How do I find out if my iPhone 5s is unlocked? (Carrier won't tell me!)

June 8, 2015 11:30 PM

I have an iPhone 5s and service through Virgin Mobile USA. I bought the phone outright and have a $35 per month plan. No contract. I pay them, they give me service. Except now I'm in Canada for 5 weeks and they don't have coverage here. So it seems like the most straightforward thing for me to do is swap out the SIM card for one I buy here. But that will only work if the phone is unlocked. So I email Virgin Mobile USA, give them all the relevant info and ask them, "Is my phone unlocked?" They reply, "Virgin Mobile USA does not support international roaming, which means that we do not provide service while you are located in another country. If you travel outside of our coverage area, your phone will not have service." This is, of course, already known to me and exactly why I need to know if my phone is unlocked. This is the only answer I can get from them. So I'm turning to The Green: how can I find out if my phone is unlocked if Virgin Mobile USA won't tell me?
posted by Wisco72 to Technology (8 answers total)

Response by poster: Momentary Google-fu failure. Question basically answered already. Apologies.
posted by Wisco72 at 11:57 PM on June 8, 2015 [2 favorites]

It's interesting how the act of asking reconfigures your brain so you find the answer sometimes.
posted by mecran01 at 1:46 AM on June 9, 2015 [7 favorites]

Would you please post the answer so others can find it in the future?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:49 AM on June 9, 2015 [10 favorites]

It's interesting how the act of asking reconfigures your brain so you find the answer sometimes.

There's actually a term for this, it's called Rubber Duck Debugging.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:51 AM on June 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

If you know anyone who will let you use their SIM card (and it will fit/you have an adapter) than you can just put theirs in your phone and give it a few minutes as a test.
posted by soelo at 7:26 AM on June 9, 2015

Who *may* be your carrier in Canada?

If they have a compatible carrier here in US, go there and ask THEM.
posted by kschang at 1:39 PM on June 9, 2015

I asked this question at the Apple Store recently. According to them, there are apparently only 2 reliable ways - stick another SIM card in, or bring it into the Apple Store.
posted by xmts at 3:13 PM on June 9, 2015

Please post the answer! This is the exact question (down to phone and carrier) my husband charged me with researching before our 3 week Canadian vacation.
posted by tippy at 5:39 PM on June 9, 2015