AT&T is Locking Down the New Apple SIM After It's Activated on Their Network

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Posted October 24, 2014 at 6:56pm by iClarified

AT&T is locking down the new Apple SIM after it's activated on their network, notes T-Mobile CEO John Legere.

Here's how the Apple SIM is supposed to work:

The new Apple SIM is preinstalled on iPad Air 2 with Wi-Fi + Cellular models. The Apple SIM gives you the flexibility to choose from a variety of short-term plans from select carriers in the U.S. and UK right on your iPad. So whenever you need it, you can choose the plan that works best for you — with no long-term commitments. And when you travel, you may also be able to choose a data plan from a local carrier for the duration of your trip.

Unfortunately, AT&T isn't supporting the interchangeability of this SIM card. If you try to activate an AT&T data plan you are presented with the following message:

"Once activation completes, this Apple SIM can only be used with "AT&T". You will need a new Apple SIM if you change carriers in the future."

T-Mobile and Sprint appear to be the only U.S. carriers to leave the SIM unlocked. Verizon isn't supporting it at all.

Apple acknowledges that some carriers may lock the SIM and says you can purchase another if need be from the Apple Store.

If your Apple SIM becomes dedicated to a specific network and you want to choose from other carrier programs, you can purchase a new Apple SIM from an Apple Retail store.

Read More [via MacRumors]

AT&T is Locking Down the New Apple SIM After It's Activated on Their Network

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kimrandal - January 25, 2015 at 3:17am

I am still confused. The article says that all it takes to get my iPad with an At&t sim to work on T-Mobile is just buy a new SIM???

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6italia0 - October 26, 2014 at 10:39am

This only confuses customers more. There is no such thing as a carrier locked iPads they're all unlocked to use with any gsm based carrier. There is no exception, loophole or hidden costs behind it. To date apple has not yet released an iPad that is/was or ever will be locked to a carrier. This does also include sprint iPads as well.

Gadgetrevue - October 25, 2014 at 4:11pm

SIM cards are now essentially free (just call or stop by a store and see if they won't give you one) and if AT&T wants to disable multi-IMSI Apple SIM cards that's their prerogative but the public should know that it's shady business and judge them accordingly. If you want to have multiple data plans with different carriers for coverage issues then carry around multiple SIM cards and a SIM ejector. Problem solved. I don't think that the appleSIM allows you to have multiple carriers at once anyhow, only that you can swap when needed but that's a semi permanent until you swap carriers (unless the carrier pulls and "AT&T" and locks down that AppleSIM.

Gadgetrevue - October 25, 2014 at 4:05pm

The real news is that all cellular iPads work with EVERY carrier. Fulfills one of my life long dreams of not just carrier agnostic hardware (complete UNLOCK) but also spectrum agnostic. Cellular chips used to be so clunky that each device needed to decide at the factory which group of providers to support. Apple fixed that in the iPhone 4s but carriers decided to force them to firmware lock out their competitors and therefore reduce competition.

radfan957 - October 25, 2014 at 10:57am

Good idea!!

Techno - October 24, 2014 at 9:03pm

Just get anothe Sim Card. It's 10 bucks.

Dommm - October 24, 2014 at 7:27pm

What's the point of the apple sim if carriers can do this

gamerscul9870 - October 24, 2014 at 9:18pm

You mean AT&T. To answer your question though, the point is to get lte signal and track data.

Gabe - October 24, 2014 at 7:01pm

Just s new reason to not go AT&T.

NoGoodNick - October 24, 2014 at 8:22pm

If you have T-mobile coverage in your area, then knock your socks off. For the rest of us, it's one of the two big carriers, and neither one supports it.

Elchepr - October 24, 2014 at 9:56pm

True

Techno - October 24, 2014 at 11:37pm

If you have another SIM card, it doesn't matter. Away them out all you want.

Techno - October 25, 2014 at 6:26pm

If you have T-Mobile, the handoff doesn't work. Look it up.