Can I unlock this iPhone?

August 28, 2023 1:39 PM

On the advice from previous Asks, I purchased my iPhone from Gazelle, locked to ATT. I now want to switch to Verizon. Multiple attempts to use ATT's online unlocking request throws up errors when I attempt to use it. Can I call ATT/go to the ATT store (ugh)? Should I (would it be easier to) just buy a new (used) unlocked phone?
posted by sarajane to Technology (8 answers total)

Best answer: It would be easier to buy an unlocked phone and sell the one you have now.

The division of AT&T that handles porting phones between carriers is famously, consistently, soul-suckingly incompetent. The last time I did this, I was in the store for 2 hours and 25 minutes. It's a perfect storm of: their system doesn't handle this well; they don't want you to leave.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:44 PM on August 28, 2023

(Although to be fair, the issues I had were with moving to Google Fi. They might handle more mainstream carriers better these days.)
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:51 PM on August 28, 2023

Best answer: In agreement with DirtyOldTown - when I had to do this in July I was at the AT&T store for over 5 hours and went through something like 5 SIMs. The process is horrendous, and I would only bother if you didn't have another choice.
posted by minsies at 2:40 PM on August 28, 2023

Sorry, this was going to AT&T from another carrier (Cricket) - same terrible process, just in reverse.
posted by minsies at 2:41 PM on August 28, 2023

FYI Although an unlocked iPhone is not locked to a specific wireless carrier, it may still have some hardware restrictions (such as missing wireless bands required by your carrier) that prevent it from working 100% optimally on every wireless carrier.
posted by oceano at 2:47 PM on August 28, 2023 [2 favorites]

I've had it happen in both directions, including--hilariously--being made to wait over three hours when I was transferring my service to AT&T... as an AT&T employee.

It does not, in my experience, avoid the horrorshow if you have a phone that is 100% certified to run on both AT&T and the other carrier. None at all.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:47 PM on August 28, 2023

Following up on oceano’s comment, AT&T used a GSM network and Verizon uses CDMA. Historically, phones were on one network or the other, not both.
posted by sacrifix at 4:29 PM on August 28, 2023

Best answer: It is better to sell the phone you have and buy one that's specifically marked Verizon.

There used to be a network divide between AT&T and Verizon. I won't get too technical, but the idea is AT&T (and T-mob) are on GSM standard, and Verizon is on CDMA standard. This should no longer be a problem after 4G/LTE, but each company has its own set of bands and there's no universal support (though Apple and Google come close). Mobile carriers used to spend BIG bucks buying these bands from the FCC for their networks (and still do).

In practice, if you want to go on Verizon, you should have bought a phone that *was* on Verizon. Verizon used to discourage BYOB (bring your own device) as they claim that they don't allow unapproved hardware on their network. This is somewhat true, but not fully.
posted by kschang at 4:30 PM on August 28, 2023 [1 favorite]