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I think there is a big misunderstanding what locked/unlocked means.

All phones that are made are always assigned to a carrier (yes even the ones that say "Factory GSM Unlocked") to prove that just look up the model of the phone and you will see what carrier it was assigned to.

In order for a phone to have service the company has to know that you want service on this phone.

In the past company's like Sprint and Verizon did not work with a sim card they worked with the id of the phone to recognize what kind of phone / what carrier it was assigned to. This is know as CDMA. Yet company's like att/t-mobile did that too but the service was applied by using a sim.

Once LTE came out for what ever reason all company switched to the "Sim technology". There is still one thing that did not change, each carrier has their assigned bands that they have from the FCC that they are allowed to use.

Being that there are standard bands that every one uses (for international or the like) these are included in every phone. So.... All verizon phones will work on att, BUT will only have the bands for slower internet since those are standard bands.

Now verizon's LTE band is NOT a standard nor is their CDMA a standard so an att or a t-mobile phone will NOT be able to accept a Verizon sim.

Now lets go to sprint phones,

All other company's when they had the phones made for them all they do is have it customized for its own use (Read: their own LTE bands). Sprint on the other hand not only did they have them customize it they put a lock in the software blocking all local USA bands (Verizon ATT and Tmobile).

They even go a step farther and they still do the old way of checking the device ID to see if its a sprint phone or not.

Hope this explains a few things feel free to ask any questions.

Att has an easy way to ask for an unlock https://att.com/deviceunlock

How to check a Sprint iPhone (only): You cannot check it with an american sim you must put in a foreign sim. You DO NOT have to backup and restore as sprint sends in the email! Connect to wifi before starting this procedure.

When you put the sim in one of 3 things will happen.
1. It will say no service in the top right corner = Unlocked
2. It will do a soft restart and ask you for your apple id password = Almost unlocked, after putting in the password its unlocked
3. It will do a soft restart and say "Sim not valid" = Phone is locked

If you got number 2. and you dont know the password just put in your old sim and all will return. When you find out the password repeat the steps.

Willmyphonework.net Can check if the phone will work
« Last edited by yakov116 on June 29, 2016, 01:34:42 PM »

Author Topic: cell phone unlocking  (Read 157854 times)

Offline yakov116

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #480 on: September 07, 2016, 03:20:37 PM »
Spoke to tmobile and they have no clue, the only instructions they gave me is put in the sim and try to enter the MSL code, if it doesnt work call sprint...
Anyone done this try to put sim into sprint phone and unlock with MSL?
It will not allow you to connect, nothing to do with the MSL
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Offline Eliyohu

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #481 on: September 07, 2016, 03:24:57 PM »
It will not allow you to connect, nothing to do with the MSL
What ive read although no clear info as to how, it seems its possible if they clear the FED...? Anyway to make it work, what to ask sprint for?

Offline cozmohoot

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #482 on: September 07, 2016, 05:33:57 PM »
Fwiu, when sprint unlocks a galaxy or iPhone it's only for an international sim and not a domestic one.

Offline Eliyohu

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #483 on: September 07, 2016, 06:53:06 PM »
Fwiu, when sprint unlocks a galaxy or iPhone it's only for an international sim and not a domestic one.
On sprints website there's a list of common phones and if it can be unlocked internationaly or domestically also. In the footnotes it says phones manufacturered before Feb 2015 can not be unlocked domestically but they can provide you with the MSL code (if you dial ##data# the menu to put in the code is there) which supposedly can unlock your phone to use on GSM.
The phone i wish to unlock is Galaxy S5 which tmobile compatibility checker claims will work, Sprint gave me the MSL code but im not quite sure what to do with it and any research ive done seems to say its useless... although nothing seemed to be current info

Offline cozmohoot

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #484 on: September 07, 2016, 06:59:51 PM »
Yeah the Msl is for the CDMA part of the phone. I don't think it helps unlock the sim slot.

Offline Eliyohu

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #485 on: September 07, 2016, 08:58:25 PM »
Yeah the Msl is for the CDMA part of the phone. I don't think it helps unlock the sim slot.
Is there anyway to do it at all or should i except defeat and go buy a phone?

Offline Live N Learn

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #486 on: September 07, 2016, 11:10:05 PM »
Best/cheapest place to unlock an iPhone 6 and 6S. they are both on Rogers in Canada.

Most probably eBay. Are they paid up, and have a clean ESN?
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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #487 on: September 20, 2016, 10:37:21 AM »
Will a Verizon galaxy S7 work with sprint ? It works very good with T-mobile .
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Offline Live N Learn

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #488 on: September 20, 2016, 10:47:16 AM »
Will a Verizon galaxy S7 work with sprint ? It works very good with T-mobile .

No.
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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #489 on: September 20, 2016, 10:55:05 AM »
No.
Are you sure? Because people here said that tmobile wouldn't work but it worked perfectly fine. 
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Offline Live N Learn

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #490 on: September 20, 2016, 11:03:35 AM »
Are you sure? Because people here said that tmobile wouldn't work but it worked perfectly fine.

Sprint is very strict. They once told me that it won't work. You could give it a shot, it can't harm.
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Offline pixi

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #491 on: November 06, 2016, 11:02:10 AM »
Will a sprint galaxy s7 work with T-mobile?
money doesn't talk......      it SCREAMS !

Offline cozmohoot

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #492 on: November 07, 2016, 03:59:00 PM »
If unlocked. I unlocked my sprint s6 and use on tmobile

Offline pixi

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #493 on: November 13, 2016, 04:15:16 PM »
If unlocked. I unlocked my sprint s6 and use on tmobile
Thanks
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Offline Yammer

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #494 on: November 13, 2016, 04:17:45 PM »
If unlocked. I unlocked my sprint s6 and use on tmobile
How did you unlock?

Offline pixi

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #495 on: November 14, 2016, 12:47:43 AM »
money doesn't talk......      it SCREAMS !

Offline Yammer

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #496 on: November 14, 2016, 01:01:58 AM »
Try this
Thanks.

I had an old Sprint Galaxy 3 that I wanted to use but after doing some research i see that it's impossible to use on Verizon because it doesn't use a sim card.

Offline cozmohoot

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #497 on: November 14, 2016, 01:57:23 PM »
How did you unlock?
I called sprint

Offline Eliyohu

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #498 on: November 14, 2016, 02:01:16 PM »
I called sprint
I did 2 phones one I called other online. On the website there's very clear policy and instructions

Offline Live N Learn

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Re: cell phone unlocking
« Reply #499 on: November 14, 2016, 05:09:38 PM »
Thanks.

I had an old Sprint Galaxy 3 that I wanted to use but after doing some research i see that it's impossible to use on Verizon because it doesn't use a sim card.

Neither does Verizon. They both use CDMA. If you call up Sprint to unlock it they will give you the MSL code, which you could try to see if Verizon could unlock it. Otherwise there's supposed to be a way to do that by changing the SPC code....
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