[Q] Can I unlocked a Thunderbolt and used it in T-Mobile?? - Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Can I unlocked a thunderbolt and put my tmobile g2 sim and used it?

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No. The TB doesn't use GSM as a radio and is strictly CDMA for the phone side of things. Also, the LTE radio is different than T-Mobile's 4G radio. I'm sure somebody with a more technical side of why will come in, but that's the basic reason it won't work.

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the only carriers verizon phones can switch to is cricket and and sprint (if either carrier is even willing to activate the phone on the network).
T-mobile can only take unlocked GSM phones (which would mean att phones)
I don't know enough about the thunderbolt being used on different carriers cause I don't fully understand exactly what data is being stored on the sim card. If it is only 4g data than theoretically It should be able to work only on sprint/cricket (without 4g, if they are willing to activate it).
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

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As above, no, you can't use it on T-Mobile, you could take it over to Cricket/MetroPCS. Metro I know uses 4G LTE, so you'd be able to get everything out of the phone. However, I know roaming with that provider sucks unless you don't travel anywhere.

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METDeath said:
As above, no, you can't use it on T-Mobile, you could take it over to Cricket/MetroPCS. Metro I know uses 4G LTE, so you'd be able to get everything out of the phone. However, I know roaming with that provider sucks unless you don't travel anywhere.
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MetroPCS uses a different frequency band for their 4G LTE (I think they're on 1700, and Verizon is on 700), so the LTE won't work.

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METDeath said:
As above, no, you can't use it on T-Mobile, you could take it over to Cricket/MetroPCS. Metro I know uses 4G LTE, so you'd be able to get everything out of the phone. However, I know roaming with that provider sucks unless you don't travel anywhere.
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No you cannot take it over to Cricket/MetroPCS. The phone does not have a traditional MEID to allow it to work on a traditional CDMA network, and the LTE radio is not compatible with the "LTE" system that MetroPCS runs.

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GSM
If you don't know what you're talking about then don't post it. Obviously you don't have a Thunderbolt to say if it can be unlocked or not. HTC Thunderbolt uses GSM network on 4G LTE. It can be unlocked, but haven't figured it out yet.
NO CRICKET OR METROPCS can be run on it.

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I took out my sim to see if the phone will work on 3G. And the result is no. No way of putting it on cricket.

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alasfar1 said:
If you don't know what you're talking about then don't post it. Obviously you don't have a Thunderbolt to say if it can be unlocked or not. HTC Thunderbolt uses GSM network on 4G LTE. It can be unlocked, but haven't figured it out yet.
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LTE is not GSM. The Thunderbolt runs on 700 MHz LTE and 850/1900 CDMA. It does NOT support ANY GSM/UMTS/HSPA bands. You CANNOT take it to ANY GSM provider. If you were able to unlock it, you MIGHT be able to take it to another LTE carrier, but ONLY if that carrier also uses 700 MHz for LTE (for example, possibly AT&T once they launch LTE), but even then you'd be able to use it for data ONLY. It is unlikely that you'll be able to use it on another CDMA carrier either (such as Cricket or MetroPCS) because it isn't provisioned in the way all other CDMA phones are.

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Jumping on the bandwagon, no.

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alasfar1 said:
If you don't know what you're talking about then don't post it. Obviously you don't have a Thunderbolt to say if it can be unlocked or not. HTC Thunderbolt uses GSM network on 4G LTE. It can be unlocked, but haven't figured it out yet.
NO CRICKET OR METROPCS can be run on it.
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The TB will NEVER work on any other carriers GSM network. Period. End Of Line. It is not a matter of "unlocking" the phones. The LTE standard does not define interoperability with existing the existing GSM standard. The TB cannot operate on a traditional CDMA network (think Cricket/MetroPCS) because it is missing fundamental components required in every CDMA handset (there is no hardware MEID on the TB). Without an MEID the device will not work on a CDMA network, no matter how much unlocking you try. It will not work because the network cannot talk to the phone and there is nothing you or anyone else can do to change that fact.
What VZW has done is create a hybrid system linking their LTE network with their CDMA network. There is a reason dialing *228 does nothing on the TB. There is nothing for the system to update. All of the settings are created on the LTE network and are pushed to the VZW CDMA network on their back end. Your phone number is tied to your SIM card on their network, not your MEID. Want to prove it to yourself, take the sim card out of your TB and put it in another TB. Care to guess what happens? I'll help. The new TB you just put your SIM card into will now have your cell phone number. Now if you have been with VZW for more then 5 seconds you would know that with every phone prior to change your number you had to call customer service and they had to update your MEID and in turn you had to update your phone (*228) so the CDMA system knew what phone belonged to what number.
Tl; dr...: LTE and GSM are not interchangeable terms and technologies. LTE radios cannot function on existing GSM networks. TB is not a true CDMA device and will not work on a traditional CDMA network.