Apple Help me stupid friend understand about unlocking

[tagzard]

My ignorant friend just unlocked his iphone 3GS. He keeps telling me that you can use a boost mobile sim card on a unlocked iphone. I keep telling him it won't work because it has different sims. He said that I was stupid. So my main question here is:

Can you use a boost mobile sim card on a unlocked iphome?

 

[Evo.lve]

Why not?

 

[iFish]

I'm not too sure what a "boost mobile" SIM card is. But to my understanding, an unlocked phone should accept any SIM. As long as it uses mostly the same kinda network.

Like, when I say "any" I don't mean ANY. Since you obviously cannot put an LTE SIM card in and expect it to work.

But I'm no expert.

 

[CarbonX13]

A SIM unlocked phone will be able to work with any other carrier SIM cards as long as the bandwidths and frequencies are compatible. Basically, as long as he's not using a CDMA device on GSM, or vice versa, it'll work without issue. With the iPhone, Apple has made it so that it's compatible with most of the world's networks. If it's the GSM iPhone, he'll be able to use it on practically any carrier. If it's the Verizon CDMA iPhone, he'll be limited to certain networks, but it'll work in the US as long as it's not AT&T or T-Mobile.

Doing a bit of research, Boost Mobile runs on the same network as Sprint, a CDMA network. The iPhone 3GS is a GSM device, and will NOT work on a CDMA network. The Verizon iPhone 4 might be able to though.

 

[iFish]

A SIM unlocked phone will be able to work with any other carrier SIM cards as long as the bandwidths and frequencies are compatible. Basically, as long as he's not using a CDMA device on GSM, or vice versa, it'll work without issue. With the iPhone, Apple has made it so that it's compatible with most of the world's networks. If it's the GSM iPhone, he'll be able to use it on practically any carrier. If it's the Verizon CDMA iPhone, he'll be limited to certain networks.

The Verizon iPhone doesn't even have a SIM card slot.

Plus, this is a 3GS. So, not a problem there.

Also, to my understanding, CDMA networks don't use SIM cards.

 

[Terminator02]

no, CDMA networks don't use SIM cards, and boost mobile uses CDMA, so it won't work

 

[CarbonX13]

Well, there we go then. I'm on a GSM network (like most of the world), so I have no real idea what the CDMA devices down in the States are like. My bad. =/

 

[iFish]

Well, there we go then. I'm on a GSM network (like most of the world), so I have no real idea what the CDMA devices down in the States are like. My bad. =/

At this point, nibody should continue using CDMA. It's old and outdated technology that has better alternatives

 

[clegion]

The CDMA "SIM Cards" is called "RUIM" isn't it? Well anyhow you couldn't use CDMA on a GSM phone

 

[Terminator02]

The CDMA "SIM Cards" is called "RUIM" isn't it? Well anyhow you couldn't use CDMA on a GSM phone

there is no physical card that you can remove and place in another phone for USA CDMA phones, nor is there a slot to put anything in

 

[tagzard]

Thanks.

 

[clegion]

The CDMA "SIM Cards" is called "RUIM" isn't it? Well anyhow you couldn't use CDMA on a GSM phone

there is no physical card that you can remove and place in another phone for USA CDMA phones, nor is there a slot to put anything in

Well there is a couple in Indonesia and whatever , so there is only the injection method for american phones?