• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

iPhones on MetroPCS/T-Metro?

E

ethood1999

Newbie
My understanding has always been that if you bought an unlocked iPhone 4/4S/5 that was made for Verizon, you would be able to flash it to MetroPCS. But as I Google things, all I see are posts from years ago and I'm finding new things about a new T-Metro network and overall, I'm just confused.

If I buy an unlocked Verizon iPhone 4/4S/5, how do I go about "flashing" this to MetroPCS? How much does it cost? Would call/text/MMS/data all work as if I had the iPhone on Verizon? Would I pick up 3G (or 4G, I think Philadelphia is a Metro 4G area).

I also have a iPhone 3GS from AT&T that is locked. I found this new "Bring Your Own Phone" program for MetroPCS. I'm confused - the compatibility widget says my AT&T iPhone 3GS can work on MetroPCS as long as I get it unlocked. I live in the Philadelphia area, like I previously said, how would this work? Would I get normal call/text/MMS/data as if the iPhone was on AT&T? Would I get 3G?
 
The 3 will be slow and MMS is a struggle. 4s and 5 can use faster. The Sim slot on Verizon is unlocked.

Metro is moving people off CDMA to gsm
 
ethood1999 said:
My understanding has always been that if you bought an unlocked iPhone 4/4S/5 that was made for Verizon, you would be able to flash it to MetroPCS. But as I Google things, all I see are posts from years ago and I'm finding new things about a new T-Metro network and overall, I'm just confused.

If I buy an unlocked Verizon iPhone 4/4S/5, how do I go about "flashing" this to MetroPCS? How much does it cost? Would call/text/MMS/data all work as if I had the iPhone on Verizon? Would I pick up 3G (or 4G, I think Philadelphia is a Metro 4G area).

I also have a iPhone 3GS from AT&T that is locked. I found this new "Bring Your Own Phone" program for MetroPCS. I'm confused - the compatibility widget says my AT&T iPhone 3GS can work on MetroPCS as long as I get it unlocked. I live in the Philadelphia area, like I previously said, how would this work? Would I get normal call/text/MMS/data as if the iPhone was on AT&T? Would I get 3G?
Click to expand...

bhero said:
The 3 will be slow and MMS is a struggle. 4s and 5 can use faster. The Sim slot on Verizon is unlocked.

Metro is moving people off CDMA to gsm
Click to expand...
Metro used to have a cdma version of byod, however they stopped that some time ago and so verizon, another cdma carrier, iphone 3 to 4s, which does not have the "global" phone tag on them from verizon will not work on metro. Now the iphone that is specifically made as a "global" phone has both sim/gsm and cdma and so that could be brought over to metro and depending on which wcdma bands it supports will determine what speed it will get, I believe it will have the correct lte band so if metro lte is out in your area that would work.

The older phones from att if you got them unlocked would also work, but if the area does not have hspa refarmed to 1900 they would be stuck on slow edge speeds.
 
OcalaFlGuy said:
Won't the IPhone on Metro cause some giant tear in the Time-Space continuum?

Bruce in Ocala, FL :D
Click to expand...

I met a guy with a 4s not too long ago with an iphone on metro.. he said he will flash it elsewhere if it stops working on metro till it works lol
 
no need to worry about verizon flash to metro with the byod plan already quickly spreading that means u can take a t-mobile or at&t unlocked iphone buy a $10 metro pcs sim card and use it on metro's/T-mobile's network.
 
Would it be better to connect a T-mobile iphone 5 through metro pcs with the byod or through T-mobile its self. I live in miami fl and I love my metro service but I want change phones cause my whole fam has iphones and the group text kills me lol. Thanks in advince
 
sc5sdanny said:
Would it be better to connect a T-mobile iphone 5 through metro pcs with the byod or through T-mobile its self. I live in miami fl and I love my metro service but I want change phones cause my whole fam has iphones and the group text kills me lol. Thanks in advince
Click to expand...
it would depend on how soon you want that, and what price your paying now.

metro's gsm byod so far is only in a few places they say maybe next month, maybe aug for fl markets.

But if you have a good price/plan with metro you may want to see if tmo offers same or better.
 
I dont mind waiting, im just curious to see which would be a better option using that type of phone. I have the 55 unlimited plan with metro now which is great cause I stream movies at work. I wanted to know service wise. Is metros lte better then t-mobiles lte? Or are they both giving the same servise just pricing differntly for brand and better phones?
 
sc5sdanny said:
I dont mind waiting, im just curious to see which would be a better option using that type of phone. I have the 55 unlimited plan with metro now which is great cause I stream movies at work. I wanted to know service wise. Is metros lte better then t-mobiles lte? Or are they both giving the same servise just pricing differntly for brand and better phones?
Click to expand...

Soon enough they'll be basically the same
 
t-mobile's iphone would work perfectly on metro's byod plan since i know at&t has a different band for hspa? not sure all these talk about bands have me assuming t-mobile and at&t shared similiar bands cept for one or two.
 
n4zty said:
t-mobile's iphone would work perfectly on metro's byod plan since i know at&t has a different band for hspa? not sure all these talk about bands have me assuming t-mobile and at&t shared similiar bands cept for one or two.
Click to expand...

AT&T mainly uses the 850MHz band for HSPA, but also uses the 1900 in some areas. T-Mobile mainly uses the 1700/2100 aws band, but some areas have been refarmed to the 1900 to prepare for LTE deployment on the aws band.
 
sc5sdanny said:
I dont mind waiting, im just curious to see which would be a better option using that type of phone. I have the 55 unlimited plan with metro now which is great cause I stream movies at work. I wanted to know service wise. Is metros lte better then t-mobiles lte? Or are they both giving the same servise just pricing differntly for brand and better phones?
Click to expand...
your $55 unlimited plan have throttling after so many GB's?

If not you would have to pay $70 with tmo for that same level of service.
 
Thanks for the info guys :thumbup:

new optimus said:
your $55 unlimited plan have throttling after so many GB's?

If not you would have to pay $70 with tmo for that same level of service.
Click to expand...

I havent seen any throttling yet so I guess im going to wait till the byod comes to South FL.
 
jhawkkw said:
AT&T mainly uses the 850MHz band for HSPA, but also uses the 1900 in some areas. T-Mobile mainly uses the 1700/2100 aws band, but some areas have been refarmed to the 1900 to prepare for LTE deployment on the aws band.
Click to expand...

thanks! there we go i knew they had some differences in band lol well anyways bottom line if your going to use an unlocked gsm phone on metro's byod plan i would go straight for a unlocked t-mobile phone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom