Selling iPhone 4. Looked at craigslist. What does unlocked & clean ESN mean?

Selling iPhone 4. Looked at craigslist. What does "unlocked" & "clean ESN" mean?

It means that the phone was "jailbroken" in order to unlock it to work on any carrier that uses a SIM card. Clean ESN basically means that the phone hasn't been reported stolen. When a phone is stolen the person calls their carrier and notifies them it was stolen. Then the carrier marks their phones personal ESN as bad. A bad ESN means you can't activate an iPhone on your current carrier. For example, if you purchase an iPhone with a bad ESN from someone who used it on Verizon, then you won't be able to activate that phone on Verizon. BTW if you don't know what a "jailbroken" iPhone is: jailbreaking is the process of removing the limitations on Apple devices running the iOS operating system through the use of software and hardware exploits.

Unlocked = Means any sim card on Earth will work in it, regardless of carrier…
Locked = phone only works with 1 sim card brand from 1 carrier (Example: ATT sim cards on ATT network)

Clean/Good ESN: Phone can be flashed to any CDMA carrier (Verizon, Sprint, Virgin Mobile, Metro PCS, Straight Talk CMDA-V and CDMA-S networks

Dirty/Bad ESN: Original carrier has locked the ESN to the original owner's account due to lost/stolen report, non-pay suspend, non-pay disconnect, unfinished contract obligations. These phones can't ever be flashed to any other account on planet Earth. They will never be able to voice/text/cellular data… However, you can use Wi-Fi… So, basically, they become very expensive Ipod Touches until original owner "fixes their account"… Lmao… Now, it is reported that Sprint and Verizon only lock a phone on BAD ESN for only 6 months, regardless of reason… After that, its clean. Yet there's no proof to those statements

  • What information do I need to check if a verizon iPhone 4 has a clean esn? I'm thinking about buying a sprint iPhone 4 from craigslist, and I was wondering what information I would need on the phone to call up sprint and have them check whether or not it has a clean esn, or how I would go about finding out before I buy it.
  • What does Clean ESN, ready for activation on swappa or ebay mean? I'm about to buy an iPhone that's new and also listed as Clean ESN, ready for activation. I know that means i can activate it with the carrier its locked to which is AT&T but can i use online unlocking service like iunlockpro or any another one to unlock it so that i can use it with any GSM? Or is this only for the carrier its locked to since it new? thanks. the carrier is Sprint not AT&T
  • IPhone with CLEAN ESN as an iPod? Hi, I have an opportunity to buy an iPhone 4S claimed to have a CLEAN ESN. It's on a different network than I'm, but I mainly want to use it as an iPod. Can I just use it as an iPod with a clean ESN, because I know you can with a bad one, just need a clarification.
  • Iphone 5 found unlocked clean esn? So i found a iphone 5 with a SIM Card… I unlocked it myself and it saids its clean esn but to continue using it i need to put in the SIM card. I don't know what to do next. I want to use it as my cell phone, how can i do that? If i put in the SIM to continue will it get tracked? I'm scared because i don't want to get in trouble i just want to use it for myself. Any Information would help me!

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