- Jan 1, 2013
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- 10,510
You can use any unlocked cdma phone that is unlocked by verizon. Starting with iphone 5 from vzw u can simply insert another carriers sim card and use it with that carrier. For example. I just bought a iphone 6. When it showed up i removed the verizon nano sim and replaced with my straight talk sim. Works great. I used straight talks verizon sim and was not able to use the 4g lte. So i changed to the att sim and now have awesome lte service. Obama made a law that all 4G phones be sold unlocked. Only can they be locked is if you do not pay whatever fees are associated with terminating your contract. If you finished out the contract then it will stay unlocked
Let's try to be a little civil here and not call others idiots. With all due respect you shouldn't be calling Billie an idiot because you are wrong. Here is the short and sweet of it. With Straight Talk if the phone is a CDMA technology phone (usually not using a sim card) it goes to Verizon towers. If the phone is a GSM technology phone (using sim cards) it usually goes to AT&T towers. So, when you bring your own phone to Straight talk and use their BYOP kit, it provides you with sim cards for a GSM phone, and therefore will go to AT&T towers.
Also something to note is that the major carriers have a tier program (or I call it a totem pole) of signal priorities. Take Verizon for example. Their contract customers get top priority to the signal, then their own prepaid customers get second priority, and finally the re-sellers like Straight Talk get third priority. That affects signal strength to a certain extent, meaning that contract customers usually get a stronger signal.
Just another note here for a case that is different. Cricket used to have their own towers that were CDMA towers. Since they were bought out by AT&T they are now a GSM carrier. The tiered or totem pole affect is not true with Cricket and the AT&T towers. Under the new structure Cricket has it's own dedicated AT&T towers and The old AOI towers.
Hope this helps and lets be civil here.
wewillchooseyourusername
Estimable
- Mar 23, 2015
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Peralex1 :
Iphone 5 from Walmart does not have a sim in it and runs on Verizon towers, data is only 3G - enough for me. 
I did lots of research in this area. I just switch my family over to Total Wireless, which is a brand of a Mexican company that operates Trac Fone, StraightTtalk, Simple Wreless, and a host of other small mvno. Verizon phones do carry sim cards for their 4G service. Most of these 3rd rate no contract companies run on the older 3G service, and Straight Talk does run off of Verizon's 3G network.. We have 2 LG G3, 2 LG G2, and a Droid Maxx which Total Wireless told me is not compatible with their service, Because we are trying to save some money we went with their least expensive phone, LG Optimus Fuel (look it up, man that hurt my heart, but my wallet will be happy).
I thought that I would be able to buy an unlock phone to use with Total Wireless, but after my research, it is clear to me that Verizon locked up their network pretty tight,t and finding a current phone with all the bells and whistles that phone junkies like me like to run on their network is next to impossible.
I thought that I would be able to buy an unlock phone to use with Total Wireless, but after my research, it is clear to me that Verizon locked up their network pretty tight,t and finding a current phone with all the bells and whistles that phone junkies like me like to run on their network is next to impossible.
I talked to NET10 about the SIM kits for Verizon phones and the BYOD...I wanted to activate my sons Verizon branded S4 Mini....After alot of beating around the bush he explained to me that Verizon Branded phones use the Verizon for talk and text and use ATT towers for data on their (Net10) network with their (Net10) SIM.. I assume Straight talk is the same since they offer the exact same package and are both tracfone.. It becomes real obvious once you see the APN settings for the so called Verizon BYOD kits.. they are identical to my daughters NET10 on ATT and My wifes Straight Talk on ATT towers.. This is right from NET10 folks.. I then called over to Verizon and asked about it and they told me that NET10 and Straight Talk do indeed use the CDMA portion for Talk and Text but do not use the LTE part of there signal..
theplumber
Estimable
- Aug 3, 2015
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I have a Droid Maxx, Note 3, Samsung S4 and LG G3 all on straight talk using Verizon Towers and 4G. They try very hard to get you to use the att or T-Mobile Sim cards and towers but where I live their service is spotty. If you call them and tell them that even though the att/tmobile coverage map is in your area it does not work in your home. And only Verizon works in your home. They will mail you the 4g LTE Sim card and then you will have awesome service at a great price. Especially since they pushed their hi speed limit up to 5 GB before throttle.
Many Sprint and Verizon phones now have SIM cards, but that isn't because of CDMA. The SIM cards are generally there for Sprint's and Verizon's 4G LTE networks, because the LTE standard also uses SIM cards. The phones may also have SIM slots to support foreign GSM networks as "world phones."Feb 6, 2015
lingaraju06
Distinguished
- Jan 9, 2010
- 1
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This is the answer, few years ago phones were built to work either with gsm or cdma and were configured so to work as manufactured and in those days gsm required a sim card but cdma did not, now a days all phones ( apple started this) are built to work on both networks and the carriers lock the phone to work only on gsm or cdma but phone has the capability to run on either networks, with verizon if u dont put a sim it means it only works with voice and 3g data and u put a sim like looking piece to work on 4g lte networks because verizon chose it was cheaper way to upgrade to 4g, so if u buy a new phone directly from factory it is unlocked and can work on any network, and if u go to straight talk u can get either cdma sim or gsm sim as sim is needed for cdma 4g, but the problem with cdma is u cant use voice and data simultaneously but on gsm u can do that, i bought 6s plus iphone and put in ntelos (cdma)sim and as far as i know it is sister company of us cellular and in areas i dont see ntelos it shows as roaming and i guess it is bouncing from sprint or verizon as they are cdma as well but not sure and so i went to walmart to get gsm straight talk i wanted to know if there is no att network will it bounce to t mobile which is also gsm and since my phone works with all networks will it bounce onto cdma from network if no gsm is available and they did not have an answer for that question, does anyone answer to it, thanks.
If you are on a "contract" with Verizon they do not have sim cards. I had one for 20 years. Best thing I ever did was pay to get out of my contract and sell my phone on the internet. But, if you buy the phone thru Walmart Straight talk on a month to month plan, they do have sim cards. And the average to better phones DO use Verizon or ATT towers. Cheaper ones use Sprint. I've had mine for over 2 years now and love it
hang-the-9
Titan
- Mar 25, 2010
- 20,148
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IRatchett :
Sorry but your Wrong, ALL new phones have sim cards now because of the LTE. Thanks
Yes that was gone over already, the SIM card for Verizon phones is not there to connect to the phone service itself, just to the data connection. The GSM phones use the SIM card to activate the phone, you can activate a Verizon phone without a SIM card or on 3G without a SIM card. Plus this is a 2 year old post, not every phone was on 4G then.
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