I brought an unlocked LG G6 to Verizon store today to get it activated and they were unable to do this. It appears I have 3 options:
1. Return device to bhphotovideo.com. Not sure what their return policy is.
2. Switch from Verizon to T-Mobile. Live in Silicon Valley close to San Jose, California. Their network is probably fine here.
3. Get an imei from an Android device with nano sim. The Verizon tech person said if I had a friend or family member with this they could get the unlocked G6 working on Verizon. Trouble is that I do not know anyone with an Android phone with nano sim. My old G4 used micro sim. The friends and family members have either iPhones or older Androids with micro sim.
So I could really use some advice here.
And in addition let this be a warning to anyone trying to get unlocked devices working on Verizon. I had read elsewhere that Verizon was now more friendly towards unlocked devices, but this was clearly not the case in my experience. Perhaps this is one reason Verizon is starting to lose customers for the first time in its history.
Cut your old micro sim to nano size put it in the G6 and fire it up. Then your new G6 will work and be in the Verizon data base.
Than sometime go in to Verizon and get a new nano sim. I have been down this road with unlocked phones and its not LG it is Verizon.
If you want to use the old G4 again you need a nano to micro adaptor.
I am using the US997 G6 from BH right now but my old phone used the nano sim so I just had to swap it out. Works perfect so long as you start with a Verizon sim that is already activated.
Earlier this week I activated a new SIM/device with my ancient Galaxy S3 IMEI and verizon sent me a 3-in-1 card that I punched down to the nano size cutout. Which allowed me to put my US997 on the network.
By the way, can you share if VoLTE, WiFi Calling or Video Calling work?
jiggyman said:
By the way, can you share if VoLTE, WiFi Calling or Video Calling work?
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I would like to know the same thing! Thanks
I got this phone all I did was take my sim out of my iphone put it in the g6 and boom it works. Verizon has no idea I have this phone. Lol
Update: got the LG G6 working on Verizon after all. We had to make sure the LG G4 is powered down in order for the activation to complete since the G6 was replacing the G4 on Verizon. And boy do I feel like an idiot for not knowing that. Surprising most of the Verizon staff did not suggest to do this.
I received mine and activated it yesterday. VoLTE works perfectly. No Video/WiFi Calling though. I love this phone! No bloatware!
Sent from my LGUS997 using Tapatalk
jiggyman said:
I received mine and activated it yesterday. VoLTE works perfectly. No Video/WiFi Calling though. I love this phone! No bloatware!
Sent from my LGUS997 using Tapatalk
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Are there any other differences between the US997 model and the Verizon VS988, other than lacking wifi calling? (I don't know anyone who actually uses verizon video calling, iphone people use facetime, and as android user I'd always just use duo, hangouts or skype)
How do you tst if VoLTE is working?
I'm also curious about this process. I've done a lot of searching, but haven't been able to find a direct answer yet.
I'm considering buying a Sprint G6, then unlocking it to use it on Verizon. Is this even possible? Obviously, they're both CDMA. And appear to have the bands necessary for Verizon. But I've had trouble in the past with unlocking Sprint devices to work on Verizon.
Any insight is greatly appreciated.
madmax988 said:
Are there any other differences between the US997 model and the Verizon VS988, other than lacking wifi calling? (I don't know anyone who actually uses verizon video calling, iphone people use facetime, and as android user I'd always just use duo, hangouts or skype)
How do you tst if VoLTE is working?
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VoLTE worked out the box for me on Verizon. I just inserted my SIM and checked, and it was enabled. WiFi calling does not work on most unlocked phones, and the US997 unlocked edition is no different here. Video calling through the carrier does not work either.
Sent from my LGUS997 using Tapatalk
htcnext said:
I brought an unlocked LG G6 to Verizon store today to get it activated and they were unable to do this. It appears I have 3 options:
1. Return device to bhphotovideo.com. Not sure what their return policy is.
2. Switch from Verizon to T-Mobile. Live in Silicon Valley close to San Jose, California. Their network is probably fine here.
