HERO/sero: bunch of BS!

[laythy]

for people who has plans that cant get the hero on, get a hero from ebay and exchange the esn number on it with another regular phone (if you know how to do that) and then activate it.
sprint will be fooled that the phone is the older on when the hardware is actually the hero

not sure if its possible on the hero for 100% but ive tried it before on htc diamond with another esn and it worked just fine

[mconig78]

Originally Posted by laythy

for people who has plans that cant get the hero on, get a hero from ebay and exchange the esn number on it with another regular phone (if you know how to do that) and then activate it.
sprint will be fooled that the phone is the older on when the hardware is actually the hero

not sure if its possible on the hero for 100% but ive tried it before on htc diamond with another esn and it worked just fine

yea that is also fraud.....

[shadowmite]

Originally Posted by mconig78

yea that is also fraud.....

But technically radio updates from HTC violate the EXACT same law as MEID/ESN changing... Go look it up!
And it wouldn't be fraud if you use it as your only phone and pay for it. Its just a outdated law that was created to stop real fraud (cloning of peoples phones without their permission or to allow multiple devices on the same paid line).

Edit: quote from no2chem:

I am in the process of getting some letters typed up to get the FCC to change this outdated law which really serves no purpose. Interestingly, 47 CFR 22.919 makes it illegal for a phone manufacturer to update the firmware, see 47 CFR 22.919(c) in relevant part:

"Cellular mobile equipment must be designed such that any attempt
to remove, tamper with, or change the ESN chip, its logic system, or firmware originally programmed by the manufacturer will render the mobile transmitter inoperative." (emphasis added)

Firmware updates are clearly, (1) not the originally programmed firmware and, (2) not programmed by the manufacturer.

Let me also add the FCC's own site about this:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts...honefraud.html

Clearly someone cloning their own phone and only using one at a time does not fall into either category, which is why this is a argued over thing.

[mconig78]

Originally Posted by shadowmite

true, but technically radio updates from HTC violate the EXACT same law as MEID/ESN changing... Go look it up!

True in a way I guess. I dont know the legality of it all but to me it just seems like the updates are from HTC as the manufactuer of the phone and not the person that bought it. I dont know. Trying to figure out how to explain it myself. The best thing would be that Sprint would allow phones with the SIM card. Just swap that out and your done.

[shadowmite]

Originally Posted by mconig78

True in a way I guess. I dont know the legality of it all but to me it just seems like the updates are from HTC as the manufactuer of the phone and not the person that bought it. I dont know. Trying to figure out how to explain it myself. The best thing would be that Sprint would allow phones with the SIM card. Just swap that out and your done.

And that is a VERY good point. cdma phones have a sim card option called R-UIM. This slot can be added to a LOT of phones and when you do, and alter a few bytes to engage it, the r-uim takes over the esn number of the device. Now is that breaking the law? Because to be honest, it was designed that way! But this is off topic now. Sorry! See http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showpost.p...9&postcount=31 for my belief why sprint is not allowing sero on these plans...

[orangekid]

Originally Posted by laythy

for people who has plans that cant get the hero on, get a hero from ebay and exchange the esn number on it with another regular phone (if you know how to do that) and then activate it.
sprint will be fooled that the phone is the older on when the hardware is actually the hero

not sure if its possible on the hero for 100% but ive tried it before on htc diamond with another esn and it worked just fine

yeah we're looking for legal ways to handle this issue.

[shadowmite]

I'd like to mention that while I was a firm believer that sprint was in fact just trying to force people off sero to get these fancy phones, I no longer think that is the case.

Suffice to say I've seen some technical reasons why they may have taken this stance and furthermore, my theory works with the fact the TP2 was allowed:

Phones that use visual voicemail are not allowed on sero. That seems to explain it. When these devices get activated they need a slightly different backend system which requires different account codes. Thus sero would not properly work without some issues (maybe minor, but not to a company that has to support them). Anyway, just wanted to put this out there.