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Comment by downandout | Hacker News Reader

Incorrect. Apple asks users to select a carrier, however the site clearly states that all iPhones sold by Apple, including those under the IUP, are unlocked. That is a misrepresentation by Apple.

Many people buy the unlocked Verizon version of iPhones, regardless of their carrier, because only that specific version supports both CDMA and GSM. The issue is that Apple has not updated their website to reflect Verizon's 60 day policy. The thread clearly states that he bought the phone directly from Apple.

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They ARE unlocked UNTIL you activate it with Verizon, in which case, Verizon's policy takes over. Apple is being truthful.

If the person purchased an Unlocked phone, in the first place, this wouldn't be an issue. If they purchased ANY version of the phone besides Verizon it is unlocked. Verizon is locked per carrier, not per Apple.

This is an important distinction.

The user stated they did not activate with a Verizon Sim before trying the t-mobile sim. Another user confirmed they had a similar issue only on their iUP that they ordered online, their in store version was unlocked even after activating with Verizon.

Apple's order page also clearly says all the version are unlocked except ATT Next. Apple apparently failed to update their site regarding the Verizon issue. That is Apple's fault, not the person.

According to the poster, at some point during the purchase, they logged into their Verizon account.

I’m guessing that’s the trigger that caused this but I’m not sure.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/warning-iphone-upgrade-...

At one point that was true but the past several generations (from 6 on I think) have only a single US SKU.

I read through that whole thread, and the concensus seems to be that this is still an issue. It appears that all of the phones now have the CDMA technology in them, however it is still only active on the Verizon and Sprint versions, because Apple must pay a patent royalty for each activated CDMA phone, and it does not want to pay that royalty for customers using GSM carriers.

Correcting my earlier statement which wasn’t generally true. When Apple was trying to pressure Qualcomm by using crappy Intel modems, those models did not support CDMA. The current “11” generation at least seems to be universal according to Apple but they don’t mention extra CDMA conditional licensing.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201296

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