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With AT&T you can simply throw a sim card in and away you go with any phone you want. What do you do on AT&T namely if you have an iPhone and TBolt?
You wont be able to do it without going through Verizon to have your TB Sim card reset everytime you want to use your TB after using your iPhone.
Normally you just have to do a simple ESN swap (can do online). Unfortunately with the Thunderbolt and it's LTE SIM, things might be more complicated. I'd check with a Verizon rep to see what would be involved.
Sadly its a complete pain in the butt. One of the guys I work with had to deactivate it and reactivate it a couple of days later. The guy in the store couldn't figure out how to do it, and it took him about 3 hours on the phone with various techs to finally get it working. They ended up having to swap out the SIM card in the store.
Not sure if its the process that is tough, or if they just don't know what they are doing. Either way, I wouldn't recommend it if you can avoid it. If you really need to do it, it is possible, but its not as simple as just swapping out a SIM card like on AT&T.
Once there are more phones utilizing LTE wouldn't you just be able to swap out your sim card and put it in any LTE phone?
dirtyfingers said:
Once there are more phones utilizing LTE wouldn't you just be able to swap out your sim card and put it in any LTE phone?
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Yes, this is correct. I can go buy the Droid Charge, and put in the SIM from my Thunderbolt, and I'll be good to go.
Thats pretty sweet, I wish I had the cash to drop on some more LTE phones when they come out.
WilliamStern said:
Yes, this is correct. I can go buy the Droid Charge, and put in the SIM from my Thunderbolt, and I'll be good to go.
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Are you sure about that? I thought we were still using CDMA for calls and there is no voice over 4G/LTE on VZW just yet.
WilliamStern said:
Yes, this is correct. I can go buy the Droid Charge, and put in the SIM from my Thunderbolt, and I'll be good to go.
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Pretty sure this is wrong.
When setting up my phone the rep had to set up the sim card and phone separately.
Razorz is right, we still utilize cdma for voice, so it may be possible to get data on a new phone but no voice?
A rep told me you could, never tried I don't have another Verizon phone to swap it out with. Also ATT charges activation when you swap sims "if the sim is in a different phone for a lengthy time". Also ATT will add a data plan to your account if the phone you put it in requires one.
the id number for the sim card and the ESN for the phone both must be in the verizon system associated with your phone number or the device will not work.
stuckhere4ever said:
Sadly its a complete pain in the butt. One of the guys I work with had to deactivate it and reactivate it a couple of days later. The guy in the store couldn't figure out how to do it, and it took him about 3 hours on the phone with various techs to finally get it working. They ended up having to swap out the SIM card in the store.
Not sure if its the process that is tough, or if they just don't know what they are doing. Either way, I wouldn't recommend it if you can avoid it. If you really need to do it, it is possible, but its not as simple as just swapping out a SIM card like on AT&T.
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they didn't know what they were doing.
When I had data problems with my TB, I switched to my INC via the activate phone link on the "my account" web page. An hour later when I tried to return to the TB, I got a prompt for the phone's IMEI, then prompted for the SIM card's number.. It error-ed. After calling CS, the rep couldn't help, got TS on the line, they manually entered the SIM number to make it work...
So it appears switching away from the TB deactivated the SIM, to switch back, VZW's TS had to re-add or re-activate the SIM.
And as thetwiztidfreak said, they did need BOTH the IMEI and SIM numbers to re-activate the TB.
thetwiztidfreak said:
the id number for the sim card and the ESN for the phone both must be in the verizon system associated with your phone number or the device will not work.
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Correct but when you put the registered SIM in another LTE device it registers that handsets IMEI with your account. You can infact do a SIM swap with LTE, since your phone number is tied to the SIM putting the sim in another device effectively activates the phone on your account.
I should know, it's my job ;-)
It works the same way as GSM, but going from an LTE phone to a CDMA phone is a bit different, the SIM gets decactivated and becomes useless and if you want to switch back you need to go the a Verizon store for them to sell you out a new SIM for $0(some times old SIMs can be reactivated however there may b e issues with this). It's a PITA so I don't reccomend switching back and forth between CDMA and LTE devices unless you absolutely HAVE to.
chaoscentral said:
Correct but when you put the registered SIM in another LTE device it registers that handsets IMEI with your account. You can infact do a SIM swap with LTE, since your phone number is tied to the SIM putting the sim in another device effectively activates the phone on your account.
