I know, I know... WHY SPRINT???
I'm locked into a contract.
Not very glamorous, right?
Anyhow, I acquired a Verizon Droid Razr Maxx and want to use it on Sprint. How can I do this?
I know the MDRM is dual band and has a radio with CDMA 1900 (which is what Sprint runs on) so it should be doable, right?
I really don't feel like forking over the phone and cash to Shady-Person-on-Craigslist or Shifty-Eyes-Guy-Behind-the-Bullet-Proof-Gas-Station-Window.
I'm curious about this myself. I have been looking around with some mixed info on the subject. Some people say yes some no. But noone says how or why. Any one with a definitive answer and a technical why not? It seems clear the phone supports it from a hardware perspective. What would be the limitation besides the obvious software/firmware imposed reason?
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hi, im thinking about purchasing a streak 5. I talked to a sales rep and she said the unlocked version has a cdma radio in as well. Is this true? Could I use this on verizon? and if so, would custom roms, kernels, and basebands still work the same? or does that require additional coding. Thanks i have a contract with verizon until feb. but id like this phone/tab. Please help me out thank you
The streak is GSM only, you'd need something like a mifi for internet access and a voip provider for calls. So no it wouldnt work at all on verizon without essentially another phone or device to power connectivity.
She may be talking about WCDMA which is the technology behind 3g GSM and isnt compatable with CDMA, at least not in any meanful way to a user.
ahh damn, thanks for the quick answer. i didn't think it would work. i saw nothing about it on vzw. lesson learned, don't trust dell sales people lol. i just wish there was something with a screen 4.5-5 inches on verizon
Hey all,
a quick question, after reading through the forum there seems to be 2 Razrs out (excluding the customs one released in China MT917 and XT928)
One is the CDMA/LTE version and the other GSM/HSDPA version.
I read this article and it says the RAZR is a world phone, containing a combined radio capable of CMDA and GSM...
So is there any roms out there thats able get the razr to work with both? or am I just reading the article wrong?
Am I dealing with a $650 paper weight?
I Live in the Phlippines. When I first started researching the specs on this phone it list CDMA/LTE and GSM with 4 bands... I assumed it would work over here. I purchased the XT912 model directly from Motorola with no plan and had it shipped directly to the Philippines. (My Bad)
Once in my hands I naturally popped in my micro-sim and turned it on. The only thing I got was that it didn't recognize the sim and my options were "Power Off" or "Emergency Dial". Not a happy camper to say the least... I now have a $650 brick!
I have since been able to get into the main menu of the phone but of course it still doesn't recognize my GSM sim. Most likely because of the fact that it has a CDMA/LTE baseband loaded which I assume has no GSM support. Hence the reason it does not recognize the sim or receive any GSM/HSDPA signal.
My question is this: How do I flash/load a new GSM/HSDPA baseband that will enable the radio and make this phone useful to me?
I'm a total noob when it comes to Android so please be patient with my ignorance... Especially if this is simply never going to work out. Should I keep the phone on the hopes that a developer will crack this nut or sell it on E-Bay and walk away... Thanks!
My apologies for adding insult to injury but it looks like you didn't research enough...
Yes, the XT912 has the hardware for GSM but it was disabled by Verizon since it only needed the LTE hardware. This was noted in the FCC docs that were leaked.
The GSM hardware can be activated in theory but there's a lot more to it than a simple flash.
So unfortunately, you have a paperweight in your hands...
pacafrat said:
I Live in the Phlippines. When I first started researching the specs on this phone it list CDMA/LTE and GSM with 4 bands... I assumed it would work over here. I purchased the XT912 model directly from Motorola with no plan and had it shipped directly to the Philippines. (My Bad)
Once in my hands I naturally popped in my micro-sim and turned it on. The only thing I got was that it didn't recognize the sim and my options were "Power Off" or "Emergency Dial". Not a happy camper to say the least... I now have a $650 brick!
I have since been able to get into the main menu of the phone but of course it still doesn't recognize my GSM sim. Most likely because of the fact that it has a CDMA/LTE baseband loaded which I assume has no GSM support. Hence the reason it does not recognize the sim or receive any GSM/HSDPA signal.
My question is this: How do I flash/load a new GSM/HSDPA baseband that will enable the radio and make this phone useful to me?
I'm a total noob when it comes to Android so please be patient with my ignorance... Especially if this is simply never going to work out. Should I keep the phone on the hopes that a developer will crack this nut or sell it on E-Bay and walk away... Thanks!
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I frequently travel to Europe, and it is frustrating to learn that Verizon has crippled the phone. It is bad enough that they don't allow me to pay for a plan while I am in Europe (and those plans are generally rip-offs) but to make me have to bring an entirely different phone when the Razr is capable is borderline absurd IMO.
I realize they want to keep it carrier specific... but I used to be a Sprint customer, and had a "world phone" which was unlocked for world GSM but locked for US GSM. This was fair and worked great for when I traveled.
Son of a! Do you mean to tell me that this phone could have been a world phone, but Verizon chose to disable this feature? That's retarded. I knew that it was CDMA/LTE-only when I bought it, but this phone would be nearly perfect if all the radios were enabled.
I read the Droid 4 will be the first LTE phone with GSM capabilities on Verizon, but could the GSM portion be disabled like it is on the Razr?
Ok thanks for the feedback everyone, so it seems the Razr has the hardware to be a world phone, but its just the software that isnt capable.
