[SatoshiX]

VJgamer has proven that buying an LE is not necessary. You are not fooling Verizon by moving the sim from one phone to the other. Do you really think Verizon has either allowed or is oblivious to such an obvious network vulnerability?

Based on the anecdotal evidence we've heard so far, it seems plausible that that is the case.

Carriers are pretty notorious for their lack of network security, so it wouldn't surprise me at all.

[tigrute]

I purchased a KEY2 last week and was unable to get a local shop or customer support to provision an LTE only SIM. Ordered a KEY2 LE, went to a Verizon store, got a SIM provisioned for the LE IMEI, and popped it into my KEY2. Works like a charm. I think this is more of a VZW growing pain than anything since you could likewise provision a OnePlus 6t and move the SIM over to a KEY2 with normal functionality.

[azmojo]

I purchased a KEY2 last week and was unable to get a local shop or customer support to provision an LTE only SIM. Ordered a KEY2 LE, went to a Verizon store, got a SIM provisioned for the LE IMEI, and popped it into my KEY2. Works like a charm. I think this is more of a VZW growing pain than anything since you could likewise provision a OnePlus 6t and move the SIM over to a KEY2 with normal functionality.

When you went to the store and talked with CS, did you tell them you had a non-LE or did they know or figure it out? They key seems to be just getting them to give you the CDMA-less SIM.

[tigrute]

When you went to the store and talked with CS, did you tell them you had a non-LE or did they know or figure it out? They key seems to be just getting them to give you the CDMA-less SIM.

One would think it would be that simple, but their in store tablets require them to enter an IMEI to issue a new CDMA-less SIM. Since the KEY2 IMEI isn't in their whitelist, they indicated it was against store policy to issue a new sim.

[azmojo]

One would think it would be that simple, but their in store tablets require them to enter an IMEI to issue a new CDMA-less SIM. Since the KEY2 IMEI isn't in their whitelist, they indicated it was against store policy to issue a new sim.

So I wonder if we can get an IMEI from an LE (being used on another network) from someone here to call in to customer service with to get them to mail the SIM? It's not like we have to have the device in our possession, right?

[tigrute]

So I wonder if we can get an IMEI from an LE (being used on another network) from someone here to call in to customer service with to get them to mail the SIM? It's not like we have to have the device in our possession, right?

Yeah, that would work as long as it hadn't been recently registered with Verizon, as they have some sort of inventory system around IMEIs. In theory, anybody here with a non-VZW LE could share their SIM with a VZW customer to allow for customer service to send the SIM to be used in a KEY2.

[jw_cb]

I joined today specifically to thank everyone here for the great help that you have provided me. The story:

I have used BB exclusively for over a decade. My Priv's speaker died last week and I could have lived with that except for not hearing the phone ring. It certainly wasn't worth having it repaired, and as everyone here probably knows, it is a pretty slow device. So time to upgrade.

I bought a black Key2 from Amazon and tried a simple SIM switch which obviously didn't work. I went to the Verizon store yesterday to get a new CDMA-less SIM which they gave to me with no hassles. The service person tried to get the Key2 to work by himself for a while with no luck. Total time: 45 min wait plus another 30 mins for the sales guy to mess around.

Once home, I did the network preference LTE/GSM - reboot - CDMA - reboot - LTE/GSM - reboot shuffle and the SIM was recognized and I had LTE data. I did not have phone, so I put it down figuring that I would call tech support today. An hour or two later, my wife accidentally butt dialed me and my phone rang! Not sure what changed, but it has been working ever since.

The only remaining issue is that receiving texts is not working yet. I spent 30 minutes on tech support today and instructed him on the SFO 83856 to no avail. I had to have a second phone available since I had to reboot several times and he also had me remove the SIM for a while. He also needed my VZW PIN for some reason, probably account authorization. I had to end the call for another important call, so it was not their fault that it hasn't been resolved yet. I will try again later.

I also used the VZW Content Transfer app and that seemed to work pretty well, but I am not throwing away the Priv until I am sure that there is no info remaining on it.

So thanks again to everyone for the help to get this far, I will update you as soon as text receive is working or if there are any new issues (like the service interruption mentioned above).
So after less than a day of trying to get everything functional, I am almost but not quite there yet, fingers crossed.

