MetroPCS Introduces MetroFlash CDMA Flashing Service

In a press release regional unlimited service carrier Metro PCS has announced the availability of the first official CDMA handset flashing service in the US.

The service, known as MetroFLASH allows customers with select handsets from Audiovox/UTStarcom, Samsung, Sanyo, Motorola, Kyocera, LG, and Pantech to take them to an authorized dealer or corporate store with the capability in order to program them for use on the network for a nominal one time fee of $30 with a free month of service included.

This is the first time a CDMA carrier in the US has offered such a service openly and is a very common practice in China, and Southeast Asia while the service is seen by many as a response to the recent trend by larger carriers to offer unlimited flat-rate service. The service is now available in every market except for Las Vegas and Bossier City, LA

Read More for the full list of supported phones and devices.

Audiovox:

* CDM-8450
* CDM-8615
* CDM-8900
* CDM-8910
* CDM-8912
* CDM-8915
* CDM-8920
* CDM-8940

Kyocera:
* K-132
* K-24 v1003
* K-323
* K-342
* K-404
* K-433
* K-483JLC
* K-493
* K-612b
* KE-413
* KE-424c
* KE-424c
* KE-433c
* KX-1
* KX-13
* KX-16
* KX-160B
* KX-18 5DW
* KX-18-5D0
* KX-414
* KX-44
* KX-444
* KX-5
* KX-9C
* KX-9D
* KX-9D-125
* KX-9E
LG:
* 5000
* AX-355
* AX-490
* AX-830
* AX/LX/UX-260
* AX/UX-145
* AX/UX-380
* DM-L200
* LG/UX-390
* LX-150
* LX-160
* LX-350
* LX-5450
* LX-550
* LX-565
* LX/VI-125
* MM-535
* PM-225
* PM-325
* VX-1000
* VX-10000
* VX-3200
* VX-3280
* VX-3300
* VX-3400
* VX-3450
* VX-4400
* VX-4500
* VX-4600
* VX-4650
* VX-4700
* VX-5200
* VX-5300
* VX-5400
* VX-6000
* VX-6100
* VX-6200
* VX-7000
* VX-8000
* VX-8100
* VX-8300
* VX-8350
* VX-8500
* VX-8550
* VX-8700
* VX-8800
* VX-9100
* VX-9400
* VX-9800
* VX-9900
* VX/AX-4270
* VX/AX-8600
* VX/LS-5500

Motorola:
* C290
* E815
* E816
* ic402c
* ic502
* K1m
* L7c
* V262
* V265
* V276
* V323i
* V325i
* V3a
* V3C
* V3c-2
* V3M
* V710
* V9m
* Ve
* W315
* W385
* Z6m
* Z6tv

Pantech:
* DM-P100
* PN-210
* PN-215
* PN-218
* PN-300
* PN-810

Samsung:
* SCH-A310
* SCH-A475
* SCH-A530
* SCH-A595
* SCH-A605
* SCH-A610
* SCH-A630
* SCH-A645
* SCH-A650
* SCH-A655
* SCH-A670
* SCH-A685
* SCH-A725
* SCH-A790
* SCH-A815
* SCH-A850
* SCH-A870
* SCH-A890
* SCH-A895
* SCH-A915
* SCH-A930
* SCH-A950
* SCH-A970
* SCH-A990
* SCH-N330
* SCH-R200
* SCH-R400
* SCH-R410
* SCH-R500
* SCH-R510
* SCH-R510
* SCH-R610
* SCH-U340
* SCH-U340-1
* SCH-U470
* SCH-U510
* SCH-U540
* SCH-U620
* SCH-U740
* SPH-A303
* SPH-A420
* SPH-A503
* SPH-A505
* SPH-A513
* SPH-A523
* SPH-A560
* SPH-A580
* SPH-A620
* SPH-A640
* SPH-A660
* SPH-A680
* SPH-A740
* SPH-A760
* SPH-A800
* SPH-A820
* SPH-A840
* SPH-A880
* SPH-A900
* SPH-A920
* SPH-A960
* SPH-i830
* SPH-M300
* SPH-M500
* SPH-M510
* SPH-M520
* SPH-M520-1
* SPH-M620

