Will Unlocked HTC Thunderbolt work on AT&T? - Thunderbolt Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I own an HTC Thunderbolt, but I am forced to switch to AT&T. I am able to buy an unlock code for my phone, will I be able to unlock it and it run on AT&T? I would like it to run 3G or better. If you have any info, please let me know. THANKS!!

McNugget93 said:
I own an HTC Thunderbolt, but I am forced to switch to AT&T. I am able to buy an unlock code for my phone, will I be able to unlock it and it run on AT&T? I would like it to run 3G or better. If you have any info, please let me know. THANKS!!
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Click to collapse
short answer: no
long answer: read the other posts in the thunderbolt forums for similar questions.
Side note: there are some verizon phones that are "world phones" that have sim cards in them. The droid 2 I think some of the blackberries do. I would return and get one if you can.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/...etail&selectedPhoneId=5567&deviceCategoryId=1

the TBolt has a SIM card....

Verizon uses 700mhz and att doesnt. Not compatible
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App

Ferrari353 said:
the TBolt has a SIM card....
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different type of SIM card. Thunderbolt has one for 4g only. Verizon uses CDMA for 3g and LTE for 4g, and probably some other band for voice. ATT uses GSM for 3g and HSPA+ for 4g. So they are completely NOT compatible.

ATT will be eventually going to LTE, but they could be dicks about it and choose a different frequency of LTE than verizon to prevent people from switching networks (since there's more than one to pick from), thus making it incompatible still.
Currently, all voice is CDMA on verizon still and data is CDMA as mentioned if it's 3g and LTE if it's 4g (which is what the sim card uses as it is the next incarnation of GSM). Next year they will be transitioning to voice over LTE.

Related

[Q] Can I unlocked a Thunderbolt and used it in T-Mobile??

Can I unlocked a thunderbolt and put my tmobile g2 sim and used it?
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.
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
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.
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.
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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Click to collapse
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jumping on the bandwagon, no.
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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Click to collapse
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.

Is Sim Unlock Possible on the Thunderbolt?

I've been doing some research and I haven't found any success stories for radio s=off on the Thunderbolt or anyone buying an unlock code. Most companies selling codes are shaky and typically don't end up providing a code.
I've unlocked a Mytouch 4G (for my dad) manually and got a code to unlock a HD2 (for my brother) from T-Mobile. Both phones are activated on AT&T and work but cannot get 3G. I tried swapping sims with the HD2 and Thunderbolt and neither phone would make calls. Apparently our sims wont work on a sim unlocked GSM phone so if the Thunderbolt was sim unlocked, would it work on a GSM network?
Sent from my 4G Thunderbolt.
well the thunderbolt is not a world phone... 2nd the sim card supplied by verizon is for
using the 4g LTE network only...
case in point you couldnt use any other sim card to use on other carriers...
but then again you might be able to unlock it but you would be giving up
4g LTE over 3g i dont see the logic in that...
I'm really just curious.
Sent from my 4G Thunderbolt.
It will never work, end of story.
I doubt there's a provider lock on the Thunderbolt. It's sort of non-standard, using CDMA for voice and LTE for data.
ATT/T-Mob are UMTS (GSM), Verizon is CDMA-2000/LTE. A phone from one side not working on the other has nothing to do with SIMs or SIM locking.
Even when ATT gets around to doing their LTE upgrade, a Thunderbolt would be unlikely to work at all on their network - the best hope might be for data only.
Also, to be clear, the Verizon card isn't really a SIM (although even Verizon calls it that), it's a UICC, with both USIM (for LTE) and CSIM (for CDMA) applications. It's unlikely to have a SIM application, since Verizon doesn't support GSM.

HTC ThunderBolt locked

Hi,
I have bough one HTC ThunderBolt Verizon in America,
I tried to insert my sim card without success, can I unlock it? or is it impossible at this moment?
BR
Zax
this post was a fail
the sim card in the phone is meant only for the 4g. the phone is only cdma, not gsm. you can't put the card in there and assume it's going to work.
The Thunderbolt isn't a GSM phone. It uses a sim card only on Verzion for 4G purposes. I doubt it would be useful to do any unlocks on it.
I think this thread is a fail.
I'm nearly certain that as of right now, the Thunderbolt will work on no other carrier but Verizon. MetroPCS flashing isn't really possible since the phone uses some of the new technology to activate itself, the old activation code doesn't work, I believe. And the voice technology is still CDMA, so even if the Verizon bands match up to a Euro/Canada carrier in the future, you'll have to wait for LTE to carry voice, which could still be quite some time.
My sim is 3g, and my operator are gsm/umts but 3G not 4G.
I cannot to use it? If I understand well it works only with operator 4G?
Thanks a lot
Z.
There is a solution to put it on metro and cricket.
Wow, how did you even find xda?
#EpicFail..
This thread is win.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
This thread is locked.
See what I did there?

