As anyone with an IQ over 50 can tell, TracFone and Net10 are setup the exact same way, and both owned by the same company. Although TracFone is more expensive, they have better phones (in my opinion), than Net10. I personally cant stand clamshell phones that dont have an external caller ID...

So heres my question...

Is there any way (most likely by changing firmware, if at all possible), to use a TracFone handset on Net10? Since its almost identically setup, except for different prices and TDMA vs GSM, it should in theory be possible, but the fact that Net10 is GSM only and TracFone is GSM + TDMA is what would most likely stop people from doing it. Anyone think its possible to get like, a TDMA Moto v60i on Net10?

I'm no cellular expert, but I'm pretty sure that GSM and TDMA phones are not compatible with the other, period. I'll try and verify that...

Well no, its not changing TDMA to GSM, but the Net10 ones all run on Cingular GSM, whereas the TracFone ones were several carriers, including Cingular TDMA and I *THINK* Cingular TDMA, so obviously Cingular is still running the TDMA towers, so I dont see why a Net10 firmware couldnt be used with TDMA. But I really dont know, I'm just getting into the whole cellular hacking thing, figured I could grab a few of my old phones and mess around with it and see what I end up with.

Well it all depends I'd think... If you could get the same TYPE of phone and it used sim cards then it could be plausable to just swap your sim's and haveatyou (such as using a Nextel phone on the Boost Mobile prepaid systems).

TDMA / CDMA dont use SIM, only GSM does. THAT is where I see the problem... would a TDMA phone from TracFone work on Net10, which is just resold Cingular GSM.... Emailing these people would definitely not help, those people have no idea what theyre talking about. But some of the old TracFone TDMA phones on Net10 would be awesome.

If your phone doesn't utilize SIM cards your phone's id is then identified on your account at the datacenter (wheras a simcard address would be) for unique identification; you'd have to find out what phones they support as "upgrades" and buy one of them on the ebay..