My wife has an iPhone 4S from Verizon. I know that AT&T was the first company to offer the iPhone as a GSM phone. Sprint also now offers a refurb iPhone 4S. I was considering moving to Sprint but they told me that the Verizon iPhone won’t work on their network. That isn’t a shock to me but the reason they gave is that it’s a GSM phone and their network is strictly CDMA. But Verizon is CDMA, too. And if Sprint offers iPhones, does that mean that Apple makes a CDMA version?
Basically I’m trying to confirm that my Verizon iPhone is not movable to Sprint. I have had bad information from phone company service reps in the past (surprise, surprise).
Verizon and Sprint- as CDMA carriers- won’t activate phones meant for each other’s networks. Whether due to technical reasons or just outright refusal isn’t something I know. GSM ties the phone ID to the SIM card, so you can move a SIM to and from compatible phones.
and yes, this means there are CDMA versions of the iPhone for both Verizon and Sprint.
Verizon and Sprint have different sets of requirements for device management, audio, rf characteristics, etc. Since they have the easy ability to control what devices are on their network, they do so. The underlying standard for CDMA is compatible.
Technically..GSM doesn’t tie the phone ID to the SIM card. The phone ID is tied to the phone. The active account is tied to the SIM card, and this is what you can move to another phone.
(The phone has it’s own ID. In the GSM/UMTS world, it’s an IMEI.)