Carriers Have to Unlock Eligible Phones Beginning Today
They may have to unlock phones...
If you have a T-Mobile unlocked phone and put an at&t SIM in it, the phone will just start working.
No activation needed...
Generally if you use another carrier's equipment, they tell you that it isn't supported, not all features may work, and for tech support you're on your own.
With GSM carriers, they are concerned about the SIM card, not the phone. Your SIM card info is what matches up in their system. That's why you can switch phones without their knowing.
may want to check your information on that one becuase thats not completely right, at least for AT&T, i worked mobility there for a few years
-yes you can switch out the phone without the carrier knowing but that doesnt mean your gonna get the full capabilities of that phone.
-in most cases for them you have to call to updat the phone or some things may not work, dealt with this a handful of times everyday
For 3G phones, you can activate them on Verizon just by entering a certain code on the keypad (it's been a while since I did it, so I don't remember the code)
For LTE phones, all you have to do is swap the SIM.
Now, granted, that is if you're talking about Verizon phones. If you're trying to activate an unlocked LTE phone from another carrier on Verizon, then you do have to call them because their system only recognizes Verizon phones.
You do actually have to contact VZW for them to attach the new ESN to your account (or do it online), then they just have you dial *228 to activate the phone. If you dont contact them in any way then how does the phone know it should be activated on Your account?
And calling them about another networks device wont matter, they wont activate it because for one it isnt in their ESN pool of VZW devices, and for two it most likely wont hit their frequency bands ala most GSM devices.
As of a couple months ago when I last tried, they wont even activate an nTelos device, which sells rebranded CDMA devices that Do connect to all the VZW bands.
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