What about my Verizon / Sprint / Cricket / Alltel / U.S. Cellular / MetroPCS / Qwest phone?
Verizon and Sprint (except Nextel which Sprint just acquired) both operate on the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) network. Verizon generally do not lock the phones it sell, and you may reprogram it either over the air or manually when switching to another CDMA provider. However, in order for it to work properly, a PRL (Preferred Roaming List) should be uploaded into the phone. Sprint locks all the phones they sell and will not release the unlock code or SPC (Service Provider Code). According to Sprint (subject to change, please double check this with Sprint), they will not activate any CDMA phone that was not sold by Sprint. While you can make some Sprint phones into Verizon, due to Sprint’s activation policy, the other way around is not possible at this time. It is also possible to change some Sprint, Verizon, Qwest or Alltel phone into Cricket or vice versa. Since CDMA is a different technology from GSM, you cannot use a CDMA handset on a GSM network (e. g. using a Sanyo 8400 or
