PSA: Activating the OnePlus 6T on Verizon is tricky — here's how to do it

A few days before OnePlus launched the OnePlus 6T in New York City, news leaked that the device would be the first from the company to be certified to work on the Verizon network. Sure enough, OnePlus confirmed the news during its launch event.

However, it appears certification doesn’t make it as easy as one would expect to bring the device to Big Red. OnePlus 6T device owners — most of which are just now seeing the device show up at their doorsteps — are reporting various problems getting the device to work properly on the network.

We’ve taken a look around and figured out what you need to do to get the OnePlus 6T to work properly on Verizon. Here we go!

The magic words are “CDMA-less device”

When you add a OnePlus 6T to your Verizon Wireless plan, it’s not as simple as taking the SIM card out of your old device and throwing it into the new one. Instead, you’re going to have to call Verizon customer support and tell them exactly what kind of device this is, which is a CDMA-less device.

Without getting overly technical, the CDMA wireless standard is on the outs, and Verizon mostly relies on the 4G LTE standard instead. If you simply do a SIM card swap, it appears Verizon will default your device as a CDMA phone.

However, the OnePlus 6T isn’t a CDMA phone, it’s an LTE phone.

To be clear, if you do a quick SIM swap, the OnePlus 6T will still mostly work — but certain things will be wonky and some things won’t work at all. In order to get everything up and running, you’ll need to call Verizon support and tell them the device is CDMA-less. Once they switch the profile, your OnePlus 6T should work just fine in minutes.

Some reps won’t know what you’re talking about

If you get ahold of a Verizon rep and ask them to please update your network account so it works in a CDMA-less phone, you might find they have no idea what you’re talking about. According to users on Reddit and the OnePlus forums, some reps know exactly what this means while others are totally in the dark.

Other times, the rep might know what you mean but will tell you something along the lines of, “I don’t see a CDMA-less option here for your account.”

This problem stems from the billing side of Verizon and the network side not being in sync. For example, the network might know you’re using a certified OnePlus 6T, but your billing account doesn’t show that. In that case, the rep will not be able to update your account.

When that happens, you need to inform the rep of this issue and have them make sure the billing and network accounts are synced. Once things are synced up, the rep should see the CDMA-less option and then enable it for you.

As a side note, if you would like to do this work ahead of time, you can update your billing information yourself. Log in to your Verizon account at verizonwireless.com and navigate to My Verizon > My Device > Activate or Switch Device > Activate on an Existing Line. Once there, follow the instructions and you’ll be one step ahead of the game.

Steps to activate OnePlus 6T on Verizon

Now that you know what the problem is, here are the steps you should take to activate your OnePlus 6T on the Verizon network:

1. Call or start an online chat with a support rep and tell them you are trying to activate a Verizon-certified phone on your account.
2. Inform them that they need to set the device as CDMA-less, aka, LTE-only. If that works, great. If not…
3. Ask them to ensure that both the billing and network profiles for your account are the same, i.e., they both say you are using a OnePlus 6T.
4. Once the billing/network sync is complete, the rep should see the CDMA-less setting in your network account.
5. It should only take a few minutes for the CDMA-less change to hit your OnePlus 6T.

If this guide helps you out, let us know in the comments! If you’re still facing trouble, let us know — or visit the OnePlus subreddit and/or OnePlus forums for more help!

NEXT: T-Mobile OnePlus 6T owners reporting success unlocking the phone early