US Cellular Cell phone on Verizon?

[Ondine]

I'm interested in buying this phone:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-MO...0568267550?pt=Cell_Phones&hash=item1e6679a71e

but the seller tells me that since it was purchased through US Cellular, I won't be able to activate it on my Verizon plan. I've asked multiple Verizon employees, posted on a few phone forums, and checked some guides online and I'm still not sure whether this is true or not. The Verizon employees are pretty hesitant to answer--a few have said it is possible, but they seem unsure. Here are the guides that give me hope:

http://techtips.salon.com/activate-us-cellular-phone-onto-verizon-wireless-20327.html
http://www.thebluedot.net/activate/verizon.html

Now can someone tell me why this would or wouldn't work on the Razr2?

 

[cjmpe]

Technology wise, no problem, both carriers are CDMA so the technology is right.

I believe that there is network information flashed into the phones firmware that identifies what network the phone is to be registered to - you may need to reflash the phone with different firmware to allow it to do what you want. You had best check into that before you make any kind of commitment.

If you can verify that issue to your satisfaction, the next hurdle is Verizon. No carrier has a legal obligation to activate any given phone on their network, it is a total crap shoot. Until you show up with the phone in your hand, no one from Verizon is going to say yes or no, which is why employees seem unsure.

 

[Ondine]

Is is difficult to reflash a phone? I found a few guides but they're all pretty different from one another and a lot of them talk about doing it for the purpose of adding new themes and ringtones or some ridiculousness like that. If the phone uses the same technology as Verizon phones, I just don't understand why Verizon can't do this all for me. I went in today and they also said that if it doesn't say "Verizon" somewhere on the phone, then they can't activate it for me. Can't or won't? Because I don't see why that would make a difference.

 

[cjmpe]

Can't or won't comes back to my original post - if there is a firmware that locks the phone to USCC, then it comes down to can't because the phone won't look for the VZW network for its registration. Won't is - that the VZW employees aren't there to make the big policy decisions that you are asking for (and they certainly aren't paid to make them) - they are there to sell phones, sell plans and sell accessories - that is how they get promoted and performance measures probably go into how they are compensated.

Flashing a phone can be difficult, or easy, it depends on how popular the phone is. The really popular phones get lots of outside developers (hackers if you will) who take the time to understand the systems and produce some truly creative pieces of work with complete instructions on how to "do it yourself". The less popular phones suffer a bit. Either way, you will have to do it yourself because the process does carry a risk of creating a piece of rectangular building material so VZW rightly wouldn't take it on - also they probably don't have people on staff who do those sorts of things anyway - they likely contract out all repair and refurbishment. The other problem is finding a Verizon firmware online for the phone...

I just went to that e-bay listing then did a quick google search and couldn't see anything that indicated whether a flash would be required for that phone anyway, so it may be a moot point. From your experience at a store it sounds like VZW has answered your question - probably best to just give up at this point.