patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| Re: Question For Verizon Customers said by pnh102  :A friend of mine who has Verizon told me that in the web-based account manager, you can change the phone you use with the account by changing the ESN (or something similar). Has anyone tried this with a non-Verizon unlocked CDMA phone, like say, something from Sprint? Won't work on paper. A handset must be tested by Verizon to meet their requirements (all the requirements are available for the public to read). I believe you can also self-certify your handset if you have enough time and $1000s lieing around (you need a base station emulator for most of the tests, and at one point a trip to Bedminster NJ to VZW's headquarter for a A-GPS accuracy test).
The requirements include menu fragements and GUI layout/phone layout requirements to make it simple for VZW customer service reps to do troubleshooting on your phone when it goes out to subscribers. This "Open" platform is intended for phone OEMs and phone hardware developers with access to PCB fabrication and assembly, multiple Electrical Engineers on staff, 3d printers or plastic injection mold equipment and all of Qualcomm's docs and IP licenses. It is NOT intended for a garage amateur at all. I guess its intended for a 5-30 employee company.
Another requirement is you MUST provide PST software for your phone to VZW, so if a subscriber brings in your phone to a VZW store, the VZW store can tinker with its settings and plug it into their computer. The phone manufacturer is forbidden from distributing the PST program to subscribers. Another kind of shocking feature is that VZW requires the phones have push type configuration uploads, which exceeds their own standards (*228, which is a pull system), so if subscriber does hack/tinker with the phone, VZW will instantly reset it to what VZW wants. The settings are network specific settings of how the phone talks with the network, they don't control user experience.
Also all FCC and US Govt/Big Brother rules apply. TTY support, AGPS (although your phone must have a privacy menu, and there is a Open platform certification test for the privacy feature to make sure it works, also VZW says they do not have network initiated GPS reading, and phones aren't required to respond to a network initiated GPS reading (so no silently tracking your GPS coords)).
Once VZW approves the phone, then you mail them a list of ESNs to allow onto the network. The old days of activating any ESN will NEVER come back. Its illegal (no guarantee of AGPS support, or TTY, or users not getting stuff for free through hacks, or of Qualcomm being paid their IP fees). |
