UK2toUSA

Hi All,

We have 2 iphones (5S and 4S) which I suppose are locked to EE (contracts) so have 2 questions -

• Will these iphones work on any USA mobile network or shall I buy a unlock phone from UK so I can use it on temporary basis until I get myself a proper USA contract phones.

• Any idea if Samsung galaxy S6 or S7 (unlock from UK) will work on any USA mobile network Or it is easy & quick to buy a pay as you go when in USA.

Thanks in Advance

Bob

Unlocking your phones depends on your carrier and how much on the contract you have, but they will probably do it if you've been with them a while and you're moving abroad.

Will the phones work? Depends on where you're planning to move to. Some service providers are better than others.

Easy enough to get a PAYG phone or simcard here though and probably a better option than going contract, certainly for a while.

mrken30

GSM phones are limited to AT&T and T-Mobile networks. Verizon around my way gives best coverage but t-mobile mvno give the best prices.

penguinsix

Honestly I would sell up and buy new ones over here.

First, your phones are locked. Can you get them unlocked? If not you may have to jailbreak, which isn't much fun as new updates come out and brick the phone temporarily.

Second, the 4S is a couple of years old, and probably at the limit of its battery recharge. The 5S may be as well. You'll start to notice more problems as they get older. The 4S doesn't even do LTE, and the iPhone 5S for the UK does not support the same LTE bands as the US version (this may or may not be an issue as there is some overlap).

iPhone - View countries with supported LTE networks - Apple

Third, they are both out of warranty.

Fourth, you're stuck with AT&T or Tmobile and not able to look at Verizon which offers pretty good coverage in many places.

Fifth, if you get a Verizon CDMA iphone, you'll also get the benefit of an unlocked GSM port, meaning when you visit the UK you can slip in a UK sim card as the phone is already unlocked for GSM (nifty technicality in US law says that Verizon cannot lock or cripple the GSM of a phone they don't use for their network, basically)

Sheepdip

Just pop into Walmart and pick up a PAYG phone to start with. Who does your employer use? We were able to get a deal by using the same carrier with no credit history.

mrken30

Why don't you buy a togglemobile sim in the UK and get a US number when you move here. You can have a UK and US number on the same SIM Once you are here maybe then decide on which carrier / package would work best for you.

UK2toUSA

Thanks mrken i will buy togglemobile sim to be a good option to start with

hungryhorace

No. Don't do this. Walmart sell junk. Research the new phone you want, then purchase that either offline, or with a phone contract (whichever works out financially better etc).

Bob

A $30-50 starter phone is a lot less hassle straight off the plane though.

As for Verizon, it's shit down my neck of the woods, despite their coverage map. So yeah, worth asking folks you'll be working with who they use for what's best at work/home locations.

One thing to consider if you go the contract route, with no US credit history, you might be asked to put down anything up to $600 deposit per line. Same goes for most utilities though, so worth budgeting for it.