Activating Non-Sprint Cell Phone to Sprint Network

I have a Virgin Mobile cell phone that I purchased on Mon. and I'm
having problems activating it to my Sprint network. I spoke with a few
of Sprint's tech. support agents and they all said that you need a
Sprint phone. They asked for my Virgin cell phone's ID and it didn't
work. I read some article on the internet where they said Sprint
agreed back on Oct. '07 to allow their subscribers to connect to their
network with non-Sprint phones. I know I'm not the only one in this
predicament. I hope someone can help me out.

Jong Kim wrote:

> I have a Virgin Mobile cell phone that I purchased on Mon. and I'm
> having problems activating it to my Sprint network. I spoke with a few
> of Sprint's tech. support agents and they all said that you need a
> Sprint phone. They asked for my Virgin cell phone's ID and it didn't
> work. I read some article on the internet where they said Sprint
> agreed back on Oct. '07 to allow their subscribers to connect to their
> network with non-Sprint phones. I know I'm not the only one in this
> predicament. I hope someone can help me out.

Pretty much all of the major carriers have talked about opening up their
networks at some point in the future, but I'm not aware of any that have
actually implemented it yet.

--
Dutch
Sprint/Motorola RAZR V3m
tethered to PCLinuxOS 2008

On 2008-06-06, Dutch <buryit@blackholespam.net> wrote:
> Jong Kim wrote:
>
>> I have a Virgin Mobile cell phone that I purchased on Mon. and I'm
>> having problems activating it to my Sprint network. I spoke with a few
>> of Sprint's tech. support agents and they all said that you need a
>> Sprint phone. They asked for my Virgin cell phone's ID and it didn't
>> work. I read some article on the internet where they said Sprint
>> agreed back on Oct. '07 to allow their subscribers to connect to their
>> network with non-Sprint phones. I know I'm not the only one in this
>> predicament. I hope someone can help me out.
>
> Pretty much all of the major carriers have talked about opening up their
> networks at some point in the future, but I'm not aware of any that have
> actually implemented it yet.

Well, except for T-Mobile, AT&T and Alltel. T-Mobile and AT&T have
always let you use any phone you could slide the SIM card into (they
have no way to prevent it), while I'm told Alltel will let you use any
phone they know how to program if you have the password for the programming
menus.

Verizon and Sprint have been the problems.

Dennis Ferguson

Dennis Ferguson wrote:

> On 2008-06-06, Dutch <buryit@blackholespam.net> wrote:
>> Jong Kim wrote:
>>
>>> I have a Virgin Mobile cell phone that I purchased on Mon. and I'm
>>> having problems activating it to my Sprint network. I spoke with a few
>>> of Sprint's tech. support agents and they all said that you need a
>>> Sprint phone. They asked for my Virgin cell phone's ID and it didn't
>>> work. I read some article on the internet where they said Sprint
>>> agreed back on Oct. '07 to allow their subscribers to connect to their
>>> network with non-Sprint phones. I know I'm not the only one in this
>>> predicament. I hope someone can help me out.
>>
>> Pretty much all of the major carriers have talked about opening up their
>> networks at some point in the future, but I'm not aware of any that have
>> actually implemented it yet.
>
> Well, except for T-Mobile, AT&T and Alltel. T-Mobile and AT&T have
> always let you use any phone you could slide the SIM card into (they
> have no way to prevent it), while I'm told Alltel will let you use any
> phone they know how to program if you have the password for the programming
> menus.
>
> Verizon and Sprint have been the problems.

Can you move an Iphone from AT&T to T-Mobile? :-)

I agree that GSM by its core design is more "open" than CDMA...

--
Dutch
Sprint/Motorola RAZR V3m
tethered to PCLinuxOS 2008

On Jun 6, 3:38*pm, Jong Kim <aaronkim...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a Virgin Mobile cell phone that I purchased on Mon. and I'm
> having problems activating it to my Sprint network. I spoke with a few
> of Sprint's tech. support agents and they all said that you need a
> Sprint phone. They asked for my Virgin cell phone's ID and it didn't
> work. I read some article on the internet where they said Sprint
> agreed back on Oct. '07 to allow their subscribers to connect to their
> network with non-Sprint phones. I know I'm not the only one in this
> predicament. I hope someone can help me out.

Actually, all Sprint agreed to was to the release of the subsidy
unlock codes for their customers if so desired so that if they
switched companies, they could TRY to use the same phone on another
provider. They did not state that they would be alowing activation of
non Sprint specific devices on their network. Unfortunately, this
also applies to MVNO devices that use their network for operation.
So, you won't be able to activate your Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile,
Disney Mobile, ESPN Mobile, etc device on the network, unless you are
going directly through the MVNO in question for service. Also, having
the subsidy unlock code, does not guarantee that your Sprint device
will be able to be activated on another network. There are
differences in software and programming that possibly could hinder
functionality. So even if the device is activatable on Verizons
network for instance, you may have a device that will make calls fine,
but be lacking in data functionality, or the ability to download
ringers etc.

Dutch wrote:

> Can you move an Iphone from AT&T to T-Mobile? :-)

Yes. You have to have it unlocked. It costs about $25 for an unlocking
service to unlock an iPhone.

SMS wrote:

> Dutch wrote:
>
>> Can you move an Iphone from AT&T to T-Mobile? :-)
>
> Yes. You have to have it unlocked. It costs about $25 for an unlocking
> service to unlock an iPhone.

Cool!

--
Dutch
Sprint/Motorola RAZR V3m
tethered to PCLinuxOS 2008

Roger 2008 wrote:

> "Dutch" <buryit@blackholespam.net> wrote in message
> news:1veosstyancco$.dlg@blackholespam.net...
>> SMS wrote:
>>
>>> Dutch wrote:
>>>
>>>> Can you move an Iphone from AT&T to T-Mobile? :-)
>>>
>>> Yes. You have to have it unlocked. It costs about $25 for an unlocking
>>> service to unlock an iPhone.
>>
>> Cool!
>
> But, I've read they have had software upgrades to the iPhone that might
> re-lock the phone.

Or brick it... ;-)

--
Dutch
Sprint/Motorola RAZR V3m
tethered to PCLinuxOS 2008

"Dutch" <buryit@blackholespam.net> wrote in message
news:1veosstyancco$.dlg@blackholespam.net...
> SMS wrote:
>
> > Dutch wrote:
> >
> >> Can you move an Iphone from AT&T to T-Mobile? :-)
> >
> > Yes. You have to have it unlocked. It costs about $25 for an unlocking
> > service to unlock an iPhone.
>
> Cool!

But, I've read they have had software upgrades to the iPhone that might
re-lock the phone.