iPad Air with LTE tip: You can switch carrier SIMs at will

[Crooked]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Unfortunately, it does matter. Both Verizon and Sprint are being anal about only activating Verizon/Sprint-only iPads. For Verizon, they do activate the SIM card but the IMEI of your device has to be whitelisted (Verizon-branded), before they'll activate your SIM. You can get around this limitation by activating on a Verizon device and then moving the SIM card to the non-Verizon device. Sprint is even more backwards as it seems they're activating the MEID of the device. I have yet to hear of anyone successfully being able to use a non-Sprint iPad with a Sprint SIM card.


You'd hope so, right? Unfortunately, both Verizon and Sprint are being very backwards when it comes to BYOD. I really hope corporate policy changes in the near future to allow for BYOD.

As it stands, you've got the following options if you want easy activation:
Verizon iPad: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile
Sprint iPad: Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile
AT&T iPad: AT&T, T-Mobile
T-Mobile iPad: AT&T, T-Mobile

So up to Friday, 1/24/14, I was a Sprint customer with 3 phones and an iPad 4 on my (Retina) account. I was in T-Mobile considering switching and I had my iPad with me. I asked the CSR that was helping me if the iPad could be switched since it had a SIM in it. He went in the back and found an active SIM somewhere, put it into my Sprint iPad 4, 2 minutes later I was streaming HD video from Dish Network Sling Box and watching ESPN. The iPad was even displaying the T-Mobile account information under the Cellular Data screen. It worked well!

The problem came in putting my Sprint card back into the iPad. It just kept Searching for the network. I tried a network reset, a full system reset, a forced erase via iCloud and nothing worked to get the iPad from Searching .... until I went to the Apple store and they hard flashed it by being plugged into a computer with iTunes, holding Power and Home buttons 2 full seconds after the Apple logo appears in the screen. That timing was critical to allowing for the flash. After a flash a quick restore of a backup from before I put T-Mobile's SIM in the iPad, I was up and running again on Sprint.

I will more than likely switch the iPad to T-Mobile after the iPad is paid off from the One Up program.

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Unfortunately, it does matter. Both Verizon and Sprint are being anal about only activating Verizon/Sprint-only iPads. For Verizon, they do activate the SIM card but the IMEI of your device has to be whitelisted (Verizon-branded), before they'll activate your SIM. You can get around this limitation by activating on a Verizon device and then moving the SIM card to the non-Verizon device. Sprint is even more backwards as it seems they're activating the MEID of the device. I have yet to hear of anyone successfully being able to use a non-Sprint iPad with a Sprint SIM card.


You'd hope so, right? Unfortunately, both Verizon and Sprint are being very backwards when it comes to BYOD. I really hope corporate policy changes in the near future to allow for BYOD.

As it stands, you've got the following options if you want easy activation:
Verizon iPad: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile
Sprint iPad: Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile
AT&T iPad: AT&T, T-Mobile
T-Mobile iPad: AT&T, T-Mobile

[Crooked]

I think all iPads that are unlocked can also be put into Sprint or Verizon but to do it you'll have to put the iPad into Recovery Mode and do a data / app restore from iTunes / iCloud. I had to do so to get my Sprint SIM to work again after putting a T-Mobile SIM into my iPad 4.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Crooked

I think all iPads that are unlocked can also be put into Sprint or Verizon but to do it you'll have to put the iPad into Recovery Mode and do a data / app restore from iTunes / iCloud. I had to do so to get my Sprint SIM to work again after putting a T-Mobile SIM into my iPad 4.

Yes, all iPads bought in the US are unlocked. The problem here is corporate policy of mobile carriers. AT&T and T-Mobile will allow any unlocked GSM device on their network. Verizon and Sprint are far more selective. Verizon, you can at least buy a SIM card off ebay but good luck getting a SIM card from Sprint. Also, Sprint seems to lock the SIM cards to the device it was activated in so you can't use any of the available workarounds for SIM card activation that you can use with Verizon. At least that was the case when the Air was released back in November. Dunno if the same holds true now or if they've relaxed their policies.

[JTravers]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Yes, all iPads bought in the US are unlocked. The problem here is corporate policy of mobile carriers. AT&T and T-Mobile will allow any unlocked GSM device on their network. Verizon and Sprint are far more selective. Verizon, you can at least buy a SIM card off ebay but good luck getting a SIM card from Sprint. Also, Sprint seems to lock the SIM cards to the device it was activated in so you can't use any of the available workarounds for SIM card activation that you can use with Verizon. At least that was the case when the Air was released back in November. Dunno if the same holds true now or if they've relaxed their policies.

Sprint is the most backwards of the US carriers when it comes to using unlocked devices. Their policies seem utterly ridiculous considering the market position they are in. Hopefully, Softbank will knock some sense into them and will cause them to relax their counterproductive policies.