# Unlocked iPhone 5 + Virgin Mobile (Bell)



## zenox (Jun 19, 2008)

I was planning on pre-ordering the iPhone 5 from Apple until I saw this on their website:

"You can activate and use it on the supported GSM wireless network of your choice. The unlocked iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 will not work with CDMA-based carriers. An unlocked iPhone 5 may not support LTE networks in all other countries;"

I use virgin as a carrier (Nova Scotia... Rogers basically had no signal anywhere so I switched).

From what I see about Virgins network:
Virgin Mobile Canada - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They run off bells network with is CDMA and not GSM. Does that mean ordering this phone would be pointless?


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## Dr_AL (Apr 29, 2007)

zenox said:


> I was planning on pre-ordering the iPhone 5 from Apple until I saw this on their website:
> 
> "You can activate and use it on the supported GSM wireless network of your choice. The unlocked iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 will not work with CDMA-based carriers. An unlocked iPhone 5 may not support LTE networks in all other countries;"
> 
> ...


Bell and telus pushed out a 3G GSM network together so they could support the iPhone 3GS (maybe even earlier the iPhone 3G). Their older network is a CDMA network which will not work with an unlocked iPhone. The iPhone 4 then has also been tuning off of the GSM network as well. 

As far as I know bell/Virgin have not been using the CDMA portion which is in the 4S and only using the GSM network which has good coverage.

As far as the iPhone 5 goes there are 3 versions of the iPhone 5 so you can get one that will work with various worldwide carriers. I believe all carriers in Canada are using the same LTE network bands so an unlocked iPhone 5 from Apple Canada should work with all carriers (Bell/Telus/Rogers/Fido) and their GSM network and LTE networks (if they have one launched)


Sent from my iPhone


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## ldphoto (Jul 9, 2009)

Back in 2010, Bell and Telus proceeded to deploy a nationwide 3G GSM network that supplanted the CDMA network. Coverage is quite good, and all new devices being introduced are for the new network.

The Bell CDMA network is still in operation to support legacy devices (most police cars get their data on the CDMA network, and a lot of other systems like GM's OnStar run on the CDMA network) as well as US customers roaming from Verizon. It will probably remain in operation for a while yet, but it will be shut down at some point in time once the majority of users have transitioned to 3G HSPA and 4G LTE.


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