[Q] World phone capability

If the qualdcom processor on the EVO is ment to support LTE which in turn uses a sim card shouldn't that make the phone a world phone I know it is suppose to have an embeded sim. But my true question is will we be able to reporgram the sim once we get root or will write have to go with more of a hardware mod if we wish to make it a world phone.
Tactic13 said:
If the qualdcom processor on the EVO is ment to support LTE which in turn uses a sim card shouldn't that make the phone a world phone I know it is suppose to have an embeded sim. But my true question is will we be able to reporgram the sim once we get root or will write have to go with more of a hardware mod if we wish to make it a world phone.
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Click to collapse
Sprint uses embedded LTE technology to my knowledge, so its not like on Verizon where there is an LTE sim card. Also, this phone is a CDMA phone, and therefore does not have a regular sim card slot (Like phones on ATT or TMo). No software modifications will change this, and I highly doubt that anyone could even attempt to make a hardware modification to make this phone a world phone. Also, and LTE sim card is not the same as a regular sim card, as they perform different actions (access to LTE and the rest of the network is seperate).
Yeah I was thinking that it does not have the slot the thing is that the processor does support gsm also I was kinda hopeing it was like the rezound it is cdma phone on Verizon. It was found out that just by removing verizons LTE sim card and adding a gsm one it allowed the phone to work as a gsm phone.
the evo lte does not have the GSM and HSPA+ radios to be a world phone
When I preordered, the rep told me it was a world phone. I didn't think she was right but I didn't say anything.
Yeah i read the same post on Engadget i think. What a bummer was hopping it was since it is rocking the same processor that the at&t one (correct me if im wrong). Plus like i also stated was hopping it was like the HTC rezound on Verizon that with a experiment it ended up working. O well .... still kinda wanna take it apart and try wouldn't be xda without some experimenting or moding.
My friend has a Droid bionic which wasn't supposed to have GSM support, but it did through some hacks on rootzwiki and using a T-Mobile sim card. I think that the s4 includes a GSM radio, so its probably possible at least if the sim card can be accessed. Lte is GSM based so it is likely that GSM support is there if software is modified like it was on the bionic.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk 2
mlin said:
When I preordered, the rep told me it was a world phone. I didn't think she was right but I didn't say anything.
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Click to collapse
Sure, you can use it anywhere in the world that has a compatible CDMA network.
Many identify world phone with GSM radios (which the Evo 4G LTE does not have), but CDMA (which it does have) does work well for roaming in Asia.
I've roamed with my Evo 4G across Japan, Korea, and China for both voice and data. There's a full list of countries with CDMA roaming on the Sprint website. As soon as you arrive in country (if roaming works), you receive a free text with the rates and instructions on how to make international calls.

Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4 to have AWS 4 Band (Tmobile LTE Capable?)