3. Get an imei from an Android device with nano sim. The Verizon tech person said if I had a friend or family member with this they could get the unlocked G6 working on Verizon. Trouble is that I do not know anyone with an Android phone with nano sim. My old G4 used micro sim. The friends and family members have either iPhones or older Androids with micro sim.
So I could really use some advice here.
And in addition let this be a warning to anyone trying to get unlocked devices working on Verizon. I had read elsewhere that Verizon was now more friendly towards unlocked devices, but this was clearly not the case in my experience. Perhaps this is one reason Verizon is starting to lose customers for the first time in its history.
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That's great news that you got most of the functionality working, OP. Do you happen to know if the phone was factory unlocked? Or was it tied to a carrier, then unlocked afterward? Again, thanks for any additional info!
ctyonthehil said:
I'm also curious about this process. I've done a lot of searching, but haven't been able to find a direct answer yet.
I'm considering buying a Sprint G6, then unlocking it to use it on Verizon. Is this even possible? Obviously, they're both CDMA. And appear to have the bands necessary for Verizon. But I've had trouble in the past with unlocking Sprint devices to work on Verizon.
Any insight is greatly appreciated.
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Unlikely to work. Stick with the unlocked version, model us997. Keep in mind Verizon sometimes blocks phones from their network that have the necessary hardware, like the ZTE Axon 7.
htcnext said:
Unlikely to work. Stick with the unlocked version, model us997. Keep in mind Verizon sometimes blocks phones from their network that have the necessary hardware, like the ZTE Axon 7.
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That's wrong. Im using Axon 7 on Verizon right now. No issues at all.
I really like the G6, not sure if i should get it. I have the Axon 7 as i stated above.
tolymatev said:
That's wrong. Im using Axon 7 on Verizon right now. No issues at all.
I really like the G6, not sure if i should get it. I have the Axon 7 as i stated above.
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If you want OOB compatibility, the device must be certified through Verizon's Open Development process. See below.
https://opennetwork.verizonwireless.com/content/open-development/home.html
Sent from my LGUS997 using Tapatalk
jiggyman said:
If you want OOB compatibility, the device must be certified through Verizon's Open Development process. See below.
https://opennetwork.verizonwireless.com/content/open-development/home.html
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OOB???
Axon 7 is just like Moto X Pure or this us997. They are unlocked with Verizon's bands. Stick an activated sim in them and they will work.
tolymatev said:
OOB???
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Out of The Box, without any mods.
Sent from my LGUS997 using Tapatalk
https://community.zteusa.com/thread/14776
htcnext said:
https://community.zteusa.com/thread/14776
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This is old. And only one build. I went through that. They fixed it right away. I had the phone since launch. MM was great out of the box, 7.0 had a hiccup with service, GSM sim after the update fixed it on 1st boot, then you could put your​ CDMA sim back in.
If you buy the device now, the 7.1.1 build will work out of the box.
If you look through the zte forums people have had a lot of problems getting the Axon 7 to work with Verizon. Anyway, I am glad to hear you got it working all right. I like the Axon 7 a lot but was not willing to go through the extra effort that others reported to get it working. And some people could not get it working at all, not a risk I was willing to take. I blame Verizon, I do not think they are supportive of unlocked phones.
I am using a Sprint unlocked phone on AT&T and works perfectly. Last night I tried my friends Verizon SIM card and it read everything perfectly. It recognized his phone number, network state well. Does this mean I can use it on Verizon? But when I check the IMEI with Verizon it says incompatible! Any input?
My guess is they don't officially support it but since it supports the right lte bands it will work on 4g but maybe not 3g.... Out of curiosity because I may need to do the same thing in the future how did you get the Sprint V20 unlocked
jesmann said:
My guess is they don't officially support it but since it supports the right lte bands it will work on 4g but maybe not 3g.... Out of curiosity because I may need to do the same thing in the future how did you get the Sprint V20 unlocked
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I used a remote unlock service through ebay.
