Is Verizon Now GSM? A Look at What This Means for Cellphone Users

Is Verizon Now Gsm: A Look at What This Means for Cellphone Users

For the longest time, iPhone owners on AT&T were unable to use their phones on any other network besides T-Mobile. This is a huge inconvenience to those who are used to the reliability of AT&T’s service and often have problems with dropped calls and sluggish connections. Fortunately, rumors have been swirling that Verizon will finally begin to allow the iPhone to be used on their network. This article will examine what this means for those who already own an iPhone on AT&T and will discuss how you can check if your phone is CDMA or GSM to determine whether it will work on the Verizon network.

Verizon has been phasing out their 3G CDMA network and will completely end it by 2022, so this is the last year you can purchase a device that runs on this technology. Most Verizon customers have moved on to their LTE networks that run 4G and 5G broadband, so it is no longer necessary to purchase a smartphone that uses this older technology.

The good news is that Verizon does sell smartphones that utilize both GSM and CDMA technologies. In fact, devices that are sold directly from the manufacturer (such as Apple and Samsung) often support both so that their customers can choose to use them on any carrier. This is because most major wireless carriers use different frequency bands to run their services, so they require that all of their phones be compatible with their networks.

You can also determine if your Verizon phone is GSM or CDMA by checking the IMEI number that is printed on its packaging. IMEI numbers are unique to each individual phone and act as the fingerprint of that phone, allowing it to connect with the specific network it is meant for. You can use a free online tool to check if your IMEI is CDMA or GSM, and you will be able to find out which network it will run on based on the results.

If you have a Verizon device with a CDMA SIM, you will be able to switch it to T-Mobile in 2020 as Ting will no longer be using their existing T-Mobile SIMs for those on their network. Ting will instead be using Verizon-backed SIM cards that are nicknamed V1 cards and will continue to offer both the T-Mobile and Verizon network options for its customers. Alternatively, if you have a jailbroken device that can disable the lock on your phone’s hardware, it will be possible to swap out the CDMA SIM with a GSM SIM in order to run your phone on both networks. GSM is the more common standard in the world, so it will be easy to find a SIM that works on your device. However, it is important to note that even if you are able to swap your SIM, you will likely still have the same issues of dropped calls and slow connections as you did before.