My mother has an IPhoneSE with the largest US CDMA wireless provider. She will be changing providers, or trying to. And as her phone is about 1.5 years old and in pristine shape she’d prefer to continue using it. Can she use this iPhone with any US wireless provider and if not, how do we know/find out?
iPhone SE (2nd generation)
I'm guessing that by "the largest US CDMA wireless provider" you mean Verizon. (If I am not mistaken, that is what they used to be.). U.S. carriers have shut down their 2G and 3G networks, so any phone that relies solely on 2G and 3G CDMA and GSM/EDGE bands would be dead in the water in the U.S. today.
It looks like all three generations of iPhone SEs support some 4G frequencies, and like the third-generation SEs also support some 5G ones. These are what your mother's phone would be using to connect to her current carrier if she is successfully placing and receiving cellular phone calls in the U.S.
You might want to contact carriers that you are considering and ask them if they support your mother's iPhone. You can identify it more precisely with the aid of this Support document.
Identify your iPhone model - Apple Support
From there, you can follow links to her phone's Technical Specifications to see which cellular bands it supports.
For the third-generation iPhone SE, you can also find information here – at least for now.
I'm guessing that by "the largest US CDMA wireless provider" you mean Verizon. (If I am not mistaken, that is what they used to be.). U.S. carriers have shut down their 2G and 3G networks, so any phone that relies solely on 2G and 3G CDMA and GSM/EDGE bands would be dead in the water in the U.S. today.
It looks like all three generations of iPhone SEs support some 4G frequencies, and like the third-generation SEs also support some 5G ones. These are what your mother's phone would be using to connect to her current carrier if she is successfully placing and receiving cellular phone calls in the U.S.
You might want to contact carriers that you are considering and ask them if they support your mother's iPhone. You can identify it more precisely with the aid of this Support document.
Identify your iPhone model - Apple Support
From there, you can follow links to her phone's Technical Specifications to see which cellular bands it supports.
For the third-generation iPhone SE, you can also find information here – at least for now.
Is an iPhoneSE cdma and gsm compatible?