Sanyo:
* DLX
* M1
* MM-7200
* MM-7300
* MM-7400
* MM-7500
* PM-8200
* S1
* SCP-200
* SCP-2300
* SCP-2400
* SCP-3100
* SCP-3200
* SCP-4500
* SCP-4900
* SCP-4920
* SCP-4930
* SCP-5300
* SCP-5500
* SCP-5600
* SCP-6550
* SCP-6600
* SCP-6650
* SCP-6650q
* SCP-7000
* SCP-8100
* SCP-8300
* SCP-8400

UTStarcom:
* CDM-7025
* CDM-7025q
* PPC-6700

Humberto Saabedra is the Editor-in-Chief of AnimeNews.bizPhoneNews.com and an occasional columnist for Ani.me. He can also be found musing on things at @AnimeNewsdotbiz

137 responses to “MetroPCS Introduces MetroFlash CDMA Flashing Service”

  1. Don Louie

    Why the heck did the big carriers not do this 1st, letting a regional pre-pay beat them is sad

  2. Feech

    I hope the larger carriers will follow. This has the potential to be great for customers who want to stay with a CDMA carrier. I would love to bring my touch to another carrier if I decided to leave Sprint.

  3. Christopher Price

    I’m surprised to see the PPC-6700 on there myself. It’s possible they have a preload flash that wipes out the NVM and enables data to work. Only way to find out would really be to try it with a phone.

    While carriers do want to force you to buy a phone (which justifies their forced contracts), there is another reason. Carriers all do not want this happening to one-another, so they have agreed to simply not practice it in the United States. I’m not saying this is intentional collusion, there’s simply no carrier that wants to pull the trigger on rolling out such an initiative… because they don’t want their own phones being used on someone else’s network.

  4. Feech

    Ultimately though isn’t the only thing that matters is the recurring revenue? why should they care after the contract is up? I’m assuming that after that time they have made their money. i guess i get so frustrated at the lack of true competition. i know you said you wouldn’t call it collusion but it sure seems like it in the US CDma market. especially if it is a painless process for then to do.

  5. Christopher Price

    It’s not a painless process though. They have to watch the competition hack their phones. At the same time, they have irate customers in their store wondering why “their” phone can’t be used on the new carrier.

    The national carriers want revenue. Moreover, they want secured revenue. They want people locked in contracts. Their investors expect customers to buy new phones to be locked into those contracts. This is one of the things Sprint is having real trouble with… customers would rather jump ship from Nextel, than migrate to Sprint.

    MetroPCS doesn’t have to worry about that. Customers are not on contracts. If the hacked phone doesn’t work, the customer base typically is using cheap phones anyways… they can be sold a new cheap phone.

  6. Feech

    I would like to know what the results are. and does anyone know if you would be able to flash back to the original configuration?

  7. Don Louie

    That’s one of my questions, if you to go back national can you take a flashed phone to the original carrier

  8. Psycho

    This is a nice feature to add, except, you wont be able to SMS, MMS, or browse the web… it is going to be strictly for Talking only, i called metro a few times, the costumer service SUPERVISOR practically screamed at me “We Don’t Know anything about MetroFLASH, call someone else, Try calling a service center…” then hung up on me, i called a Corprate owned metro store ant one guy told me that you might be able to “Text-Talk”, i called another center for verification, this guy told me “We will never have SMS or MMS or METROWEB on our metroFLASH Phones, the best thing to do is just buy a New Metro Phone”, so ultimately, it just seems like this is a gimmick, why would u want to buy a really nice phone and not be able to do anything but Talk on it, it completely kills the point… But if anyone can figure out how to get the MMS or SMS to work please feel free to let me know.

  9. kanzaki

    SMS works out the box, you have to edit phone setting to get the wap access… since they piggy back the MMS over wap, you’re in the same boat there. I’ve got a pantech PN 810 on Metro now… I’m just having problems finding the wap gateway setting on the device.

    Also, you don’t need to flash back… all carriers will accept any cdma phone as long as the ESN is not reported stolen.

  10. Psycho

    Wait a second ur saying that there may be a way to get MMS to work? how are u editing the WAP???

  11. Psycho

    the reason i want to know is because i want to buy an LG phone from ebay and make it work on metro, but i dont want to get it if i cant SMS or MMS, i dont care for the web, what are your views on that?

  12. Psycho

    i saw this site, maybe it will help kanzaki ? http://www.howardforums.com/archive/topic/1075249-1.html

  13. Christopher Price

    Kanzaki, you’ve posted a lot of half-truths.

    One, not all CDMA carriers will activate foreign devices. Sprint and Verizon have committed to doing that, but as of right now, you can’t. And, we have no idea when they will have foreign device support off the ground, or what hoops you’ll have to jump through for them to activate it.

    Yes, you can get voice and SMS up and running on most devices without the help of MetroPCS. Nobody has tested activating data using the new MetroFlash procedure as of yet.

    Finally, editing the phone settings to support data services is not always an option. Some manufacturers block that ability.

  14. kanzaki

    If you can unlock the phone and load their PRL… I thought that was a given, not a half-truth.

    And you’re right about editing the phone setting to enable wap/mms, they had some success at HoFo with that 6700 and v3m Razr.

    As of this writing, I have the PN-810 (ocean) on a non evdo connection… but it’s not opening any pages. The “can’t connect to network [retry / exit]” error is gone, and the two way data icons are both showing usage.

    I’m trying a number of things, right now i’m hitting it with the service programming client in QPST.

  15. Christopher Price

    Just because you can key in an MSL and load the PRL… doesn’t mean the carrier has to let the ESN/MEID onto their network.

    The EV-DO issue is because you don’t have the new carrier’s shared secret key for EV-DO loaded in. QPST doesn’t let you provide this easily, and most phones block QPST from feeding it the shared secret.

    And yes, this is one of the main reasons why Sprint and Verizon are “planning” to allow third-party devices in the future. The CDMA platform doesn’t allow for programming shared secret keys on EV-DO easily. R-UIM allows for this, but neither Sprint nor Verizon has expressed interest in R-UIM (that would just make things, well, simple… and they don’t want that).

  16. Daniel

    There is a local pre-pay service here in South Texas that has been doing this for a while now.  They call themselves “Pocket Communications” and the name does imply they only work in a small pocket of an area if you look at the coverage map.Anyway, here is the URL http://www.pocket.com/faqs.php From what I hear, these guys unfortunatly tend to “brick” a few phones (no suprise there).I think MetroPCS should specifically claim to be the first regional CDMA carrier flashing phones, since there are other little carriers that are doing it already.

    I wish that the CDMA carriers here in the USA would get on board with the R-UIM (so we wouldn’t have to risk “bricking” our phones).

  17. Psycho

    so there is absolutely no way to change the settings that enable the MMS and WAP conection?

  18. Christopher Price

    Psycho, it depends on your phone, and the carrier you’re trying to activate it on.

    I would suggest posting in the PhoneNews.com Forums with your specific situation.

  19. Psycho

    Okay Chris, it think I will do that later, I find the MetroFLASH very interesting because as you probaly know, metroPCS phones are generally garbage… my phone recently broke, the nokia 6265i and i payed about 320 for it when it first came out, throughout the time i had the phone i had to get replacements under warrenty about 8 times, each time paying a $10 fee, and now my warrenty is up so i have to buy a brand new phone, and metro phones arnt worth the money… I saw an LG glimmer on ebay and i wanted to buy it and bring it over to metro, but i need the MMS capabilty…

    Which is why im interested in getting th MMS to work. At metro they really want you to buy one of thier phones because they make more money off of you. The guy i talked to told me “MetroPCS will never offer SMS or MMS to a flashed phone, Just buy our phone, its the best thing to do.” I hope there is eventually a way to unlock the inernet and MMS.

