Page Plus has allowed Verizon Wireless customers to “bring their own device” to the prepaid service. Generally, this has been permitted with no per-device restrictions, barring a good reason. It appears that Verizon however has chosen to restrict Apple’s latest offering from prepaid MVNOs on their network completely.
In the past, Page Plus users have been unable to activate certain Palm and HTC devices due to a network issue, which was later fixed. The only devices that are prohibited currently are BlackBerry devices (as PagePlus has not licensed a BIS server), and Verizon prepaid phones (due to subsidy issues with Verizon).
Apple’s iPhone however does not fall under any perceived grounds for prohibiting BYOD, and this move directly contradicts Verizon’s open network and open device commitments. Unlike GSM phones, CDMA phones are not locked to a specific carrier outside of minor provisioning changes. In addition, Verizon/CDMA iPhone 4 phones are sold at full retail prices, starting at $649.99.
This move appears to be territorial on Apple’s part, as Apple continues to resist allowing the device on true pay-as-you-go offerings in the United States. Apple similarly worked with AT&T to prohibit iPhone devices from being used on GoPhone Pay As You Go service, despite no real justification ever being issued from either Apple or AT&T on the matter.
Verizon Wireless declined an opportunity to comment to PhoneNews.com on this report. Requests for comment sent to Apple and Page Plus Cellular have not been responded to.
That is not a wise marketing strategy for APPLE, since it directly limits the growth of the iOS versus the GOOLE ANDROID OS, thereby hurting APPLE’s own market share. Thank You
Sprint (and Virgin/Boost) should start activating unlocked devices. That would kill this crap right then and there.
Two other Verizon mvnos with byod policies have not given outright nos to the Verizon iphone. Up and coming Siri Wireless has stated that they will probably be able to activate the Verizon cdma iphone within three months and H20 cdma, a smaller, older Verizon mvno said that they have yet to see anyone try it but that it may be possible.
In other words, neither one of these other mvnos appear to have a mandate from Verizon or Apple denying them the iphone as long as it isn’t right now.
Mr. Price, the Blackberry ban was a Page Plus thing because of billing issues. It had nothing to do with Bis/Bes.
The HTC/Palm ban was a parallel along with the Blackberry ban. It was implemented to deal also with billing NOT network issues.
HTCs were knocked off because unfortunately, the banned Palm devices were made by HTC and shared the same banned esn block.
Fortunately, at least part of Page Plus’s badly damaged byod has been restored. But now they have three byod bans,
1)Prepaid Verizon/Alltel devices.
2)Blackberries of any kindl
3) Verizon iphone.
Life is never perfect and Page Plus land and never will be.
Oh. Btw, the whole thing about Verizon (and Sprint’s) commitment to an “open network”, is a load of crap. It’s been nearly five years since their Open Device initiative and there is still no way to get a Sprint phone on the Verizon network and vice versa.
Open Devices on cdma carriers that are not big nationals are a load of lies created to confuse with false hopes and broken promises.
Stick with gsm for byod. You can put an iphone on there unlike Page Plus.
Mike Freeman, what we put in the article was relayed to us directly by a Page Plus Cellular executive. Right now they have no way to bill for BIS access, because Page Plus does not have a BIS license.
What they were doing was allowing Verizon BB devices that were still pinging Verizon’s BIS access. But, that is not allowed by RIM’s licensing, since Page Plus is supposed to be autonomous from Verizon in that regard. Page Plus needs their own BIS license if they want to offer BlackBerry devices service on Page Plus.
With GSM BYOD, you need an unlocked iPhone however, which is a mess thanks to Apple pricing and sales controls.
CDMA iPhones are unlocked, which is why this policy by Verizon is so suspect, and counter to their previous commitments.
I feel like this is just another way for cell phone companies to drain consumers of every last penny. I’m done with dealing with companies like this and I’m glad I dont ever have to. A couple years ago I switched to Straigh Talk’s unlimited service and switching to a prepaid phone was by far the best decision I could have made and you cant beat a price of $45 for an unlimited plan.
im on verizon but it gets expensive. i have the blackberry and its really expensive. soo i was wondering if the iphone4 is coming to page plus because i would love to switch and get that fone. if anyone knows the answer please respond……Thanks
hello all as we speak i m using a verizon on the page plus plan so don t believe all what u hear
as we speak i m using a verizon iphone on pageplus
[…] it would no longer block the activation of iPhone devices from their networks.PhoneNews.com was the first major member of the mobile media to expose Verizon and Apple’s anti-competitive business practices in blocking iPhone from activation on […]
[…] was the first major member of the mobile media to expose Verizon and Apple’s anti-competitive business practices in blocking iPhone from activation on […]
I’ve had Verizon iPhone on Page Plus for about a month. Did it by activating a Palm Pixi first the changing devices later via a free Page Plus onseller’s site that does ESN changes instantly. Works great. Not for 3G data hogs but I am on WiFi most the time. Only things that is not the same is no visual voicemail. I am using Google Voice service for visual
voicemail instead. Honky dory here. $65 a month for two iPhones sure bests $190+.
i have had my iphone on pageplus for a little over a year and i am also a pageplus authorized dealer.
To MO (or any one else that may know):
please contact me and tell me how you got your iphone to work for page plus because as of right now i get an error at checkout saying device blocked
dcriss1992@gmail.com
[…] with unlimited data swapping devices.After all, the carrier still appears to be at least, in part, participating in the blockade of iPhone on Page Plus Cellular and other Verizon MVNOs, contradicting commitments made to the FCC. […]
[…] The MVNO supports most CDMA Verizon Wireless smartphones, with the exceptions of BlackBerry and iPhone.In fact, Verizon Wireless’s superior coverage may be one of the key features holding up Page […]
I have 2 iphones i would like to use on pageplus if anyone could help. kilrain@gmail.com
I want to get my husband an iphone n put on pageplus. How can I do it? Plz help. lilsista4298@gmail.com
Please tell me how to hook up the iphone plz