Unlocked iPhone 4S not available until November, won’t support CDMA

We know that the new iPhone 4S is a world phone, with support for GSM and CDMA networks. So you should be able to buy an unlocked one and use it on any network in the world that carries the iPhone, right? As it turns out, that isn’t quite the case. The unlocked model of the 4S won’t support the CDMA basebands used on Sprint and Verizon. Oh, and did we mention that the unlocked iPhone 4S won’t be available until November?

With the contract version of the iPhone 4S having capabilities for both GSM and CDMA, why would CDMA get the shaft on the unlocked model? This is likely because international networks are much more likely to be GSM. If you’re a globetrotter who is toting an unlocked phone, you aren’t going to call a local CDMA carrier to have your phone temporarily activated. Instead, you’ll buy a pre-paid SIM card, and pop it in. Of course SIM cards are the turf of GSM.

As for the news that the unlocked version won’t be available for at least another month, that means that only contract-laden iPhones can be purchased during the initial launch. Sure, you can drop $650 (or more) to buy one for full retail if you aren’t eligible for an upgrade, but it will still require a new 2-year agreement.

What does this mean? If you’re a world traveler, who wants to use your iPhone 4S everywhere you go, you’re still covered. You can still use your contract-laden iPhone 4S (which is available for pre-order now) to do that, or you can wait for the unlocked one next month. Either way, you will still be able to connect to any GSM network worldwide by switching up the SIM card. The only difference is that you won’t be able to use that contract-free one on Sprint or Verizon in the US.

Unlocked models will ring up at the same prices as the full retail contract-laden iPhone 4S. That would be $649 for 16GB, $749 for 32GB, and a whopping $849 for 64GB.