The folks at Verizon Wireless have taken a firm stance on only using network-certified phones, but the unlocked experience has created a functional workaround. As a subscriber, watching as the rest of the US carriers get awesome phones and timely updates used to be a regular punch in the face. Troubleshooting: Invalid Browser Version / Operating System Detected. We detected you are using an unsupported Browser / Operating System. To receive an optimal. Feb 11, 2011 I purchased a Verizon Wireless prepaid phone. You can activate Blackberry's or any other Verizon phone on. Can you use the Verizon Wireless Blackberry 8830 as. Found this spot while doing my endless Google searches on CDMA, GSM, Sprint and Verizon. I don't know if this topic has. Get the EPST/DST settings - PRL and what not out of ANY data capable phone (except blackberry, unless its a blackberry you need to take across) Find the programming code for. Nexus phones pass Big Red and laugh, Sony's amazing hardware shows up with last year's internals or no fingerprint sensor, and after what happened with updates on the 2014 Moto X I was ready to change networks and be done with the whole mess. I'm a big fan of Verizon Wireless coverage and quality, especially in my area, but that matters a whole lot less if I can't enjoy the hardware and software I'm using. Fast forward to today, and I'm still using Verizon Wireless. In fact I couldn't be happier, and it's all because of the unlocked phones we've seen over the last year that play nice with Verizon Wireless. If you're savvy or fortunate enough to never need customer support from Verizon Wireless, this setup works great. BlackBerry's PRIV, the Moto X Pure Edition, and Google's Nexus 5X and 6P top the list of unlocked Android phones that have worked well on Verizon Wireless this year, with next to no effort on my part. Pop my Verizon SIM in, wait for the phone to recognize the new card, and that's it. ![]() If you've never used Verizon Wireless before, you may not be aware of just how big a deal this is. Not all that long ago, activating a phone on Verizon Wireless meant CDMA provisioning and a test phone call to ensure everything worked as intended. That hasn't been the case with these phones, and it makes recommending unlocked phones to Verizon customers a whole lot easier. Popping the Verizon SIM in gets you going, but occasionally there's a step or two that has to happen next in order to ensure the best possible connection to the Verizon networks. Out of the box, the Moto X Pure Edition and Nexus 6P will drop from LTE to CDMA in low signal areas and struggle to reconnect. A quick fix in these situations has been to toggle airplane mode, but the real solution is to switch your mobile data settings from Global to LTE/CDMA and make sure roaming is enabled. The BlackBerry PRIV, on the other hand, will reboot once you put a Verizon SIM in and when that finishes you'll have all of the settings automatically changed for you. You'll even have a Verizon Wireless bootsplash animation, which is a little strange to see at first on. Once everything is set up correctly, there's been no appreciable difference in call quality or data connection when compared to other Verizon Wireless phones. Activating Enhanced LTE Mode in settings allows you to use VoLTE where available, and there's a noticeable difference in call quality when you do. It's just like using a Verizon Wireless certified phone, right until it isn't. On two occasions the phone has become completely disconnected from the network for seemingly no reason, one of which required a reboot to reconnect. These incidents were months apart, but there's still no answer as to why it happened in the first place. If you're savvy or fortunate enough to never need customer support from Verizon Wireless, this setup works great. If you find yourself wandering into a store to get a SIM replaced or you're in need of some technical assistance, you'll quickly find Verizon employees are either unable or unwilling to help deal with non-Verizon hardware. You can forget about activating a new SIM on a non-Verizon phone in most cases, which is a problem that even extends to Verizon's billing system. When trying to step down from Verizon's unlimited data plan recently, the inability to input a Verizon phone as the current phone on my line caused days of confusion. ![]() Neither the website nor an in-store representative were able to input a non-Verizon phone, so the plan couldn't be changed. This was eventually fixed, but it's a good example of the kind of frustration that comes along with non-Verizon hardware in this environment. The cool