# Unlocked Nexus IMEI - Will T-Mob know?



## k.electron (Aug 17, 2011)

some people are still managing to keep the legacy $6 data plan from t-mobile. if they get the unlocked nexus direct from google, will t-mob have the imei in their database to tell if this is a nexus or will they be oblivious?


----------



## GRZLA (Aug 13, 2011)

k.electron said:


> some people are still managing to keep the legacy $6 data plan from t-mobile. if they get the unlocked nexus direct from google, will t-mob have the imei in their database to tell if this is a nexus or will they be oblivious?


It doesn't matter if it is unlocked. T-Mobile is one of the biggest carriers that encourages people to unlock their phones and bring them over to T-Mobile. They have been doing this since the first iPhone came out.


----------



## k.electron (Aug 17, 2011)

right. but the question is will they let this person use their $6 3g data plan that they were forefathered into or will they detect a galaxy nexus and tell them to pony up for the new rates.

the t-mob nexus 1 users who bought their nexus 1 contract free, were recently removed from the $6 plan because t-mob knew the imei was a nexus 1 since it was always t-mob. so will they know the phone from the imei if it was bought at the play store?


----------



## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

k.electron said:


> right. but the question is will they let this person use their $6 3g data plan that they were forefathered into or will they detect a galaxy nexus and tell them to pony up for the new rates.
> 
> the t-mob nexus 1 users who bought their nexus 1 contract free, were recently removed from the $6 plan because t-mob knew the imei was a nexus 1 since it was always t-mob. so will they know the phone from the imei if it was bought at the play store?


Yes, of course they will know you switched to a better phone. Will they care? No idea. You can look up the type of phone from an online database with the IMEI. If anyone on the internet can do that, so can they. There's no legal way around them finding out, as spoofing the IEMI would be illegal.

Each time you make a call, your SIM card identifies you as a subscriber to the carrier. Before the call, the network also accesses your phone's IMEI. The IMEI identifies the phone to your carrier and it checks that the handset is valid to use.


----------



## k.electron (Aug 17, 2011)

i thought they only had access to databases given to them by the manufacturer, meaning that if they tried to lookup an imei that was not their device (aka purchased elsewhere) then it would come up as unknown device.


----------



## dchandler326 (Apr 19, 2012)

THey will know its a smartphone from the amount of data you use, now will they care, I dont know but they will not know what kind of phone it is.


----------



## Mikefrostlpn (Jun 7, 2011)

T-Mobile is pretty liberal about what devices they decide to put on their network. If you think for a minute though that you can use any phone with a legal IMEI and the provider whether it be T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon or AT&T and they don't know EXACTLY what device it is you're mistaken. Will they care? Will they change your data plan? Who knows. Tallest nail gets hammered so to speak


----------



## noober (Jan 2, 2012)

Call and ask


----------



## blaineevans (Jul 11, 2011)

noober said:


> Call and ask


Gl doing that on tmo! Lol, sorry. I have to give anyone a bad time when they mention their "customer service".

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


----------