Hi,
So I've read the FCC documents located here: LINK
Page 1 and Page 5 are the most interesting! These state that the Verizon model SCH-i545 will have AWS band 4 (of course 13 too) which does support T-mobiles LTE network right? It never states 1700/1200 frequencies.
Thing I want to know from the pros is will this phone indeed offer LTE support for T-Mobile or and I'm just seeing things?
Also, for all the other people that are wondering if the ATT model will offer LTE support for T-Mobile as well? It will since it supports both bands 4 and 17 But wait is that AWS band 4?... the jury is out on that! -_-
Many Thanks
Becool0130 said:
Hi,
So I've read the FCC documents located here: LINK
Page 1 and Page 5 are the most interesting! These state that the Verizon model SCH-i545 will have AWS band 4 (of course 13 too) which does support T-mobiles LTE network right? It never states 1700/1200 frequencies.
Thing I want to know from the pros is will this phone indeed offer LTE support for T-Mobile or and I'm just seeing things?
Also, for all the other people that are wondering if the ATT model will offer LTE support for T-Mobile as well? It will since it supports both bands 4 and 17 But wait is that AWS band 4?... the jury is out on that! -_-
Many Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I am correct, Verizon phones do not use sim cards (CDMA) and AT&T and T-Mobile are GMS (sim phones). So even if the bands are supported, I don't see how a Verizon phone would work on T-Mobile or AT&T unless they are CDMA / GSM dual phones. And even then they would have to be unlocked.
scott14719 said:
If I am correct, Verizon phones do not use sim cards (CDMA) and AT&T and T-Mobile are GMS (sim phones). So even if the bands are supported, I don't see how a Verizon phone would work on T-Mobile or AT&T unless they are CDMA / GSM dual phones. And even then they would have to be unlocked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All of the major Verizon releases over the past year have come GSM unlocked. They are world phones that contain GSM and CDMA radios. I'm using a Verizon iPhone 5 on the Straight Talk (AT&T) network currently.
All lte phones have sim cards as it is a gsm technology. My girls verizon gs3 has a sim. As far as it being compatible that is a hell of a question.
OneStepAhead said:
All of the major Verizon releases over the past year have come GSM unlocked. They are world phones that contain GSM and CDMA radios. I'm using a Verizon iPhone 5 on the Straight Talk (AT&T) network currently.
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Click to collapse
Yes! I sold my iPhone 4s to get Samsung galaxy s4 and it sold to someone over in the UK world (Ireland) that says it works! Lol.
I've also seen threads about sim unlocking the Verizon S3 for domestic and international use. Some people use HiAPN as system app along with other steps and viola... Working on whatever network you want
Question is... Am I seeing right that Verizon S4 will support AWS Band 4 for t-mobile?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda app-developers app
good news
OneStepAhead said:
All of the major Verizon releases over the past year have come GSM unlocked. They are world phones that contain GSM and CDMA radios. I'm using a Verizon iPhone 5 on the Straight Talk (AT&T) network currently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey this is one question i have lingering on my mind. How is the StraightTalk connection? Is it any good? Are there call drop issues? And do they have data plans?
if i buy a tmobile s4 will it work on verizon??
I know most things are under the catagory of speculation/rumor but i was wanting to to check out tmobile network for a bit.... the no contract is appealing. If i bought the phone outright and ending up not liking tmobile i would switch to verizon. Short of selling the tmobile and getting a verizon phone i was wondering about just activating the same phone on verizon?
Will there be "one phone" in US or would they all have thier own modem chips i guess is the real question....
thanks for the guesses and speculat'n!
You have to consider its Verizon and they have 700Mhz LTE and you can't roam on AT&T's 700Mhz so I would not expect to access Verizons AWS spectrum on T-Mobile or vice versa. Remember when they said LTE was the unifying spectrum to allow for easier use across networks and carriers, well that was a pile of BS.
Great news, but I heard verizon was purposely going to burn in their logo onto the amoled screens.
RaptorMD said:
You have to consider its Verizon and they have 700Mhz LTE and you can't roam on AT&T's 700Mhz so I would not expect to access Verizons AWS spectrum on T-Mobile or vice versa.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong: those "700mhz" frequencies are different bands. Both T-Mobile and Verizon are building out LTE on the same band: 4 (AWS). They will be interoperable device-wise.
AT&T also owns a lot of AWS, and though they're currently running LTE on it only in one market (somewhere in Oklahoma IIRC), all their LTE devices do come with band 4 enabled.
The more I read about the differences, the more I'm convinced that the Verizon model is more cross compatible with all other services. It's still the only CDMA model. But it's also gsm unlocked if you know how to program APNs. Any thoughts?
jerzyboy2421 said:
The more I read about the differences, the more I'm convinced that the Verizon model is more cross compatible with all other services. It's still the only CDMA model. But it's also gsm unlocked if you know how to program APNs. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I posted a pretty detailed analyzation of the LTE bands the different GS4 models work with here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=40974831#post40974831
if we ever get to the point where we don't need 3g at all any more (CDMA) and we can get VoLTE and use the LTE band exclusively that will eliminate a lot of the incompatability between Verizon and GSM carriers .
Parafly said:
if we ever get to the point where we don't need 3g at all any more (CDMA) and we can get VoLTE and use the LTE band exclusively that will eliminate a lot of the incompatability between Verizon and GSM carriers .
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Click to collapse
When we get to that point, Verizon will basically be a GSM carrier. Considering LTE is just an evolution GSM, both developed by 3GPP.
camaroz28 said:
When we get to that point, Verizon will basically be a GSM carrier. Considering LTE is just an evolution GSM, both developed by 3GPP.
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Click to collapse
When it gets to that point, the question is will LTE then become open so Google can sell a Nexus that works on every network without carriers involved?
Schoat333 said:
When it gets to that point, the question is will LTE then become open so Google can sell a Nexus that works on every network without carriers involved?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not just Google...all the manufacturers could do it. But...don't get your hopes up. That situation is not in the carriers' nor major manufacturers' interests, and they sit on the standards bodies. No one represents the users/customers.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda premium
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=43469207&postcount=11
samsung GS4
scott14719 said:
If I am correct, Verizon phones do not use sim cards (CDMA) and AT&T and T-Mobile are GMS (sim phones). So even if the bands are supported, I don't see how a Verizon phone would work on T-Mobile or AT&T unless they are CDMA / GSM dual phones. And even then they would have to be unlocked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Verizon does use sim cards I am in the process of trying to unlock
SCH-I545 On T-Mobile
i Have This phone running on T-Mobile and have notice it does pick up AWS but very limied when compared to a T-Mobile branded phone... im wondering if anyone has tested flashing the T-Mobile modem??
---------- Post added at 04:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:56 AM ----------
No need to unlock just go into settings on the phone and under mobile networks their should be a tab that says prefered network.... click it and select global....

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