CDMA Phone Activation Multiple SIMs possible?

[consultant]

Can CDMA phones (such as for verizon) be activated, then SIM card transferred to another phone then activate the phone again with a different SIM from a different carrier or does the ESN for the physical phone get registered to the carrier and will only work with that carrier's SIM?

Basically, I want to activate a BYOD phone for Xfinity that they won't activate because they don't support it but I know the phone will work so I was going to buy a used Samsung S8, activate the SIM, transfer to the other phone then resell the S8.

 

[n0tall0wed]

Not sure if it's the same for Xfinity but with Spectrum, one of the kids wanted an iPhone so I got one and just pulled the sim from it. Put the sim was in an extra moto e4 I had that was unlocked and activated and works perfectly fine in the supposed unsupported moto.

 

[consultant]

Not sure that really answers my question? What I'm wondering is that could then someone activate a different SIM in the moto e4 after you activated it?

 

[mikedt]

AFAIK with CDMA networks it's the phone's ESN, or MEID that's registered and activated on a particular network. So I don't think you can just swap SIMs around to another phone and use it.

Originally CDMA networks and phones didn't use SIMs, and I believe the SIMs are for 4G LTE usage.

 

[n0tall0wed]

Not sure that really answers my question? What I'm wondering is that could then someone activate a different SIM in the moto e4 after you activated it?

Yes you could. Spectrum uses Verizon towers which is also CDMA.

 

[Davdi]

Why stick with CDMA, Unless you're tied in to a contract? gsm is much more flexible as it DOES actually use sim cards). - This is a genuine question from the UK