How to Check What Carrier Your iPhone Uses: IMEI and Its Importance

Introduction

iPhones are among the most popular brands of phones that can be bought on the market today. They are stylish, high-quality, and overall people love the brand. Apple has been doing well since it got its first boom, and 2020 was also a great year.

iPhones, however, are expensive. Getting your phone via a carrier is overall the most money-wise choice. When you buy a carrier-lock phone, there are a few downsides.

One of the most common is to be stuck with that wireless network provider for the length of the life of the phone. This fact could be a great tragedy for many.

What if you move? If the new area has no coverage by that carrier, you have in your hands a useless device. What if you bought a refurbished iPhone and it is locked? In this case, you are not even aware of what carrier your phone is linked to.

Because many don’t remember the carrier they signed up, many years ago, or ended up with a locked device, we will explain how to check what carrier your iPhone uses.

IMEI and Its Importance

First, the most important thing you need to know about your phone is its IMEI. IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity. This 15-digit number is unique to any device that can use a SIM. Carriers use this highly important number to lock your device to their wireless network subscription.

The IMEI can be found via numerous ways. The easiest is to type *06# in your dial-pad, the IMEI should prompt immediately to the screen. Another place on the phone where the IMEI should be located is at the back, in the battery, or to the side of the SIM slot. This number must be written on the original box of the iPhone and in the receipt, you received upon purchase. Obviously, the last options are only possible for the original owners of the device.

The IMEI is very important, with it the carriers can set you in the manufacturers’ lists as belonging to their network. By using your IMEI you can find vital information about your iPhone, such as the carrier, warranty if available, date of production, among others.

The IMEI will also allow you to set your device free. If you want to iCloud unlock your iPhone or carrier-unlock the device you will need to use a third-party service. These services usually require for the IMEI, rarely any other information is requested.

Why they need it? Basically, for the same purpose, your carrier used it in the first place. The service you choose will whitelist your phone, by using the IMEI number. Then set your phone as unlocked in the manufacturers’ database. Since websites offering this service must have some level of power to pull this off, we recommend sticking with the ones requesting uniquely the IMEI. After all, if they cannot access all the array of data the IMEI can offer, how can you expect them to unlock your device?

The most trustworthy IMEI unlocking service provider we have used is Unlock iPhoneIMEI, as straightforward as the name sounds, the job gets done safely within one day. The other two services we used were neither as efficient nor fast.

Finding Out the Carrier of Your iPhone

Luckily for you, to find out what your carrier is all you need is to use the complimentary services of the unlocking websites. Most of these sites, offering iPhone unlocking services will have the option to just pull out the data of your device.

The reason for this is very simple. In many websites, they categorize the unlocking services by carriers and brands. Not all brands can be unlocked the same. For example, Samsung requires an unlock code, while iPhones just need to be connected to the net. That being said imagine you buy the service for one carrier, and your device is locked to another. Being your mistake, the website cannot do much, and you will end up losing your money.

If you are unsure of what carrier your iPhone is locked to, it is always a great idea to double-check. Another use of this service is to know the manufacturer’s date and warranty. There are plenty of promotions where certain devices are eligible, at times the requirements will include purchase date or manufacture date. Who is going to keep track of such a thing? That is when our unlocking service website comes in handy.

The warranty is wildly important. If your phone broke, or has some malfunction, or even if it’s eligible for upgrades or cash backs, knowing if the trip to the Apple store is worth it, it might be invaluable. While usually, Apple can tell you this information, if we are not the original owners, it might be a tad bit harder to make them comply. If you cannot provide the original data. That is why using the data recovery option from these websites, is such a great tool.

Finally, the warranty might also shed some light on whether the contract with the carrier is still in place. If we go on to a new carrier, after using the unlocking services. We might end up with hefty termination fees, and not even be aware of it. Most of the time the warranties go as long as the contracts.

The Bottom Line

iPhones are a great asset to have. They never go out of fashion, and we benefit from customer-oriented design. That is why best way to benefit from our purchase goes hand in hand with owning such a sophisticated and expensive design. Use the IMEI of your iPhone and discover a world of useful information with it.