bomblord

Simple question if i bought an unlocked Nexus 4 could i activate it on vms network

thebryceee

Nope. Phones have to be Virgin Mobile specific.

The unlocked Nexus 4 is a GSM phone, whereas VM is CDMA.

mogelijk

As mentioned, you technically have to have a Virgin Mobile phone. There are people who have claimed to have moved Sprint phones to VM (typically through ESN spoofing) but the legality of that is questionable.

Being able to use an unlocked phone is an advantage that GSM carriers have over the CDMA carriers. The reason for this is that GSM phones use a SIM card to store provider and account information (it is independent of the phone), on CDMA phones that information has to be programmed into the phone. Some people on a GSM carrier actually use multiple phones (though one at a time), just moving the SIM card to the phone they want to use that day.

aurora40

What country are you in?

thebryceee

Yeah, unless you're in Canada, Australia or the U.K.

james391

Is there any news of it comming to virgin usa? The phone completely unlocked is only $299, I feel like this would be a great phone for virging

mogelijk

No. At this point there is no news of a CDMA version of the Nexus 4.

james391

Off topic, but why is virgin still using CDMA. If they run off sprint shouldnt they just use GSM?

MT Rotor

Going to t mobile Is the closest thing to having the nexus 4 on a low cost prepaid carrier

thebryceee

Sprint is CDMA.

mogelijk

Sprint and Verizon are CDMA and I'm not aware of either of them having plans to change (other than their adoption of LTE). MetroPCS is CDMA but is planning to switch to GSM, especially if their merger with T-Mobile goes through as expected. AT&T and T-Mobile are the large US carriers that use GSM.

In terms of the larger prepaid carriers, Virgin Mobile/Boost (both owned by Sprint), Republic, and Cricket are CDMA; Straight Talk (which uses either AT&T or T-Mobile's network) and T-Mobile are GSM. And Metro, again, which is CDMA now but will be switching to GSM.

n0x

I think that this will all depend on where you live.
I am in Ontario Canada and I have a older Samsung Captivate that I have unlocked from the Rogers network. Which is GSM and am using it on Virgin.
Virgin is owned by Bell here and my phone runs fine on the network they use here.

kevindroid

virgin mobile canada and virgin mobile usa are two seperate companies that have the same name. welcome to the forums

n0x

Thanx for the welcome.
I Realise they are different companies. Just putting out the info so people know
It is possible to run the Nexus 4 here in Canada

Last edited by n0x; November 8th, 2012 at 03:04 PM.

tcomotcom

I'm pretty sure that on this site there is only one Virgin Mobile forum (right? anyone?) so putting info about VM Canada in here is fine. The thread title is "LG Nexus 4 on vm" so your post looks on topic to me.