I just purchased a new iPhone 7 from Boost Mobile and paid to have it unlocked. Itunes confirmed that the phone was unlocked. When I tried to activate it on Verizon, they were unable. I thought any unlocked iPhone 6 or 7 could be used on any wireless network. Obviously I am mistaken. Is there any way use this phone on anything other than the Sprint network?
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Activating An iPhone 7 on Verizon
- Thread starter krawfo
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Verizon's policy in the past has been to deny activation of any device on their network that was not originally sold by them or intended to be used on their network.
A work around to activate a non-Verizon device on Verizon's network has been to insert an already active Verizon SIM and go from there. Once the device is activated then you can put your own SIM in there.
However, in general…just because a device is unlocked does not guarantee it can be used on a different carrier or that you won't encounter the policies of a different carrier.
I'm not sure if Verizon has changed their policy or not recently.
I had a working Verizon SIM from my broken phone that I'm replacing in the new phone. Online activation failed so I did a chat and ultimately talked with 2 different levels of Verizon support. No go.
That kinda scaries me because I also have an iPhone 7 that I just bought from BM and I am just patiently waiting my unlock request to get thru and use it on Verizon. Interesting...
[doublepost=1489015890][/doublepost]Did they fully unlock your phone for us carriers too or just the international unlock that spring has?
I'm not sure what level of unlocking was done. When I connected the phone to iTunes, it said "phone is unlocked". I used unlock4less.com for the unlock.
While we're unable to guarantee any particular carrier compatibility, it's known that Sprint iPhone 7 has the same frequencies as Verizon's iPhone 7.
The Verizon and Sprint iPhone 7/7+ are the same exact models.
Since the iPhone 5S, Apple has been producing a single device with all of the radios in them.
Therefore this sounds like Verizon may have some sort of software limitation set in place to disallow Sprint phones from working on their network.
You may want to check with a higher tier Verizon tech support to see if this is the case and if it can be resolved.
Thank you.
[doublepost=1489017364][/doublepost]How do I do that?
[doublepost=1489017422][/doublepost]FWIW, here's what the unlocking service said when I told them my problem.
While we're unable to guarantee any particular carrier compatibility, it's known that Sprint iPhone 7 has the same frequencies as Verizon's iPhone 7.
The Verizon and Sprint iPhone 7/7+ are the same exact models.
Since the iPhone 5S, Apple has been producing a single device with all of the radios in them.
Therefore this sounds like Verizon may have some sort of software limitation set in place to disallow Sprint phones from working on their network.
You may want to check with a higher tier Verizon tech support to see if this is the case and if it can be resolved.
Thank you.
If you have a working SIM, couldn't you just put that existing SIM into the iPhone 7?
Boost Mobile and Verizon use the same model number according to: http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/
Ok...the phone has the radios.
So it revolves around whether Verizon will allow it to on their network. I remember a related thread which detailed how to go about doing that...someone else may point out where this is.
It's a model MNAD2LL/A
From Everymac.com - It is intended for Verizon, Sprint, and dozens of smaller carriers in the US (but not AT&T or T-Mobile) as well as China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom in mainland China and 3, China Mobile HK, CSL, and SmarTone in Hong Kong.
Did you purchase the phone from Boost Mobile's website? If so, your trouble could be that the phone either has prepaid firmware installed, or required a 12month data plan from Boost Mobile, thus showing as unpaid bill on a IEMI check.
Ok so I have an IUP 7+ from Sprint which I wanted to switch to Verizon last November. Having encountered the same online and over the phone rep issues as you did I went to a corporate Verizon store. Met an awesome rep who popped in the sim of an exchanged iPhone 5 and opened my account. Once the IMEI number was in the system then he ported over my phone number to my own sim.
Now that will get you a working phone but since the system sees you as a NON-VZW device you have to go through tech support for all the other services to be provisioned like HD Voice (VoLTE), NBA League Pass, etc.
Apparently the issue with the iPhone 7's isn't the IMEI but the SKU#. Apple has a different SKU# for every carrier and Verizon system can't whitelist the SKU essentially saying another carrier's phone is there's.
Good luck and be patient. Verizon has really good customer service reps in my experience.
Now that will get you a working phone but since the system sees you as a NON-VZW device you have to go through tech support for all the other services to be provisioned like HD Voice (VoLTE), NBA League Pass, etc.
Apparently the issue with the iPhone 7's isn't the IMEI but the SKU#. Apple has a different SKU# for every carrier and Verizon system can't whitelist the SKU essentially saying another carrier's phone is there's.
Good luck and be patient. Verizon has really good customer service reps in my experience.
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My unlocks finally went thru tonight and it's all good I am running on an iPhone 7 purchased from the BM website with Verizon.
No secret really. I started by using a Verizon SIM that was initially activated on an android phone. So then when I transferred to my non-verizon iPhone but not all of the features would work like visual voicemail and stuff, so Verizon just switched out my line onto a iPhone SIM card. Apparently Verizon has like 7-8 different SIM cards which I didn't know. So make sure yours is capable of using in the phone you have.
Just curious - did you check it on the Verizon BYOD page?
https://www.verizonwireless.com/bring-your-own-device/#
Weird how is my device working and yours isn't when I bought it from the same source lolShows as not compatible
Prepaid firmware installed?
lolStop it with these jokes
[doublepost=1489079397][/doublepost]
Shows as not compatible
OP you have to give Verizon a verizon iphone's IMEI/Serial number instead.
Once you get an active sim from verizon then you can put that verizon sim in your unlocked iphone 7 and use it.
But Verizon will not let you start service or activate an account with that device since its not sold by them. Its a bunch of nonsense to get people to buy from them and their devices instead.
Once you get a working verizon sim you will be fine.
@Applejuiced keeping things very juicy as usual. Great feedback bro
I had a question along these lines. I am interested in either the Apple payment or upgrade plans. I'm a T-mobile customer, but I want an unlocked iphone with the qualcomm chip. So I was thinking that I could buy the phone through the upgrade/payment program and choose verizon as the carrier. But I'm not sure if this will work. Can i buy the phone directly from apple, choose verizon, and then use any carrier I want? What is the deal with activation?
No, unfortunately if you do the Apple upgrade program and you tell them you're with Tmobile they will give you the phone that doesn't have CDMA included. Not the Qualcomm chip that you'd like.
Not sure if you can talk them into giving you the verizon one. Just tell them you're thinking about switching to Verizon down the road and you dont want to be restricted to a GSM only device.
Its a pain now with 2 different iPhone 7 models.
I was never planning to tell them that I am with TMO. I was just going to tell them that I am with Verizon. I know I want the Verizon phone for the qualcomm chip. I just wasn't sure how this would play out since I am not a Verizon customer.
I hear you but they need to verify your wireless account before they start the process.
So once they enter your phone number in the system it will come up with Tmobile and they will try to pass off the GSM only model to you.