I’m looking for an upgrade on my CDMA carrier in the US and it really seems like my only options are Samsung, Pixle, Motorola, or IOS.
Am I missing something or do companies just not support this technology?
I got excited about the zenphone 10, but it looks like it is GSM only.
I’m not aware of any carriers in the US that still support CDMA. Verizon and Sprint were the big two, and neither supports CDMA anymore.
US Cellular is the only one, and they’re planning a shutdown of CDMA “soon”.
I’d advise OP to seriously reconsider. GSM won that war.
So I’m not personally locked into CDMA vs gsm, its just that the carrier appears to be. The exact quote from the device page is
“[US Version] Compatible with GSM Networks including AT&T, T-Mobile and MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) who utilize AT&T and T Mobile networks. This device is not compatible with CDMA Networks such as: Verizon, Sprint and US Cellular”
Looking at it more, it sounds like the problem is specifically the 13 band not being supported by the device.
I don’t think verizon uses CDMA anymore, they’re on LTE/5G now. I would double check if you really need CDMA, or just a verizon supported phone.
If thats the case then this just made my day! I’m not really sure how to verify that it works without buying one, but I guess I can do some reading.
Can confirm here, am on Verizon and they 100% support fully-GSM devices assuming the LTE bands line up.
(I’ve had Oneplus 6T, 7T, and Sony Xperia 5 ii on Verizon, all of which are not CDMA compatible)
Thank you for your response. Did you have any issues with 5g on any of these phones?
Everything works except wifi calling which Verizon only allows whitelisted IMEIs to do. VoLTE, visual voicemail, etc all work fine.
I’ve never tried mmWave 5G (no coverage where I live), but regular 5G works fine.
CHECK! THE! BANDS!!!
Checking the bands is the difference from having slow, basically 3g speeds, and having full lte and 5g.
Most modern phones support the common 4g bands, a few years ago stuff like 700 and 1900 weren’t as uniform, but 5g is critical, everyone has their own bands and there’s a really good chance you might only get a minimum and highly oversubscribed band between your carrier and phone.
From what I can find Verizon supports n77 , n260, n26, n2, n5, n66.
The listed Specs for the Zenphone 10 shows the following.
US version DC-HSPA+ (DL/UL): 42Mbps / 5.76Mbps ; LTE 7CA (DL/UL) 2.0Gbps / 211Mbps 5G NR FR1 (DL/UL): 4.92Gbps / 0.55Gbps
5G Non-Standalone (NSA): n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n25, n38, n40, n41, n66, n71, n77, n78
5G Standalone (SA): n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n25, n38, n40, n41, n66, n71, n77, n78
FDD-LTE (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 30, 66, 71)
TD-LTE (Bands 34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
WCDMA (Bands 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 19)
EDGE/GPRS/GSM (2, 3, 5, 8)
Does that seem like enough overlap?
The bands are going to be region-specific. Some areas use some bands, others don’t. Just depends where you live and the nearby towers.
In the early days (2016 ish) Verizon had very limited LTE coverage, but now I haven’t had any issues traveling anymore with unsupported bands.
CDMA and GSM are both dead in the US. However MVNOs, who contracturally not allowed to mention the name of the MNO they operate on, have adopted the convetion of using CDMA to refer to Verizon and GSMT or GSMA to refer to T-Mobile or AT&T.
CDMA is a two+ generation old network technology that’s not supported by any major carriers. Curious why you want a device like this? Pretty sure US Cellular is the only carrier of any significant size with an active CDMA network, and even they have been pretty aggressive about moving customers over to GSM devices since 2022.
Its not that I want it. Its what my carrier uses. I would consider changing, but I’d have to get my family to cone with me.
What carrier?
Verizon. It sounds like they specifically don’t have the 13 band.
I think you may want to talk to Verizon and make sure you’re clear on network requirements before you buy a new phone - Verizon shut down the remainder of their CDMA network on December 31, 2022.
Furthermore, Verizon supports LTE and 5G-NR which are GSM technologies, so any modern unlocked phone should work without issues.
Thank you for your response on this. I’ll dig in a bit to see if this will work or not.
I hear your frustration. My last couple phones have all been carrier unlocked models for that specific reason. But I agree that the brands you’ve listed seem to be the largest players producing phones supporting CDMA and GSM
AFAIK CDMA is basically on life support at this point.
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