[Networking] Product F(RED):
I have an iPhone 4S on Sprint. It was purchased before 11/11/11, which means it came unlocked. Any Sprint customer with an iPhone 4S that has been in good standing for 90 days or more can request unlocks (plural, as in there is no limit) on their iPhone. Same for Verizon, although Verizon tries to curb the selling of unlocks by limiting you to 1 unlock every 10 months per line.

However, these are not "real" unlocks. The phones will take any non-US SIM card, but try popping in an AT&T or T-Mobile SIM, or any SIM card with an 310, 311, or 316 MCC (Mobile Country Code, those 3 are for US carriers) and the phones will tell you "You've inserted an invalid SIM card" (which is bull**** for "Screw you, you're not using this phone on that network"). More bull**** is that the phone, even if it isn't actually active on a Sprint line, or even if it has a Bad ESN, can still be used as a FACTORY UNLOCKED iPhone by someone outside of the US. This is actually the case for a lot of people outside the US right now; they end up buying Sprint iPhones and just ask Sprint users to unlock it for them.

I talked to an Apple employee today over the phone to ask about the unlock procedure. He said it was up to the carrier, but was surprised and actually congratulated me about getting even a partial unlock since AT&T customers have no such thing. I asked him why in the UK and Europe, carriers have no problem unlock iPhones, even mid-contract. He agreed with me that it was stupid and unfair.

I read a story today about an AT&T customer who finished his 2 year contract and was moving to Canada, who email Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, and got AT&T to unlock his iPhone 3GS. Here: http://consumerist.com/2012/03/e-mail-to-apple-ceo-gets-att-to-unlock-customers-iphone.html

I went on Sprint's chat site to ask whether Sprint would be willing to unlock iPhone 4S's (Sprint/Verizon 4 is CDMA only), and got 2 different answers. At first, he said yes, at the end of the contract. He also said any carrier I wish to use it on should be able to do it since the procedure for iPhone unlocks is the same across them (evidence of this here: http://www.everythingicafe.com/forum/threads/unlocking-at-t-iphone-4-via-o2-uk.74114/). I even tried O2 myself through someone I know who has O2 service in the UK; they said they could do it if an O2 SIM has been in the phone for 48 hours. Unfortunately I'm here in New York and that person is in England. Later on the Sprint rep's answered ranged from "The Sprint 4S doesn't work on other carriers" to "No, we won't unlock them due to Sprint's policy". Chat will be included on the bottom.

I know you can't use a CDMA phone on a GSM network and vica-versa, but if I buy a GSM [capable] phone, I should be able to use it on any GSM network. Sprint went so far as to lie to me and tell me their 4S only works on Sprint. If I put in a Rogers SIM card, the phone will roam on AT&T. Why should we have to purchase a "factory unlocked" phone (which won't be activated by Sprint, by the way) to be able to use it across different networks?

My question is, how is this legal (especially for AT&T, who is GSM-only), and how do we go about fighting it? In Europe, phone portability is as common as phone number portability.

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*At that point he just stopped answering me*