  20. Chris

    A quick update on the PPC-6700… I went to the metro store today with my sprint branded 6700, and the guy immediately said “can’t do it”. I told him I had read online that they could. He said they just took that model off the list. He said that they called Houdini, who told him they don’t have the drivers. ( I guess he had a 6700 himself ). I asked him if it would be possible in the future, he said “They’ve been working on it for 2 weeks” whatever that means… but he basically didn’t know. drats 🙁

  21. jualin

    I work at MetroPCS Miami, FL and we will have the new service starting next week. The process uses something called Houdini. Most Authorized Dealers don’t have the software or the equipment to do it yet, however is coming soon to most MetroPCS stores. About the SMS, MMS and the internet some phones will be able to do it, however I don’t think we will do it for the same price. However editing the SMS and MMS options are very easy, most cellphone forums should have the instructions very soon. Of course that most MetroPCS stores will try to sell you the brand new phone to get more money, however in most phones the store gets about $40/phone, depending on the phone, and MetroFlash costs $30 or $35 depending on the phone. When I get more information I will post it here.

  22. Psycho

    yea i was reading on some forms how they made sprint phones work on metro, but they had issues getting the outgoing MMS to work and the WAP, so hopefully they can come up with a walk around for that, and i hope they get the MMS for flash soon beacuse then i would be able to get a nice phone on metro after soooo long

  23. Kiwi

    How about unlocked phones??? I have a unlocked Motorola Q that i want to use…

  24. jualin

    As long as the phone is on the list and the phone uses CDMA technology then we will be able to unlock it. In some markets such as Las Vegas, the service will not be available. Now it’s completely official on the website.

  25. Rick

    “As long as the phone is on the list and the phone uses CDMA technology then we will be able to unlock it. In some markets such as Las Vegas, the service will not be available. Now it’s completely official on the website.”

    Not true, I took a Spint UTStarcom PPC-6700 over to the Corporate store in Pomona Ca. today and they said they couldn’t switch it over. I just bought this phone to have it switched to Metro now I’m stuck with it. I don’t understand why they would put it on the list.

    Rick

  26. Rick
  27. Kiwi

    Does anybody know if this is the final list, or will there be more models added to the list anytime soon????

  28. louis

    New to this site. Have been waiting for news on how to set up my pantech 810 from helio on Metro PCS in Tampa florida. It seens possible but without MMS SMS and internet. “JULIO” stated that it can be possible to fix that. If anyone has any ideas or has had experience with the Pantech 810 and is using it with Metro …please please let me know. Thank you

  29. William Restrepo

    They remove the PPC6700 from the list, check the new Houdini’s list.

    http://helpdesk.houdinisoft.com/Houdini%20Handset%20Support%203-19-08.pdf

    Updated in July 1st 2008

  30. tinap

    I just flashed a verizon phone to metro yesterday, and no once you flash on metro, he told me you wont be able to take it back to verizon and have it flashed back. You sign alot of waivers on what you loose

  31. William Restrepo

    Yes, Tinap, you are right, there’s a lot of papers you have to sign when doing metro-flash, they are doing by now with several phone models, check the list above. Unfortunately for me, with UTStarcom PPC-6700 they can not, at least by now. Looks like they are having some problems with this model, I don’t know if is because the Windows Mobile or what.

  32. john power

    Ok, I am planning on getting the PPC-6700 and signing it with metro PCS. I would like to know what the downfalls would be if i purchased this device. Also, if i get this phone, would i only be able to call and text? Or would there be other apps with it? Finally, i’d like to know where i would be able to find this phone and buy it.
    Any information is greatly appreciated, thank you.

  33. Bree

    Well I was in a Metro store in Athens, Ga on Friday for about 2 hours waiting to get my Sprint LX260 Black Rumor flashed…and after the long wait I was told they couldnt do it because of “some type of error” I don’t even think the worker made a commitment to flash my phone because from the start she was hesitant on answering my questions and was trying to sell me a sorry Metro phone….so wus up with that? Is Metro really going to FLASH phones as the say or are they just looking to get more traffic on their website and in their stores???

  34. William Restrepo

    They are really doing flashing for some phones, please the attached list, just be careful, because most of retailers has not the software yet, and they will try to make you buy a new phone.

    http://helpdesk.houdinisoft.com/Houdini%20Handset%20Support%203-19-08.pdf

  35. neeko

    hi everyone.. im new to this site… i have been researching and realized that metro cant be used on the htc touch…well i finally got my htc flashed on metro.. NO I DID NOT USE THEIR SOFTWARE… im just running into web problem… does anyone have any updates on this .. is anyone using their web on a sprint touch??

  36. Lerone

    Wantint a HTC Touch flashed to Metro but need to hear from someone that did it successfully without problems.

