

Ask HN: Did you buy your iPhone unlocked? - Jonovono

Hey HN. I am looking to finally get a new phone (still have the Galaxy SI). Looking to get the iPhone 5S.<p>Some background:<p>I live in Canada, but am currently planning to move to the USA for work sometime soon hopefully. But I&#x27;ll probably be back and forth once that happens every so often.<p>I was wondering if anyone has thoughts on buying the iPhone unlocked for the extra cost vs probably waiting to get to the US and getting a plan with verizon or something.<p>I understand going on the two year contract with someone you need a plan for at least 50+ it seems, but with an unlocked phone you can find some for about $30. [1]<p>Has anyone done something similar? Or even bought an unlocked phone? How did that work out? I&#x27;d like a phone now and then when the move to US happens be able to easily transfer that to someone else. But if it would be cheaper to wait and get a plan with someone in the states I&#x27;d probably do that.<p>[1] http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tekrieg.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;unlocked-iphone-5s-is-it-worth-the-higher-price-tag&#x2F;1004168&#x2F;
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bgar
I bought a used iPhone 5 (at&t but unlocked since then) on CL and it turned
out that it was incompatible with Tmobile's network because it didn't support
the AWS band 1700/2100[1]. So I went to the Apple store and had the phone
replaced for a brand new factory unlocked one (for free!).

IIRC after April of this year, all iPhone 5 variants were merged.

1: [http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5720](http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5720)

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jareds
I bought an unlocked phone through the Apple online store for use with
T-Mobile prepaid. It was interest free for two years with a new Barclay’s
card. The total cost is less than $1 more than if I put down $299 through
T-Mobile to get a locked phone with a postpaid plan. Since UI haven’t been
happy with the 3G service on my 4 through T-Mobile I decided to go unlocked
through Apple so I can transfer the phone to AIO Wireless if LTE doesn’t turn
out to be better than 3G.

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palidanx
If you happen to pull a contract with at&t in the US, you can unlock your
phone with [http://swiftunlocks.com/](http://swiftunlocks.com/)

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Jonovono
So in this case you would buy the phone at the discount rate with a two year
contract and then immediately be able to unlock it and move to another carrier
or whatever?

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tartuffe78
But you would still be locked into paying for that service for two years.

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aroch
No, but I purchased it for my mother for her birthday and she's a very light
data user (~200mb a month, at most) so she shares the dataplan with my father.