So if it has an unlocked bootloader, it might be possible to flash radios that support all basebands...correct?
pacafrat, sell me your razr I am in China
Hello xda, I was Judy wondering if any of you could help me out with a problem I'm having. I might be getting an android phone, the only problem is that I'm on us cellular and there doesn't appear to be top many options. My phone options are the htc hero s, Motorola electrify, Samsung repp, htc wildfire s, htc merge and huaweii ascend ii ( sorry if I spelled that wrong).
IM looking for a phone with some support of development community behind it, whether it be on xda or some other forum/ website.
Thank you and IM sorry if this its in the wrong forum.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
They are CDMA so if may be possible to activate an unlocked Verizon or maybe Sprint phone but you wouldn't get carrier subsidized pricing so it would be more expensive and may be harder to activate.
Motorola doesn't want to unlock bootloaders while HTC has recently made it possible to unlock bootloaders on recent models. Unfortunately the US Cellular versions of any android phone are going to have less dev support because US Cell is a smaller carrier meaning less device owners.
spunker88 said:
They are CDMA so if may be possible to activate an unlocked Verizon or maybe Sprint phone but you wouldn't get carrier subsidized pricing so it would be more expensive and may be harder to activate.
Motorola doesn't want to unlock bootloaders while HTC has recently made it possible to unlock bootloaders on recent models. Unfortunately the US Cellular versions of any android phone are going to have less dev support because US Cell is a smaller carrier meaning less device owners.
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I didn't know that, (sorry I'm a noob at phones). I remember when my dad broke his phone (some cheap thing), my brother's old phone was the same model, os he went into the store and they made it his phone without a problem. Do you think they would be willing to do that if I brought in an unlocked verizon phone?
Thanks for replying.
I'm not for sure if a Verizon phone will work, technology wise it has the hardware to communicate with US Cellular since its CDMA, but it may require some software changes to work on their network. Also it depends if they will activate non carrier devices.
spunker88 said:
I'm not for sure if a Verizon phone will work, technology wise it has the hardware to communicate with US Cellular since its CDMA, but it may require some software changes to work on their network. Also it depends if they will activate non carrier devices.
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Click to collapse
Yeah they probably wouldn't allow it.
Hopefully at least one of these phones has some rom development somewhere on the internet, or I can get the wildfire and just remove sense from it without a problem.
So I looked around the threads on both Verizon, and Sprints side of the fences for an answer to this question and couldn't find any thing.
I have a Verizon Galaxy S3, and my contract with Verizon recently came to a close. I want to switch to sprint due to pricing and other options, but I don't have the money to drop on a new phone at the time, so I have been looking into unlocking the phone to work with Sprint, however I haven't much of luck...
That's when I came to XDA. While I was looking around the forum, I got to thinking.
Is there any possible way that I could take the Sprint version of the Samsung Galaxy S3's ROM, and load it onto my Verizon Galaxy? And has anyone tried this yet?
It's essentially the same hardware, right? To the best of my understanding, the only difference in the phones would be software related according to the carrier.
I am really struggling with this one, and I have witnessed the vast knowledge and great work by this forum before, so I am hoping I'll be able to find the help I need.
-Mortem Obrie
Verizon and Sprint do use the same cdma networks but will not activate each others devices on their network so the answer is no I do not think this is going to be possible for you.
alekurkudi said:
Verizon and Sprint do use the same cdma networks but will not activate each others devices on their network so the answer is no I do not think this is going to be possible for you.
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Well I did talk to Sprint, and Sprint said they would be willing to activate an unlocked Galaxy. It's just the unlocking process that I am unsure of.
My buddy whos on our family plan needs to downgrade from a Galaxy S III to a basic phone. I came across an Unlocked AT&T Samsung SGH-A157. When I called Verizon they used a blanket statement of "AT&T uses completely different technology than verizon, so their phones won't work on Verizon". I tried to explain that it's Unlocked and is CDMA based, so it should allow the sim card if I understand things correctly. He said "It doesn't matter if it's unlocked, AT&Ts technology is different then our." When I asked what technology exactly is different, he replied "Everything". He lost ALL credibility with that me for that statement. I constantly run into crap like this with Verizon... everything else is inferior, and only Verizon exists in the universe. Also, one MUST have what that absolutely don't need and we WILL lie to you and trick you into buying it or signing up for it even if you disagree!
Anyway. Is there any truth to this guys statement? I thought the whole point of "Unlocking" a device /phone was to make it work on another network.
Do I legitimately have to restrict my search for a Verizon flip/basic phone?
This brings up another concern because the plan was to get him a phone, deactivate his current Galaxy S3, activate the Unlocked phone, Unlock the Galaxy S3, and then sell it to some friends who have Metro PCS.
Also, Ive been told by some Verizon associates that I should be looking for GSM phones because we have Sim cards. But then other representatives say our phones are CMDA and thus should be looking for CMDA phones. Is there any consistent formula to this?
This forum is for i9300 international variant... I think you should ask a moderator to move your thread to your phone's forum in the appropriate section...
Sent from my GT-I9300
varxtis said:
....
Anyway. Is there any truth to this guys statement? I thought the whole point of "Unlocking" a device /phone was to make it work on another network.
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I'm not in the US so I'm not 100% on this but the SGH-A157 is GSM and Verizon uses CDMA tech. Afaik, they are not interchangeable.
Unlocking a phone does not change the radio tech used in the device.
You can probably shift between AT&T and T-mobile, but not CDMA carriers like Sprint or Verizon.
~ RazorMC