Smartphones

Deathwing_sl said:

Supposedly, people have been successful at porting to gvoice while requesting a new number on VZW at the same time. Since gvoice takes a while to port(24 hours) but you can get a new number right away, when the port finally goes through, VZW doesn't see it as a port because the number is free and just sitting there and gives it to gvoice anyway. I wasn't willing to risk something getting fucked up and paying 2x ETFs, so I waited until end of contract.

Oh well, lose out on selling a couple grandfathered unlimited plans, but it certainly simplifies things. I was kinda weary of handing my account over to some stranger, even if I got my phone numbers off the accounts cleanly.

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Indeed, getting the numbers off was also a snag that I did not really want to handel- as I would have to get my numbers put somewhere else- as you said gvoice, sell off the two lines- then get those numbers BACK to my control- also during the "unknown time" that your number was replaced with a new random number that your old numbers are floating in the bank of unused numbers and /could/ be reassigned to a new verizon line or someone else wanting a new number- unlikely- but it could happen- as I am sure there is some untold hold on newly released numbers before they truely enter back into the assignable bank of numbers.

Will be a good thing for consumers? That depends | Computerworld Blogs

Nexus program expanding, but maybe losing the incredible pricing?

Deathwing_sl said:

One of the reasons I'm cancelling with them in a few days.

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As long as CDMA is doing what CDMA carriers do- there will never be a stock or open market anything- the only reason why sprint phones cant be on verizon etc is because they wont let them, while their GSM counter-parts have been somewhat forced to be more open I am surprised the CDMA side of the coin has not- other than the fact that its a US only thing and the GSM open sim pressure was from global/eur pushed on to ATT and Tmobo-- an example is boost or metro- i forgot accepting any sprint (or verizon? I think I saw a sign) phone- an ESN is and ESN, lets rock.

Deathwing_sl said:

I'm not sure I follow you. How does the wireless technology allow VZW to be bitches? 2 for each technology in the US, so the playing field is relatively even.

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You can unlock a SIM, being "legal" or "kinda-legal" depends on the flavor of the month- and the brand of the phone-- however in general you can unlock the sim access.

On GSM tech etc- its connecting and "talking" to the sim card, and then the sim is to the device- so as long as your devices sim slot is unlocked you can throw any sim in there and it will not really care- it will work as long as the device as the proper frequencys of antenna.

On CDMA the device holds the phones ID within it, its built into the board of the device - the MEID HEX etc. Verizon holds a list of thier clean "ESNs" or MEID's - they know every number for every phone that is made "for verizon" - and they hold a list of reported stolen, broken, dead, store demo deactivated etc. lists of MEID/ESNs - those are "bad ESNs" that they will NOT allow on thier network. Sprint holds a similar list of THEIR devices that where made for Sprint- ETC. You cannot take a sprint phone and give its MEID to verizon and activate it.

CDMA is more of an actual digitalish netowork the MEID/ESN is like your LAN cards MAC address its hardcoded into it (I know there are exceptions etc) Sprint and Verizon LTE SIMS are a secondary thing on top of the CDMA portion of the device.

Sprint should be caveated as "for now" since its going away next year for Sprint.

I'd keep an eye, TMo and Sprint supposedly are focusing on putting up an ton of towers in MST states where they're really light on coverage now through early 2016.

Tarrant_sl said:

No

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AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Feds Agree to Cellphone Unlocking Rules - Ina Fried - Mobile - AllThingsDcovers the background to it - and there isPSA: Sprint Is Planning To Make All Its Devices From February 11, 2015 Onward Domestically Unlockable

Am I misunderstanding them because that reads to me as "you can take a Sprint bought phone after Feb 11, 2015 to other non-Verizon carriers"

LachiusTZ_sl said:

So... If I buy a htc phone from Amazon or some third party, I can jump from carrier to carrier. But if I pay 700$ for a phone at Verizon / sprint I can't jump ship to another carrier?... Wtf

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Only can jump between AT&T and T-Mobile really - for the moment at least. (Sprint down the line, if I read the above correctly)

But yes, right now that's how it functions in the US, its a lame system.

Vaclav_sl said:

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Feds Agree to Cellphone Unlocking Rules - Ina Fried - Mobile - AllThingsDcovers the background to it - and there isPSA: Sprint Is Planning To Make All Its Devices From February 11, 2015 Onward Domestically Unlockable

Am I misunderstanding them because that reads to me as "you can take a Sprint bought phone after Feb 11, 2015 to other non-Verizon carriers"

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Most phones now days are "world phones" - and as such their CDMA counterparts (sprint or verizon) versions have more antennas than that of your standard phone- yet usually do not have full domestic frewq's for the GSM but usually most of the euro channels are covered. All sprint is saying is that they wont sell a sim-locked phone, the CDMA part is still locked- and locked by virtue Verizon will not activate a sprint ESN- what WOULD be news is if Sprint said "we will activate Verizon ESNs on our network AND have unlocked SIMs" - but then that would open up all of the stolen etc. phones from verizon to be then tossed onto sprint no problem- unless verizon shared their good/bad list with sprint and vice versa- sure there are ESN checking sites where you can verify if your ESN is clean now- but I am sure there would have to be an offical agreement of some sort between vrzw and sprint to check and cross check offically (and in large scale) ESNs.

My BlackBerry Q10 is a world phone and SIM unlocked factory from Verizon, I can take it to T-Mo or AT&T if I really wanted to- there are a few freqency exceptions where I would not get 3g or even 2g depending on where I am - vs - a true AT&T phone that is made to have every AT&T freqency band in it. This is because the GSM part of my phone is not /exactly/ meant to be for domestic GSM carriers but for world GSM carriers.

Also it would be news if Sprint was making all their phones have, all sprint CDMA antennas, LTE antennas, GSM antennas and all domestic GSM (at&t t-mobo) antennas so that it truely is a global phone...but they are merely talking about not factory locking their sim slots...and that is less and less the case every day as it is now, they are just trying to get some good PR out of it.

Sprint shutting down WiMAX by end of 2015 | Android Central- Sprint is clearly consolidating to a degree.

And some phones they already sell are antennae ready (although might not be frequency ready) - the four you listed are all accessible on Sprint M8s for example.

And using SignalCheck Pro, I can - whileroaming - see it using towers that ID as AT&T.