Yes, the Sprint HTC One has a SIM card, and, yes, it's a global roamer

[GadgetGator]

Re: Yes, the Sprint HTC One has a SIM card

This is a major deal for me...I bought a Wildfire and had it unlocked just to have something to travel with overseas. But it of course has none of my apps etc..

Thursday, April 25, 2013, 11:49 AM
I am on the phone with them now...rep pulled up notice that the phone IS available for unlocking...but must be on the account for 90 days. I paid out of contract retail for mine, so she is checking with supervisor now to see how they get around that.....
OK... came back and again said the 90 day requirement was keeping her system from allowing her to unlock..
About to get supervisor on the line with me to try and get it done..

Thursday, April 25, 2013, 11:53 AM
Supervisor (Andrea) refused to unlock "at LEAST until it has been on the system for 90 days...and in fact usually we require that you have a new two year agreement and be 90 days into it before we will unlock." I explained I am a 13+ year sprint customer 4 lines, paid retail for this phone and it is activated on my existing contract. "I understand sir, but we are not unlocking this for at least 90 days, and might still require that you had a new 2 year agreement".
Crazy, no?

It's not only crazy, it's very short-sighted from a business standpoint. Go above her. Write Dan if you have to. But don't let them (or any company) take your continued business for granted. Ask them if they'd like to lose that business.

 

[somdave2005]

Re: Yes, the Sprint HTC One has a SIM card

This is a major deal for me...I bought a Wildfire and had it unlocked just to have something to travel with overseas. But it of course has none of my apps etc..

Thursday, April 25, 2013, 11:49 AM
I am on the phone with them now...rep pulled up notice that the phone IS available for unlocking...but must be on the account for 90 days. I paid out of contract retail for mine, so she is checking with supervisor now to see how they get around that.....
OK... came back and again said the 90 day requirement was keeping her system from allowing her to unlock..
About to get supervisor on the line with me to try and get it done..

Thursday, April 25, 2013, 11:53 AM
Supervisor (Andrea) refused to unlock "at LEAST until it has been on the system for 90 days...and in fact usually we require that you have a new two year agreement and be 90 days into it before we will unlock." I explained I am a 13+ year sprint customer 4 lines, paid retail for this phone and it is activated on my existing contract. "I understand sir, but we are not unlocking this for at least 90 days, and might still require that you had a new 2 year agreement".
Crazy, no?

That IS a huge deal. Why do they make you wait for 90 days when you are a long time Sprint customer and paid for the phone out of pocket? I don't like the sound of this. I'm going to hold off buying a new phone until I hear more about this. Keep us up to date.

 

[kams01]

Hello

I work with mattvalenz and have more information on this. HTC ONE is a global phone where, once unlocked, you can roam internationally by swapping Sprint's SIM with a local carrier abroad. However, the phone is SIM LOCKED out of the box. It will not work on US GSM carriers like AT&T or T-Mobile, etc. You need to call Sprint International at (888) 226-7212 and request unlock. You must have the phone activated on your account for at least 90 days and your account must be in good standing in order to qualify. Please ask the International department for more details.

- - - Updated - - -

the 90 days is to prevent fraud and it also complies with the federal and state laws.

 

[GadgetGator]

Hello

I work with mattvalenz and have more information on this. HTC ONE is a global phone where, once unlocked, you can roam internationally by swapping Sprint's SIM with a local carrier abroad. However, the phone is SIM LOCKED out of the box. It will not work on US GSM carriers like AT&T or T-Mobile, etc. You need to call Sprint International at (888) 226-7212 and request unlock. You must have the phone activated on your account for at least 90 days and your account must be in good standing in order to qualify. Please ask the International department for more details.

- - - Updated - - -

the 90 days is to prevent fraud and it also complies with the federal and state laws.

There's no fraud with an existing long time customer. This policy would make sense if it were a new customer, but not somone who has been with them for years. As for complying with laws, why is one locked phone an issue in this regard, but an unlocked phone from say, HTC's website is not and has no waiting period? This makes little sense.

 

[anonymouse70]

I upgraded to the HTC One based on MattValenz' post. Mistake to upgrade in a hurry based on a forum post I guess.

