Verizon Open Access

It was stated late last year that Verizon is planning to open its' wireless network to any devices. This can be both good, and problematic. It would be nice for those people looking to switch cell phone plans and not have to buy a new phone or device compatible with the new provider, but at the same time, this also means that Verizon is going to have much higher usage, especially with streaming video, that may mean worse service for those of us already using Verizon.
While I do think that it is a step in the right direction, I think a lot will need to be done before people start considering it.

Let me point something out here. ATT/Cingular and T-mobile have been doing it for years. That is a staple of the GSM networking. Customer can buy any phone with the proper frequencies and capabilities, get the plan he wants and pop a sim in it. As a matter of fact, you can swap phones as often as you feel like it.
However, the number of people that actually do it is very small. Very few people are even aware that it can be done, and even fewer do it.
With Verizon, the customer will have to call tech support to make the change so there really will be few changes like that. And when they do that the proper plans will be added, so things will be fine.

Let me clarify something here... AT&T and T-Mobile are not in the business of unlocking phones. Nor do they support the practice of using unlocked phones on their networks. It requires a third party vendor or software application to unlock your phone, which is not available through any service provider.

While it is true that very few people take advantage of this capability, that is also beside the point. Remember that activating another provider's phone on your service is problematic at best. Most higher end data features will not be available when you use non-compatible equipment.

from my experience working with cingular before they switched to att u could have ur phone unlocked "for international use" thus allowing u to use any sim card avail in the device. however u are correct about some of the data not working. just call into ur provider if ur gsm based and ask to have ur phone unlocked for international use.. this they can not refuse "although they may not know what ur talking about lol"

U will not be able to use the gsm based phones on VZW as they are not compatible with the network.

Thanks

no currently there is not an unlock option for cdma that i am aware of. however u can purchase unlocked phones or pay to unlock them.. or maybe even risk frying ur own phone to unlock it... but... now u have an "alltel" phone unlocked and u want to use it on vzw. but the vzw rep puts the esn # into the compter and there is no record of that phone. S.O.L unless u know someone deep in the system that can add that esn # to the list of "let it work" lol


I had a customer bring a slvr in the other day.. purchased direct from motorola with the vzw programing. the computer rejected it as the esn number was not recognized.

The only handsets that will be allowed onto the network are those that have passed the verizon testing? as far as what this testing is I have no clue at this point!

We can all cross our fingers and hope

correct but the fine print "in my emails" state that it will have to pass the verizon testing like i said above i don't know what this testbed is. Hopefully it won't be a painstaking process. <<< i know better then to say that lol

They may not be in the business of unlocking phones, but ATT, at least, does unlock phones. And in the world of GSM, the only issue with using another provider's phone is that T-mobile writes the networking info into the rom on many phones, so that it cannot be changed. However, that does not prevent the phone from working, and the Windows mobile phones all have the option to add or change the networking information. There is no problem using GSM phones on different networks.
And tech support on both ATT and T-mobile will help in setting up the phones.

AT&T themselves does not unlock phones, they just allow them to be used on their network. That's not saying that you can use all of the features that may be on the phone though, depending on the software and what carrier the phone originally came from.