thing is this is only going to get better over time. More unlocked phones will be released with support for Verizon Wireless, and at the same time Verizon's network is going to continue to adopt global standards and play nice with just about everything. Before too long, we might look back at Verizon's dark ages and laugh as we swap SIMs with reckless abandon. You can make an HD Voice call the same way you make a regular voice call (e.g., from your Contacts app, Phone app or Recent Calls), provided that both you and the person you're calling: Are using an HD Voice-capable phone Have the HD Voice feature enabled Are connected to the Verizon 4G LTE network On most devices, you'll know that you're on an HD Voice call if an 'HD' logo appears in the upper right corner of your in-call screen. If a wired headset or a Bluetooth® headset is connected to your phone, HD Voice calls may not be delivered to the headset with HD quality unless the headset is also compatible with HD Voice. America is undoubtedly a great country with vast natural beauty, a wealth of natural resources, friendly citizens, fantastic cities. I could go on and on. But there are three things that are just crazy. Your politics, 2. (linked to 1.) The influence of extreme Christian groups and (the worst) 3. Your dumb networks. Imagine an article about being able to use an unlocked phone anywhere else in the civilised world. It wouldn't happen as THAT IS WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. Posted on my Nokia 3210. There is a trade off with Verizon, even with their coverage. They are by far the most expensive data carrier. I have Wal-Mart's Family Mobile plan, using T-Mobile's system. My wife and I get unlimited data (they do throttle it after 6GB for me, and 2GB for my wife). Combined with our two Moto X 2014's great radios, we get superb call quality. I just talked to her while she is in Texas (we live in Oregon), and the call was so clean, it sounded like she was in the room with me. We've been on this plan for 3 years, so we've thoroughly vetted it. We pay $70/month total. Verizon may have better overall coverage (although, in the city I get a better signal than my Verizon friends), but I'll never pay what they charge. Plus, having been a Verizon customer until 2013, I know their service blows. Posted via the Android Central App. THE PRIV WILL NOT WORK ON VERIZON AS A PHONE OR TEXTING. If somehow you actually get LTE or VoLTE to work, great, but the overwhelming majority of voice calls on Verizon are over CDMA, and the Priv does not have CDMA radios. I'm pretty surprised he would say it works. The phone does not have the radios. Every other unlocked device that works on verizon has CDMA radios. Nexus 6, 6p, XPE. All of them have CDMA radios. Straight from the FCC filing of verizon's priv - Mobile phone with GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/1900, DB CDMA2000/1xEVDO, WCDMA/HSPA FDD 2, 4, 5, and 6, LTE Bands 2, 4, 5, 13, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, BT/BLE, NFC, FM Radio and GPS. See all that CDMA? Doesn't exist in unlocked Priv. I just got the Moto X PE in December to replace an aging Moto RAZR MAXX on Verizon. I initially tried to just get a nano SIM from Verizon (hadn't heard about cutting the micro down to a nano size) and they said I'd have to bring the new phone in for them to pop the SIM in. Did this with no hassles. Only took ~10 mins. My complaint, however, is that I was enjoying a $15/mo discount on the RAZR after the original 2-yr contract was up. After switching to the X, Verizon took the $15/mo discount away since I didn't purchase the phone from them. Anyone else experience this and fight them on it? I had a rough go with my Moto X Pure Edition. I bought it the day it was announced and received it about a day after all the sites started posting reviews. I could not start a new line of service with Verizon Wireless. It took nearly two weeks for Verizon to load the IMEIs. Shortly after getting our phones activated I was not able to use free visual voicemail with Verizon. It took about three weeks for that to get fixed. Since then things have been great. My wife's Moto X Pure Edition stopped connecting to the mobile network. Motorola supports their products very well. I called, went through their troubleshooting steps, and they paid to have the RMA shipped to them. Even a factory reset didn't fix this issue. I feel like I have the best of both worlds. The best coverage in my area and a great phone! So I just followed Russell's method to fix the connecting to 4g on the Nexus 6p. I have been dealing with this for a month. Google actually