Sprint GS3 hardware question....

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Is the internal radio and SOC identical across all US carriers? (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint)

I am looking to unlock a Sprint GS3 that I can get as an employee and use it on AT&T. (Apple appears to include both CDMA and GSM support in their 4S units) and I am hoping Samsung did the same to get the device out to all the carriers.

Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately, sprint opted to make the sim internal so it can't be swapped. If you see some of the video reviews out right now, it shows the sim slot missing.

Protocols and frequencies

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Originally Posted by themyst

Is the internal radio and SOC identical across all US carriers? (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint)

I am looking to unlock a Sprint GS3 that I can get as an employee and use it on AT&T. (Apple appears to include both CDMA and GSM support in their 4S units) and I am hoping Samsung did the same to get the device out to all the carriers.

I am not a professional on this but I believe that the SoC(processor, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc) is identical but the radios are different.

All the carriers use unique frequencies to communicate with their towers. Many carriers use separate protocols to communicate as well(HSPA+, CDMA, GSM) Its possible for 2 carriers to use the same protocol but they will always be using different frequencies.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think its possible to re-program your phone to use a different frequency(i.e. change from 1900MHz to 800MHz)

I do not believe you can "unlock" a sprint phone. The radio simply will not work on any other carrier. Now, if said sprint phone were a "Global Phone", then it has an additional GSM radio in it as well. I don't know if this could be used to connect to another US carrier like AT&T though.