Unlocked phone - CDMA or GSM - Does it matter?

unfortunately, the last answer is not entirely true. at&t and t-mobile are GSM, but so are a lot of prepay, as are a bunch of the rural carriers. it is by far the most common network in america. sprint and verizon are CDMA. the best way to tell is the presence of a SIM card under the battery. though iDEN also uses SIMS, but the only major iDEN carrier is nextel.

when you talk about unlocking a phone, you talk about GSM. the reason is that your phone can be switched by changing the SIM card, taking the company completely out of the equation. all it is is a little piece of software or firmware preventing the phone from reading the SIM. because you have verizon, though, you can't use any of them.

for CDMA, you're pretty much stuck with your carrier. you can still buy a phone off the internet and (usually) activate it no problem at a store, but if i were to see a sprint phone, i'd just turn you around.

though, in a couple months, verizon is joining something called the Open Handset Alliance. this means that you will be able to use any CDMA phone on the market from any CDMA carrier.

so, tell your friend to check under the battery if he sees a sim, no dice. if there's no sim, double check for a lable that has an EIN or IMEI number under the battery. if that's there, it's definitely CDMA. you need CDMA, but it has to be verizon branded for now. in a month or two, that won't matter as much.

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Actually, it does matter whether the cell phone is GSM or CDMA. Only AT&T and T-Mobile support GSM, all other major networks are CDMA. To check whether your phone is GSM or CDMA, simply go to the manufacturer's website, and look for the phone's product page.