Looking to get an S3; need help!!!

aceinyaface3

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Oct 2, 2012
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New to the group, so if I make any mistakes, if I use the wrong terminology or ask the wrong questions, please let me know.

I'm in the process of looking for a phone, and the Galaxy S3 looks like the only real logical choice. I have run into a few walls, though, and would love some input from anyone with experience, which I certainly lack. I have quite a few questions, so I'll try to keep them numbered, so if you have an answer to one and not the others, I welcome it.

Let me start by prefacing with my situation. I live in the US. I've gone about 2 months without a phone, allowing VZW to close my account. Couldn't afford to keep it, and was okay with not having it, tbh. So, I go back, now that I kinda need a phone these days, and see what needs to be done to buy a phone. They tell me that I have a price to pay, and once I pay that, I can upgrade. But, then they tell me that once I upgrade, I will no longer have my unlimited data. Well, I don't want any part of a contract that caps my data. So I know the alternative is to either leave VZW or to buy a phone outright. It's most likely that I can't afford a phone outright. I'm sure most of us can empathize. So I've been knocking around the idea of buying an ATT phone and unlocking it to put it on VZW. So, I suppose question 1 would be, is this even possible?

I start doing all of this research about cdma and gsm and lte and upper lte, and realize that a lot of it is just completely over my head. But I'm curious if anyone has ever managed to completely unlock phones. I know phones can be unlocked in certain ways, but , question 2, has anyone ever unlocked a phone, specifically the S3, to where it was unlocked enough to undo the restrictions that would prevents a phone from going from ATT's network to VZW's?. I know that there is no difference in hardware in any of the different models from carrier to carrier. But I'm also aware that carriers will disable cdma if their company uses GSM and vice versa, so I'm curious if those can be adjusted or enabled once the phone is unlocked.

I've also seen the international version, the GT-I9300. I thought I read somewhere that this works anywhere in the world, but I cannot find where I read that, so, question 3 would be, would this work for me on VZW in the US? And I mean completely be functional, not where cdma works, but lte doesn't, or vice versa.

Any answers, advice, notions you have are all appreciated. The ultimate goal here is to get an S3 to work on VZW, but not from VZW, as I don't want to lose my unlimited data. I REALLY cannot afford to just buy a phone outright, so this isn't really an option, more of a last resort.

I do plan on rooting my phone, but that's a bridge I can only cross once I get to it LOL. THANKS GROUP!
 
Answer to your 1st and 2nd question is no, it won't work - VZW GS3 will not work on ATT and vice versa as they are effectively 2 different models that work on different frequencies and cellular technologies.

3. - International GS3 will not work on VZW for the same reason as above.
 
I read an interview that said that all of the models have essentially the same hardware. My question was more about whether or not there is the ability to adjust the differences, ie being able to change the frequency of the phone to that of the carrier
 
You partially correct they have similar hardware, BUT radio chips are different, so it would be impossible for an AT&T GS3 or International GS3 to work on VZW. The only phone which is capable of this is iPhone 4S/5, even then I think you would need to get phone from VZW.
 
Sorry what I meant was that iPhone contains both GSM and CDMA technologies which allows it to work on ATT and VZW. Whether you can take an ATT phone VZW I don't know.
 
surely the gt-i9300 will work (with no LTE obv') on any network worldwide?
or at least be flashable to the correct baseband?

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess ;)
 
ps isnt there the "developer version" of verizon s3 that can be bought outright?
(think i remember it from AC podcast...)

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess ;)
 
I read an interview that said that all of the models have essentially the same hardware. My question was more about whether or not there is the ability to adjust the differences, ie being able to change the frequency of the phone to that of the carrier

Why not just buy an AT&T/T-Mobile phone and use it on straight talk? Easy and cheap

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using Android Central Forums
 

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