[SJ009]

I just read an article dated July 2018 regarding Verizon's eventual shutdown of its CDMA Network... "On its website, the carrier states that fully 90% of its network traffic is now going over its LTE network. And earlier this year, Verizon said that it has fully deployed VoLTE over its network, so 100% of its LTE sites have that capability, equating to its entire footprint." Could this be why TCL is reluctant to produce CDMA phones when their GSM phones may work on Verizon LTE? So what does one have to look for in the specs that would permit Blackberry GSM phones to work on Verizon LTE, assuming the phone is unlocked?

[Chuck Finley69]

VZW certification which the one model of KEYone has and no model of the Key2 has.

[Troy Tiscareno]

Verizon traditionally has never allowed "BYOD", but part of their license with the US government for some additional bandwidth was that they had to let any phone with LTE Band 13 onto their LTE data network. However, as you should have expected, Verizon only does the very minimum to comply with their agreement - they will activate the device, and it can get LTE data, but nothing else. No UTMS, no 3G anything, no hotspot, and perhaps most importantly, no VoLTE. That means: no phone calls.

Thus, on Verizon, you are still effectively stuck with phones that Verizon carries directly, or those whose manufacturers have paid for (and passed) Verizon's network testing.

TCL paid for the Verizon-specific model (only) of the K1 to be tested, so that phone has full support on Verizon. They have not paid for testing of the K2 and have not produced a Verizon-specific model (which may no longer be necessary).

So, only the Verizon-specific K1 will work on Verizon. No additional Verizon support has been announced. There has been some speculation that the upcoming K2 Lite may have a Verizon model, but that is pure speculation and nothing has been announced or leaked that might confirm or deny that.

It's also been speculated that K1 sales on Verizon weren't high enough to justify paying for testing of the K2 - which is quite likely to be true, but again, hasn't been officially confirmed.

All that we know for sure is that the K2 only works on GSM-based carriers in the US - AT&T and T-Mobile.

[pblakeney]

You don't want to know what I think about any of these carriers or BlackBerry right now. Feeling very abandoned having invested in supported over many years both companies to now have virtually nothing. Being forced to select products and services you don't want is just wrong.

[Chuck Finley69]

You don't want to know what I think about any of these carriers or BlackBerry right now. Feeling very abandoned having invested in supported over many years both companies to now have virtually nothing. Being forced to select products and services you don't want is just wrong.

How is that BBMo fault?

[Troy Tiscareno]

Carriers carry phones that make them profits - not just from the device sales but also phones that draw customers to the carrier in strong numbers and have minimal returns.

The BB brand has not performed well for carriers since the Storm was released a decade ago - and Verizon in particular has lost a ton of money on BB ($1B on the Storm alone, but also a lot on BB10).

Even though BBMo/TCL is a different company, the current products have very limited mainstream appeal (which is why many BB diehards like them!), and returns are still higher than average.

That's not the carriers' fault. TCL not paying for Verizon certification isn't Verizon's fault either - though if the cost of certification cannot be covered by sales, then you can't really be mad at TCL for refusing to lose money.

BB hasn't been mainstream for a long time now, and its niche has continued to shrink. You can't expect mainstream support or mainstream prices from a niche product - you pay more for less because the things you DO get are important to you.

If that equation is no longer true for you, then move on with no regrets. BB has no loyalty to you - they don't even make phones anymore - so your loyalty isn't helping anyone if it doesn't make you feel satisfied.

It's BBMo's job to make phones that sell well enough to draw in new customers and to minimize returns. You don't have to buy them out of a misplaced sense of loyalty - that arguably does more harm than good because it rewards a company's bad decisions - and that certainly contributed to BB's demise in the smartphone business.

If a company knows that they can't sell phones on loyalty, but only on the merits of the device itself, they are likely to work harder and make better decisions, and ultimately make a better product - or fail completely and leave the market.

[pdr733]

European here.
Just out of curiosity, could anyone link the list of phones Verizon has whitelisted?
Apart from those they actually carry, I mean.
Thank you.

[Jonmartinez74]

I call one of the verIzon level two tech support yesterday. So far good news they fill out the forms to whitelist the key2 for me. They said they will call me back in 1 two 3 business day.

[bobshine]

https://forums.crackberry.com/e?link...token=Lj6Nq0sP

You can check here which devices you’re able to bring to verizon