Hello everyone,
I've recently purchased a Samsung Stellar second hand from a family member. I intend to use this device for T-mobile(It's a Verizon device) and the device seems to be carrier locked. I've tried five different SIM cards and multiple factory restores for each and only the Verizon chips will work. Verizon customer support refuses to acknowledge both the problem and device, giving me the run-a-round and different and equally unhelpful answers each time. My question is, is there anyone who can help me? I'm looking for a method to either unlock this phone or a root/Cyanogenmod/ROM combination that will allow this device to be more than a glorified music player that also uses apps.
tmp8101 said:
Hello everyone,
I've recently purchased a Samsung Stellar second hand from a family member. I intend to use this device for T-mobile(It's a Verizon device) and the device seems to be carrier locked. I've tried five different SIM cards and multiple factory restores for each and only the Verizon chips will work. Verizon customer support refuses to acknowledge both the problem and device, giving me the run-a-round and different and equally unhelpful answers each time. My question is, is there anyone who can help me? I'm looking for a method to either unlock this phone or a root/Cyanogenmod/ROM combination that will allow this device to be more than a glorified music player that also uses apps.
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T-Mobile is a GSM network; the Stellar is CDMA - so you aren't taking it *there*. You can take it to a CDMA provider (such as Sprint) or a CDMA network (while not Verizon - since they don't support BYOD) but an MVNO that uses VZW's towers is still a possibility (such as Tracfone). I took my ex-VZW Galaxy Nexus to Tracfone without issues; unlike VZW itself, Tracfone could care less what firmware you use on your devices as long as the firmware itself supports the device. (I use *unified* (tuna) firmware for GNexi (by unified, I mean the firmware supports maguro, toro, AND toroplus devices - as such, it is at home on any Galaxy Nexus) - comes in really handy as the builder is Japanese, and has a maguro GNex, while I have a toro device, and I'm American - and I don't have "sushi" issues - or sashimi issues, either.)
I happen to have a Galaxy Stellar at my elbow, and I'm looking for a community ROM to support it so a friend of mine can pass it down when she retires it. (I'm thinking that it is of a similar age to the GNex; from the legend of the handset itself, it's of the same series as the Galaxy S, and may well be the in-between of the Nexus and S3, as it, like the Nexus, originally ran ICS. If I turn up anything, I'll post it in the thread.
Related
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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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.
I'm in Japan for this year and I've just purchased a B-Mobile Free Data Sim (with voice), and while I can use the phone service, I can't use Data. After looking at b-mobile's GUARANTEED to work devices (bmobile.ne.jp/english/devices.html) other versions of the Galaxy S2 are listed, but not the i9100. However, in the list of acceptable bands, the following is written:
"Your device must support one of the following frequency
LTE Band 1 (2100MHz), Band 19 (800MHz), Band 21 (1500MHz)
W-CDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA Band 1 (2100MHz), Band 19 (800MHz)"
My Galaxy i9100T (From Vodaphone) should, as far as I know, support the W-CDMA Band 1 (2100MHz), but nonetheless, I can't use data.
I've made sure my APN settings are 100% correct, as according to the bmobile website.
Should I give up on trying to make this work, or is there some way I can get this going? Is there a particular radio or modem I can flash in order to get better connectivity? Otherwise I'm planning on buying a second hand Galaxy SC-02C or something which is on the list of devices guaranteed to work and relatively inexpensive. If you are knowledgeable on this subject, please lend a hand.
If there's any other information you require about my phone, please let me know.
Cheers
To the best of my knowledge, the phone wasn't sold there by carriers (neither the I9100 or the T), so there's no stock roms released by carriers in the country, and no modems bundled with those stock roms which would have been tested with the carrier's network as would normally be the case.
Sooo....You're probably stuck with trying a bunch of different modems unless a search throws up someone who's posted saying they had good connectivity with whatever modem on that network. If it was me, given the other relatively cheap option you mentioned (and my lack of patience with this sort of thing these days), I'd be buying the other phone if having a working phone without fuss was important to me (which it is).
Cheers,
I managed to get it working, on a stroke of luck. Flashing a few different modems didn't seem to get it connected, but after looking more extensively through the japanese version of the site, i found this page (bmobile.ne.jp/devices/setting_other_androidos.html) which suggested an alternative server to connect to for the APN (dm.jplat.net instead of mobile.ne.jp), even though this is the only page it seems to have this alternative server listed on. My reception isn't amazing, so maybe I'll continue as you suggested, flashing modems, until I can get better reception. Thanks for your help .
