Taking my iPhone with me

[aaron2020 11,651]

Any recent iPhone that is unlocked will work practically anywhere (looking at you North Korea).

I've used my unlocked AT&T iPhone 4s, 5s, and 6+ in several countries in Asia and Europe with local sims.

[cl4677 3]

This is where I get totally confused. How do I check which antenna it has?

As others have stated the recent iPhones have dual antennas and are ok just about everywhere.

If you look at the small print on the back of your iPhone you will see a model number that starts with an A. For example; my phone is model A1522. If you use the link below you can see which iPhone you have and which bands are supported.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

Edit: That link is only good for iPhone 5 and newer.

Edited January 17, 2016 by cl4677

[JRF 117]

If you are serious about saving money (and are parsimonious with mobile data) check out Consumer Cellular. I pay $50 per month for two phones, and it only requires we use WIFI when available. Over 1G of data, and I can adjust limit constantly (many months the bill is under $40). I haven't seen anyone who can match this, and it rides on AT&Ts network.

And no, I am not paid to shill for CC. And yes, both iPhones were purchased at full price in an Apple Store, unlocked, and we intend to keep them for a long time.

Edited January 17, 2016 by JRF

[TBoneTX 45,266]

A noncontributory post has been removed.

VJ Moderation

[simonschus 58]

I smashed my phone screen when I was out in the US and went to an Apple Store where they offered to just replace the screen or to replace the entire unit. Both options required payment but I was claiming it on my insurance anyway so I wasn't particularly worried about the cost. I could either have waited a few hours for the screen to be replaced or walking out the store with a replacement phone immediately. I opted to replace the entire unit because I was heading back to the UK a few hours later and didn't want to miss my flight or have a stressful rush to the airport. Anyway, the phone I was given was a GSM-type iPhone and I had no trouble putting my UK sim inside and connecting to a UK network when I got home. It worked immediately, and it has since. So I would anticipate no major problems given that I effectively went the other way that you are suggesting.

Now, the US carriers use GSM-type networks (i.e. T-Mobile; AT&T) and CDMA-type networks (Verizon; possibly Sprint but I can't remember what they use). It used to be the case that Apple made different versions of the phones for the GSM networks and the CDMA networks (i.e. iPhone 5 has a GSM version which were sold in most countries, and a CDMA version which was only really sold in the few countries where they had CDMA networks). One version of the iPhone 5 would only work on the GSM network and the other would only work on the CDMA networks - they only had antennas capable of working on one or the other, not both.

I believe that as of the iPhone 6, however, this isn't so much of an issue as Apple began making iPhones that were generally capable of connecting to both networks, although there are a few cases where this is still problematic as there are still different versions of the iPhone 6 that are specialised (but not fixed) to GSM networks and CDMA networks.thoguh

Nonetheless: If you have a phone provided by the UK networks then you will definitely be able to put in a SIM that for carriers that use GSM-type networks (i.e. AT&T and T-Mobile, and probably a few others). If you wanted to use a CDMA-type network (i.e. Verizon) then you *could* have some difficulty, but then again you might not. It depends on if you were given a CDMA-capable iPhone or not. It'd be easy to check though just by taking it into a Verizon store and asking them to check it for you, or looking up your phones model number (I believe it usually five digits long and starts A**** or something, and that it is written on the back of the phone as well as being available in the About screen in the iPhone Settings). That is, however, assuming that you even want to try out Verizon or not which is obviously a decision for you to review the networks to see which suits you most.

Simon.

Edited January 17, 2016 by simonschus

[JFH 12,190]

Thank you Simon. I understand it a lot better now. I'm thinking of trying AT&T there because that's the network that my phone switches to when I go there and set it to roaming and it works fine.

Edited January 17, 2016 by JFH