I should know, it's my job ;-)
It works the same way as GSM, but going from an LTE phone to a CDMA phone is a bit different, the SIM gets decactivated and becomes useless and if you want to switch back you need to go the a Verizon store for them to sell you out a new SIM for $0(some times old SIMs can be reactivated however there may b e issues with this). It's a PITA so I don't reccomend switching back and forth between CDMA and LTE devices unless you absolutely HAVE to.
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I can confirm that it is a royal pain in the ass to go to the vzw store to get a new sim...
I just got a replacement for my tbolt. I had 5 days to return the "defective" one. I bounced the SIM card back and forth between the two phones a dozen times trying to see which one got better 3G/4G reception. The rep told me to decide which one works better and send the other phone back. It didn't matter.
Hello,
I have a Samsung Galaxy S without a data-connection, I really need a data-connection becouse I think the phone really needs a data-connection.
So here's my question:
Is it possible to get a subscription of a data-only SIM (the subscriptions they use for tablets etc.)
It is possible to use that kind of SIM/subscription in a phone?
Since I don't really make calls or send text's I really need that but I still want to be able to call and send text's.
Does anyone got a answer?
I think it would be helpful if you told us where you're from. I'm pretty sure the conditions for data-only plans differ from country to country.
I'm from The Netherlands.
Data only sim should work fine. Curious to know, why you need data only sim on a phone. It kills the purpose of having a phone.
I tried some time ago in HTC Desire and it didn't work, still don't know why. (it works with PC + USB Huawei modem on both Windows and Linux, i have E1752 model)
And as an answer for qustion "why do you need it?" for example in Poland there is company which for the government licence for some frequences is obligated to offer free internet for 3 years. Don't think its lika a fairytale - internet disconnects after one hour and the speed is limited, but still can be very usefull when you are tight on budget or just need to check something quickly.
PS. maybe i should add that in this case voice service is disabled on the sim card level (tele service (ts11)) what seems to be a reason for some devices not to work.
edit: finally it appears to work. Dosen't display signal strength but websites (slowly) load.
This hasn't been mentioned anywhere, so I am starting to think I am the first person to do this.
Anyway, the lack of keyboard on the 'bolt has been driving me nuts to the point that I jumped on the Startosphere last Thursday. (Great phone btw, may not be fastest on the block, but the keyboard is awesome and it is smooth out of the box)
When we activated the phone, I had to get a new SIM card... a MicroSIM in fact. All 4G verizon phones are going to use it from now on instead of the bigger ones that our phones came with.
Since the Stratosphere is locked down still and my 'bolt is full of Cyanogen goodness, I wanted to figure out a way to use both without needing new SIM cards for each swap. So, I found out that there are MicroSIM to SIM adapters on the interwebs, like this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/160660811119
Some sites said that these MicroSIM cards are not compatible with the full-size SIM card phones. I wanted to come here and say that those sites are full of crap. Using the adapter linked above, I put that MicroSIM card in my 'bolt and it comes back to life. Everything works like it should, too.
Since every 4G LTE phone is going to this, if anyone upgrades and wants to go back to messin' with their 'bolt, they can using this adapter.
Hope someone else finds this useful.
How exactly did you get it to work? If you have the Stratosphere activated on your VZW account, how do you switch to the Thunderbolt?
mackie99 said:
How exactly did you get it to work? If you have the Stratosphere activated on your VZW account, how do you switch to the Thunderbolt?
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i am wondering the same to, as when you switch phones it requires the whole 'activate / deactivate' b.s.
No it doesn't. Swap sim, and its done.
hmm.. figured it would be programmed specifically to that device... although i haven't gone from one 4g-lte based phone to another(not directly anyway). i suppose i will give it a try when i get a new phone.
welcome to the joys of SIM cards...however I do wonder about the PRL updating, before you could just dial *228 to get it, now will it be just OTAed to us?
228 doesn't work on 4G devices. PRL gets pushed.
Swap sim from one Thunderbolt to another:
"Your phone is not registered"
I'm hoping to get a smartphone (either a Moto-G or Nexus 5) without having to pay for a data plan. Yes, I know there are dozens of topics asking whether or not this can be done; I've read everyone--that's why I'm making this new thread.
