I found one thread on how to unlock the GSM bands on a Razr Maxx, it seems very complicated and the slightest mistake will brick the phone. The tread was also started a while back, is there any newer easier methods to do this? I am looking to unlock the bands to use the phone on T-mobile/Walmart Family Mobile.
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I am always confused between CDMA and GSM...
Why a 4 band phone ,Evo 3d will not work in Europe?
BTW I am searching to buy one at Ebay. the search shows only Spirit branded phones. do they work in Europe (GSM)?
What is ESN clean or Bad ESN? Whats is the meaning of "unlocked" and if i buy a locked one can i unlock it by my self?
Thank You
adempozhari said:
I am always confused between CDMA and GSM...
Why a 4 band phone ,Evo 3d will not work in Europe?
BTW I am searching to buy one at Ebay. the search shows only Spirit branded phones. do they work in Europe (GSM)?
What is ESN clean or Bad ESN? Whats is the meaning of "unlocked" and if i buy a locked one can i unlock it by my self?
Thank You
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Click to collapse
I'm far from the expert so I'll give your questions my best shot and maybe somebody else with more experience on GSM can fill in some of the gaps.
bad/clean ESN only applies to CDMA. CDMA does not use a SIM card. once a CDMA phone has had its ESN marked as bad, it will not operate on that carrier. example, sprint (only CDMA network) evo 3d, the owner doesnt pay his bills, they mark the ESN as Bad for that device. if he sells the evo 3d, it can't be activated on sprint's cdma network. if you want to activate it on another CDMA network, like metropcs, it is doable, but sometimes considered a legally *gray* area.
"unlocked" in regards to the carrier of the device only applies to GSM type devices. on GSM type devices, once they has been "unlocked" they will operate on any GSM carrier.
i'm not about the band count, i.e. 4 band GSM. i would suggest looking at which frequencies are used in those bands and matching them up by frequencies and GSM/CDMA. as your profile is marked albania, i think most of europe uses GSM so CDMA will probably not be useful for you.
hope that helps some of the questions!
thank you... you were very clear.
still searching for the last question. If i buy a locked GSM phone, can i unlock it here by myself or i have to buy unlock code?
Well, doesn't all phones come unlocked in Europe anyway? Locking applies to GSM phones, and I've always thought only north American carriers do that. For example, if you, living in Europe, wanted the infuse 4G which is locked to ATT in America, you would need to unlock it to use it. Moreover, you must make sure the phone's frequencies match your carrier's. If I'm not mistaken, I think unlocking an Android phone is similar to rooting it. It's a different process all together, but its something you would do on your own.
Before Android tho, you simply need to call your carrier, tell them you're traveling overseas and you wanna use your phone there, and they'll give you the unlock code. Use some special commands to bring up the carrier unlock screen, input the unlock code, and bam, you're good to go.
I don't know if you still need an unlock code with Android phones, but if you want it, you would get it from the carrier of the phone.
You won't see any unlocking tutorials for the EVO 3d in the forums for the obvious reason that its cdma phone in America. But I'm sure once its released on Tmo-us, then there'll be a method.
Sent from my PG86100 using XDA App
Hello guys. Currently I'm planning to get verizon contracted razr phone on amazon. But unfortunately I'm living outside of US and can't use Verizon SIM card.
As I understood there are no possiblilities to "compeletely unlock" bootloader. But, what about those safestrap\bootstrap things? Can it help to unlock SIM?
Or it's just about changing ROMs?
Is there are any possibilities to unlock a phone for use with any other operators?
Why not get an unlocked GSM Razr.
The Verizon Razr is CDMA and locked to Verizon and has nothing to do with the boot loader.
A SIM Lock and a locked bootloader are two ENTIRELY different things. None of our discussion pertains to SIM locking, which is something the carrier does to protect their subsidy, and can be unlocked by requesting the code from the carrier, usually with an associated fee.
