Web Notebook

A few smart phones that support 4G LTE data on Sprint's network were on sale with reasonable prices such as LG Optimus F3, LG Tribute, LG Volt, HTC Desire 510 or Nokia Lumia 635. Their screen resolutions may not be full HD, but they have decent performance at their price range and in my opinion, they are great phones for Ting, Sprint's MVNO that has inexpensive mobile family plan.

On Ting, minutes, messages and data are pooled and shared between devices under the same account. You can have as many devices as you want on one account and each device costs $6 per month. There’s no premium charged for a mobile family plan and there isn't any weird line items on the monthly bills besides the taxes & regulatory fees. For example, to have 4 devices share 1000 minutes, 2000 global messages and 1 GB of 4G LTE data would have a total cost of $69/month plus taxes & regulatory fees at Ting, which is below $20/month per device. The 4G LTE data can be bumped to 2 GB for $10 more. At $79/month, it is still less than what I used to pay for only one device with 2 GB data at Verizon.

Most Sprint phones including these LG ones can be activated on Ting with the built-in hands-free activation after a Carrier Reset ##72786# (##SCRTN#). No flashing is necessary at all and you may also enjoy the 4G LTE data speed instantly with this phone that is not available from Page Plus or with a flashed device. If that doesn't sound good enough, Ting has started testing service on a GSM network since February 2015, which will allow both CDMA and GSM devices coexist under a single account and share a single pool of minutes, messages and megabytes.

What makes it even better is that Ting is giving out $25 credit for trying their service. The credit may be adequate for a month's free trial with Ting on one device. Click on this link to receive the promotion for $25 credit, which will show up upon successful activation.

I bought a Sprint LG tribute this week at Bestbuy. For $39.99, it comes with a solid specification:

1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8926) quad-core
Android version 4.4.2
4.5" diagonal LCD with 480 x 800 pixels
4G LTE capability

Update: Page Plus phone activation policy is changing and will no longer allow activation of flashed devices after January 15th, 2015. However, this phone is great to use on Sprint's MVNO Ting for its inexpensive mobile family plan with 4G LTE data. No flashing is necessary at all for activating it on Ting and you may also enjoy the 4G LTE data speed instantly with this phone that is not available from Page Plus. As of now, Sprint's MVNO Ting is running a promotion with a $100 credit to new sign ups with a referral until 11:59pm EST on December 1, 2014. The credit is adequate for a few month's free trial with Ting ($12-21/month depending on usage). Click on this link to receive the promotion for $100 credit, which will show up upon successful activation.

I've had a few phones with Verizon or Page plus and like their signal coverage. Therefore I did the following to use it with Page plus:

Obtain its MSL/SPC code: The MSL/SPC code of this phone may be obtained upon activation on Ting. Alternatively you can activate the phone on Ringplus with its $1.99 Kate plan after entering both its MEID and ICCID (activation would fail without ICCID) and obtained it's MSL/SPC code
Enable DIAG mode (Serial/COM port): Dial ##3424# in the phone dialer then enter the MSL/SPC code obtained in the above step. Change the USB PC connection in Settings->Storage (after tapping on the menu icon ) from MTP to Charge Phone (important). If USB PC connection is MTP, the windows MTP driver instead of the serial port driver will be installed when the phone is connected to USB.
Download and install the latest LG USB phone driver (LGUnitedMobileDriver_S51MAN312AP22_ML_WHQL_Ver_3.12.3.exe worked for me)
Connect the phone to the PC via USB. In windows Device Manager, there is a new deivce installed as LGE AndroidNet USB Serial Port.
Download and install the free software cdmaDevTerm 2.85. Extract the zip file with WinZip or 7-Zip to a folder on the hard drive and run the file cdmaDevTerm.exe.
Connect to the phone by clicking on the button connect as red-boxed below. It should read out MDN/MIN and other information about the phone when connected.
Change the SPC to my own (e.g. 000000). First send the SPC code (manually enter in the box) to the phone by clicking the button send as red-boxed below. The phone should be unlocked now.

Now enter my own SPC code (e.g. 000000) into the box after SPC and click on the button write as red-boxed below. The new SPC code can be read back by clicking on the button read to the left of button write
Manually program the phone: (Update: It is not necessary to cancel plan at Ting or Ringplus prior to the activation of the phone at Page plus.) Activate the phone at Page plus (ESN swap for me as I had a Page Plus phone number on a old device). Obtain the MDN and MIN of the Page plus account and enter them into the two boxes (leaving the other fields unchanged). Then click the button write under the button disconnect as red-boxed below.
Write a Verizon PRL to the phone: Download the PRL from internet and save to the hard drive (e.g. http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1815401-Pageplus-latest-prl-hacked-for-sprint-radio-phones)
1. Click on the select button to select the .prl file downloaded (53401_spt.prl for sprint phones worked for me)
2. Click on the write button to write prl to the phone
Reset the phone: Set the MODE of the phone to MODE_RADIO_RESET and click on the send button to reset the phone
Make an outgoing call to test. Worked and also tested with receiving a SMS. The phone is working with Page plus now for voice and SMS. If for some reason, the outgoing call does not go through, repeat the step 8-11.
3G Data programming: A Verizon 3G capable phone (donor phone) that can be programmed to write new MEID/ESN and read out HA/AAA key may be necessary. The following guides have detailed instructions on how to get PagePlus 3G data working on non-Verizon phones
- Simple way to Flash Sprint Galaxy S3 to PagePLUS w/ native 3G EVDO FREE
- Guide: Note 3 flash to PagePlus with 3G data