US unlocked iphone5

Ado86

Not sure if this has been posted already, but wondering if an unlocked apple iphone was bought from US apple online store would it work here in Ireland ?

Gumbo

Ado86 wrote: »

Not sure if this has been posted already, but wondering if an unlocked apple iphone was bought from US apple online store would it work here in Ireland ?

yes, aslong as its the GSM version as IIRC theres also CDMA version which wont work in Ireland.

Fingleberries

Although it won't make much difference to us here in Ireland*, Apple have different versions of the iPhone 5 because of LTE fragmentation (The LTE Standards are different in the US to UK / Europe, as they learned with the new iPad).

Wired has an article on what it means - http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/09/iphone5-lte-model/




* It doesn't affect us in Ireland, because we won't have an LTE network for a L-O-N-G time, by which time the iPhone 6s will probably be out.

trodsky

Will it still support the Internet on wifi?

Bigcheeze

Fingleberries wrote: »

Although it won't make much difference to us here in Ireland*, Apple have different versions of the iPhone 5 because of LTE fragmentation (The LTE Standards are different in the US to UK / Europe, as they learned with the new iPad).

Wired has an article on what it means - http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/09/iphone5-lte-model/




* It doesn't affect us in Ireland, because we won't have an LTE network for a L-O-N-G time, by which time the iPhone 6s will probably be out.

It's not just LTE. This time they have made a CDMA version and a GSM version. The iphone 4S was a "global phone" which supported both CDMA and GSM but not the iphone 5. If you want to use a US iphone 5 in Ireland it needs to be the GSM or AT&T version.

Sam the Sham

Bigcheeze wrote: »

It's not just LTE. This time they have made a CDMA version and a GSM version. The iphone 4S was a "global phone" which supported both CDMA and GSM but not the iphone 5. If you want to use a US iphone 5 in Ireland it needs to be the GSM or AT&T version.

I don't think that that's correct (but, frankly, I'm not sure).

This article gives the specs for the three different iPhone 5 models:

GSM model A1428*: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 4 and 17)

CDMA model A1429*: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5, 13, 25)

GSM model A1429*: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5)

The first of these is designed only for AT&T. Note that the LTE bands it uses are used basically by AT&T and nobody else. The second one is the CDMA model. It also has the same quad-band GSM that the AT&T phone has and, furthermore, supports a wider range of LTE bands (although not band 7 which is most common in Europe). The last one is a GSM model mostly for Asian countries.

From my reading of this, it looks like a CDMA model would be the one to get. However, you cannot buy a CDMA model unlocked directly from Apple. Apple only sells the GSM model unlocked and contract free. You could get one from Verizon or Sprint. Verizon I know will unlock the SIM slot for international travel. I have no idea whether this is permanent or not. If you broke a contract with them and paid the early termination fee, they might be willing to unlock it for you to take back to Ireland. Then again, maybe not.

guil

Sam the Sham wrote: »

I don't think that that's correct (but, frankly, I'm not sure).

This article gives the specs for the three different iPhone 5 models:



The first of these is designed only for AT&T. Note that the LTE bands it uses are used basically by AT&T and nobody else. The second one is the CDMA model. It also has the same quad-band GSM that the AT&T phone has and, furthermore, supports a wider range of LTE bands (although not band 7 which is most common in Europe). The last one is a GSM model mostly for Asian countries.

From my reading of this, it looks like a CDMA model would be the one to get. However, you cannot buy a CDMA model unlocked directly from Apple. Apple only sells the GSM model unlocked and contract free. You could get one from Verizon or Sprint. Verizon I know will unlock the SIM slot for international travel. I have no idea whether this is permanent or not. If you broke a contract with them and paid the early termination fee, they might be willing to unlock it for you to take back to Ireland. Then again, maybe not.

CDMA won't work in ireland, there is no network to support it

Sam the Sham

guil wrote: »

CDMA won't work in ireland, there is no network to support it

You're missing the point. The CDMA phone also has a GSM transmitter just like the others, as well as a SIM card slot. Verizon routinely unlocks the GSM portion of their phones to allow their customers to use overseas prepaid SIMs (but not to use with US GSM carriers). There's no reason to believe that they won't do the same for the iPhone 5.

This article has more information.

Zapp Brannigan

As far as I know you can't buy an unlocked 5 from America at all right now.