Xfinity, Swapping SIMs w/ Vzw

[tscottme]

I know Xfinity says they don't support any phones but the ones they sell. Can I put Xfinity SIM into out of contract postpaid Verizon phone and use it on Xfinity?

 

[tscottme]

Looking around Howard Forums it shows you can put your new Xfinity Mobile (XM) SIM into a Verizon phone and use your Vzw phone on your new/cheaper XM plan. The catch right now with XM is they don't offer Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). You have to buy some phone from XM to start XM service. Their cheapest phone is $135 or $7.50/mo for 24 months.

 

[rivrfreak]

I called them yesterday to see how I could get away with this. He said the cheapest phone they have is $1/month and was for the LG bolt or something along those lines.

Question - will I need to do anything special after swapping the sim to an UNLOCKED note 8? Any concerns of the sim not fitting or going with the unlocked variant instead of the Verizon variant?

I'm willing to give this a shot while Samsung is running promos for existing note 7 owners. Might even try trading the LG phone Comcast gives me for the refund if I can find a list of phones that qualify...

 

[natehoy]

Question - will I need to do anything special after swapping the sim to an UNLOCKED note 8? Any concerns of the sim not fitting or going with the unlocked variant instead of the Verizon variant?

tl;dr: SIM will fit, most frequencies Verizon uses are supported on the Unlocked, and what you will end up losing by going unlocked is features like WiFi Calling (aka Voice-over-WiFi), Voice-over-LTE, and probably Visual Voicemail.

I don't know if XFinity bakes anything special into their phones to support their WiFi hotspots. I doubt it.




SIMs are of several standard sizes. The X Charge (current cheapest thing I see on Xfinity) is a NanoSIM. The Note 8 also takes a Nano. So the SIM itself will move easily between them.


The unlocked Note 8 will be missing several features like WiFi Calling and Voice-over-LTE, and probably Visual Voicemail. These are all carrier-specific implementations that don't play well on other carrier-model phones.

Then you get into frequencies. Please bear in mind that the reference site I am using is unofficial (I have yet to see Sammy be good about publishing frequencies for their various models)


https://www.techwalls.com/samsung-galaxy-note-8-sm-n950-model-number-differences/

I have pasted the details and tidied them up a bit for the Verizon (first) and unlocked (second) models. It looks like the only frequency the Verizon one supports is 2G CDMA over 1900 (the old PCS frequencies), which I would hope aren't used in a lot of places any more since Verizon is deprecating them soon, I think.


SM-N950UZKAVZW Snapdragon 835 Verizon US

2G GSM: 850/900/1800/1900
2G CDMA: CDMA800,USPCS1900
3G UMTS: B1(2100), B2(1900), B5(850), B8(900)
3G CDMA: BC0(800), BC1(1900)
4G FDD LTE: B2(1900), B3(1800), B4(AWS), B5(850), B7(2600), B8(900), B13(700), B18(800), B19(800), B20(800), B26(800), B28(700)
4G TDD LTE: B38(2600), B39(1900), B40(2300), B41(2500)


M-N950UZKAXAA SM-N950U1 Snapdragon 835 Unlocked US

2G GSM: 850/900/1800/1900
2G CDMA: CDMA800 (BC0), CDMA1900 (BC1/BC14), CDMA800 (BC10)
3G UMTS: 2100 (B1), 1900 (B2), 1700/2100 (B4), 850 (B5), 900 (B8)
3G CDMA: CDMA800 (BC0), CDMA1900 (BC1/BC14), CDMA800 (BC10)
4G FDD LTE: 2100 (B1), 1900 (B2), 1800 (B3), 1700/2100 (B4), 850 (B5), 2600 (B7), 900 (B8), 700 (B12), 700 (B13), 700 (B17), 800 (B18), 800 (B20), 1900 (B25), 850 (B26), 700 (B28), 700 (B29), 2300 (B30), 1700/2100 (B66), 5200 (B252), 5800 (B255)
4G TDD LTE: TD-LTE2600 (B38), TD-LTE1900 (B39), TD-LTE2300 (B40), TD-LTE2500 (B41)