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Why would you want to use a Verizon unlocked phone?

K

kingramsu

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 16, 2013
6
0
Considering that Verizon is a CDMA phone with an extra chip for CDMA radio, why would you buy the Verizon unlocked to use with AT&T or T-Mobile sim card?

Wouldn't that be a waste of some battery on the CDMA radio?

That is my thought process when I was ordering my T-Mobile 5S.

What are your thoughts?
 
Then you have the option of using it on Verizon at some point in the future if you want to, it is the exact same phone as if you bought it from elsewhere, the only difference is that the Verizon one has the ESN number in Verizon's database so it can be activated while a T-Mobile one doesn't.
 
kingramsu said:
Considering that Verizon is a CDMA phone with an extra chip for CDMA radio, why would you buy the Verizon unlocked to use with AT&T or T-Mobile sim card?

Wouldn't that be a waste of some battery on the CDMA radio?

That is my thought process when I was ordering my T-Mobile 5S.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...

The phone you ordered is the same exact device as you get when ordering from Verizon.

The same exact device is used for Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.
 
kingramsu said:
Considering that Verizon is a CDMA phone with an extra chip for CDMA radio, why would you buy the Verizon unlocked to use with AT&T or T-Mobile sim card?

Wouldn't that be a waste of some battery on the CDMA radio?


What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...
The CDMA radio is not active unless you are using a Verizon SIM.
 
honestly how much battery life are we talking really? Is that even relevant? Verizon will use the CDMA radio, the ATT/Tmo will use the GSM radio. Radioes are still being used in both phones lol.

two reason people would get a verizon iPhone:

a] better resale value. Verizon is the largest in the USA, so you're more likely to sell to a verizon customer
b] no hassle unlock. Its already unlocked. no bogus waiting period or filling out forums or restoring thru iTunes or anything like that. yes i know ATT and Tmo are also unlocked full price, but not at their respective carrier stores and there are so many things that can go wrong if somebody doesn't know what they're doing.


kingramsu said:
Considering that Verizon is a CDMA phone with an extra chip for CDMA radio, why would you buy the Verizon unlocked to use with AT&T or T-Mobile sim card?

Wouldn't that be a waste of some battery on the CDMA radio?

That is my thought process when I was ordering my T-Mobile 5S.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...

there is no extra chip...The ATT/Tmo models have the same exact chip its just CDMA is disabled.
 
kingramsu said:
Considering that Verizon is a CDMA phone with an extra chip for CDMA radio, why would you buy the Verizon unlocked to use with AT&T or T-Mobile sim card?
Click to expand...

This is exactly what we did. Everyone bought Verizon off-contract phones. We inserted T-Mobile nanoSIMS, did a full fresh restore via iTunes -- and now you have a totally unlocked phone working great with any GSM carrier, and you can also use it with CDMA carriers since you have both radios/antennas.

Don't let any Apple store employee tell you otherwise. If you buy a "device only" or no contract price iPhone 5s, even if the store says it is "Verizon," these iPhone 5s will work with any carrier, including AT&T and T-Mobile.

Battery: don't think it works that way. Insert an AT&T or T-Mobile SIM, you are using the GSM radio. CDMA radio isn't powered. Put in a CDMA SIM, you are then only using CDMA.
 
Velin said:
Battery: don't think it works that way. Insert an AT&T or T-Mobile SIM, you are using the GSM radio. CDMA radio isn't powered. Put in a CDMA SIM, you are then only using CDMA.
Click to expand...

I don't think there's such a thing as a CDMA sim, is there? Nonetheless, I get the idea of not much battery is wasted on the CDMA radio if the phone has a GSM sim card. It probably only checks for CDMA during phone boot up.
 
kingramsu said:
I don't think there's such a thing as a CDMA sim, is there? Nonetheless, I get the idea of not much battery is wasted on the CDMA radio if the phone has a GSM sim card. It probably only checks for CDMA during phone boot up.
Click to expand...

the sim in verizon phones are for LTE service only. YOu still have to sync the CDMA radio by calling verizon and verifying the IMEI and blah blah. Granted there might be some way they can do it thru the SIM, but i only know this because you can always put a verizon sim into any LTE phone and get data only service, but no voice/text etc...
 
The only prob I had using a Verizon cdma iphone 5 on Verizon is that when I gave them the IMEI number their system wouldn't recognize what kind of iphone it is.
So I was trying to keep my unlimited data plan from my old 4S to this new Verizon i5 and every time I gave the imei to the AT&T rep they couldn't add the unlimited LTE data plan to the account.
I had to get an IMEI from another AT&T iphone 5 in order for them to enter it in their system and upgrade the account to the unlimited LTE iphone data plan.
In other words their system wont recognize a Verizon iphone even though its unlocked and works fine on their network.
 
Applejuiced said:
The only prob I had using a Verizon cdma iphone 5 on Verizon is that when I gave them the IMEI number their system wouldn't recognize what kind of iphone it is.
So I was trying to keep my unlimited data plan from my old 4S to this new Verizon i5 and every time I gave the imei to the AT&T rep they couldn't add the unlimited LTE data plan to the account.
I had to get an IMEI from another AT&T iphone 5 in order for them to enter it in their system and upgrade the account to the unlimited LTE iphone data plan.
In other words their system wont recognize a Verizon iphone even though its unlocked and works fine on their network.
Click to expand...

thats not too surprising because the verizon iphone 5 was a different model than the ATT one and thus wasn't officially supported on their network.
 
Col Ronson said:
the sim in verizon phones are for LTE service only. YOu still have to sync the CDMA radio by calling verizon and verifying the IMEI and blah blah. Granted there might be some way they can do it thru the SIM, but i only know this because you can always put a verizon sim into any LTE phone and get data only service, but no voice/text etc...
Click to expand...

How would they go about "charging"the person if someone was to put a Verizon sim into say I a tmobile iPhone 5s for an extended period of time and would that in any way impact your plan ? Thanks !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
 
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