Buy iPhone 4s and unlock for int'l travel?

Question

Hi all,
I'm active duty military and will be deploying in January.  Currently I have the iPhone 4... and CDMA isn't an option where I am going.  Yes, I know I'll have to pay full price.  I'd like to stay in touch with my wife (via e-mail... voice is too expensive!) so i thought about purchasing an iPhone 4s.
What I'm wondering is will Verizon unlock the 4s for me so I can purchase a local sim card where I'm going?  Keep in mine I'd be buying at full price (not upgrade eligible) and on military orders.  Data that way is cheaper than Verizon's 250 MB allotment.
I remember the good ole days when I could turn on the unlimited e-mail/data blackberry package when I went abroad... my wife and I were able to stay in touch so easily!!!

Answer 1

silver6055 wrote:
kaebfly wrote:
That question could probably be answered tomorrow by calling Verizon and asking. If not tomorrow then I'm sure the answer can be had for sure on the 14th.
Well, I'm sure AN answer can be had, the question is whether it will be correct!  I don't know if you have ever tried getting a phone unlocked within the first week or so of its release.  Generally the reps haven't been told the procedure for that phone,and haven't got  the codes and really cannot help.   For whatever reason, some of them will give an answer anyway, I have heard "The phone cannot be unlocked", "We don't do that anymore", "It can only be unlocked when you are abroad", "It doesn't need to be unlocked", "Use the last four digits of the phone number"  (Yes, I've had a lot of phones unlocked over the last few years!).   Now I don't really mean to knock them, once they have been trained on the phone, the Global Services people are usually very helpful
So, it may take several weeks to get the correct answer.
With this being a user forum with only occasional responses from VZW reps (that usually give general answers that often don't apply to the iPhone...such as "remove the battery and then replace it to do a hard reset) you are less likely to get an official and unequivocally "correct" answer on here either. Add on the fact that this is a new global iPhone that no user on here has experience with and you can pretty much expect guesses and theories more than fact. Yes, people can tell you how it works on other global devices, but no one can tell you how it will work on this 4s when no one has actually had their hands on it and had the experience of trying to get it unlocked. THAT is why I said calling VZ would be the best option for getting an answer. Or...you can wait it out on here and wade through the theories...but that could still take several weeks.