[jw_cb]

Update since this morning:

The second call to VZW tech support went better, the tech seemed much more comfortable with the problem. He said that CDMA-less text provisioning was not earlier enabled on my old Priv, so he had to enable that first, then transfer the provisioning, they could not just add it to a non-supported/generic phone. So I had to put the old SIM card into the Priv, turn it on and he tried to make it work.

It was not successful, but he was very confident that when he escalated the problem to the next level that they would solve it, they just had higher level authorizations to do things. He said that if the service wasn't working in 2-3 days (that was the official time, but it is usually a day), then to call back.

The Key2 had to be powered down for most of the call, so calling from a second phone was a good idea.

About 30 more minutes expended. Fingers still crossed, will advise if/when text reception is enabled.

[Ricky Nardis]

I joined today specifically to thank everyone here for the great help that you have provided me. The story:

I have used BB exclusively for over a decade. My Priv's speaker died last week and I could have lived with that except for not hearing the phone ring. It certainly wasn't worth having it repaired, and as everyone here probably knows, it is a pretty slow device. So time to upgrade.

I bought a black Key2 from Amazon and tried a simple SIM switch which obviously didn't work. I went to the Verizon store yesterday to get a new CDMA-less SIM which they gave to me with no hassles. The service person tried to get the Key2 to work by himself for a while with no luck. Total time: 45 min wait plus another 30 mins for the sales guy to mess around.

Once home, I did the network preference LTE/GSM - reboot - CDMA - reboot - LTE/GSM - reboot shuffle and the SIM was recognized and I had LTE data. I did not have phone, so I put it down figuring that I would call tech support today. An hour or two later, my wife accidentally butt dialed me and my phone rang! Not sure what changed, but it has been working ever since.

The only remaining issue is that receiving texts is not working yet. I spent 30 minutes on tech support today and instructed him on the SFO 83856 to no avail. I had to have a second phone available since I had to reboot several times and he also had me remove the SIM for a while. He also needed my VZW PIN for some reason, probably account authorization. I had to end the call for another important call, so it was not their fault that it hasn't been resolved yet. I will try again later.

I also used the VZW Content Transfer app and that seemed to work pretty well, but I am not throwing away the Priv until I am sure that there is no info remaining on it.

So thanks again to everyone for the help to get this far, I will update you as soon as text receive is working or if there are any new issues (like the service interruption mentioned above).
So after less than a day of trying to get everything functional, I am almost but not quite there yet, fingers crossed.

fwiw i was able to do all this with an old stye SIM card. Same issue of not being able to receive texts. so do the sim cards matter? my SIM comes out of an iphone.

[jw_cb]

Per the earlier posts here and the VZW tech that I spoke to, you do need a new SIM to enable CDMA-less texting.

[tigrute]

I went the new SIM card / KEY2 LE to KEY2 route, but out of curiosity tried a new SIM (courtesy of a different Verizon store that doesn't care about the IMEI / phone at all) directly in the KEY2 and didn't run into issue aside from provisioning CDMA-less texting, and texts came through seconds after it was provisioned by technical support. I suspect a new SIM is definitely needed in this process.

[tigrute]

I will add that fiddling with the SIM provisioning to activate video calling is not a good idea for anybody who has a KEY2 working on Verizon. It may result in your KEY2 being blacklisted by IMEI...

[VJgamer]

Yes, with the old SIM you can only get data. Voice and SMS/MMS will not work until you get a new SIM.

[azmojo]

I will add that fiddling with the SIM provisioning to activate video calling is not a good idea for anybody who has a KEY2 working on Verizon. It may result in your KEY2 being blacklisted by IMEI...

Can you explain? I am not familiar with any video calling other than skype or whatsapp. Are you suggesting that this won't work on a KEY2?

[jw_cb]

Update so far:

Multiple calls and hours on hold with VZW has produced: I am now back on my Priv with no speaker/ringer.

Last Mon they swore that second level support would escalate it higher and have it fixed in three days maximum.

On Thursday, nothing had happened so they opened an "NRB" ticket. Why didn't they open it before? No idea.

Saturday, I called back and they told me that the NRB had been returned with no action. Why? Because they couldn't do anything. Why? No idea. BTW, after almost two hours of being on hold over the past week, I was told that my case had no notes for future tech people to answer, just the NRB number. They opened a "DMD" number, which was supposed to mean that the IT department was going to work on it. No idea if it would work or not, no way of knowing when or if they would be successful, Check back in three days.

