Question(s) about prepaid on Droid3?

[daveowns]

My brother and I are having a little debate.

I think you can't use the droid 3 on prepaid while you're in a contract with Verizon. He thinks you can.

He thinks you can go to this company (forgot the name) and they will unlock your phone and put in a prepaid sim card and you can use it on prepaid through them. Is this true? If so how much would the bill cost

Tell me anything I need to know

 

[Clementine_3]

Verizon phones can usually be activated at Page Plus, their prices aren't horrible for pre-paid. Never tried them but have looked them up.
What do you mean 'in a contract with Verizon'? For the D3? You would have to either pay an ETF or put another phone on that line. The D3 would need to be terminated w/Verizon and activated on PP (or whoever), so if it is still under contract you would be charged if you cancel the service on that line.

 

[daveowns]

Well he is still under contract and he is talking about not paying it and trying to get it switched over to PrePaid

 

[doogald]

The gsm sim card in the Verizon d3 is locked, but there are places that will sell unlock codes so you could use the gsm sim with a us prepaid sim provider. I'm not sure about whether you would get 3G data, though.

While it is possible if you have been a long-term customer with Verizon to get a sim unlock from them, it remains locked in the us - it's only useful for international travel, as far as I know.

I really do not know anything about reputable unlock sellers myself.

 

[daveowns]

Oh wow you can? So it's probably pretty cheap to go to someone who can unlock it and you can use prepaid?

 

[OneFore9]

The D3 can be used, as is with no changes or unlocking needed, on a prepaid service such as PagePlus (a Verizon CDMA only MVNO). If you wish to use it on another prepaid service (such as At&T, T-Mobile), you will need to have the phone unlocked and purchase a sim card for use on their GSM network. Either way you go, with the phone being on a contract with Verizon, you will have to pay an ETF to get out of the contract. The phone will not work on PagePlus while still tied to the Verizon contract.

 

[daveowns]

The D3 can be used, as is with no changes or unlocking needed, on a prepaid service such as PagePlus (a Verizon CDMA only MVNO). If you wish to use it on another prepaid service (such as At&T, T-Mobile), you will need to have the phone unlocked and purchase a sim card for use on their GSM network. Either way you go, with the phone being on a contract with Verizon, you will have to pay an ETF to get out of the contract. The phone will not work on PagePlus while still tied to the Verizon contract.

So can he buy a sim card for AT&T and have the phone unlocked by one of their prepaid services places (If there are any like Pageplus?) And use it? He thinks he can

 

[glennj]

No.

The radio software on the Droid 3 is written to not allow connections onto ATT or Tmobile USA frequencies.

He could get around that GSM limitation by replacing the radio software with a version written for a Chinese version of the Droid 3, XT833 or something, but that is complicated and troublesome. The actual physical GSM radio in the Droid3 can work on USA GSM frequencies, but not with the stock radio software, and then a SIM from anyone would enable service, but getting around Verizon's software lock in the radio code is non-trivial.

 

[daveowns]

You can do this with an iPhone though?

He is saying Red Pocket will do this for the droid 3. This true?

 

[daveowns]

?

 

[glennj]

You can do this with an iPhone though?

He is saying Red Pocket will do this for the droid 3. This true?

An iPhone that runs on Verizon's network, instead of ATT's, does not have a GSM radio at all and cannot accept a SIM card of any type. It cannot ever be used on anything but CDMA, so no - you cannot do anything to a Verizon version iPhone to make it work on ATT or T-Mobile or any other GSM network.

You could sell it or trade such a phone and get an GSM iPhone instead.

A Red Pocket SIM card would allow your Droid3 to run on the ATT 3G GSM network, sure, if your Droid3's radio (software) would allow it, but that is not allowed by Verizon's design of the Droid3's radio, on purpose. You can change the default radio software that the Droid3 shipped with, but that is complicated and beyond my ability to describe to you here. If you got a Droid3 from like China, as shipped to work in the Chinese market, a Red Rocket SIM card would probably work to enable ATT GSM, but the phone would have Chinese text...

 

[doogald]

An iPhone that runs on Verizon's network, instead of ATT's, does not have a GSM radio at all and cannot accept a SIM card of any type. It cannot ever be used on anything but CDMA, so no - you cannot do anything to a Verizon version iPhone to make it work on ATT or T-Mobile or any other GSM network.

Unlike the Verizon iPhone 4, the Verizon iPhone 4s does have a gsm radio and micro sim card slot, and can be used internationally - like any Verizon world phone, it has a Vodafone sim built-in and can be unlocked by a customer with 60 days of service. However, in this case that doesn't matter much, because I believe it is still locked in the US and cannot be activated on a US carrier, prepaid or postpaid.

However, if it was bought off-contract, at full price, the sim should be unlockable.