Sprint's story has changed once again - now they claim they have "no ability to unlock the phone for 90 days". The supervisor I spoke with said its not a policy - they (suddenly) simply don't have the ability. I referenced this post on AndroidCentral - he basically said Mattvalenz is wrong - they do not have any ability. Sounded like a robot while he recited that - almost as if it was in his latest script that came from higher up.

So I asked him what changes in 90 days? He said he will (magically I suppose?) have the ability in 90 days.

kams01 - if you are a Sprint employee and if anybody at Sprint cares - its these little customer interactions that keep you in third place and struggling for survival.

The sole reason I bought this phone was to not have to carry another device when I travel internationally. And the device has the technology to do it, but Sprint management has decided to inconvenience customers like me once again.

I'd be very interested in what federal and state laws you cite that would be broken. The DMCA ruling you are probably referring to may make it illegal for an end consumer to unlock the device, but Sprint can do it as soon as you walk out of the store, at its discretion. Sprint simply decided on an arbitrary 90 days.

Between you and the Sprint call center - there is not a whole lot of credibility to your excuses. It is more likely that some asinine executive in Overland Park HQ decided that you might lose a few dollars in international roaming charges if too many devices are unlocked, and that's why Sprint did an about face. Some honesty about this would do more to restore Sprint's credibility than citing laws that do not exist.

 

[GadgetGator]

I'm still curious what reposonse you will get by emailing Dan's office. Have you done that yet? Might as well go straight to the top. Just this week Dan stated one of his goals was to retain customers. This policy does not seem to be in alignment with that goal. You don't retain customers by alienating them.

 

[sjcdal]

I'm still curious what reposonse you will get by emailing Dan's office. Have you done that yet? Might as well go straight to the top. Just this week Dan stated one of his goals was to retain customers. This policy does not seem to be in alignment with that goal. You don't retain customers by alienating them.

I have not done that yet...I don't currently have an overseas trip in the works, so it is not YET critical. But citing law as a reason is bogus. The law ALLOWS them to keep the phone locked, but it Sprint's stupid POLICY that is doing so in this case. No legit reason to do so when I paid full retail, and I activated it, and I want to keep it activated on Sprint and will fulfill the remainder of my existing contract.

 

[doc31]

Hey guys, just wanted to let everyone know I was able to have my One unlock. I admit it I don't really have a issue with Sprint 90 day rule but I wanted to see how much I could push there CS so I received the standard reply on first request and then I requested it be moved higher up for review which it was. I took about 4 day until they contacted me today agreeing to unlock it.

 

[ohseedee]

It wasn't easy, but I got them to finally "unlocked" my HTC One for international use. It took several phone calls and multiple chat sessions. However, there is a catch. When they emailed me the instructions on how to unlock the HTC One on my side, the email read "This email is intended to confirm that Sprint has successfully submitted the request to unlock the device to Apple. Within 4 hours please follow the steps in the Apple support article below to complete the unlock." Apple!?!?!?!? I called back and the rep said he sent that form email by mistake and there are no steps required on my side So apparently, the phone is unlocked and no update or code has to be applied on the phone itself?? That doesn't sound right. So I'm out of options as I will be in Italy next week. So I will know then if my phone is truly unlocked. Does anyone know if there is a way to verify my phone is unlocked before I'm out of the country?

doc31 - Did anything happen on your phone when they unlocked it? Did they make you enter any code or something?

 

[doc31]

It wasn't easy, but I got them to finally "unlocked" my HTC One for international use. It took several phone calls and multiple chat sessions. However, there is a catch. When they emailed me the instructions on how to unlock the HTC One on my side, the email read "This email is intended to confirm that Sprint has successfully submitted the request to unlock the device to Apple. Within 4 hours please follow the steps in the Apple support article below to complete the unlock." Apple!?!?!?!? I called back and the rep said he sent that form email by mistake and there are no steps required on my side So apparently, the phone is unlocked and no update or code has to be applied on the phone itself?? That doesn't sound right. So I'm out of options as I will be in Italy next week. So I will know then if my phone is truly unlocked. Does anyone know if there is a way to verify my phone is unlocked before I'm out of the country?

doc31 - Did anything happen on your phone when they unlocked it? Did they make you enter any code or something?

Nope. The email just said they unlocked it from their end and to reset my phone. When I did, I did notice there was a PRL type update.