sent me a new phone for this reason. I also tried first and got a new sim card. I had my phone go back down to 3g yesterday. I actually posted on the G+ Nexus 6p Community about this issue. I posted this article. Hopefully, his recommendation works. Has anyone else had issues with popping out of 4g? What about losing data totally? Also, why can't we use data while on the phone anymore? This has been great, but we're still missing out the low to mid range with the Nexus 5X being the bottom end in terms of price (MSRP, not counting discounts over time like the Nexus 6 fire sales). I would LOVE a Moto G Pure Edition from Motorola. Our Android options are the Nexus 6, Moto X Pure Edition, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, and BlackBerry PRIV - either Motorola, Google, or BlackBerry. While I hope to see more OEMs jumping on board with this, I don't think everyone else will join these guys and Apple in supporting Verizon customers. I haven't experienced my Moto X falling into No Service but I'll make the settings change you suggested. Ry, remember how when it came to TMO asking OEMs to disable b12, TMO was citing the need for voLTE certification because customers must be able to call 911 in case of an emergency, and sometimes b12 is the only network around? How does Russell managing to place voice calls on the BB Priv STV100-1--a phone that lacks CDMA and LTE band 13 comport with TMO's position? Like TMO, isn't Verizon also mandated to make sure that customers can always call 911? Surely Verizon's secondary LTE networks don't have nationwide overlap with their CDMA and LTE b13 networks. 'Before too long, we might look back at Verizon's dark ages and laugh as we swap SIMs with reckless abandon.' Billion dollar companies stand behind that tagline. What they forget is that the consumer market has an enduring memory and tends to hold grudges. Unless they offered some HUGE incentive or I relocate to an area where they are the only reasonable option, this consumer won't be switching back to Verizon because of this exact problem. Swapping phones was a pain and they kept the price of Verizon-certified phones artificially high. They and Microsoft's Halo division can GFThemselves. Unless there is some need for unlimited high speed data (which as a new customer you are not going to get) or you have more than one phone, I would have just gone with Straight Talk. You can get the SIMs from any Wall-Mart (or online) and it still uses Verizon's network with zero difference in quality. They embrace the BYOD culture and if you did need some help you can call them. Activation is stupid simple and porting your number is really fast if you already have a number through Verizon. Where Straight Talk falls down is after 5GB of high speed data you are throttled down to 2G speeds. You don't get cut off, but you won't be streaming any videos on the go. That said, if for some reason you did burn through your high speed data and you need more, you just top it up with another month plan and your back at 5 gigs. Very useful if you are on a long trip with no WiFi available. The Straight Talk SIM kit has a SIM card kit for Sprint/Verizon CDMA and one for AT&T/TMobile. You choose the one you need. For that matter they include all three sizes in each kit as well. You know it's using Verizon's towers because it says 'Verizon Wireless' in the notification bar when the phone is locked (at least on my Samsung device it did). Also any text services that ask you to choose your carrier, choosing Verizon always worked for me. I carried both a work phone on Verizon and a personal phone on Straight Talk using Verizon's network (I've since jumped to Project fi). The signal was always the same for both. So if it was crappy on the work phone, it was crappy on the personal phone and if it was good on the work phone it was good on the personal phone. No difference. '.Nexus 6P will drop from LTE to CDMA in low signal areas and struggle to reconnect. A quick fix in these situations has been to toggle airplane mode, but the real solution is to switch your mobile data settings from Global to LTE/CDMA and make sure roaming is enabled.' This 'real' solution doesn't work for me. If you follow Google's Nexus forums, you'll see that dropping off LTE and not reconnecting to LTE is a problem that spans all US networks and even many international networks. This problem has been reported around the world. Google doesn't have an official solution. I've been with Verizon for about 11 years and as an Android lover it was a struggle because they never really had the most popular phones. I also was one that held onto