<p>Called Verizon to see what my options are for using my phone overseas on an upcoming trip. They tell me that 4G phones are now unlocked and that I can buy a SIM card when I get there. Sounds too good to be true, esp given Verizon’s long-standing reluctance to open up their phones – has anyone done this with a Verizon phone and how did it work out?
TIA!</p>
<p>CD, it is true. My S switches out his U.S. and Australian sim cards for his iPhone with no problem. I couldn’t believe it either - what I heard (which may not be true, or not true any longer), is that AT&T doesn’t unlock their phones but Verizon does. The Verizon guy told us that the iPhone 5 comes unlocked. That is if you buy it in the States - the ones you buy in Australia are locked. </p>
<p>Make sure that your Verizon phone can use a GSM SIM card, and it is capable of using all four GSM bands. Verizon normally uses CDMA, not GSM, so some Verizon phones do not accept GSM SIM cards. Some GSM capable phones have only two or three GSM bands, so they may not work well in places where the other two GSM bands are the main ones in use.</p>
<p>This is how rumors spread…AT&T does unlock their phones.
<a href=“http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB414532&cv=820#fbid=T0giuBOVF6w”>AT&T Customer Support;
<p><a href=“http://www.att.com/media/att/2014/support/pdf/ATTMobilityDeviceUnlockCodeInstructions.pdf”>http://www.att.com/media/att/2014/support/pdf/ATTMobilityDeviceUnlockCodeInstructions.pdf</a></p>
<p>D just started her semester abroad in England and switched out the Verizon sim card on her iPhone5 with one from a local provider. Don’t know the details, but she researched it before she left and said it went smoothly. She has wifi at school so we Skype or text/talk with Viber… she mostly wanted a data plan to use when traveling. One caveat: those sim cards are TINY so think ahead of where to keep the home card so it doesn’t get lost.</p>
<p>I recommend “parking” your US number for the period of your trip. This will not save you any money, but will give you peace of mind in case you lose the US card. Both on and off switch can be done online. </p>
<p>I have ATT. D2 is leaving for London in a week. I just requested for her old iphone 4 to be unlocked online. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about losing the sim card. You can easily have it replaced at your wireless store.</p>
<p>BunsenBurner, does parking mean changing the SIM card changes my phone number? Keep the comment coming – am I am rookie to this. Have traveled overseas before, but have wither borrowed some one else’s flip phone and bought a SIM card there, or not had one at all. With all my ongoing medical excitement, we have concluded I should be able to make calls to doctors, etc. in case I get into trouble.</p>
<p>I have a Samsung S4 mini that runs 4G, FWIW.</p>
<p>CD, you simply set up an online access to your Verizon account and through several clicks you can suspend service temporarily. I “parked” D’s line while she was abroad, but for a short trip it might not be necessary. You do not lose your number, nor will you lose it even if you lose the card. Simply go to a Verizon store and ask for a new one. Same number.</p>
<p>BB, I said in my post that I wasn’t sure about AT&T - I don’t think that’s spreading rumors. Sheesh. I would assume anyone would check their own phone with their own provider.</p>
<p>CD, I don’t think you would need to park your number - if my son can keep up with the tiny sim cards, I’m sure you’ll be able to.</p>
<p>We just did this on a trip to Europe with our iPhone 5s and 5c. We bought new SIM cards for the phones and the guy at the store in Amsterdam swapped them out with our current cards (but it’s not difficult to do and we easily swapped them back once we got back to the US) You will have a new phone number. It worked out great - no problems. We were able to use them throughout several EU countries. Just make sure you don’t lose your original SIM card…they are tiny!</p>
<p>To add a minor bit, if you call Verizon, they’ll make sure your phone is unlocked so you can buy a SIM. </p>
<p>CD, here’s the Optus website for you to give you an idea of what’s available: </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.optus.com.au/shop/mobilephones/SimBYO?SID=con:postmob:byo:postmob:lpm::byoph”>http://www.optus.com.au/shop/mobilephones/SimBYO?SID=con:postmob:byo:postmob:lpm::byoph</a></p>
<p>I can’t find anything that clear on Telstra’s site (telstra.com.au)</p>
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<p>You can use an old GSM phone to store the SIM card in a way that is not so tiny and easily lost.</p>
<p>Our experience with AT&T: our daughter had her iPhone 5 unlocked two weeks ago, moved to Denmark, and purchased a new SIM card there. It works fine.</p>
<p>We are suspending her service, which AT&T allows for six months per year, until she comes home for Christmas break. When she returns to Denmark, we are going to transfer her number to a dumb phone for the duration of her time there. The cost to transfer to a dumb phone is about the same as using a parking service, and we just feel more secure doing it that way.</p>
<p>We had Verizon suspend D’s line for three months and will not be billed for that time. What she’s signed up for in the UK is less expensive… very little talk or text, mostly data and not too much of that since wifi is easy to find. I have to say I’m impressed with the Viber app for voip talk & texting.</p>
<p>Sort of off topic, but she took an old small digital camera we had tucked away in a drawer. I asked why she needed this in her already overpacked bags and she said that if she handed off a camera to a stranger for a pic she didn’t want it to be her expensive phone.</p>
<p>Ok this is really interesting because we just asked two weeks ago at the verizon sales desk about phones being unlocked. We wanted to give one to a relative for a German SIM card. They told us the phones could only be unlocked by third party services and we did so at our own risk .</p>
<p>I went to an AT&T store about unlocking existing iphone. They said they would only unlock it after 2 years contract. The reason is they don’t want people to buy an iphone from them at a very discounted price then switch to another carrier. They figured after 2 years, they have gotten their money’s worth so they could afford to unlock it for free.</p>
<p>Oldfort, that is true. My daughter was able to have hers unlocked with less than 2 years on contract, because she purchased the phone on my husband contract, for the sole purpose of being able to do what she did when she left for Denmark. My husband hasn’t renewed his contract for about 6 years, so it gives us a line to use when one of our daughters needs to do something AT&T doesn’t allow within a 2 year period.</p>
<p>For short trips we just add an international calling feature for like $30 and I turn off data roaming. Then use the internet at the hotels, etc.This wouldn’t work if you needed to have constant access with google maps, etc, but worked for me. DS used to do the swap sim card thing but I don’t think either of them do that anymore when they travel overseas.</p>