This story was originally published and last updated .
If you’re a Verizon customer hoping to bring a shiny new OnePlus 8 Pro onto America’s biggest, reddest network, you finally can. After OnePlus told us that it could take until June for unlocked OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro phones to get onto Verizon, the carrier today certified both devices to use its towers.
Our initial reporting came after we saw a number of complaints on Verizon and OnePlus’ forums about the 8 Pro being unable to send or receive phone calls, or send or receive texts, often in various combinations. While mobile data generally works fine on the 8 Pro on Verizon right now, failing or missing calls and texts presents a pretty major issue, and is reason enough for most people to hold off on upgrading for the moment.
After reaching out to OnePlus, we learned that this is because the company still needs to submit additional information to Verizon. According to some Verizon customers, support agents are saying that this is because OnePlus hasn’t given over the list of IMEIs of unlocked OnePlus 8 and 8 Pros, which Verizon needs to mark as compatible for use on its whitelist-based network.
@PointJules You might want to warn people, the OnePlus 8 Pro does not work on Verizon properly at the moment(Verizon doesn’t even have the phone’s IMEIs). They’re not replying to people asking about it. They took down Verizon compatibility from the compatibility page.
— LockeCole (@LockeCole) April 24, 2020
The full statement from OnePlus about the issue is as follows:
Our OnePlus 8 series open market phones in North America will not be compatible with Verizon until June at the latest. The OnePlus 8 purchased through Verizon will be certified immediately.
There’s no reason to believe there’s any kind of technical or software problem here, it’s just a matter of OnePlus not having done the logistical legwork to get the phones on Verizon’s whitelist ahead of launch. OnePlus would not elaborate on why it was unable to sync up with Verizon on this in time for the phone’s imminent retail availability, just reiterating that the Verizon-sold variant of the OnePlus 8 would work on Verizon from day one.
Certified
Verizon has certified U.S. unlocked OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro for use on its cellular network as CDMA-less devices. This means they’ll be able to work on the company’s LTE grid and roam on GSM as necessary. As we’ve described before, only the OnePlus 8 5G sold through Verizon has access to Big Red’s millimeter wave 5G signals.
@PointJules The OnePlus 8/Pro’s seem to be in Verizon’s system now. Others on the OnePlus forums have confirmed it’s working as well. pic.twitter.com/zIfN3m5X53
— LockeCole (@LockeCole) April 30, 2020
Some OnePlus 8 owners who had trouble getting their IMEI accepted into Verizon say they had to ask upper-level customer support to add CDMA-less access to their accounts before they were able to bring on their new phone.
