using a razr with virgin mobile

Hello. I am new here but I was wondering if it would be possble to use a Razr with the Virgin Mobile Service. My family won't sign a contract for a different carrier so that is out of the question. I know about unlocking and SIM cards but when I called Virgin Mobile they said that I couldn't use a different phone other then theirs' with their service because of the serial number that is stored in the Virgin Mobile phone itself. That is probably just company policy to say that. But I did a bit of research and as far as I can tell the Razr can operate on the same bands and frequencies as Virgin Mobile. The razr operates on the GSM band and Virgin Mobile operates on the CMDA band but I heard that there is a CMDA version of the Razr called the "Razr V3c" The "C" stands for CDMA. Anyway, enough ranting and raving. What do you guys have to say about this?

Injigo

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Long story short, the Virgin Mobile CS people gave you the straight scoop.

All US providers of CDMA service have a list of ESNs (electronic serial numbers) that are cleared to activate on their network. It's highly unlikely you would be able to get ANY CDMA provider to activate a phone not branded for their service, because of network reliability concerns.

The GSM Razr will never work on a CDMA network, they are different technologies that are incompatible with each other, they just happen to coexist side-by-side at a similar frequency range. The V3c Razr is CDMA, yes, but Virgin won't activate a non-Virgin phone or ANY phone if the ESN isn't on their "OK" list. The main problem is that since the V3c is programmed for a different carrier, it would roam a lot, the text and data services wouldn't work, it would be a piece of junk basically.

Sorry!

What about changing the ESN and MIN?

Originally Posted by Injigo

What about changing the ESN and MIN?

I'm pretty sure it's against the law to change the ESN number on a phone, just like it's a felony to file the serial number off a gun. It's usually only done by criminals trying to use a stolen phone.

Virgin is a MVNO of Sprint, meaning they operate on Sprint's network. I've been told by numerous Sprint reps these tampered phones don't work well on the network. Again, if you actually found some way to get the phone activated, it would likely roam all the time, text and data wouldn't work, it would be a piece of junk.

i think most razrs are sim card based and virgin mobile used ESNs instead of simcards

Thanks!!! Great answer ; clear and to the point. You should run a workshop. Excuse my ignorance but if I wanted to activate a Motorola RAZR what network would be compatible seeing as Virgin isn't.