Cell companies and the various MVNO's either run on GSM or CDMA. With T-Mobile and AT&T working off of GSM and Verizon and Sprint using the CDMA technology. If memory serves, Verizon phones can run on GSM and vice versa, but with a Sprint CDMA phone, it's either Sprint or a Sprint MVNO or nothing. Same goes for if you want to take a GSM or Verizon CMDA phone to Sprint. No go. My guess is that your granddaughter either has a Sprint compatible iPhone or maybe it's still locked to a contract of some sort? Who knows how it's all going to shake out if T-Mobile and Sprint get the goa head to merge (besides likely higher pricing of course), but for now, that's more or less the breakdown. It would be best if everyone simply ran off of GSM like most of the world, but alas... Generally speaking, you're best off staying away from Sprint devices for this inconvenient factor alone. I've got a Sprint branded 5S, but it's my second line and I use it on Ting which uses the Sprint network along with T-Mobile's GSM and costs me roughly $20 a month.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Kimber Gardner Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2018 11:57 AM To: viphone <[email protected]> Subject: Why one iPhone6 can change carriers but another can't? Hi all, Hoping someone can shed some light on this issue for me. We are looking to change cell phone carriers. One of the phones we were hoping to bring along is a refurbished iPhone6 I bought for my granddaughter a couple years ago. The trouble is when I check the phone's eligibility using the IMEI number, it says the phone is not eligible to make the switch. I also have an old iPhone6 of mine, same model as my granddaughter's, but my phone is eligible. Can anyone explain why? Is it because I bought the phone refurbished? I bought it from Apple which was supposed to mean it was good as new, but maybe not? I really didn't want to have to buy a new phone since the whole point of switching is to save money. Any thoughts? Thanks, Kim -- Kimberly -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected]. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected]. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
