views on buying Iphone 4s with bad ESN !

Status
Not open for further replies.
G33kgod

G33kgod

Contributor
i saw some great deals on iphone 4s (with bad ESN) on ebay !!! can anyone shed some light on it this ESN thing ?? what i got googling is that only outside people can use it ... is it easy to use it here ?? or we need to do any software mods in order to use it ??

and can anyone also tell me the best ways to buy frm ebay.com (SnS is one right)

TIA
<
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
G33kgod said:
i saw some great deals on iphone 4s (with bad ESN) on ebay !!! can anyone shed some light on it this ESN thing ?? what i got googling is that only outside people can use it ... is it easy to use it here ?? or we need to do any software mods in order to use it ??

and can anyone also tell me the best ways to buy frm ebay.com (SnS is one right)

TIA
<
Click to expand...

From what i know the Bad ESN will apply only if one intends to use the iPhone in US. In US, a bad ESN phone cannot be activated on any other CDMA network except the network where it is/was. If you get such a phone in India, you will need to find someone who can activate the phone on the local CDMA network. I guess there is a member on TE who can get imported phones to be activated on Reliance network. Not sure whether he will cater to bad ESN phones or not.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
aproxymate said:
Wouldn't there be any warranty/service issues with such a phone?
Click to expand...

You as it is do not get apple warranty on iPhones bought from USA or any other country, irrespective of it being locked / gsm / cdma / fu / whatever.

G33kgod said:
but can iphone 4s cdma work here on GSM carrier ??? i have read that 4s can be used on both CDMA and GSM !!
Click to expand...

Yes it can work but only if the GSM module is not locked. Check the hot deals thread about a GO on such phones.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A bad ESN phone will only work if it was already unlocked. A phone that is GSM locked can't be unlocked, since it needs to be activated on Sprint to get it unlocked and that can't be done because it has a bad ESN.

The only chance is that the phone was bought before 11/11/11 and is thus already unlocked, but still you can't be sure about that and should always get confirmation from Sprint.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
All iphone 4S are both GSM and CDMA.

Bad ESN phones are those which have been blocked by CDMA carriers due to various reasons like non bill payment etc etc.

I dunno if you can register bad ESN phones here in India, someone here said he could get it done on Reliance.

As for the GSM of iphone 4S, currently the only way to get it working here is if it is factory unlocked. Many users on Sprint have been able to get the GSM unlocked but only for international use. So those phones cannot be used with other GSM carriers in the US, but they can be used with other GSM carriers anywhere else in the world.

As for bad ESN iphone 4S, 99.99% those won't be having an unlocked GSM and there's no way to get it done since it's been blocked by the carrier. So unless you know for sure how to get bad ESN phones registered here in India, it is of no use.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom