Galaxy S5 locked on Sprint, want to unlock and use on Verizon

[jjrowan]

I bought an almost new Galaxy S5 yesterday. My old phone is an HTC Thunderbolt which uses a large SIM card, S5 uses micro SIM. I called Verizon explained what I wanted to do asking if I could buy a Verizon SIM card for the Sprint S5. They said they don't sell SIM cards but bring both phones in and they'll try to activate the S5 on their network. Drove the 1/2 hour to their store, waited 10 minutes for someone to help, woman said can't do it. I said I called and they said to bring them down so they could activate, woman standing next to person helping me said she was one that spoke to me and said she'd see if she could activate, she could have asked for the MEID and told me over the phone. I asked if they'd sell me a micro SIM and activate it, they refused.

So I'm sitting here with a dying 4 year old Thunderbolt (goes through 4 batteries a day) and pristine S5. I'd read that I can unlock the S5 to use on any network but looking at Sprint's site says unlocking it won't make it work on another carrier's network.

Has anyone reading these forums ever successfully unlocked a Sprint Galaxy S5 and used it on Verizon? The 4G data network is extremely important part of this effort.

 

[Titillating]

http/www.droid-life.com/2015/02/05/us-wireless-carrier-bands-gsm-cdma-wcdma-lte-verizon-att-sprint-tmobile/

http/www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/SM-G900PZKASPR

That first link is a handy little cheat sheet when trying to see if network bands are compatible. The second is the official page, with specs, direct from Samsung, for the Sprint variant of the S5.

If you compare the network frequencies that S5 uses, you'll notice that its LTE frequencies are not the same as Verizons. That means you will not get 4G LTE service. The slower 3G networks share a frequency though, so you'll have that, in theory.

As for unlocking the phone, you need to contact Sprint, not Verizon. It's a Sprint phone, locked to a Sprint network, so it's Sprint's jurisdiction. This won't change the fact that you won't get 4G LTE though.