Epic with bad esn?

[Rensato]

I'm thinking about buying an epic... and I saw on ebay a bunch of phones with "bad esn" which are a lot cheaper than the one that say "clean esn"

Can a phone like that still be used? and if so... How?

Hope someone can help. =)

 

[BigD562]

Only if they are flashed for services like Metro PCS. Bad ESN are bad ideas.

 

[Android XTC]

Bad ESN phones are usually phones claimed to be stolen with Assurion or they are Corporate phones and the ESNs are still registered to the Company and without written release from the Company Sprint wont activate.

 

[IAmSixNine]

Great for parts if your a do it your self type of guy.. I have bought bad phones in the past for just that reason.

 

[Rensato]

Do you think that I would be able to activate a phone like that if I live in another country?

 

[IAmSixNine]

Only if the carrier is CDMA, uses the same frequencies, and will accept the ESN on their network, and you can flash thier PRL and radio information into the device.

Otherwise NO.

 

[Rensato]

Cool!
Thanks for the answers =)

I'm gonna go ask at the local company.

 

[Johnny Cakes]

Bad ESN phones are usually phones claimed to be stolen with Assurion or they are Corporate phones and the ESNs are still registered to the Company and without written release from the Company Sprint wont activate.

Can also be legit, non-stolen phone with outstanding unpaid balance at the time of termination.

 

[Aero1]

Can also be legit, non-stolen phone with outstanding unpaid balance at the time of termination.

Absolutely, indeed it it could be simply a canceled contract.

On eBay the bad ESN are typically not stolen phones, probably almost never.

People use them for parts, or in the case of many phones that can be hacked, activation on on an other US CDMA carrier

Worldphones like Sprint CDMA/GSM TP2 can be used on GSM. I have a bad ESN TP2 I picked up for $60, I use for the car and travel. It sits in on of our cars as a spare GPS (it has standalone GPS and TomTom with the world maps on it), it has working wifi, couple of movies for the kids, a few thousand songs, and works all over Europe as a smartphone with a prepaid sim. It also of course has fully workign 911

Even CDMA only bad ESN at certain low prices they are excellent just to use as spare GPS/AV Entertainment/Connected camera units.

 

[radiac93]

Absolutely, indeed it it could be simply a canceled contract.

On eBay the bad ESN are typically not stolen phones, probably almost never.

People use them for parts, or in the case of many phones that can be hacked, activation on on an other US CDMA carrier

Worldphones like Sprint CDMA/GSM TP2 can be used on GSM. I have a bad ESN TP2 I picked up for $60, I use for the car and travel. It sits in on of our cars as a spare GPS (it has standalone GPS and TomTom with the world maps on it), it has working wifi, couple of movies for the kids, a few thousand songs, and works all over Europe as a smartphone with a prepaid sim. It also of course has fully workign 911

Even CDMA only bad ESN at certain low prices they are excellent just to use as spare GPS/AV Entertainment/Connected camera units.

Just to clear some stuff:
I live in Europe and I buy an US Verizon phone with bad ESN from ebay, will I be able to use this phone here on a regular 3.5g network?
I know that in theory it should work, as it supports 4g, but will this still be the case with a locked to verizon mobile to use it with a prepayed sim?

I hope I was able to make myself understandable

Oh, and if there is something that's keeping me from using it like this, how to undo/deblock/... this
Or even reflash

 

[EAD13721]

Just to clear some stuff:
I live in Europe and I buy an US Verizon phone with bad ESN from ebay, will I be able to use this phone here on a regular 3.5g network?
I know that in theory it should work, as it supports 4g, but will this still be the case with a locked to verizon mobile to use it with a prepayed sim?

I hope I was able to make myself understandable

Oh, and if there is something that's keeping me from using it like this, how to undo/deblock/... this
Or even reflash

This is the Epic forum. Although you can get a Galaxy phone on Verizon... you can't get the Epic. So already wrong place.

Also, as it was stated these are not GSM phones, they are CDMA only. So no I doubt it would work in Europe regardless of the data standard it works on. 2G, 3G or 5,0000G