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yearofthe

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 23, 2010
160
0
Earth
Can you buy an iPhone 4 from Verizon (no contract) and use it on a Sprint network since they both use CDMA technology?
 
Sprint users roam on Verizon so I would think so provided it is unlocked.
 
Technically yes you could. But you will never accomplish it. Sprint needs to have the ESN (serial number) in their system to activate the device on their network. However they will not activate anything that is not branded by them
 
Also you'd need to be able to change the phones EVDO authentication. It'll default to your programmed #@vzw.net (or whatever their programmed URL is) and try to authenticate on Verizon's system.

That'll fail, obviously, and you wont have any data options but it will keep trying to connect.

So until someone creates a way to modify the data settings to hack in Sprint's authentication strings you'd be SOL on the data side.
 
Hackers have already hacked the Verizon iphone to work on another carrier called cricKet in the US. Look up cricKet iphone or something like that on youtube and you'll see a video of it. I'm sure that a hack for Sprint is on the way.
 
Hackers have already hacked the Verizon iphone to work on another carrier called cricKet in the US. Look up cricKet iphone or something like that on youtube and you'll see a video of it. I'm sure that a hack for Sprint is on the way.

As a corporation, Cricket Wireless has an established policy of allowing any phone to use its network, as long as the phone uses compatible cellular radio hardware, and its firmware has been modified to be compatible with Cricket's network settings.

Officially, company-owned Cricket outlets will not perform the re-flashing for you. But if you've already made the necessary modifications to your own phone, they'll be completely willing to sign you up.

Unofficially, if you bring a phone (for which the necessary modified firmware is already publicly available) to many 3rd party Cricket franchisees, they will do the re-flashing for you while you wait, and sign you up for Cricket service all at once.

I cannot see any evidence that Sprint has any similar "open doors" policy for activating phones that weren't originally purchased through Sprint. So, while it is possible (even likely) that you could get the firmware customized to work with Sprint, you might still experience some resistance convincing Sprint to allow you to activate it.
 
There is always the possibility that Verizone will BUY Sprint!:p

I'm not sure that's such a far-fetched notion. Financially, isn't Sprint in even worse shape than T-Mobile?

Verizon will certainly want to do something to prevent its principal competitor from getting too far ahead of them.

Perhaps the days of having only two national carriers in the USA aren't that far off. Maybe an eventual coalescence back to something resembling the old Ma Bell system isn't entirely out of the question.
 
I'm not sure that's such a far-fetched notion. Financially, isn't Sprint in even worse shape than T-Mobile?

Verizon will certainly want to do something to prevent its principal competitor from getting too far ahead of them.

Perhaps the days of having only two national carriers in the USA aren't that far off. Maybe an eventual coalescence back to something resembling the old Ma Bell system isn't entirely out of the question.

I guess it is all about leverage in today mobile services market. I can't help thinking that MORE carriers is better for the consumer than less but then this has nothing to do with what is best for the consumer.:eek:
 
Even if Verizon were interested in Sprint (which they are not), I very much doubt that another merger/takeover which would reduce the number of national carriers to 2 would get approved.

AT&T & T-mobile still run a chance of not getting approved (though it probably will)
 
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