Today, called back for status, no status, Had to repeat the entire history for the tech of the day. Can't go fo another week without text, so had them switch my service back to the Priv. I now have text and voice on the Priv - but only 3G service (sigh). No idea why, will be calling VZW again.

I love the PKB, the Key2 had very fast surfing (with the Brave browser - You really need to check out the Brave browser) and a good enough other attributes to be my phone for the next several years. But without VZW support, it is a non-starter. They have a short window here to get it working or I will have to join the iPhone/Samsung masses. I sent some test texts on my wife's iPhone and I really don't see how you can do anything more than a quick text on a virtual keyboard. No wonder people walk into telephones poles with them.

I understand the poster before who claimed that it isn't VZW's fault, but they are partially liable. They set up the system that forces the phone vendors to jump through hoops and qualify their phones on VZW at a pretty steep cost. As a result, the number of phones has obviously shrunk to a handful, and TCL (BB could care less) can't spend the money to qualify every phone.

BB is down to 0.3% of new phones sold. We on this forum are correct that the Key2 with a keyboard is a very useful tool, but it doesn't matter, BB will be going the way of the dodo in the not too distant future.

Lastly, if anyone has a DETAILED explanation of what VZW tech support did to enable text on the Key2, I would love to hear about it. VZW tech support apparently has no knowledgebase to reference to solve this problem, they are floundering.

[jw_cb]

Last Update: VZW has officially informed me that there are no other escalation paths or options, that text reception is impossible on a Key2, and that they can not help me further.

Join the iPhone or Galaxy hordes. Sigh.

BB, it was a good run while it lasted. We will always have Q10.

[tigrute]

Can you explain? I am not familiar with any video calling other than skype or whatsapp. Are you suggesting that this won't work on a KEY2?

Video calling is in theory baked into the phone application, but this is not authorized by Verizon. Skype, Whatsapp, and other third party video calling is supported.

[tigrute]

Last Update: VZW has officially informed me that there are no other escalation paths or options, that text reception is impossible on a Key2, and that they can not help me further.

Join the iPhone or Galaxy hordes. Sigh.

BB, it was a good run while it lasted. We will always have Q10.

Simply told them I had a new Blackberry KEY2 LE and new SIM card that needed to be provisioned as a "CDMA-less device". That's the labeling on the checkbox they need to click.

[jw_cb]

Simply told them I had a new Blackberry KEY2 LE and new SIM card that needed to be provisioned as a "CDMA-less device". That's the labeling on the checkbox they need to click.

...and just to be clear, you can receive texts with no other help form VZW support?

[jw_cb]

Also, it s my understanding that when they scan or check the IMEI number, it shows up as a Key2, not a Key2 LE.

[azmojo]

Last Update: VZW has officially informed me that there are no other escalation paths or options, that text reception is impossible on a Key2, and that they can not help me further.

Join the iPhone or Galaxy hordes. Sigh.

BB, it was a good run while it lasted. We will always have Q10.

From the prior comments on here, it seems to me that you should re-phrase your request and try again with a brand new ticket and tech support rep.

[tigrute]

...and just to be clear, you can receive texts with no other help form VZW support?

Yes, that is correct.

[tigrute]

Also, it s my understanding that when they scan or check the IMEI number, it shows up as a Key2, not a Key2 LE.

It shows up as a "test device" to level 2/3 tech support, but enabling SMS on a new SIM configured for a KEY2 LE shouldn't require that escalation.

[tigrute]

From the prior comments on here, it seems to me that you should re-phrase your request and try again with a brand new ticket and tech support rep.

Since I now have a blacklisted KEY2, a working KEY2, and a working KEY2 LE (all in the name of seeing what VZW will let us get away with), I'd suggest getting a new SIM for a CDMA-less KEY2 LE when you into the store (you of course don't have it with you since it came in the mail while you were at work (milage varies by store)). If configured properly, SMS will work off the bat. If not, just tell tier 1 tech support that your KEY2 LE needs to be provisioned as a "CDMA-less device" and you should be in business.

[RAM73]

Attached is a Key2 LE thread started by a VZW rep one month ago that ultimately led to a VZW customer getting their Key 2 and Key2 LE phones to fully function.

Bc it seemed to good to be true, I then spoke with VZW tech who's a BB fan. His best advice was make sure you have a return policy before buying Key2 or Key2 LE but otherwise, everything listed in this thread should allow you to send/receive text, phone calls, etc.

Good luck, everyone!


https://community.verizonwireless.com/thread/950691