  37. Paul

    I bought a amp moble E816 and i need to flash it for alltel how can i do this?

  38. emjoanie

    talk about it!! i went today to metro pcs store..guess what..looks like the reps there didnt want to flash my lg8300 verizon phone,tons of excuses,so i ended up leaving.i think they wanted me to buy their expensive phones. anyhow, they said, the only plan i can get when i flashed my phone is the $40 plan..no more,no less..they mentioned that some stuff may not be working..im not sure about the sms thing..my phone is capable of everything..but according to the plan, i have unlimited call and text, standard vm..etc. no web browsing, no mms. so im kinda thinking about it if im gonna flash it or not, cause seriously..lg8300 is one of the best phones, thats my xtra one..did anyone tried flashing their phones..lemme know,shoot me an email..emjoan@christlinks.com. thanks peepz

  39. Faruq

    There are people on craigslist that say they can get the internet working on a metropcs flashed phone. I have an LG vx 9900 I want to use on metro what do you guys think?

  40. emjoanie

    hello!! its me again, i just flashed my phone last wednesday!! its working..only unlimited calls and text. in a 40 plan..i cant receive nor send pic msgs and cant go to mobile web..its alright…it saved a lot of money. my phone is lg8300. =)

  41. Christopher Price

    You might be able to get the web browser working (emphasis on might), but Get it Now, applications, and other tools won’t work.

  42. Vash.T.S.

    All you ppl are stupid, ppc6700 works great on MetroPcs and I love useing my Web and MMS on it. Go to http://www.howardforums.com/ and read, DONT ASK QUESTIONS untill you read everything.

  43. david

    My parents own several Metro PCS stores. The problem with flashing, and the reason employees are so reluctant to flash is because there are some phones that are not compatible. Most of these employees don’t know which phones will work and won’t. So to avoid the backlash they may get by bricking people’s phones, they’ll try to get you to buy their phone. Plus, more money for them if you buy their phones.

    But if you’re sure you want to get it flashed knowing the risk it may brick your phone, just tell them that you know what the risks are and metroFlash it.

    As for the 6700, I’ve read plenty of posts and have spoken with Metro PCS store owners. The problem seems to be that when they flash the PDA phones, they’re flashed with a phone without windows mobile web browsing capabilities. You’ll see that MetroPCS currently doesn’t even support PDA phones. So of course, if the employee sees a really nice PDA phone, they’re going to be reluctant on flashing it, since it’s expensive.

    I’ve heard Metro PCS is moving towards PDA phones. As for now, they’re business model is geared towards the lower income consumers. Most of their stores are located in those neighborhoods. Lots of well-to-do consumers would rather go with wider coverage range providers like Verizon or ATT. Hope that will change soon.

  44. Christopher Price

    I see MetroPCS expanding. They know hackers have managed to get smartphones working on their network, and they also know that there are many consumers that would buy a smartphone from them… if it were officially supported.

    With MetroPCS’s TravelTalk, you can roam on Verizon… so that’s only an issue for people that travel frequently. Most of those customers are outside of MetroPCS’s target audience.

    The real problem is getting CDMA smartphones that support the 1700 MHz AWS band. That’s a very niche market that even manufacturers like HTC/UTStarcom are shying away from right now for smartphones.

  45. miaheatkid

    Does anyone know if they are able to flash the treo 700p yet

  46. inderjit singh

    hi there bud, i am new to this site. I am trying to flash my HTC touch phone to metro pcs. can anybody help? Metro pcs itself won’t do it.

  47. Mzlin

    check on craigslist in your area. there are some people who will do it for $100 with internet. any flashing at metropcs willnot include internet or picture messaging for now.

  48. Alex

    I worked with Metro pcs. and i flashed alot of phones, some nice phones too. like lg9900, lg9100, and more. but the software they use make ur phone call and text, but no mms or web. i’ve tried to play with most of the phones. but it’s really hard to get them connected.. if someone can, i would pay for this service,email me: ymn2005@gmail.com.. for the htc6700, it was in the list, and i had a friend who flashed his, and then he changed the settings on the phone and got the internet working fine.. with windows phones, it’s easier to do changes.

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