Reprinted from TidBITS by permission; reuse governed by Creative Commons license BY-NC-ND 3.0. TidBITS has offered years of thoughtful commentary on Apple and Internet topics. For free email subscriptions and access to the entire TidBITS archive, visit http://www.tidbits.com/ Which iPhone 5 Lets You Roam Where You Want? Glenn Fleishman The iPhone 4S was simple: a single model for the whole world. The iPhone 5 comes in two models, however, with three potential significant variants based on activation. The iPhone 4S can be used worldwide; the iPhone 5, too, but not for the fast LTE networking flavor everywhere you go. If you're trying to break this down to figure out which iPhone 5 model or activation to purchase, let me pick apart how it works. The iPhone 4S's supported networks can be explained with a bit of effort. If purchased unlocked from Apple or from a GSM-based carrier or under contract to a GSM carrier, the iPhone 4S will be GSM forever, and will work on all 2G, 3G, and 4G GSM bands nearly everywhere in the world. An identical iPhone 4S can be sold to a Verizon Wireless or Sprint Nextel customer and activated for CDMA, and then used outside the United States with the proper SIM (the GSM subscriber identification module) on 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. Once activated for GSM, however, an iPhone 4S can never be used for CDMA. If an iPhone 4S is activated for CDMA, GSM remains available, although apparently not in the United States. The iPhone 5 has all the iPhone 4S GSM and CDMA support, and adds LTE. It comes in three flavors, but Apple offers only two models (explained [1]a little obscurely on its LTE page): * The A1428, which is sold for AT&T and Bell, Rogers, and Telus in Canada, and includes LTE support for two spectrum bands that are used among those networks. (Canadian providers also have other spectrum bands they use for LTE.) * The A1429, which is like the iPhone 4S in that it can be activated for either a CDMA network (Verizon and Sprint in the United States or KDDI in Japan) or a GSM network (10 GSM networks across 7 countries), and then never switched. Here's the complicating factor. The A1429 activated for CDMA supports two U.S. LTE bands and three bands used in combination across the other 10 carriers supported outside the United States. But when it's activated as a 'world' GSM phone, LTE support drops to include just the 10 international carriers' LTE deployments. (Neither model includes two bands that will be used extensively in Europe in upcoming deployments.) As before, U.S. activations of the iPhone 5 cannot be used with competitive carriers in the United States. An AT&T model can't use a nano-SIM (the new tiny form factor it uses) for a regional GSM provider, nor can a Verizon or Sprint CDMA model be switched between each other or over to Cricket Wireless, among other regional CDMA telcos. And you can't use the CDMA-activated phone (A1429) on AT&T's LTE network nor the North American GSM one (A1428) to roam between AT&T and either Verizon or Sprint because they don't include common frequency bands. (T-Mobile has an incompatible 3G/4G GSM approach and hasn't built LTE networks yet.) Verizon does plan to allow GSM roaming outside the United States, and should, as both it and Sprint offer for the iPhone 4S, allow the SIM slot to be unlocked after two months of service for use with nano-SIMs from other carriers outside America. AT&T won't unlock a SIM until well into a two-year contract if it's a subsidized purchase, and I'm unaware of a stated policy about if or when a phone purchased from AT&T at full price may be unlocked. So how do you figure out which model and activation to buy? The calculus has everything to do with how much you travel and where, and whether you care that you're achieving LTE speeds when you travel. (There's also a timing issue: two LTE bands being [2]deployed by European carriers aren't supported by the 7-country GSM model, which may have to wait for an iPhone 5S or 6!) * I live in an LTE-supported country (the United States or any other), and I don't travel at all. Pick the best service plan, as whatever iPhone 5 model you pick will be dependent on that. AT&T and Verizon will, by around 2014, have comparable LTE networks, but Verizon is ahead on its footprint for now. Worldwide, most LTE networks are in the early stages of being built out. Check with individual carriers for coverage maps. * I live in the United States, and travel frequently to Canada, but rarely elsewhere. AT&T is the best option for an iPhone 5, because you'll get LTE support in the United States and Canada, and AT&T has [3]voice and data roaming add-ons for Canada as well as a [4]two-country voice/messaging plan that's surprisingly affordable. It may be worthwhile to purchase a fully unlocked iPhone 5 (which [5]won't be available the same day as carrier-supplied phones in the U.S.), and use separate AT&T and Canadian carrier SIMs. However, it's unclear whether Apple will offer that for sale, or when carriers will make nano-SIMs available on a pay-as-you-go or subscription basis. * I live in the United States, and travel all over the darned globe. AT&T is a poor choice, because it won't unlock SIMs (at least initially, see above), and you have to pay its high voice and data roaming fees outside the United States. Opting for Sprint (unlimited U.S. data) or Verizon (best U.S. coverage for voice and LTE) and getting the nano-SIM slot unlocked is the optimum solution so long as you are in an LTE coverage area for most of the time you use it in the United States. * I live in Canada, God's Country, the Great White North ([6]McKenzie Brothers' noise here) and travel beyond its borders regularly. The only option is the AT&T/Canada (A1428) iPhone 5 to get LTE speeds, but that won't allow you to use LTE when travel further afield than your neighbor to the south. You can purchase an unlocked iPhone 5 from Apple in Canada, or get a phone from a carrier which have varying policies for unlocking. An unlocked 7-country (A1429) iPhone 5 would keep you from having LTE access at home, but enable it in those roaming countries. * I don't live in the United States or Canada, and may or may not choose to travel much. Apple and a domestic carrier may be willing to sell you only the three-band (A1429) GSM/LTE model. Unlocking a SIM for use outside your carrier's home country depends on its policies and those of the national regulator's. You will not be able to use this model with any LTE networks in the United States or Canada. * I just want to buy an unlocked iPhone 5. We'll have to wait and see what Apple offers, and how readily available nano-SIMs become for travelers from foreign lands. (If you don't care about LTE speeds, and the new features of an iPhone 5 aren't compelling, pick an iPhone 4S if you need a new phone, since those are the same great devices as a few days ago, but now cost less.) There's one more special case I'll mention. Our own Joe Kissell and his family are returning from five years in France to live in the United States this fall. Joe would dearly love to purchase an iPhone 5 when it goes on sale, but the unlocked, plan-free model he can purchase in France likely won't allow him to use LTE when his clan returns stateside, and it would stick him with AT&T as a carrier and no choice for voice and data. My advice to Joe: wait until you're back. References 1. http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/ 2. http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/apples-lte-move-iphone-5-leaves-europe-the-back-burner-202298?page=0,0 3. http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/international/roaming/affordable-world-packages.jsp 4. http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/plans/individualplans.html 5. http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/13/3328556/unlocked-iphone-5-not-immediately-available-united-states-price 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_and_Doug_McKenzie .