Will a Samsung S4 purchased at TMobile work with MetroPCS ?

Casey Cheung

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If a new Samsung Galaxy S4 is purchased at TMobile (whenever it's available), will that same phone work with an existing account at MetroPCS ?

I'm asking this question for a friend who wants to keep her existing MetroPCS account because of her existing $55 monthly plan for everything.

I already know that TMobile would charge noticeably more versus MetroPCS for the same "everything" plan.

Thanks,
Casey
 

scorpiodsu

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I don't think so. I believe Metro is CDMA. Although they have LTE, I don't think the networks are compatible and a tmobile phone can work on it.
 

Casey Cheung

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That's too bad. I guess my friend will have to wait until MetroPCS gets their shipment of new toys, which is usually some time later.
 

Raptor007

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I had to look that up, its really weird that a CDMA carrier and GSM Carrier would merge. I mean I get the LTE & AWS spectrum would be beneficial but the migration of MetroPCS customers to GSM and the rebuilding of the combined infrastructure is going to take years and BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars to redo. That is just crazy.
 

IAmSixNine

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I had to look that up, its really weird that a CDMA carrier and GSM Carrier would merge. I mean I get the LTE & AWS spectrum would be beneficial but the migration of MetroPCS customers to GSM and the rebuilding of the combined infrastructure is going to take years and BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars to redo. That is just crazy.
Not really.
LTE is more universal then GSM /CDMA was or is.
So with TMO going to LTE and Metro already having a bunch of LTE up, those two networks are actually compatible as long as the devices have the right frequency bands.
Metro does have a lot of spectrum and a lot of LTE build out in some major metro areas. That is key to TMO being able to get a leg up on LTE as they can do some back haul updates to allow TMO and Metro customers use the same network.
Now that is in theory. In practical applications yes it will take time and money. But GSM and CDMA are going away anyway in a few years time and LTE is the wave of the future so its not like CDMA / GSM wasnt already going away.
THey have also stated that the two companies will continue to operate with 2 customer bases. TMO will no focus on post paid / business - corporate sales while Metro can focus on pre paid customers.
 

dlgray84

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Everyone here has given you wrong information. Tue Answere is yes. Tmobile galaxy s4 is gsm and metro pcs s4 is gsm. You need to get the Tmobile s4 unlocked though. Metropcs was just cdma but since the merger they are making adaptations. They are even advertising to bring your unlocked gsm phones to metro and sign up for a plan. I have a gsm galaxy s4 on MetroPcs right now. It works great.
 

IAmSixNine

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dlgray84 your statement of everybody giving the op wrong information is in itself wrong.
I wrote my statement in may. At the time it was and still is correct.
Now in a few select markets metropcs is letting customers bring in unlocked gsm devices to be used with metropcs accounts on the t-mobile network.

However at the time of the initial post that was not possible. It had to be a cdma device flashed to metro and their imei added to metro database.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using AC Forums mobile app
 

Casey Cheung

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Everyone here has given you wrong information. Tue Answere is yes. Tmobile galaxy s4 is gsm and metro pcs s4 is gsm. You need to get the Tmobile s4 unlocked though. Metropcs was just cdma but since the merger they are making adaptations. They are even advertising to bring your unlocked gsm phones to metro and sign up for a plan. I have a gsm galaxy s4 on MetroPcs right now. It works great.

Are you able to use Foxfi for wireless wifi tethering on your MetoPCS Samsung S4 ? I know the previous Samsung S3 works with Foxfi, but I'm wondering about the new S4 phone. Thanks, Casey