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Geek Culture / Trying to wrap my head around the iphone 4s and cdma vs gsm

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Design Runner
15
Years of Service
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Joined: 16th Oct 2010
Location: In my own little world.
Posted: 2nd Aug 2013 21:41
I've been looking into jailbreaking and unlocking for the iphone 4s from the at&t network, largely due to my recent switch to verizon. Now before any debates begin, I am not familiar with other countries but in the United States it is completely legal (doesn't even void warranty in most cases). The way I understand it is: the 4s has both gsm and cdma radios. This allows it to communicate with both protocols. However, U.S. networks such as verizon, at&t, tmobile, and sprint have buried deep firmware restrictions which prevent the use of their 4s' to be used on any other U.S. carrier. They will only work, when unlocked, on foreign carriers.

But, doesn't jailbreaking allow you to modify the files within a phone, therefore allowing you to rewrite the firmware to work with another network or all networks? Therefore, a jailbroken 4s with modified firmware which was then unlocked could be used on another network.

Through my research, however, I have yet to see an instance where this was done or even attempted. It seems most people with experience in jailbreaking or unlocking have simply labelled it as impossible. Why is this? What piece to this puzzle am I missing? To me it would seem a company would be able to accomplish this and sell a program which would perform this jailbreak.

If anyone could point me in the correct direction here or provide some insightful links it would be appreciated.

Available for freelance work, hard surface 3d artist and current generation game artist. Contact me through email.
thenerd
17
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Joined: 9th Mar 2009
Location: Boston, USA
Posted: 2nd Aug 2013 23:19
Quote: "But, doesn't jailbreaking allow you to modify the files within a phone, therefore allowing you to rewrite the firmware to work with another network or all networks? Therefore, a jailbroken 4s with modified firmware which was then unlocked could be used on another network. "


Yes, this is true. However, if you're looking for an iphone to work on Verizon networks, you won't have to jailbreak anything - iphones are already available on a verizon plan. If you're looking to jailbreak your phone for other reasons, carry on, just commenting on that one thing!

Design Runner
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Oct 2010
Location: In my own little world.
Posted: 3rd Aug 2013 01:01
The thing is, my iphone is from at&t not from verizon, preventing me from using it without a jailbreak.

Available for freelance work, hard surface 3d artist and current generation game artist. Contact me through email.

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