iPhone 5 Comes GSM Unlocked At Verizon

Well this is an interesting bit of news: iDownloadBlog's Jeff Benjamin has discovered that Verizon's iPhone 5 is indeed GSM unlocked. The way he discovered this was by cutting up an AT&T micro SIM card and putting it in his freshly-acquired iPhone 5 from Verizon. To his surprise (and ours), the iPhone picked up an AT&T signal, and he was able to hop onto the carrier's HSPA+ network and do a little bit of surfing.

Verizon later confirmed to him that their version of the iPhone is GSM unlocked, which in theory means that you could pick up a micro SIM from AT&T or T-Mobile and take advantage of their networks. That's going to take a bit of work though, as it sounds like Benjamin had something of a rough time getting that AT&T micro SIM to fit into his Verizon iPhone 5.

What's even more exciting is that Verizon is giving these phones to people who are on contact. Benjamin says that he attempted this micro SIM switcheroo on the same day that he picked up his iPhone 5 from Verizon (today), which also happened to be the day that he signed up as a Verizon customer for the first time. This, obviously, is good news for travelers, as it means that they can potentially switch between networks if they need to while on the road, despite signing a two-year commitment to Verizon.

The fact that the iPhone 5 comes in three different models that support various LTE bands has proven to be a headache for some consumers, and we've been talking about how it highlights a broader LTE problem since the different models were revealed. After all, this LTE issue isn't only limited to the iPhone 5, but thankfully Verizon has at least done something that helps with it a bit. What do you think? Does this help sway you more toward Verizon as your iPhone 5 carrier of choice?