 

[ohseedee]

I called them back and the rep I got said its impossible to unlock the phone until 90 days have passed. He even got a supervisor. He said the 5 different reps I talked to before must have thought I had an iphone and there is no way anyone can unlock an HTC One until 90 days.

I called again 30 min later and got another guy that said they never pushed out the PRL update. After 15 min, he pushed out the update and my phone did indeed get updated. I will be trying an international sim early next week. If Sprint actually managed to get this thing unlocked and it works it will be a shock. I will be bringing an old crappy phone I got in the UK as a backup.

 

[lafester]

If its just a prl update perhaps we can extract it and post it up for everyone to use.

 

[ohseedee]

If its just a prl update perhaps we can extract it and post it up for everyone to use.

From what I've read from other forums, the PRL doesn't do anything. I'm certain, Sprint is full of it and just wasting everyone's time. I'm going out of the country and I don't even plan on buying a sim anymore to use in my "unlocked" HTC One. If it was not for unlimited data I would not even bother with the pain that is being a Sprint customer.

 

[krlospur]

hi friend.. i read all the comment in these forum.. and im confused..
i want to buy a htc one from sprint.. but its not for usa carrier its for a parent on mexico .. the carrier is TELCEL..
anyone knows if i buy a sprint htc one... work on telcel mexico?? please i need help!

 

[krlospur]

Re: Yes, the Sprint HTC One has a SIM card

HI do you know?? if the HTC ONE OF SPRINT WORK ON MEXICO>???? TELCEL MEXICO???
please i need HELP!

Will throw up a video tomorrow ... Tried three SIMs ...

AT&T definitely didn't work. Not even an option to enter a PIN.
Had a couple old Movistar and Vodafone SIMs laying around. One immediately asked for a PIN, the other didn't. Not sure why -- haven't used many SIM-locked phones overseas.
Can anyone shed some light on that for me?

 

[krlospur]

Re: Yes, the Sprint HTC One has a SIM card

HI do you know if the SPRINT HTC ONE.. WORK ON MEXICO>>> TELCEL MEXICO??

i need help PLEASE!!

Yes they have the design and the photon where unlocked foe use over seas because they had sim cards. I had the design and all I had to do is put another sim and it works it's going to be the same with the one and the s4 they just won't work on a gsm network here I the states.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

[bmwboyer]

Just activated My sprint phone samsung Galaxy S4 .. yes it does have a sim card.. and the helpful lady said I could unlock it when I'm traveling out of country.. Phone is awesome by the way.. paid only 150..! how can I complain?

 

[cdaniel76]

Just FYI, this is what your phone will say if you remove the SIM while the phone is turned on:

 

[michaelp68]

Having been a long time Sprint customer, I'm trying to understand the SIM card thing as it's all new to me.

I currently have a Motorola Photon but never used it internationally. I expect to upgrade to the HTC One in a few weeks, and I'm traveling out of the country a month after, so I'm starting to pay attention to this.

Someone please guide me through this.

If I understand correctly, the SIM card that comes in the HTC One allows me to use Sprints 4G LTE (assuming I'm actually in an area that has it).

If I contact Sprint and have them "unlock" my phone, then the existing SIM card will also allow my phone to work internationally with Sprint's roaming rates?

Or, I could purchase a SIM card at my destination, replace the existing SIM card, and then I'll be able to make calls at that destination on their local network with less costly rates?
- The SIM card at the destination is prepaid for a certain amount?
- Does Sprint need to unlock my phone for international use for me to use a different SIM card at my destination?
- What about data and texting? How does that fit in? In other words, does the SIM card purchased at the destination only work for phone calls or also for data/texting?

Many thanks for any input.

 

[eddieoz]

You are correct. When the HTC One is unlocked you can get a prepaid sim card for voice and/or data to use in the country you're visiting. Currenty I'm in the Caribbean using a prepaid sim card in an unlocked T-mobile phone for data and voice. I'm hoping to sign a new 2 year agreement with my Sprint plan back in the states when I go back in a month and get the HTC One phone to use when I come back to the islands. I'm worried about this 90-day requirement before unlocking that I'm reading on this forum. Apparently most people were told about the 90-day requirement when they called customer service but some were able to successfully have their phone unlocked on subsequent calls.