Buying an iPhone 4 from a Canadian carrier? It’s locked

Posted by sheep on Friday Jul 30, 2010 Under All, Development

We’ve been tipped this morning (and have now been able to confirm, thanks to our own Myriam Joire braving the lines) that if you buy an iPhone 4 in a Canadian carrier’s store today, you leave with it locked to that carrier — despite Apple’s trumpeting that you can buy it SIM-free. It appears as though the activation process might be responsible for causing the carrier lock — either that, or the carriers’ subsidized models are shipped locked, unlike the full-price devices you can buy directly from Apple. Either way, it’s a bummer, and it’s certainly something to take into consideration before you buy.

[Thanks, Chris]

Update: We’ve now confirmed that the lock is happening at the time the phone is activated — in other words, it begins life carrier-agnostic. Pretty wild stuff.

Buying an iPhone 4 from a Canadian carrier? It’s locked originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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