Fuck Verizon for not using sim cards

"dogisbadob" (dogisbadob) 06/04/2015 at 11:43 • Filed to: None

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My phone is dying; it won’t always turn on.

Normally this isn’t a problem because you can just take out the sim card and put it in your new phone and you’re good to go.

But Verizon chooses not to do this, so you have to reactivate each new phone you buy, and you lose all the settings on your old phone, especially if the old one doesn’t turn on.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > dogisbadob 06/04/2015 at 11:46

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How old is your phone? Verizon has been using SIM cards in their [4G] phones for years now.

spanfucker retire bitch > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul 06/04/2015 at 11:47

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That’s only for LTE data. It does nothing for voice and text which still goes over Verizon’s CDMA network.

Dukie - Jalopnik Emergency Management Asshole > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul 06/04/2015 at 11:49

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CDMA doesn’t use SIM cards anyway. The SIM is for your data side as 4G LTE uses a SIM.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > spanfucker retire bitch 06/04/2015 at 11:50

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You can still swap the SIM over to a new one, it’ll activate with the new phone and your voice/text/data will all work.

Worked at verizon for 4 painful years.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > dogisbadob 06/04/2015 at 11:50

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It’s not really a Verizon thing, it’s more a CDMA vs. GSM thing. For range and lower counts of towers for the same coverage, CDMA really is superior, but it’s taking some time to develop into a fully SIM-manageable system due to how the system manages devices. I’ll take the wider networks/actually being able to make calls where I am over phone settings any day. (I’m not a Verizon user, but my network piggybacks Verizon and is also CDMA).

If you really want to complain, complain at the makers of phones for CDMA networks. The activation things would still apply, but there’s nothing stopping them from having their phones make more extensive use of the SIM slot - since pretty much any 4G LTE phone uses SIM for data anyway...

GhostZ > dogisbadob 06/04/2015 at 11:53

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Verizon does this via a sync app of some kind. Check to see if they have a settings backup for you or something.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > Dukie - Jalopnik Emergency Management Asshole 06/04/2015 at 11:54

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It’s dual mode though. Once the SIM activates on the phone it’ll update the billing system to allow text and voice to run across the cdma network.

Billing system will just show “4G SIM” instead of the actual phone itself. But everything will work.

boxrocket > dogisbadob 06/04/2015 at 11:56

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Any particular reason you need to stay with them? Other carriers - notably T-Mobile - are aggressively buying folks out of their competitors contracts. If you have to get a new phone anyway....

Ash78, voting early and often > dogisbadob 06/04/2015 at 12:01

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This sounds like something I would have posted in 2001 about my Nokia 3390.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > dogisbadob 06/04/2015 at 12:03

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If you had a Windows Phone, your settings sync over your OneDrive account. Same for Apple through iTunes.

I’m sure Google also has such a feature.

If you’re still on a basic phone, you should think about joining the modern age... :p

dogisbadob > boxrocket 06/04/2015 at 12:04

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Yeah, but T’s service sucks and ATT sucks almost as much. Verizon’s service is actually good.

dogisbadob > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul 06/04/2015 at 12:07

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I got it a couple years ago, although it was made in 2009. One of these:

AthomSfere > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul 06/04/2015 at 12:08

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From experience though, this isn’t as reliable as it should be. We were told this for years (supported hundreds of VZW devices at a previous job) by Verizon, actual success rate: probably ~20%. Some devices 0%, some closer to 40%.

AthomSfere > dogisbadob 06/04/2015 at 12:10

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That’s the problem! I had VZW 8 years ago and got tired of their horrible customer service, and high prices. After 8 years w/ T-Mobile and Sprint I realized the network was worth the PITA.

dogisbadob > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 06/04/2015 at 12:29

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Why? I don’t need any of that shit, or the $40+ per month extra charge. The env3 does more than I need already. They should have never stopped making it.

Prior to that, I had this bad boy, the original. The V was an awesome phone, but sadly the charging port got busted (proprietary shit, not the Micro USB that later phones like the env3 have), but other than that the phone worked perfectly for 7 years and never had any problems.

Sampsonite24-Earth's Least Likeliest Hero > dogisbadob 06/04/2015 at 12:40

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If you have a 4G phone it’ll have a sim, my S5 has one as did my S4. Pretty much every phone Verizon sells now save for the dumb phones use a sim card

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > dogisbadob 06/04/2015 at 12:49

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Okay Grandpa.

Check out the low-end Lumia phones. You might be able to get one unlocked and just have a phone plan. If not, try looking at their pre-paid plans. They usually offer the same services for far less than the traditional contract plans.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > dogisbadob 06/04/2015 at 13:06

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Ahh, that explains it. The good ole env3

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > AthomSfere 06/04/2015 at 13:07

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Truth. Of the times it didn’t just swap over on its own the system would usually burn the SIM card number and lock it out until midnight. Fun times.

boxrocket > dogisbadob 06/04/2015 at 17:19

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Each carrier has their own pros and cons. Verizon has good 2G and 3G coverage, but sucks balls at software updates and tech support, especially for issues like yours where something simple could solve it but you have to go to a store, where a sales rep is all too happy to sell a new phone instead of fixing the problem. AT&T has an amazing and wide selection of handsets, but because consumers and lawmakers see/saw them as big evil “Ma Bell” even after the breakup, they’ve been handicapped at certain expansion efforts, including coverage and acquisitions (the opposite of which helped Verizon’s growth explode in the early 2000s). T-Mobile has a LOT of spectrum and has invested in the latest and greatest tech, to their credit, but have a relatively paltry phone selection and cater to the lower end of the market (not including exclusives negotiated between VZW & AT&T, which are an entire different animal). Sprint mostly sucks across the board, mostly through their own foolishness and hubris.