Stupid new user question

[lengzhai]

Why is it so difficult to add other androids to VZ's 4G network? I saw they put a chip into the Charge, couldn't we get the same chip for say another phone like the X or something?

 

[lunatic59]

Verizon's network is CDMA and does not use sims. If you have another CDMA phone you'd like to enable on Verizon's network, all you have to do is activate it, but not being a verizon customer, i don't know the exact process.

 

[ArmageddonX]

Here is a quote from a good article located here:
Giz Explains: What's the Difference between GSM and CDMA?

The real differences—the ones that you should care about—are more obvious. Both GSM and CDMA standards outline a way that phones are identified by carriers. In GSM phones, it's a removable chip called a SIM card. In theory, you can pop a SIM card out of a GSM phone and stick it in any other GSM phone. (Although a lot of phones are "locked" to a specific carrier, which is majorly annoying.) The CDMA standard describes something similar, called the RUIM (removable user ID module), but that hasn't really caught on. Instead, CDMA phones ship locked to one network, and can only be switched to another with the cooperation of both the old and new carriers.

Verizon and Sprint are both CDMA carriers. More specifically Verizon uses LTE for 4G while Sprint uses WiMAX. AT&T is the largest US GSM carrier and they use HSPA+ for 4G.

 

[najaboy]

Why is it so difficult to add other androids to VZ's 4G network? I saw they put a chip into the Charge, couldn't we get the same chip for say another phone like the X or something?

It's far from that simple. LTE isn't an aftermarket mod for phones.