Verizon has taken a large leap in the right direction when they announced that they will be selling only unlocked iPhone 5’s.
A Verizon representative indicated that the company plans to sell iPhone 5’s right out of the box without any locks on them, contrary to what they’ve done in the past. Though nothing has been confirmed as of today, there are reports and rumors flying around indicating that Verizon’s iPhone 5 can be used on the AT&T network (and, possibly, Sprint and T-Mobile as well). And that would make sense, because typically unlocking a phone gives all other major carriers access to carrying it on their own networks.
However, the Verizon agent did not indicate whether this “locked” feature is going to be available to people right off the bat, or if it’s a future “update” that the company plans on installing on their iPhones once they’ve sold the majority of them. The speed on Verizon’s 3G/4G-class networks are also completely different, so an iPhone 5 made specifically for Verizon may not handle the AT&T network as well as it should.
The iDownloadBlog, a well-trusted Apple-oriented blog, said late last week that that the biggest triumph was with the smaller carriers. “The big news here is that we have confirmed that you can use a Verizon iPhone 5 on AT&T or T-Mobile, freely, even if you’re a brand-new customer under contract,” said the blog.
