what is the cell phone system in usa?

[Mohamed Aglan]

i live in egypt and my dad is in usa for a week, he doesn't know anything about cellphones and i want to get an iphone from usa but when i looked on amazon and bestbuy i found that the phones come with 1-2 year contracts with some of cell phones service providers in usa i don't really understand the system in your country guys..all i want is to buy the phone and when my dad returns to egypt i plug in my sim card that i use in egypt into the phone and it works, and please tell me the best store to buy from...thanks a lot.

 

[rgd1101]

get one for tmoible, which use sim card.

 

[Solandri]

He needs to go to an Apple store and buy a contract-free unlocked iPhone (without SIM card). AT&T only sells locked iPhones, and Verizon and Sprint use CDMA. T-Mobile might sell an iPhone without contract, but it'll probably be locked to their service and your dad will have to jump through extra hoops to unlock it. The Apple store may not have an unlocked phone that day, but they should be able to order it for him to pick up at a later date.

From what I can tell, the iPhones cover LTE bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25. That's a pretty good spread and should work in most of the world. However, since Egypt does not yet have LTE, it's possible your local cellular companies may pick a different band and your US-bought iPhone won't get LTE service there. (Unlikely though as I think Apple sells the same model iPhone throughout the world.)
https/www.apple.com/iphone-5s/specs/