Unlock Verizon iPhone 4 for Pre-Paid Use in Singapore

[busymozier]

Hi all,

I recently moved to Singapore and I'm trying to find a way to use my current Verizon iPhone 4 with a prepaid SIM card from the StarHub provider. I've read through a lot of forum boards and spoke with Verizon, who is unable to unlock the phone because it did not come with a SIM card. They use the MEID to identify the phone, so I was out of luck when I called them. I have done some research and found that TinyUmbrella may be the best option, but I wanted some input before attempting an unlock.

Here is what I'm running:

OS X: 10.6.8
iTunes: 11.4
Firmware: 3.0.04

Any advice on how to make this iPhone 4 work so I don't have to drop $800 on a deposit for a smartphone that I can use to navigate the city and make calls to friends/family?

Thank you in advance for any help!

 

[willerz2]

Not possible AFAIK. Internationally speaking, 99.9% of carriers do not support "true" CDMA devices (in terms of iPhone, this only applies to the iPhone 4 CDMA aka Verizon or Sprint iPhone 4) because they do not have services like Cricket in the United States that flashes their carrier onto the iPhone 4. Your best bet is to attempt to trade it for a GSM one possibly? Or depending on where you currently are, you can possibly find a working, non-iCloud-locked iPhone 4S for a decently low price of about $100-$150 on places like Craigslist. Do note that you should ONLY buy iOS 7 devices through meetups if they're used to ensure that the device is not iCloud locked. You can take a look at this post as well on the matter.

 

[busymozier]

Not possible AFAIK. Internationally speaking, 99.9% of carriers do not support "true" CDMA devices (in terms of iPhone, this only applies to the iPhone 4 CDMA aka Verizon or Sprint iPhone 4) because they do not have services like Cricket in the United States that flashes their carrier onto the iPhone 4. Your best bet is to attempt to trade it for a GSM one possibly? Or depending on where you currently are, you can possibly find a working, non-iCloud-locked iPhone 4S for a decently low price of about $100-$150 on places like Craigslist. Do note that you should ONLY buy iOS 7 devices through meetups if they're used to ensure that the device is not iCloud locked. You can take a look at this post as well on the matter.

@willerz2 Thank you so much for looking in to it. I was able to read a lot about the "true" CDMA devices and after reading further, TinyUmbrella was not an option specifically for the Verizon iPhone 4. I've been scouring Craigslist in Singapore, but good luck finding a used iPhone 4s or greater at a price lower than $400 - and most at that price point are a scam. It appears that I'll be dishing out at least $600 to get anything newer than the iPhone 4. Best advice for others that follow in my footsteps is to purchase an unlocked phone while in the states. Thank you again for your help! Very much appreciated that you took your time to look into it.