My mother wants to purchase the iphone 4s for my fathers birthday. My fathers company pays for his cell phone (sprint, but i've been told that they can offer any company). He would pay the Canadian phone bill. I told her it was possible to have two lines on the iphone 4s(one GSM, one CDMA). This way he can use the phone in both countries. The salesperson that my mother was dealing with says this is incorrect and that it doesn't have enough room in the phone. Am I wrong? Any other recommendations? Thanks.

Technically I think it is possible, but it depends on sprint or verizon (the CDMA) carrier unlocking the phone to allow a 3rd party sim to be used for gsm roaming. I have no experience with either of them but if they are like our carriers you have a snowballs chance in hell of them doing that as the roaming charges are very lucrative for them.

An option might be to buy unlocked from apple in the first place, I know this would work for gsm carriers(at&t) but I'm not sure if you can use an unlocked iPhone on a CDMA network, technically it should be possible, but you would need to check with the carrier.

You can get a number of dual SIM cases, unfortunately, you cannot use both SIMs concurrently without Jailbreaking. You have to manually switch between the two from the iPhone's Settings menu. I've never used one, but I've read about them on Engadget, Gizmodo, et al...

I should note that my suggestion would require manually switching sims when crossing the border as well. Personally I find this preferable to fiddling with dual sim cases as it only takes 10sec to switch sim cards and the dual sim cases I've seen add a lit of bulk and can be finicky to deal with.

I use my iPhone 4 when in the US by switching sim cards. That noted, I have a 32 GB that I bought unlocked direct from Apple Canada which will set you back from $600 and up. Mine was about $800 with AppleCare as I recall. That route might be prohibitive for Mom's budget. Just saying.

Thanks, it almost seems better to buy the phone from Sprint or Verizon (Verizon you have to wait 60 days to unlock GSM). Then just get a Canadian GSM carrier. You would still have to manually switch between the two carriers, but at least its not $800.

MacWorld (http://www.macworld.com/article/1162960/how_international_is_the_iphone_4s_world_phone_.ht ml)

So in the US you have to wait 60 days to get the carrier to unlock your iphone?
Mmmmmmmmm?!?!

I'm totally agreed with G-Mo, that you can buy a dual sim cases. By this way you can easily do Jailbreaking with your iPhone. Try this option for the best to take less much time for it.

You need to get a Sprint/Verizon iPhone on an account which has had the line open for a minimum of 60 days; and obviously in good standing. Then you can request to have the iPhone 4S sim unlocked; explain that you will be roaming in Canada and need the phone unlocked for international use. When in Canada you need to pop the canadian sim in and take out the Sprint/Verizon roaming sim,

Official unlocked iPhone's from Apple are GSM only; and will not work with a CDMA carrier.

As you can see from a screenshot of part of my 4S bill; it says iPhone 4S 64GB GSM.

-M

I use my iPhone 4 when in the US by switching sim cards. That noted, I have a 32 GB that I bought unlocked direct from Apple Canada which will set you back from $600 and up. Mine was about $800 with AppleCare as I recall. That route might be prohibitive for Mom's budget. Just saying.

This will only work with AT&T just to note.

-M

This will only work with AT&T just to note.

-M

For voice, T-Mobile works as well. You will need to cut down a standard T-Mobile SIM card or get a micro from them. I don't know if they'll give a micro for pay as you go type accounts. You will only get edge data which is quite poor and requires manual set-up.