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AT&T features unlocked iPhone 7

Swannyj

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I will be switching from at&t iPhone 6 Plus to the 7 plus. Although will stay with At&t I would prefer to purchase unlocked,entire price, from Apple. What At&t features will be lost if I purchase the unlocked.
Thanks
 
I will be switching from at&t iPhone 6 Plus to the 7 plus. Although will stay with At&t I would prefer to purchase unlocked,entire price, from Apple. What At&t features will be lost if I purchase the unlocked.
Thanks
An unlocked iPhone will perform identically to the locked iPhone, with no difference in features. The only exception is that you're free to use any carrier's SIM card in the iPhone if you choose. This is very useful if you're travelling overseas and wish to avoid roaming charges by inserting a local prepaid SIM card.
 
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Previously, the AT&T unlocked iPhone 7 didn't have the the ability to use/ support for TD-SCDMA and CDMA EV-DO Rev. A bands, the phone wouldn't work properly on CDMA networks like Sprint or Verizon although you still could make phone calls via Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE). I remember that a month or two later Apple started selling the unlocked sim free at the Apple Store only so that AT&T customer could truly have an unlocked iPhone that could switch to any of the US networks. I will be trying to find out if a similar situation will exist with the new iPhones as I am stubborn enough to not want to pay full price for an unlocked iPhone with limitations and will wait the extra month or two if necessary. I will be interested in the answers you get to this question for that reason. Please remember to share when more info comes out and I will do as well. Thanks.
 
We're lucky in Canada in that Apple sells unlocked SIM free iPhones from day one through their online store whenever a new iPhone is released.
 
Speaking with Apple today I was told there would be no difference. But, researching several articles, latest July 2017, this was mentioned a couple of times.
"Find out if your carrier restricts any features to locked phones. Unlocked and carrier-locked phones aren't necessarily created equal. AT&T, for instance, offers the option for voice-over-LTE and Wi-Fi calling only on AT&T phones, not unlocked ones.
 
Those are the T mobile unlocked ones and not the sim free ones. They eventually got the update to allow Wifi calling, I am guessing VOLTE also as it never was an issue on my unlocked 6. The unlocked sim free ones from Apple were not available at launch but were made available a couple of months after and only at the Apple Store. I am hoping that is how it will be this time or something even easier. Last year there was a chip differentiation and AT&T didn't let band 30 be on the T mobile unlocked. That is what I am trying to avoid as well as keeping the CDMA antenna but if necessary, I will give up on that. Verizon will be eventually anyway.
 
Those are the T mobile unlocked ones and not the sim free ones. They eventually got the update to allow Wifi calling, I am guessing VOLTE also as it never was an issue on my unlocked 6. The unlocked sim free ones from Apple were not available at launch but were made available a couple of months after and only at the Apple Store. I am hoping that is how it will be this time or something even easier. Last year there was a chip differentiation and AT&T didn't let band 30 be on the T mobile unlocked. That is what I am trying to avoid as well as keeping the CDMA antenna but if necessary, I will give up on that. Verizon will be eventually anyway.
Neither AT&T nor any other carrier has any say over which bands an iPhone model supports. What they can do is use their carrier firmware to block access to band 30 on the T mobile unlocked, for example.
 
I've had the unlocked iPhone 7 plus for awhile now. So far, the only diff I have found is not having a voice mail tab that allows set up of text transcription. Really miss this, trying to find work around.
 
I've had the unlocked iPhone 7 plus for awhile now. So far, the only diff I have found is not having a voice mail tab that allows set up of text transcription. Really miss this, trying to find work around.
Is you sim cRd an AT&T one? Just wondering.
 
I've had the unlocked iPhone 7 plus for awhile now. So far, the only diff I have found is not having a voice mail tab that allows set up of text transcription. Really miss this, trying to find work around.
I am not sure what you mean when you say voice mail tab that allows set up of text transmission. Do you have a picture or could you explain please?
 
Directions for setting up are to go to phone settings then click on voice mail tab.
Someone on another forum mentioned this so I will give it a try.
"I can’t remember where I saw it posted, but someone was having issues activating visual voicemail on AT&T with a sim free iPhone. AT&T did something with their IMEI in their system which fixed it right up. I’m sure they’ll be willing to help if you ask."
 
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