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twennywonn

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 15, 2012
245
248
So I purchased a Verizon iPhone from Apple at full retail. On my invoice, it says its model MT6J2LL/A what's the technology difference between that and the MT5D2LL/A which is the model of the sim free. Is it just that the Verizon model ships with a SIM but they are inherently the same devices? I am currently with Verizon but may take it to At&t within the next year.
 

jpn

Cancelled
Feb 9, 2003
1,854
1,988
hi

basically the same Model.
its easy to be confused about this since apple identifies both the GSM model and the CDMA model with the same Model number. in this case, A1921.

but there is an actual real world difference in the way that iPhones sold through/by Verizon and GSM phones (as bought directly from apple (so-called SIM-free models), and through GSM based carriers such as ATT.

the difference is that models sold by Verizon and other carriers starting which come from a CDMA base use and prefer as a default CDMA based tech and CDMA emitting frequencies as default.
in the USA this is likely not a problem.
but when you internationally roam in some countries where there is a great difference in the amount of coverage between CDMA and GSM the phone you have (a CDMA model) is always trying to find and default to a CDMA tower. in the event it cant find such a signal, it may slow down or even prevent yr phone from connecting in some cases.

you can learn a little bit more about this at (Verizon gives instructions for how to turn off International CMDA roaming - and therefore be able to roam on GSM carriers) at the Verizon site itself:
https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-207031/

so, i think for the USA. probably no practical difference in most areas.
on the other hand, if you internationally roam in Australia or Brazil, yr phone is much better!
 
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