that device to someone else and that new person activates that device from which you got the SIM from = Your SIM in your AT&T/T-mobile iPhone 6/6+ deactivated because Verizon will not allow one MEID/IMEI to be activated on two lines.

People thought they can just go ahead and use AT&T / T-mobile iPhone 6/6+ on Verizon...well Verizon is always one step ahead to make sure that if you truly want to use their service without hiccups or having devices lying around as paperweight that you buy the iPhone from them.

So again, I recommend if you are buying the iPhone 6/6+ at full price, buy the Verizon model at full price, because thats the true universal model there is and is fully unlocked for both GSM and CDMA (Verizon and PagePlus)
 
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I broke my phone, and got a replacement... Was told, it was the "LAST" one.

It has the Model Number: NGAR2LL/A (This model shows up - NOWHERE)

It's supposed to be AT&T, but shows an MEID.

My iPhone 5, which is an AT&T, does not have an MEID number.

My wife's phone, also AT&T, I had performed an recovery mode restore, without an installed SIM, said that it was activated on the CDMA network. I didn't know to check if it has an MEID. I thought it might have been an iTunes bug. But now I want to know.
 
So I purchased AT&T 6 Plus Gold 128 GB as Device only. When I plugged it into itunes, I got the congrats your iphone has been unlocked message. So I know my phone is unlocked.

Now I have a Verizon iPad Mini with Retina Display Wifi+Cellular model and have a pre-paid sim. If I were to insert the nano sim, would it theoretically work on my AT&T 6 Plus that is unlocked? I understand that it would be data only.

I'm debating whether I should just return the AT&T 6 Plus (I have till 10/14/14 for returns) and get my self a Verizon model 6 Plus when it becomes available?

Edit: So I have inserted my Verizon nano SIM card from my iPad mini retina into my att 6 plus and indeed it does work.
 
Last edited:
danilko1 said:
I broke my phone, and got a replacement... Was told, it was the "LAST" one.

It has the Model Number: NGAR2LL/A (This model shows up - NOWHERE)

It's supposed to be AT&T, but shows an MEID.

My iPhone 5, which is an AT&T, does not have an MEID number.

My wife's phone, also AT&T, I had performed an recovery mode restore, without an installed SIM, said that it was activated on the CDMA network. I didn't know to check if it has an MEID. I thought it might have been an iTunes bug. But now I want to know.
Click to expand...

All iPhone 6s have an MEID
 
Allthings-I said:
Yes it will work with full functionality as if it was purchased from AT&T or T-Mobile.


iPhones are all designed equal (Except some models that have more bands than less, to accommodate special carrier needs like Sprint).

Only thing that comes in the way is carrier locks for iPhones. Otherwise all iPhones are capable (given you have the correct model GSM or CDMA or CDMA+GSM = Verizon). Otherwise its just plug and play.

----------

On the side note, those of you that are excited to discover about T-Mobile / AT&T iPhone 6/6+ working on Verizon well....guess what:

The only way to use T-Mobile / AT&T iPhone 6/6+ is to use a pre-activated SIM from another Verizon device. If you sell or give that device to someone else and that new person activates that device from which you got the SIM from = Your SIM in your AT&T/T-mobile iPhone 6/6+ deactivated because Verizon will not allow one MEID/IMEI to be activated on two lines.

People thought they can just go ahead and use AT&T / T-mobile iPhone 6/6+ on Verizon...well Verizon is always one step ahead to make sure that if you truly want to use their service without hiccups or having devices lying around as paperweight that you buy the iPhone from them.

So again, I recommend if you are buying the iPhone 6/6+ at full price, buy the Verizon model at full price, because thats the true universal model there is and is fully unlocked for both GSM and CDMA (Verizon and PagePlus)
Click to expand...

interesting, but can't someone just put the old sim in a new device so it's not connected to the old phone
 
medlee said:
interesting, but can't someone just put the old sim in a new device so it's not connected to the old phone
Click to expand...

Unless you can afford to have a smartphone as a paperweight for the entire time, then ya sure...you can have a old smartphone and activate the SIM and put it into your AT&T / T-Mobile iPhone 6/6+. Just make sure no one ever activates that paperweight phone of yours tho...
 
I will get my iphone 6+ of T-mobile contract free version booked from apple.com soon.

Should I activate it with verizon sim card first? I am in att, and I don't have a CDMA carrier's sim card and Verizon won't issue anyone a sim card like what att/tmo does on prepaid sim.

I read elsewhere someone says if you activate a Tmo/att contract free iphone 6 or 6+ with a GSM sim card, the CDMA radio will be automatically blocked forever. Is that true?
Can I activate it by att/tmo sim but switch to a CDMA carrier someday later?
Could anybody help to confirm?
Thanks,
 
If you go down this route, how do you get VZW to provision the SIM for VoLTE? For example, the iPhone 5c doesn't support VoLTE. If I get a cheap one to use as my "paperweight," the SIM won't automatically be provisioned for VoLTE.
 
I'm a little late on this thread but hopefully someone will have an answer. I have an unlocked AT&T iPhone 6 with a verizon sim and it indeed works. The issue i have is for some reason it does not recognize the network or register my number. It's odd because I can make and receive calls, text, both LTE and cdma data but I can't sent MMS or register imessage/facetime. Any idea what might be going wrong?
 
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