Is My S III Unlocked Already??

[Tim Eastman]

I'm confused, I have been looking into unlocking my american verizon s3 and I went to the menu at:
settings > mobile networks > network mode
and I have the choice of selecting Global, LTE / CDMA, or GSM / UMTS. It's running on global, and I would think that having these options available would mean my phone can work on GSM, but I've done nothing to unlock the phone yet. Is this one of those cases where the options seem available but if I actually tried to use a gsm sim card I'd be unable to, or is my phone somehow unlocked?
Tim

 

[dmarcus48]

That's not unlocked, that's Verizon's way of calling the phone a "world phone", that it will work on cmda in the USA, and in gsm overseas. Completely different thing.

 

[Tim Eastman]

but it means it would definitely work on gsm without any further changes?

 

[GSDer]

Tim,
I believe you're correct that you could just travel somewhere that has GSM service and have the phone operate there, but I've never done that so I can't tell you what else may be involved (getting another SIM card; paying additional Verizon fees; etc). Your best bet would be to contact Verizon and find out what they have to say about it.
BTW, some of the confusion when you use the term "unlocked" depends on the reference point of the reader since there's a couple of completely unrelated things that can be unlocked:
- unlocked bootloader, which allows you to flash different firmware (including bootloaders, kernels, Recovery, etc)
- carrier unlocked, which allows you to use a phone purchased from one carrier on the network of a different carrier (this is what you seem to be interested in)

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Tim Eastman]

Ok thank you that's helpful, I think I understand now.