There are a lot of different things I see stated on ways to get around AT&T automatic application of expensive data-plans when they detect that you're using a smartphone. Some people have said that all you have to do is turn off 3G Data Use from the menu of the new phone BEFORE inserting a new SIM card, and then insert the old dumphone sim card and everything will work. Some people make vague allusions to changing the IMIE--to which some people claim that's illegal, and others claim AT&T or random clerks at Radio Shack will do this for you upon request. Still others claim that all you need to do is install a "data blocker" program onto the smartphone before switching SIM cards, and it will do the trick.
The basic goal seems to be "hiding" the IMEI number from AT&T.
So, my question: how does AT&T recognize the IMEI number? Will they see it only if the phone is active on their 3G/4G/LTE networks? Or do they see it "through" the normal dumbphone calling networks?
My apologies if this is a stupid question. I really don't know anything about phones are anything about non-PC electronics or software in general. Basically, I'd like a smartphone but refuse to pay an exhorbitant monthly fee for a feature I'd never use (wifi is everywhere I go), and am not in a position where I can switch carriers, and it's like I'm part of a(n evidently sizable) demographic that no one wants to market to.
If times haven't changed too much from when I tried the same thing 2 years ago, you should just be able to request that all data on your line be blocked. I would try calling them before you switch the SIM to the smartphone and ask for all data to be disabled to your line, then swap the SIM. I would also leave the data turned off on the smartphone for good measure. This is basically how I got around your same issue with AT&T, and it doesn't have to necessarily come down to illegally changing the IMEI or "hiding" the IMEI from the carrier. Eventually they'll cross-check your device and figure out it's a smartphone and add your data. But to my knowledge, the adding of the data is all automatically done by computers; so if the system sees that all data is disabled for you, it shouldn't attempt to add anything.
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So I am looking to buy a new phone. I am looking on ebay and there are TONS of bad imei phones for at&t! I want to buy one since they are cheaper. Only issue is that I want to be sure that they will work on straight talk, since that is my current carrier. I have read lots of people's pinions about if they will work or not because of blacklists, and I don't know if there is any one steady answer. I am hoping to get someone with some real knowledge to shed some light on this because I am stumped on if I should take the risk and buy one.
I did call straight talk today and ask if I can bring a phone with a bad IMEI number over and the response I got was strange... They said that all I have to do is buy a BYOP package and give them my sim card number and it will work. I said I know that it will work because i am on a BYOP already, but I wanted to know if my sim would get kicked off for using a blacklisted phone on the at&t network even though it was through straight talk. She said, that they only need the digits from the straight talk sim and it would work. So I tried one more time and explained everything fully... I again received the same response that they needed the sim card numbers only. So I said, does that mean that the IMEI doesn't matter for your service at all and I can have a blacklisted phone on it? and again the response was, (besically) yes, you just need a straight talk sim.
So all in all I understand that to mean that AT&T has nothing to do with straight talk when it comes to blacklisting phones! That's a wonderful thing since there are so many blacklist phones out there right now, but I was hoping someone else could drop a little knowledge on me if they knew something about it, or if they knew that straight talk was lying, so I don't waste my time/money on this phone.
I haven't looked into this since last year, but the FCC was advising on a shared blacklist to be implemented in the future back then.
Also beware that the phone might be stolen, which could lead to more problems in the future.
I've never used Straight Talk, but if they use AT&T towers maybe call AT&T. Honestly, it might be hard to get a real answer from them because most of the reps (true for all companies) don't have a clue how their own blacklists even work - heck, some don't even seem to know they *exist*.
They might not be "lying", it just might not be part of their training is information base.
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w4rped said:
So I am looking to buy a new phone. I am looking on ebay and there are TONS of bad imei phones for at&t! I want to buy one since they are cheaper. Only issue is that I want to be sure that they will work on straight talk, since that is my current carrier. I have read lots of people's pinions about if they will work or not because of blacklists, and I don't know if there is any one steady answer. I am hoping to get someone with some real knowledge to shed some light on this because I am stumped on if I should take the risk and buy one.
