It is confirmed today that the Verizon iPhone 5 is GSM unlocked. You can actually use any GSM micro sim in your brand new iPhone 5 even if it under Verizon contract. It was tested with an AT&T Micro(Cut to size) SIM in a Verizon iPhone 5 and it actually worked.
Jeff from iDownloadBlog says that “I can confirm that the Verizon’s iPhone 5 is indeed GSM unlocked. Even though I bought an iPhone 5 from Verizon under contract, I was able to cut down my AT&T Micro SIM, and use it in my Verizon iPhone 5 to pick up an AT&T signal. By doing so, I was able to hop onto AT&T’s HPSA+ network”.
AT&T’s so called 4G speeds are nothing like LTE speeds, but they are a bit faster than 3G. The great news here is the confirmation of GSM unlocking that you can pick up a Nano SIM from AT&T or T-Mobile and use it even on your iPhone 5 even if you are under contract.
Well be aware that this factory unlocked device can be a temporary one. Last year, the Sprint variation of the iPhone 4S also started unlocked, but after a subsequent update, users were bound to the company’s nationwide network.
You can watch how Jeff managed to get AT&T’s micro Sim working on Verizon’s iPhone 5:
Initial reports suggests that Sprint version may not be unlocked and other network Sim cards gave an invalid Sim error in Sprint’s iPhone 5. We are waiting for more update, and we will let you know if any other test have been successfully done regarding the unlocked iPhone 5.
Source: iDownloadBlog
How do these companies manage to do this? I thought it was through some sort of unauthorized access to whitelist your phone’s IMEI, and I had seen instances where people’s phones were relocked once the “unauthorized” unlock was found.