CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidtelephonyimeilte
bureau13
bureau13

Reputation: 31

What does the getDeviceId() method of the Android TelephonyManager return for a CDMA phone with LTE?

The definition of the method on developer.android.com simply says that the method returns the "unique device ID, for example, the IMEI for GSM and the MEID or ESN for CDMA phones." So, for a CDMA phone with LTE, e.g. an LTE phone on Verizon, which has a CDMA radio (and so, an MEID) and which also has a SIM card, with an IMEI number...what does this method return? My main concern is that it is formally defined somewhere and can be trusted from one implementation to the next, but at this point I'm not sure that is true.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 925

Answers (2)

gsysko
gsysko

Reputation: 988

For Verizon devices, it seems to differ by manufacturer. For Nexus and LG devices getDeviceID returns the 14 digit MEID. For other manufacturers, it seems to return the 15 digit IMEI.

Upvotes: 0

user1725145
user1725145

Reputation: 4042

The "GSM" here appears to mean "the GSM family of mobile technologies" rather than GSM itself. That includes GSM, UMTS and LTE plus various add-ons. So I would expect that it would return the IMEI when on the LTE network.

You can find similar rather vague phrasing in the Microsoft Mobile Broadband APIs.

GSM, UMTS and LTE are three completely different radio access networks with different technologies, but they are all defined by 3GPP, and share some basic concepts in common, including the SIM card and the IMEI.

There is an introduction to LTE here, where it makes clear, how LTE developed from UMTS and UMTS from GSM.

Incidentally, the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) belongs to the device, not the SIM.

Upvotes: 0

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