Bypassing T-Mobile and Doing It The Hard Way
I have a Nokia Lumia 925 that I bought from T-Mobile for $400+ when I switched to them a couple of months ago. I had no idea that I'd be trapping myself in an obsolete version of Windows Phone. (Personally, since T-Mobile's European customers already have the WP8.1/Cyan update, I figure either the programmers at the American company are incompetent or the NSA is having a field day tampering with the distro.)
At any rate, I want WP8.1 and the Cyan firmware update, so here's my plan, and I'm wondering if it's feasible -- of if I'm out of my mind:
Once I can find a third-party SIM card, I can unlock my phone (It's surprisingly hard to find one that will fit into the phone. Verizon is the big vendor here, and their SIMs are the big ones and don't fit in my phone.) Then I hope to find a distro in English that uses U.S. radio frequencies and install it. Then I can get rid of the crapware that's probably bundled with it by installing the WP8.1 Developer Preview over the existing WP8.1.
For instance, the T-Mobile Lumia 925 uses the RM-893 distribution. I know I can't use an European distro since they use different radio frequencies, and I haven't done the research to find out who uses the same ones the U.S. does, but I'm pretty sure Latin America uses the U.S. frequencies. So let's say I find an RM-892 or RM-893 distro from a country that has 4G LTG the American way, and I can get it to speak English to me. Could I get Cyan that way and then install the WP8.1 Developer Preview over that? Or is this hair-brained scheme destined to brick my phone and get me committed to the nuthouse?
I realize that I'll lose the Nokia apps, and I must admit their camera apps are really good, but there are others available in the store, and the Nokia apps aren't essential.
Does anyone think this could work?
I have a Nokia Lumia 925 that I bought from T-Mobile for $400+ when I switched to them a couple of months ago. I had no idea that I'd be trapping myself in an obsolete version of Windows Phone. (Personally, since T-Mobile's European customers already have the WP8.1/Cyan update, I figure either the programmers at the American company are incompetent or the NSA is having a field day tampering with the distro.)
At any rate, I want WP8.1 and the Cyan firmware update, so here's my plan, and I'm wondering if it's feasible -- of if I'm out of my mind:
Once I can find a third-party SIM card, I can unlock my phone (It's surprisingly hard to find one that will fit into the phone. Verizon is the big vendor here, and their SIMs are the big ones and don't fit in my phone.) Then I hope to find a distro in English that uses U.S. radio frequencies and install it. Then I can get rid of the crapware that's probably bundled with it by installing the WP8.1 Developer Preview over the existing WP8.1.
For instance, the T-Mobile Lumia 925 uses the RM-893 distribution. I know I can't use an European distro since they use different radio frequencies, and I haven't done the research to find out who uses the same ones the U.S. does, but I'm pretty sure Latin America uses the U.S. frequencies. So let's say I find an RM-892 or RM-893 distro from a country that has 4G LTG the American way, and I can get it to speak English to me. Could I get Cyan that way and then install the WP8.1 Developer Preview over that? Or is this hair-brained scheme destined to brick my phone and get me committed to the nuthouse?
I realize that I'll lose the Nokia apps, and I must admit their camera apps are really good, but there are others available in the store, and the Nokia apps aren't essential.
Does anyone think this could work?