Anyway, for anyone who happens to have a similar problem, please try connecting to the above server and see if it works for you.
I am just wondering why none of the current Verizon Pre-Paid phones are on here? Can you not get CM12 on any of these phones? What is the reason?
HTC Desire 612 (Doesn't even show up on XDA Forum as a valid phone????)
LG Transpyre (Doesn't even show up on XDA Forum as a valid phone????)
Motorola RAZR M (I know this is an old phone and Motorola pached it making it un-hackable)
What gives? Has development just come to a halt?
For a device to receive its own forum on XDA, it has to have significant development, or at least the likelihood/potential for it. Verizon is undoubtedly the worst company when it comes to freedom for development. Unrootable devices, locked bootloaders, and the fact that only devices sold by Verizon will work on their network. AT&T is pretty bad too when it comes to this sort of thing, but at least they allow unlocked devices on their network. A custom ROM requires an unlocked bootloader. Or root, with Safestrap (including Safestrap developed for the phone). Verizon does their best to disallow both.
If you want freedom, go with T-Mobile or AT&T. T-Moible is definitely the "freest" of the carriers, but AT&T has the more expansive network. Or go with one of their MVNOs/subsidiaries like Cricket, MetroPCS, StraightTalk, etc,
Feel free to request a device forum in the thread below, if you haven't already done so.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1660354
Planterz said:
For a device to receive its own forum on XDA, it has to have significant development, or at least the likelihood/potential for it. Verizon is undoubtedly the worst company when it comes to freedom for development. Unrootable devices, locked bootloaders, and the fact that only devices sold by Verizon will work on their network. AT&T is pretty bad too when it comes to this sort of thing, but at least they allow unlocked devices on their network. A custom ROM requires an unlocked bootloader. Or root, with Safestrap (including Safestrap developed for the phone). Verizon does their best to disallow both.
If you want freedom, go with T-Mobile or AT&T. T-Moible is definitely the "freest" of the carriers, but AT&T has the more expansive network. Or go with one of their MVNOs/subsidiaries like Cricket, MetroPCS, StraightTalk, etc,
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So Verizon is the worst because they lock down there devices the best... That stinks because where I live, they have the BEST network .... I ended up with the LG Transpyre and was able to unlock the bootloader without any problems... However there are no ROMs for this phone... I got CM12 to work on it using LG Optimus F60 with only miner issues (camera doesn't work, and WiFi turns off without a problem, but takes FOREVER to turn back on)..... SO, I guess me being able to do this with ease... I am shocked know one else has done this!
meluvalli said:
So Verizon is the worst because they lock down there devices the best... That stinks because where I live, they have the BEST network .... I ended up with the LG Transpyre and was able to unlock the bootloader without any problems... However there are no ROMs for this phone... I got CM12 to work on it using LG Optimus F60 with only miner issues (camera doesn't work, and WiFi turns off without a problem, but takes FOREVER to turn back on)..... SO, I guess me being able to do this with ease... I am shocked know one else has done this!
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How did you unlock the bootloader???
I am new to the whole cellphone scene. I have much more experience in the PC world.
I purchased an Verizon Galaxy S4 (I545) on e-bay, primarily for use as a media device. I have decided to get pre-paid service on T-Mobile. (My wife has a T-Mobile G2 and when I put her sim card in, I was able to make calls.)
I have the T-Mobile sim installed and will be initiating service tomorrow.
After reading many of the threads here, I see a lot of talk about flashing different ROMS onto the hardware. Since I am not a Verizon customer, I really have no need for "Verizon's" version of Android, other than if it is required for the hardware to work properly. I like to have my options for customization and installing various apk's, etc.... I like to control my hardware and not be limited to what one company or another says I should do. I do travel internationally, which is one reason why my wife has the T-Mobile account, since it has great coverage in Europe, etc....
So, I ask this:
Should I flash a different ROM on this beast?
What would be the benefits?
What would be the drawbacks?
Which ROM would be recommended and why?
Thanks in advance for your insights! :angel:
p.s. Before knowing any better, I updated my S4 using Verizon's Software Upgrade Assistant on my PC, meaning I currently am running Build LRX22C.I545VRUGOC1 w/ Kernel 3.4.0 [email protected] #1.