FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Verizon Wireless says "bring your own device" in 2008
Old Dec 2, 2007 | 7:25 pm
  #19  
ScottC
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Originally Posted by Dubai Stu
Can you change the ESN's on newer phones without changing the memory on the board? I known on GSM phones, they changed the technology a few years back so you couldn't do this.

I changed my the ESN on an old Ericsson so that I could use a Thai prepaid SIM (you don't need to do it anymore), but I thought the ESNs on new phones were burnt into non-rewritable memory.
You are confusing several technologies.

GSM phones don't have an ESN. They have an IMEI. The IMEI is the "serial number" unique to each GSM phone. CDMA phones (and most older phones on systems like AMPS) have an ESN.

If you refer to changing the IMEI in a GSM phone then no; I don't know of any current model that lets you do that, some old(er) models from Nokia and Ericsson did indeed allow it but because IMEI's are used by some networks to block stolen phones the changing of the IMEI is near impossible.
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