I did call straight talk today and ask if I can bring a phone with a bad IMEI number over and the response I got was strange... They said that all I have to do is buy a BYOP package and give them my sim card number and it will work. I said I know that it will work because i am on a BYOP already, but I wanted to know if my sim would get kicked off for using a blacklisted phone on the at&t network even though it was through straight talk. She said, that they only need the digits from the straight talk sim and it would work. So I tried one more time and explained everything fully... I again received the same response that they needed the sim card numbers only. So I said, does that mean that the IMEI doesn't matter for your service at all and I can have a blacklisted phone on it? and again the response was, (besically) yes, you just need a straight talk sim.
So all in all I understand that to mean that AT&T has nothing to do with straight talk when it comes to blacklisting phones! That's a wonderful thing since there are so many blacklist phones out there right now, but I was hoping someone else could drop a little knowledge on me if they knew something about it, or if they knew that straight talk was lying, so I don't waste my time/money on this phone.
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StraightTalk SIM cards can either use AT&T or T-mobile (Tracfone {parent company for StraghtTalk} leases several carrier's networks). If you buy and AT&T phone with a bad ESN and put a StraghtTalk AT&T SIM into it, the likelihood of it working is low. The reason for this is the you would still be using AT&T's network, and the ESN has a high chance of being picked up by AT&T's black-list.
If I were you, I'd get a factory unlocked phone, or a newer Verizon 4G LTE phone that has a bad (or clean) ESN. The reason I say the later is that most Verizon 4G LTE phones are also world phones and work with GSM. Now, you'll have to remove the radio band block, but that's very easy, and I know XDA has several tutorials for this. I removed the block on my RAZR M and it works just fine with an AT&T SIM inserted.
Hikikomori-Otaku said:
StraightTalk SIM cards can either use AT&T or T-mobile (Tracfone {parent company for StraghtTalk} leases several carrier's networks). If you buy and AT&T phone with a bad ESN and put a StraghtTalk AT&T SIM into it, the likelihood of it working is low. The reason for this is the you would still be using AT&T's network, and the ESN has a high chance of being picked up by AT&T's black-list.
If I were you, I'd get a factory unlocked phone, or a newer Verizon 4G LTE phone that has a bad (or clean) ESN. The reason I say the later is that most Verizon 4G LTE phones are also world phones and work with GSM. Now, you'll have to remove the radio band block, but that's very easy, and I know XDA has several tutorials for this. I removed the block on my RAZR M and it works just fine with an AT&T SIM inserted.
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I think the reason i might believe them is because they dont even know my imei number for the phone i have right now! And if my number is not tied to my imei number then it would be impossible for them to find it out. Or at least i would think it is. Every other service that is tied to an esn or imei number, you have to tell them the number and let them register it. With straight talk you register the sim and can use that sim in any unlocked phone.
I am currently running a note 2 from verizon on straight talk. It is a world phone but i cant seem to get 4g on it. Is this because i have to unlock the bands? If so, how do i do that? I thought it was just because of the apn i was using. I tried a bunch but only got one to work on h+/h/3g (it flickers).
w4rped said:
I think the reason i might believe them is because they dont even know my imei number for the phone i have right now! And if my number is not tied to my imei number then it would be impossible for them to find it out. Or at least i would think it is. Every other service that is tied to an esn or imei number, you have to tell them the number and let them register it. With straight talk you register the sim and can use that sim in any unlocked phone.
I am currently running a note 2 from verizon on straight talk. It is a world phone but i cant seem to get 4g on it. Is this because i have to unlock the bands? If so, how do i do that? I thought it was just because of the apn i was using. I tried a bunch but only got one to work on h+/h/3g (it flickers).
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You're half-right. You don't have to give StrraightTalk you ESN (MEID/IMEI). The problem comes when you connect to the network. When you connect, your device will be identified by it's ICCID (SIM #) and it's ESN (so it knows what type of device it is and what service it needs). Because it would be an old AT&T phone, reconnecting to AT&T, there's a high chance it will be matched on the black-list.
As for your Note II, if it's already working, the radio it has may not support the higher GSM 4G/LTE bands. You may be able to unlock them, but I wouldn't know how with a Samsung device. The APN may help, but I'd first check the radio.
Ok I have a question so I have a T-Mobile contract and iPhone 7 Plus for a little over a. Year now but I haven’t paid it off in full and my bill got out of hand so I can’t afford to pay the balance so is there anyway I can use this for any prepaid plans of any company