What version of the software did you have when you unlocked it ?
So I got burned on ebay on two separate US996 phones. The sellers never stated a provider and just said factory unlocked (some on ebay actually say US Cellular) so I naively assumed they were the same as the unlocked version B&H photo has been selling.
However after buying them I found a thread on how to tell the difference and the factory unlocked should say USA under the battery. However, the phone I got says UCL (which I think is US cellular) and my wife's phone says BPL (no idea what provider that is).
So, I am wondering if I should just keep these at this point. I paid $268 for my wife's phone about a month or two back and $250 for mine a week ago, so not a terrible deal, but I could have gotten an AT&T unlocked version for not much more new.
So anyway, these phones don't come with any carrier bloatware which is nice and why I'm considering just keeping them. I don't really care about rooting, however I am concerned about 2 things: future updates and cellular bands.
Does anyone know what the differences are hardware wise between these 3 variants or is the only thing that's different the software?
If it's just software shouldn't there be a way to flash these with the real factory unlocked firmware?
Here's a page with the latest ROMs for each variant of the US996:
https://lg-firmwares.com/lg-us996-firmwares/
The BPT one is the BrightPoint version.
The odd thing is that the US Cellular version of the US996 has a much newer version of firmware than the USA Factory Unlocked US996.
Interesting. It looks like the US Cellular firmware works on the unlocked version so I guess there is no difference. I wonder if that means I can flash my wife's phone with the US cellular firmware as well. Never heard of brightpoint.
shawnmos said:
Interesting. It looks like the US Cellular firmware works on the unlocked version so I guess there is no difference. I wonder if that means I can flash my wife's phone with the US cellular firmware as well. Never heard of brightpoint.
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not sure how true it is, but if you flash the US Cellular firmware on the unlocked version and try to unlock through LG then it would no longer be recognized as the unlocked version. that said you can unlock first and then flash... which is what I did so I can't confirm the former to be true
I have a VZW (Verizon for anyone searching on that, too) G6. It's unlocked. The bootloader might be unlocked about the time hell freezes over.
What I want is Nougat working as it does stock. I want root for TI and V4A (maybe needs SELinux tool to get to permissive), plus a couple of other toys. I want a phone that operates with VZW and also in Europe.
Is there a way to root this phone? (Searching on VZW produced one panic msg about a sprint phone locking every night and that's it?)
Unfortunately the only variant with root are US997 Unbranded (without any letter) and the European H870.
Sigh... The H870, I suspect, doesn't handle CDMA, right?
Nope. But the US997 should accordin to LG Official Website
The non-branded G6 does, indeed, allow unlocking the bootloader. NTL, since this whole exercise hinges on getting my wife a phone that can be unlocked (she doesn't care about it, I do), I've taken another route (with a "u"). I have an old G5 that, I thought, had a failing screen. To date, it's been fine. And it's better than the current taped together Droid. Yes, tape around the bottom to keep ther top from coming off(!). So much for the G6.
Bottom line: End of question. Thanks for the input. I appreciate the help.
Answer: In the US only the US997 unbranded version (buy direct from the factory) can have the bootloader unlocked. European, GSM-only phones can be unlocked but won't work in the US with CDMA carriers like Verizon.
Does anyone know if the unlocked US997 version of the G6 is missing any network bands that the Verizon version has? My LTE/3G signal is really bad on the G6 compared to my Verizon Moto Z Droid I had before. I bought the unlocked version because I wanted to be able to unlock the bootloader. It's so bad that at my house that sometimes texts don't even go through. I never had this problem with my previous device.
ahaynes42 said:
Does anyone know if the unlocked US997 version of the G6 is missing any network bands that the Verizon version has? My LTE/3G signal is really bad on the G6 compared to my Verizon Moto Z Droid I had before. I bought the unlocked version because I wanted to be able to unlock the bootloader. It's so bad that at my house that sometimes texts don't even go through. I never had this problem with my previous device.
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Have you tried changing the Network Mode setting from "Global" to something else?