Unlocked S7 on Verizon?

[906Dude]

Has anyone had success in activating an unlocked S7 on Verizon? Model number SM-G930U?

I purchased one directly from Samsung. Put in the SIM from my iPhone 5. I was able to make precisely one phone call immediately after installing the SIM. Then I texted the same person, and the text failed to send. From that point forward, the S7 refuses to connect to the Verizon network.

The Verizon support rep whom I spoke with says the phone might not work on the Verizon network. So I may end up returning it and buying an iPhone instead. He was not able to do anything on his end to enable the phone to connect.

For now, I've returned my SIM to my iPhone, and that phone connects just fine.

It's a long shot, but I thought I would post here in the event that I'm missing some key step in getting the S7 to connect.

 

[anon(632115)]

The phone should work on the network but Verizon have to approve it. Try speaking to a more knowledgeable rep

 

[906Dude]

The problem might be my SIM. It occurred to me to try the one from my wife's iPhone 5s. Much better results. I was able to make calls, and to send and receive some texts. Although I texted two people, and only got a result back from one. So I have a little doubt there, but I am encouraged enough to try and make the two-hour round-trip this evening to the Verizon store for a newer SIM. I'll report back tomorrow w/the outcome.

 

[jadkai]

The SM-G930U definitely works on Verizon. For me, I only had to move the SIM card from an iPhone 6 into the S7. The only thing special I had to do was the usual iPhone->Android thing of turning off iMessage so that iPhone users sending me a message wouldn't try to send it through iMessage anymore.

You won't have visual voicemail or a few other features with the U firmware. I've read you can flash the SM-G930V firmware onto it to get those features back if you care about them, but I haven't tried it to confirm personally.

 

[906Dude]

So I ended up making the hour drive one-way to the Verizon store. The lady there didn't even blink, clearly knew her business, and had the phone going in minutes. She even picked up on the fact that a local Radio Shack outlet had sold me an iPhone SIM that morning by mistake. The phone is working, and I can make calls and send and receive texts.

Lack of Visual Voicemail's a bummer. Can I just install Verizon's app for that? I guess I'll try it and see.

 

[jadkai]

I don't think you can just install the Visual Voicemail app, or at least I haven't found a trustworthy source for the APK if it is possible. To be honest, I'm seriously considering trying to flash the SM-G930V firmware, because it's looking like the SM-G930U is dead last in line to get security updates. As we speak, Verizon got an update a few days ago and the unlocked firmware is still sitting on the September 1 patch level. Verizon is getting updates faster.

I think there is a nasty piece of bloatware in the Verizon firmware that needs to be disabled, but if the unlocked firmware isn't getting updates faster than the carriers and it also costs features then I'm not sure I see the point.

 

[JoshDunc]

It should work. Just curious though, once an unlocked S7 is activated on a VZW account, does it download all of the bloatware that VZW notoriously has?

 

[jadkai]

No. As long as you stick to the SM-G930U firmware, you won't get Verizon bloatware. That's also why you don't get visual voicemail and all that.