- Everyone,
I spent a few hours at Verizon yesterday and we could not get my Passport to work on their network. I am in Reno in case someone wants to check out the bands here. They (Verizon reps) did admit that they are phasing out CDMA and moving to more conventional bands but it will take years. I gave up and walked across the street and had AT&T put the Passport on my family share plan. Works great on their 4G network. In addition, I actually had a Blackberry rep call me this morning asking how I liked my new Passport and if there were any questions. I asked about Verizon and she confessed that she has heard that question a lot and has no real answer. Only that the "higher ups" told her to say "more things are coming". She said that in a way that would lead me to believe that this does not include Verizon compatible Passports. So, I am not holding my breath and will just use it on AT&T for now. Sorry guys.
Kurt09-26-14 11:48 AMLike 0 - look at it from my side.. what is wrong with your carriers, that a phone company should make a model just for them? There are thousands of carriers around the world, imagine if all of them would have "special requirements"09-26-14 02:38 PMLike 0
- The person on Reddit was wrong. The SIM identifies you to Verizon and also checks if the device is in fact a valid Verizon device. So no. Dropping a valid SIM into a non-Verizon phone will get you nothing at all. It will just say invalid SIM. No LTE. Nothing.09-26-14 02:54 PMLike 0
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Regardless, this problem is going to be somewhat mitigated by Verizon going all-LTE with new phones in 2016. I say 'somewhat' because Verizon is still the largest user of LTE band 13, which replaces one relatively obscure tech spec (CDMA) with another. But putting band 13 in a phone is not going to be as much work as designing a CDMA phone. Whether Verizon allows these devices voLTE, or on their LTE band 4 network remains to be seen.
09-26-14 03:15 PMLike 0 -
Sorry to upset all you Verizon people that want this version of the Passport to work on Verizon. No matter what you try, it will not work according to my friend at Verizon. I am a Verizon Z30 user by the way.09-26-14 03:21 PMLike 0 - I have not personally tried that, But, I know someone that works at Verizon. They told me for sure that even if the phone has the proper LTE bands for Verizon it still will not work unless it is a VERIZON BRANDED phone with a valid Verizon IMEI. Verizon and Sprint are like this. They are very protective about what phones they will allow on their network.09-26-14 03:32 PMLike 0
- Everyone,
I spent a few hours at Verizon yesterday and we could not get my Passport to work on their network. I am in Reno in case someone wants to check out the bands here. They (Verizon reps) did admit that they are phasing out CDMA and moving to more conventional bands but it will take years. I gave up and walked across the street and had AT&T put the Passport on my family share plan. Works great on their 4G network. In addition, I actually had a Blackberry rep call me this morning asking how I liked my new Passport and if there were any questions. I asked about Verizon and she confessed that she has heard that question a lot and has no real answer. Only that the "higher ups" told her to say "more things are coming". She said that in a way that would lead me to believe that this does not include Verizon compatible Passports. So, I am not holding my breath and will just use it on AT&T for now. Sorry guys.
Kurt
Q10SQN100-2/10.3.0.1154 - CB1009-26-14 03:36 PMLike 0 - It's even more disappointing for those of us on Sprint, since even if Verizon works with Blackberry to commit to buying Passports with CDMA radios, I have zero confidence that Sprint would do so. I'm just waiting for my wife's contract on Sprint to expire next month so we can shop around for a better network. I've been on Verizon and AT&T in the past, and they are good enough, but no US carriers are all that great.09-26-14 04:45 PMLike 0
- Raino, you are definitely very knowledgeable but here I have to disagree unless you have a link that shows that information. My understanding about the band 13 LTE requirement was that Verizon had to make all their phones SIM unlocked, but that was so anyone could use a Verizon phone on other GSM networks. Not so anyone could use a NON-Verizon phone on Verizon's LTE network. The Passport does indeed have band 13 LTE, but as some here have said, it will not work on Verizon's network. As I suspected. The IMEI is not only checked by Verizon for a Blacklisted number, but it is also checked against their data base of Verizon Branded devices. If it is not in their database, no go.09-26-14 05:13 PMLike 0
- flyersfan76 likes this.09-26-14 05:24 PMLike 1
- Just an idea. Maybe if all the Verizon guys start tweeting, emailing and Facebook AT&T and ask them if they'll buy you out of your contract with Verizon if you purchase a new Passport and sign a 2 year agreement. Maybe if enough people did it AT&T would consider it. Like I said, just an idea.
Rockin Z30 running 10.3.0.115409-26-14 06:20 PMLike 0 - This is true of Sprint--their networks are completely closed off (although, I wonder if anyone's actually tried one of those Chinese b41 phones on Sprint's b41 network...) But Verizon has one opening, although a very limited one: LTE band 13. VZW is required to allow any b13 device on their b13 LTE network. Your VZW contact is also correct about a Verizon IMEI being required--that's what the swap gets around. You perform an activation using a Verizon IMEI (the floor model,) and then put the SIM card in your phone. Of course, it won't get you much because voice is still over CDMA, but data should work.lift likes this.09-26-14 06:26 PMLike 1
- 09-26-14 07:29 PMLike 2
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Thanks. Looks like a bunch of provisioning issues. I have heard of some of them before, like "the LTE was oddly turned off," and of course, "SIM was too old" but of course that's not AT&T-specific.09-26-14 08:08 PMLike 0 - Raino, you are definitely very knowledgeable but here I have to disagree unless you have a link that shows that information. My understanding about the band 13 LTE requirement was that Verizon had to make all their phones SIM unlocked, but that was so anyone could use a Verizon phone on other GSM networks. Not so anyone could use a NON-Verizon phone on Verizon's LTE network. The Passport does indeed have band 13 LTE, but as some here have said, it will not work on Verizon's network. As I suspected. The IMEI is not only checked by Verizon for a Blacklisted number, but it is also checked against their data base of Verizon Branded devices. If it is not in their database, no go.
This. They're required to allow a device to connect, but the text doesn't require them to allow activation. This is why the Asus Nexus 7 was able to work, if you first activated the SIM on another device.
Posted via CB1009-26-14 08:24 PMLike 2 - Has Verizon actually tried to use this language (or lack thereof) to get out of having to activate band 13-only devices? I wouldn't put it past them09-26-14 08:48 PMLike 0
- Thanks for the link Raino. That's for a tablet though. So even if that works for a Passport, none of the actual phone stuff will work like voice, text, etc. So basically you could just possibly end-up with a LTE data only Passport. What would be the benefit?09-26-14 09:48 PMLike 0
- Thanks. Do you have a link? I can't read your attached picture. My eyes are not so great or the picture is not so great.09-26-14 09:53 PMLike 0
- Right. No benefit right now, really, which is why I would try to dissuade anyone thinking of buying one for Verizon. But...down the line, if hell freezes over and Verizon makes voLTE available to all capable devices, things could get interesting.09-26-14 11:10 PMLike 0
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