Switching CDMA phones

[mcetz]

I've got a Motorola KRZR/K1M with a buggy connection to the lcd, want to switch my number over to an HTC Hero I've also got (was previously activated with MTS, still connects to the network perfectly fine).

Is there any way I can change the ESN over to the Hero without having to drive in and pay $25? Tech support won't do anything for me over the phone... maybe I'm underestimating what is required. Is it possible for me to do this myself?

[cellxpert3]

I don't think Mts have that option for you to do it online. If I were you I would sell the hero and buy a cheap sim unlocked phone as a backup phone.

[gbittner]

The ESN is burned into the PROM of the phone by the manufacturer. Not sure if anyone has figured out a hack to allow changing ESN's but i have never heard of one. If you really want to change phones you will probably have to spend the $25.

[Azure1203]

Pretty sure changing ESN numbers yourself is illegal. If you knew how to do it.

There are ways, but its not worth it.

[Positive Climb]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry Bold 9900: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I don't think he's trying to "change" his ESN, I think he is just trying to swap phones. Nothing illegal there. And good luck getting MTS to let you switch phones for free, they are terrible for that.

[mcetz]

Yeah, I misspoke earlier, mixed up my acronyms.

I was able to switch my voice account over to an unlocked HSPA phone (not the Hero) from my busted CDMA phone. The Portage Place location is the corporate location, and is commission free, so if you're nice you stand a very good chance of not paying the fee for changing devices (I forget exactly how much this is, it's in the range of $20-30). Can't get around paying $10 for a new SIM card though.

Very happy to be finally rid of CDMA and being at the mercy of the fee gods anytime something goes wrong...