You're correct. I meant IMEI. You replied too quickly because I was about to edit my post to clear that up.

You are correct about why they moved IMEI to permanent memory, but an ESN serves the same function in the CDMA world. It is hard to imagine why the CDMA world wouldn't follow suit. I know that the change on GSM phones was partly due to pressure from the UK and several other EU countries.

Despite my "difficulty imagining" things, apparently things are not the same in the CDMA software. I just googled on ESN change CDMA and turned up a ton of programs. You learn something new every day.

I have a friend who wants to activate an HTC Touch on Verizon. I told him that the backdoors were largely closed. I guess I was wrong.