IMEI switch

[Shelbylm27]

Hello everyone, new here :P

So I have a question about imei numbers, but I'll get to that in a sec.

I am currently going to school and would like to save as much money as I possibly can. I was gifted a motorola backflip by a friend who recently switched to verizon. I love the concept of this phone; the design, the social networking, the keyboard, and the positioning of the camera (I am female lol). I HATE at&t and T-mobile isn't available in my area. So I've been looking into GSM prepaid plans. Straight talk has a dreamy plan of unlimited talk+text+data for 45 a month. But their phones are kinda bullshit =\. I want to use the backflip .

So my question is:
If I bought a straight talk gsm phone package, copied the phones IMEI number, somehow changed my backflip's IMEI to the ST one, put the ST sim in the backflip... wooould it work?

All help is greatly appreciated

And please no "Its illegal" "you're dumb" or any other stupid replies. In defense, I would be buying the Straight talk phone so its IMEI number would legally be mine.

[Clarkey]

Even though you said " Don't say it's illegal" I'm inclined to say it is and we are not allowed to discuss it here. Even though both phones are yours the concept of it is still illegal I'm sorry to say.

[Shelbylm27]

Even though you said " Don't say it's illegal" I'm inclined to say it is and we are not allowed to discuss it here. Even though both phones are yours the concept of it is still illegal I'm sorry to say.

Blast! v.v

[Clarkey]

Surely the easiest solution would be to unlock the phone to use whichever network you need to, I'm not from the US so I don't really understand the whole "straight talk" thing. Maybe I'm getting confused

[Shelbylm27]

Surely the easiest solution would be to unlock the phone to use whichever network you need to, I'm not from the US so I don't really understand the whole "straight talk" thing. Maybe I'm getting confused

From what I understand Straight Talk is a GSM and CDMA prepay service. But even if you put the ST sim into a unlocked phone, the Sim itself it somehow locked to ST phones. So I was thinking it had something to do with their IMEI numbers and if I made the sim think my phone was the ST phone it might work.

[Clarkey]

Oh I think I understand you, sounds kind of similar to our 3 network, unless I'm mistaken. If that is the case then it's something to do with the hardware not something you can fix with the IMEI number.

[Shelbylm27]

Hmm... something with the phone...
I'm going to research more into this.
I will not be defeated

[Clarkey]

That is just my guess, I'd wait for another opinion on this.

[Skrilax_CZ]

And why you "have to" change the IMEI in the first place? It won't unlock the phone and this is not like the CDMA, where your ESN / MEID has to be registered to the carrier's network afaik.

[Shelbylm27]

And why you "have to" change the IMEI in the first place? It won't unlock the phone and this is not like the CDMA, where your ESN / MEID has to be registered to the carrier's network afaik.

"From what I understand Straight Talk is a GSM and CDMA prepay service. But even if you put the ST sim into a unlocked phone, the Sim itself it somehow locked to ST phones. So I was thinking it had something to do with their IMEI numbers and if I made the sim think my phone was the ST phone it might work."

I was thinking that maybe each sim that comes with a phone has the Straight Talk serials.

Do you think there might be another way? What does flashing do?

[Skrilax_CZ]

So the ST Sim is paired itself with the phone sold with it, right? Interesting. Well you can't change Backflip's IMEI anyway (no hack for it) and even if it was possible, we don't support it here. Sorry.

[kc1996]

I have been trying to find the same thing out also its hiving me a hell of a time though