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Where to find an Unlocked CDMA phone

B

bobznc

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 12, 2006
64
0
Chicago, IL
Hello,

I was wondering if anyone knew where, hopefully besides eBay, where I could find an unlocked CDMA phone. My girlfriend has Samsung flip phone, either A870, U540 or something similar, on Verizon. When I was on my old Samsung x427m and now on my iPhone, she tells me that I am often too mumbled or otherwise inaudible. When ever this occurs I have to repeat whatever I had said various times until she can piece it together, and this is very frustrating for me and I am set on getting her a replacement.

Both TigerDirect and Buy.com seem to only feature GSM phones, so I was hoping there is some Grail of Verizon-compatible phones that I have yet to uncover. I have heard of HowardForums, but am weary of buying used since friends of mine have had negative experiences with refurbished phones.
 
Verizon will only activate their own phones on their network. You're SOL unless you buy one of their crippled pieces of junk
 
There is really no such thing as far as I know. It's either you go on ebay and search for "(phone model here) verizon" or nothing. Oh yea, craigslist as well and forums like this one with a Marketplace.
 
Because CMDA phones do not use a sim card they can not be unlock. Networks lock them down by the vary nature. They will only let approved phones on the network and well that is their phones only.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
Because CMDA phones do not use a sim card they can not be unlock. Networks lock them down by the vary nature. They will only let approved phones on the network and well that is their phones only.
Click to expand...

That reason is wrong. It is possible to unlock a CDMA phone, but most companies won't do it because they're control freaks.

Sprint recently announced that they would begin unlocking their phones; however, I don't believe they have begun this practice yet.

Verizon recently announced that they would begin activating unlocked phones, but they have not set up their program to do this yet.

The other four CDMA carriers, US Cellular, Cricket, MetroPCS, and Alltel, may unlock phones, but I'm not certain. The only CDMA carriers I've had are Verizon and Sprint, and I left them a long time ago.
 
Thanks a lot for all the clarification, I guess I'll just keep my ear to the tracks on the Verizon Unlocking situation.
 
A question:
Does your girlfriend have problems hearing other cell callers? Other non-cell callers?
Hard though it may be to believe, it could be *your* phone that's the problem.
Verizon may cripple their phones and hire all the people who got fired from the DMV for being slow and rude, but the call quality on their network is pretty good. Or at least better than the competition.
(I do love it when I hit a dead zone walking down 57th street between Fifth and Sixth Avenue.)
best
Allen
 
People are mostly correct, CDMA phones aren't locked/portable like GSM phones.

Which phone does she have? There might be "updates" (firmware, PRL) that can help her reception.

Howard Forums is a good site for buying/selling/discussing cell phones.
http://howardforums.com/

A lot of people over there will re-flash their Verizon phone to the Alltel firmware (must be a phone offered by both) for the better interface. Once you do that, Vcast etc won't work.
 
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