I will be working on getting the Verizon iPhone 4 onto Cricket or MetroPCS and explicit hacks for this. Step by step directions to be divulged.
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[Tutorial] Hacks to get the Verizon iPhone onto Cricket or MetroPCS.
- Thread starter princealfie
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It definitely could be. I didn't see them display the About screen and you can EASILY change the carrier name. But they do dial up the prl version.
I don't know why you guys are doubting this so much... this is done all the time with Verizon phones. Especially phones with a bad ESN (meaning that phone is tied to a delinquent account and cannot be activated by anyone else until the account is cleared).
It's definitely possible, but will most likely require quite a bit of 3rd party tools.
I talked about this before, but I'll give the thorough rundown.
First and foremost you have to get Carrier X to use your non-carrier ESN on their system. A lot of companies won't activate ESN's that aren't theirs (Cricket an obvious exception as they activate just about anything). So if you get them to accept your MEID you're good on the biggest roadblock.
Secondly:
When the Blackberry Storm came out I helped some peeps on Crackberry get the Storm moved to another carrier (both voice, and data). So I'm a bit familiar w/ getting services actually running on another carrier to a degree.
Moving the iPhone voice service should be as simple as figuring out the master programming sequence. In a lot of phones its something like ##000000 and send (not the case of the iPhone). From there you can replace the MIN/MDN and HOME SID with yours and blammo. iPhone on any carrier w/ VOICE. So assuming that exists (I haven't honestly even google'd it as I have Verizon so I had no need) that's simple enough.
The data is the tricky part. As most companies hard code their 3G username into the phone when you program your phoen w/ the above method you should get 1X data, but 3G wont work because it's still using the Verizon username@vzw.net (or whatever it is) portion so your # isn't going to authenticate on another carrier.
So you'll need to use a 3rd party tool like QXDM/QPST (or whatever can read the iPhone) to find the username in the programming and change it, and any other applicable settings to get it to authenticate on Verizon. It's trial and error in some settings, and if you bork this up you could kill your phone. So it's risky.
Assuming you can get a tool to read the iphone configuration, adn you can figure it out... then yes. You could get your iPhone voice and data on another carriers network.
Can't guarantee every little thing would work (as some things may have settings outside the main configuration of the phone) but it should get the base.
It just gets a bit risky.
This Crackberry thread, from back in the day when we did the Storm, should give you an idea of how much it took to get it working in full on another carrier:
http://forums.crackberry.com/f135/how-get-storm-9530-fully-functional-bberry-data-alltel-118654/
I talked about this before, but I'll give the thorough rundown.
First and foremost you have to get Carrier X to use your non-carrier ESN on their system. A lot of companies won't activate ESN's that aren't theirs (Cricket an obvious exception as they activate just about anything). So if you get them to accept your MEID you're good on the biggest roadblock.
Secondly:
When the Blackberry Storm came out I helped some peeps on Crackberry get the Storm moved to another carrier (both voice, and data). So I'm a bit familiar w/ getting services actually running on another carrier to a degree.
Moving the iPhone voice service should be as simple as figuring out the master programming sequence. In a lot of phones its something like ##000000 and send (not the case of the iPhone). From there you can replace the MIN/MDN and HOME SID with yours and blammo. iPhone on any carrier w/ VOICE. So assuming that exists (I haven't honestly even google'd it as I have Verizon so I had no need) that's simple enough.
The data is the tricky part. As most companies hard code their 3G username into the phone when you program your phoen w/ the above method you should get 1X data, but 3G wont work because it's still using the Verizon username@vzw.net (or whatever it is) portion so your # isn't going to authenticate on another carrier.
So you'll need to use a 3rd party tool like QXDM/QPST (or whatever can read the iPhone) to find the username in the programming and change it, and any other applicable settings to get it to authenticate on Verizon. It's trial and error in some settings, and if you bork this up you could kill your phone. So it's risky.
Assuming you can get a tool to read the iphone configuration, adn you can figure it out... then yes. You could get your iPhone voice and data on another carriers network.
Can't guarantee every little thing would work (as some things may have settings outside the main configuration of the phone) but it should get the base.
It just gets a bit risky.
This Crackberry thread, from back in the day when we did the Storm, should give you an idea of how much it took to get it working in full on another carrier:
http://forums.crackberry.com/f135/how-get-storm-9530-fully-functional-bberry-data-alltel-118654/
Thanks for this useful post. Here I thought that getting the iPhone to accept non-AT&T sims was a pain. 
Since I get good service with AT&T and like to travel overseas, a Verizon iPhone isn't ever in my future, but this is good to know.
I'm really surprised we haven't seen more posts from people wanting to use the phone on sprint or a similar carrier.
Since I get good service with AT&T and like to travel overseas, a Verizon iPhone isn't ever in my future, but this is good to know.
I'm really surprised we haven't seen more posts from people wanting to use the phone on sprint or a similar carrier.
Thanks for this useful post. Here I thought that getting the iPhone to accept non-AT&T sims was a pain.
Since I get good service with AT&T and like to travel overseas, a Verizon iPhone isn't ever in my future, but this is good to know.
I'm really surprised we haven't seen more posts from people wanting to use the phone on sprint or a similar carrier.
There's been some mention, but the big hurdle is getting your chosen carrier to accept the device.
There is a way around it, but that method (in the USA at least) is actually a federal crime from what I understand.
Considering how small Sprint, Metro PCS, etc. are, I'd find it surprising that they wouldn't be willing to accept the iphone. Then again, corporations are greedy pigs, so maybe it's not so surprising.