However, unless the LTE Razr turns out to have international gsm radios like the Rezound, unlocking the Verizon model won't get you anywhere. I don't know of any compatible CDMA/LTE networks anywhere else in the world at this time. You need to buy the international GSM version of the RAZR, AFAIK there are no real differences other than the network type it uses.
I haven't been able to find any solid information on SIM unlocking this phone, so I'm asking here. Back on Verizon, unlocking a global phone didn't seem to help much, as it still didnt work on other carriers (such as when travelling to India). Will the HTC One when SIM unlocked work?
ashrat3000 said:
I haven't been able to find any solid information on SIM unlocking this phone, so I'm asking here. Back on Verizon, unlocking a global phone didn't seem to help much, as it still didnt work on other carriers (such as when travelling to India). Will the HTC One when SIM unlocked work?
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Click to collapse
The HTC One is a GSM-based phone. It will work on any GSM-based network, regarding calls/text/data(up to HSPA+). Not sure about LTE because of the way the frequency/bands work.
ashrat3000 said:
I haven't been able to find any solid information on SIM unlocking this phone, so I'm asking here. Back on Verizon, unlocking a global phone didn't seem to help much, as it still didnt work on other carriers (such as when travelling to India). Will the HTC One when SIM unlocked work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Verizon was CDMA which had limited availability in foreign countries. HTC One has a sim card slot (even the Sprint version, which is CDMA, should have a slot). Once you sim unlock, it should be compatible with most major countries since most countries use GSM - as long as the frequency bands are the same.
You can look up the frequency bands phone supports in the htc one's specs.
Hello all! I recently acquired a boost mobile Moto E (2nd gen) with LTE. I put a tmobile simcard in and nothing happens. Im assuming that means its locked.
Ive done some research and found that it has capabilities for gsm, cdma, lte, hspa+ with all the necessary basebands to operate on tmobile.
I wanted to see if anyone has successfully sim unlocked their sprint/boost phone to work with US GSM carriers?
Bump.. honestly anyone have any luck?
No answers on this? This could be handy
Sprint/Boost/Virgin/etc phones by default have a blacklist for domestic GSM networks. Many people have purchased and used the Boost Mobile version abroad without issues. It may be possible to remove it (Case in point, S4, Note 2, Note 3) but no one has done so yet for the Moto E from those carriers. If you are feeling brave, feel free to experiment with DFS (as referenced in another post in this forum) to see if you can perform a SEEM edit anywhere to disable the blacklist.
My question remains, when carrier unlocking an s9 or s9+, is there any way to make it available on different network types like say if the phone started out using a carrier that uses CDMA, is their any way to flash it to utilize t-mobile's frequency bands?
I unlocked two galaxy s9+'s that were on xfinity, which uses verizon towers. The two phones did unlock, but only for carriers utilizing CDMA. I was hoping they would be able to be used on t-mobile after unlocking, but they can't. Only messaging and data works using a t-mobile SIM card. Verizon works fine. SO my question still remains, is there a way to make it work?
I used itekimei .com to have the phones unlocked, as I found they were suggested here on XDA. And they weren't really able to answer my question either. They said it should work with t-mobile, but the conversation ended with "t-mobile is having problems with unlocked phones." This is super frustrating trying to get an answer.
Edit: I found this forum https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s9-plus/help/sim-unlocking-sprint-samsung-galaxy-s9-t3783571 which debates whether it will work or not. Also this one specifically about Xfinity https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s9-plus/help/xfinity-mobile-unlock-service-t3796349. But mine didn't work. I don't think U.S. S9's are cross compatible from CDMA to GSM. I have been searching and searching and can't find a way.
Yes, the US unit hardware is cross compatible. Heck, Verizon itself isn't all CDMA. They are phasing out CDMA soon and most of their network is LTE.
I have a US unlocked S9+ and can use any carrier in the US. You could too, all you need to do is flash the US Unlocked firmware to the device using Odin.
Your problem may be the Xfinity firmware restricting certain bands is all. Or possibly the device isn't really unlocked.
Regards,