my unlimited data until my phones were out of contact and then I thought of leaving for AT&T because I could buy any phone I wanted. However when I looked at other companies with their shared data plans Verizon have me the best. I have 2 smart phones and 2 tablets for my boys. To leave unlimited data Verizon have me 20gb for $100 with my employer discount if chopped off 20%, so I pay $80 for my data. Now I just buy phones and tablets of contact and I could not be happier. Posted via the Android Central App. I use Google Voice via having Verizon send all my voicemail messages to my google voice number. There are 2 major flaws here. First, the Google Voice app is CRAP!!!!!! OMG, can you say Gingerbread? Second, while the visual voicemail that is enabled when you do this through the dialer is nice, it doesn't communicate back to the Google Voice app. Therefore, when you delete a VM from the phone app you have to also go into the fugly GV app to delete it there as well. WHAT A MESS!!! Google can do better. Verizon VM actually looks decent on Samsung phones. I wish they made a phone agnostic version like they have for the My Verizon app. Nice read Russell. I just left VZW for AT&T, to capitalize on the unlimited data with Directv deal. I was using a Pure on VZW, and when I needed a nano sim for it, the guys at my local VZW corporate store were really cool, and they geeked on the Pure. I felt really good about using VZW for the first time in a long time. But my kids were killing the lack of data on our plan. I left for the unlimited data, and I now get a 22% discount with my employer on AT&T, so Im paying $18/month more than I was on VZW for only 10GB of data. The best part? Now I can use almost any unlocked phone.like my Z5P with a finger print sensor! Yeah, that's not true at all. There are many phones that can do this without VoLTE. Like, every smartphone except iphone from about 2013 until vzw started forcing companies to ditch the dual radios, so they could force everyone to volte. It was a big deal years ago when phones could start doing simultaneous voice and data on verizon, then it was an even bigger deal when new phones in 2014 started coming out without the ability. For example, the galaxy s6 can do it, without volte enabled. Wife has had one since they came out. There are far more phones on verizon that CAN do this than CANT. @decke003 - I used this option to use voice and data at the same time: 'In order to enable the setting on your phone, head into the dialer and type in *#*#4636#*#*. When you hit that last *, your phone will jump into the hidden settings menu. Choose “Phone info” and then scroll down until you see an option for “TURN ON VOLTE PROVISIONED FLAG.” Tap that and then reboot your phone (I had to reboot twice for some reason to get it to work). Once booted, head into your phone’s regular settings menu, tap on “More” under “Wireless & networks,” then “Cellular networks.” You should now see an option for “Enhanced 4G LTE Mode” and it should be toggled on.' HOWEVER, after latest Marshmallow this no longer works. Even with the flag set above. Did you see this same behavior? It's still a big deal. Verizon have the best unlimited deal and they still haven't broken it yet. I'm not exactly sure why they are still allowing people to maintain unlimited. Or that they don't change it to 'Unlimited*' like everyone else. (X data then throttled or something similar.) I just gave mine up b/c of the $20/month/line (A $40/month adder for me.) That ended my unlimited dreams as I only ever used 5-8gb. Although I had to think hard about it, knowing it was never going to come back and it was only going to become more of a luxury over time. I don't consider it boastful, I think it's a relic to be cherished if you can justify it. If you get unlimited for $30, then lower that with the many discounts most have/got, it is a big deal. I had VZW's UDP for yrs and only recently switched to TMo. I paid $24 for unlimited (seen even lower by folks) on top of the plan I had. No 'phone access charge' like they do now with the plans. I personally didn't want to leave, but am saving some money with TMo, plus, where I was using 9-13GB per month, I'm way lower now since much of my data was music streaming with the services that are free on TMo. So I think at most I've used 6GB on Tmo since I switched. I would never have switched if the streaming music used up my data with TMo. So yeah, it is a big deal. You might be one of those people that carriers say are the majority that use under 1GB/mo. But some of us like to use our phones.
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