Can I use 3g-sim by China Telecom on Droid Charge?

vincent23
Newbie

I am a Chinese user and I am confused.I bought Droid Charge from USA on Ebay. I am trying to use 3g-sim by China Telecom on Droid Charge. Theoretically, Droid Charge support 3g-sim, but my CDMA-SIM cannot be read by the cellphone. I would like to know whether it is because the Sim slot of Droid Charge dosen't go with 3g-sim, or VERIZON has set up a network lock to keep off the signals of other companies?

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1 Solution
Tidbits
Legend

Ann is correct...

 

The Droid Charge is not w world phone, and it DOES NOT have a GSM radio.  It has a CDMA radio and a LTE radio which work differently than GSM.  China GSM carrier frequencies DO NOT match up with the CDMA or LTE radio(They do not have LTE). So the Droid Charge will not work whether "unlocked or not" due to differences in technology.

 

A would phone like Blackberry makes has a GSM as well as a CDMA radio so that's why it works as you have a GSM radio that works with most frequencies around the world.

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14 Replies
Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader
No, you can't use a SIM card from a different carrier other than Verizon. No, Verizon will not unlock the phone either.

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.

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kwm1337
Contributor - Level 1

Yes, I have used another carrier's SIM card in a Verizon phone. The issue here is the fact that the subscriber is restricted by regulations imposed by his region's government. Source: First Hand Experience of my knowledge is not only have I done another carrier's card in my phone with no issues, but I have traveled to China and Asia in general many times. It is just simply his specific case.

 

Best of luck to you all,

--kwm1337

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Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader

kwm1337 wrote:

Yes, I have used another carrier's SIM card in a Verizon phone. The issue here is the fact that the subscriber is restricted by regulations imposed by his region's government. Source: First Hand Experience of my knowledge is not only have I done another carrier's card in my phone with no issues, but I have traveled to China and Asia in general many times. It is just simply his specific case.

 

Best of luck to you all,

--kwm1337


The DROID Charge is not a world phone and is not designed to use a GSM carrier's SIM card.

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.

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vincent23
Newbie

Hello, I would like to know whether the phone you mentioned is Droid Charge.

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Tidbits
Legend

Ann is correct...

 

The Droid Charge is not w world phone, and it DOES NOT have a GSM radio.  It has a CDMA radio and a LTE radio which work differently than GSM.  China GSM carrier frequencies DO NOT match up with the CDMA or LTE radio(They do not have LTE). So the Droid Charge will not work whether "unlocked or not" due to differences in technology.

 

A would phone like Blackberry makes has a GSM as well as a CDMA radio so that's why it works as you have a GSM radio that works with most frequencies around the world.

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kwm1337
Contributor - Level 1

Ann154 wrote:
No, you can't use a SIM card from a different carrier other than Verizon. No, Verizon will not unlock the phone either.

Indeed for the phone in question this is only correct [that it will not work] because as mentioned below the phone does not support GSM, however another phone with GSM support would work just fine. My point stands that you can use a SIM card from a different carrier other than Verizon.

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majael
Contributor - Level 1

kwm1337 wrote:

Ann154 wrote:
No, you can't use a SIM card from a different carrier other than Verizon. No, Verizon will not unlock the phone either.

Indeed for the phone in question this is only correct [that it will not work] because as mentioned below the phone does not support GSM, however another phone with GSM support would work just fine. My point stands that you can use a SIM card from a different carrier other than Verizon.


That's odd... I went back through this thread and your point was quite different.  As you stated it:

 

"The issue here is the fact that the subscriber is restricted by regulations imposed by his region's government. Source: First Hand Experience of my knowledge is not only have I done another carrier's card in my phone with no issues, but I have traveled to China and Asia in general many times."

 

While your point may have been valid, it didn't address the question asked -- can the SIM card be used in this specific phone. The answers that had been provided were accurate to the extent that the use of the foreign SIM card designed for other phones would not work in this one.  The additional comment about other phones using foreign SIMs was at best confusing and deserved clarification.

 

Let's not turn this into a flame war...

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Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader

kwm1337 wrote:

Ann154 wrote:
No, you can't use a SIM card from a different carrier other than Verizon. No, Verizon will not unlock the phone either.

Indeed for the phone in question this is only correct [that it will not work] because as mentioned below the phone does not support GSM, however another phone with GSM support would work just fine. My point stands that you can use a SIM card from a different carrier other than Verizon.


I was only addressing the specific question of using a foreign SIM card in the DROID Charge and no other phone.

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.

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butlerpd1
Newbie
it will work if it is a world phone on verizon aka droid pro etc..
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nicole123456789

China Telecom uses a CDMA network and NOT a GSM network.  The GSM problem is not related to the question.  I moved to China from the US and have the same problem (I have a droid charge which won't accept the China Telecom SIM-CDMA card).  I asked Verizon and they said the problem was the phone is locked. After that, they refused to unlock the phone so I'm not sure if they gave me a correct answer.

Anyone know anything about unlocking the droid charge?

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Tidbits
Legend

You need to show proof you were a Verizon customer and then ask for the unlock code, and unflagging of your device.

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nicole123456789

They told me that they only unlock active phones.  They wouldn't help me because I was no longer using their service.

When I put in the SIM, I get the message "Warning: SIM card is from an unknown source."

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nicole123456789

I'm also not saying I know that's for sure what the problem is. I was asking them to explain why the phone doesn't work on China Telecom CDMA network when the phone is set-up for CDMA. Their response was because the phone is locked and we won't unlock it since you are no longer a Verizon Customer.

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silver6056
Specialist - Level 1

What message do you get when you try to use the SIM?  Is it something like Network Unlock Code, Subsidy Code etc?  Just wonder how it compares with the GSM case.  

This is all fairly new because until the LTE phones, Verizon didn't support SIMs for CDMA at all phones (even on "world" you had to roam on CDMA, whereas  you could unlock GSM and use a local SIM).

As far as I know, none of the 4G phones (when running ICS) seem to need an unlock code for GSM, so I'm not sure that unlock procedures even exist for CDMA SIMs on Verizon.  But hopefully someone else knows better!

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