Brax3 is BEAUTIFUL! The rugged case is great & protects the camera lens. But I am one that took the gamble on Verizon and they did ‘blacklist’ this IMEI. I was told by US Mobile the phone needs to have bands 4, 13 & 14 for LTE, which it does. I’ve always set my phone to LTE only anyway, don’t need 5g. So, I need to change the IMEI. Do you have pixel IMEI’s I can use for that?
If I cannot find help (I don’t have a windows PC, and the instructions are complicated) can I send it to you/Rob to flash a different pixel IMEI? If yes, how much would it be?
Or, could T-Mobile Starlink be available for Brax3? I checked their website, it is not on the list, only normie stuff and it’s possible they require G**gle, if so, would microg do the job?
I cannot just change to a different carrier. We are in rural Iowa, none of the other carriers put towers up here, only Verizon. I do NOT want to go back to a pixel. This is so much easier to pick up with the flat sides compared to the rounded edges of the pixel. Plus, it’s a BRAX !! : )
Yes I feel your pain. Family in MT only have Verizon as a choice, and I also worked with US Mobile to see if I could get it approved using their “warp” (Verizon) network. No good You can use iodéOS on other devices but I sadly don’t see the Brax3 getting approved on Verizon, it would take back room deals and big money to get the device approved on their network
Then you can use SN Writer IN WINDOWS to change your IMEIs, then finally you can re-flash iodéOS (you can use the same SP Flash Tools guide I list above).
Good luck, we will be interested to see if you succeed, it is certainly a “gray area” to flash IMEIs to get around a carrier device whitelist, others will be watching your progress closely I suspect.
Not sure I’m willing to try this, especially since I don’t have access to a Windows PC. Question, can this be done in Wine? I checked, I am able to install it on Pop!OS, which is what I use.
If I fail, I will either have a bricked brax3 or a tiny tablet and the need to carry a second phone for calls/texts, plus I will need to return the second brax3 that is currently stuck in 3rd party delivery limbo (not a big deal to me of course under the circumstances).
Thanks xancudo, looking at install steps for either one of those doesn’t look promising. No foolproof steps that I can find. Most are actually for the other way around, installing virtual on Windows to run Linux. Plus, how different is Windows11 from Windows7? That’s the last one I used. ??
Edit: I just found instructions that show installing it from PopShop, which might make it a little better option.
Edit: So, will Windoze require a login in this use? I don’t have one and I don’t want one.
So the Windows Dev is just an MS provided developer setup of Windows 11, free to use, and already built for VirtualBox and VMware. I use it to update my Garmin watch. lol But its free. So any Windows app you need to run, you can use it to do your thing.
I had to use a full Windows install (You can install W10 and not register it and it remains fully functional).
Before that, I did mess a lot with Quickgui, my preferred KVM/QEMU solution which will setup W10 or W10 w/o registration, and in the end it may have worked: you do have to set it to auto-add new USB devices since this wonky MediaTek tools do some strange things booting the phone, etc. to get in “Meta Mode” for them to work, and if the phone mounts in Linux first then it will get taken over there.
BUT, also you need to flash LunarOS first as I note, and this could have been why my virtual Windows wasn’t working right, but after I got “real W10” installed again (yuk!) on spare hardware I just stuck to that install, and did succeed in the end. If I had spare time I could re-run the whole process under Quickgui, but it won’t happen for a bit I suspect
rik, thanks for the additional info. I have lunar downloaded, but I didn’t find install/flash instructions. I am not able to do something like that without explicit step-by-step instructions. I also was not finding a dev of win11 for an intel chip, all were amd or arm. My head hurts!!
So, did you NOT do this process inside VirtualBox?
Edit: I am asking Rob again, hoping he will do this for me. edit: answer was no, they do not have the “tool” (?)
Forgot your question…no T-mobile and At&t are not options. I know a lot of people hate Verizon, but for people in rural areas, they are the only ones that put up enough towers close enough to help us. Basically the “maps” of the others are bogus. It looks like there should be coverage, but there isn’t (I tried both through US Mobile) when there are hills and timber between you and the towers that are too many miles away. We still have a landline…since I acknowledge that cell service isn’t a “right”. I’m watching the chat for someone testing T-starlink, although, I suspect that wouldn’t work indoors (??)
Away from keyboard but amd64 IS x86/64 bit intel for your windows setup. For installing LunarOS use SPFlash from linux or windows, you can just use the “download” option, not the firmware update option. Yes head hurting is about right.
I used the term ‘blacklist’. Apparently all 3 carriers in the US require phone manufacturers to get their phones approved to be used on their network. I am told Brax3 is not approved on Verizon. Partly because B3 doesn’t have all the frequency bands that Verizon uses. From my own research mostly 5G bands are missing, which I don’t care about, we just use LTE here. So I wanted to support the project and try it. We currently have service with Verizon through US Mobile. It works fine. If I am successful flashing my pixel IMEI to the B3, it should work then.
Verizon requires $100s of $1000s to “certify” a new device for their network. It works on a whitelist model meaning if you don’t pay to be on the list the device will not be allowed to be activated. Small manufacturers need not apply. MVNOs do not have permission to indepently approve a device.
At&t similar but MVNOs have ability to independently approve registrations such as us mobile.
T-Mobile is more of a blacklist approach meaning the list is for devices NOT approved. That is why it just works (in most cases
Yea, I told Rob we should start a go-fund-me to get it approved, but he said part of the problem would be Brax3 doesn’t have all the Verizon frequency bands.
Wish I could get the kids to use email and land line. We actually have fiber-optic cable buried to us, thanks to a small town Telco 25 miles away…bless them.
I understand Braxtech has something “in process” with AT&T, but not with Verizon as they are too hard to work with. And again, T-Mobile only uses a “blacklist” so it “just worked”.
You can use iodéOS on other devices but I sadly don’t see the Brax3 getting approved on Verizon, it would take back room deals and big money to get the device approved on their network 
Not sure I’m willing to try this, especially since I don’t have access to a Windows PC. Question, can this be done in Wine? I checked, I am able to install it on Pop!OS, which is what I use.
require a login in this use? I don’t have one and I don’t want one.
