Only available “sometime over the next several weeks,” says Apple rep

Sep 14, 2012 11:31 GMT  ·  By

There are millions of customers eager to get their hands on the new iPhone 5 from Apple, but not all of them like strings attached to their purchase. Yes, we’re talking about the wretched two-year carrier plan tied to every new generation of iPhones.

In recent years, Apple has loosened up on its policy to subsidize every iPhone unit sold. Their new policy is to give it away unlocked for the full price of the handset, which comes just shy of $700 (around €540) for the base configuration. It goes up to $899 (€690) for the 64GB capacity.

Now, with the iPhone 5 available for pre-order in the States and several select countries around the world, customers might want to know how to secure a contract-free unit.

For now, it’s really simple. You can’t. Not unless you live in Canada.

The Verge has been told by several Apple Store customer service representatives that “US customers won’t be able to sign up for the unlocked variant of Apple’s new flagship phone when pre-orders start early tomorrow morning.”

The same goes for the US online and retail stores on September 21st, when the phone is slated to become physically available.

“Canadian customers, however, will be able to get in on the action right away when pre-orders begin (all of the iPhones sold from the Canada Apple Store are unlocked),” the site has been told.

The same Apple representatives reportedly said that the unlocked version of the iPhone 5 wouldn’t be available until “sometime over the next several weeks.” To be noted that this is on par with previous iPhone launches (iPhone 4, iPhone 4S).

So there you have it. Visit store.apple.com in your country in a couple of weeks from now and look for the “unlocked” checkboxes enabled (here's a screenshot of what it should look like – leaked by Apple earlier this morning when the online store was experiencing downtime).

Apple’s US online store this morning briefly included the company’s policy for selling unlocked iPhone 5s.

As the company’s technicians were working to fix some backend glitches that prevented customers from selecting their carrier of choice, the text explaining unlocked iPhone purchases disappeared.

We saved it, so here it is, for what it’s worth.

The unlocked iPhone includes all the features of iPhone but without a contract commitment. 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; contact service providers for details.

If you don’t want a multiyear service contract or if you prefer to use a local carrier when traveling abroad, the unlocked iPhone is the best choice. It arrives without a SIM card, so you’ll need an active SIM card from any supported GSM carrier worldwide. To start using it, simply insert the SIM card into the slot on your iPhone and turn it on by pressing and holding the On/Off button for a few seconds. Then follow the onscreen instructions to set up your iPhone.