[LG V30 Questions & Answers] ChazzMatt:
That's a Sprint mandate, has nothing to do with the US998. They won't allow the open market US998 V30/V30+ on their network. They want you to buy their own hardware -- or not a competitor's phone. (The open market US998 V30/V30+ are technically identical to the U.S. Cellular US998 V30/V30+. The only way you can tell them apart is when you connect to LG Bridge and they are identified by IMEI from the LG database.)

Sprint has a very limited "whitelist" of non-Sprint branded phones that are allowed on their network. I could tell you their "official" reason they claim they won't accept the US998, but it's bull, so let's just leave it at the real reason. ;)

I got into a discussion about this with someone using a Sprint MVNO. If it's not allowed, it's not allowed. Has nothing to do with "compatibility", has to do with policy. Sprint is a struggling network which is failing fast. (If you haven't heard, the T-mobile merger talks are back on.) They carrier-lock their phones, because they want to trap you on their network with no escape.

I know they have an SIM card "unlock" protocol for their branded phones, which you followed to the letter -- but that fact it got "relocked" somehow with Oreo update leads me to believe it's Sprint's incompetence. The phone was locked by Sprint in the first place. Really has nothing to do with AT&T which freely accepts all compatible phones -- unlike Sprint.

Well, you could have bought the U.S. Cellular V30+ US998. It was released back in October a full WEEK before Sprint's V30+ and is SIM card/carrier unlocked out of the box. Has none of this Sprint drama I keep seeing in the forums. It's identical in every way to the open carry US998 V30+ -- because the open carry V30+ still isn't eligible for bootloader unlock on the LG Developer website.

I'm sorry your previously locked-down Sprint phone got locked down again.

---------- Post added at 07:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:43 AM ----------

There are now 3rd party services which use the Octopus box to "convert" your Sprint LS998 phone to US998 or AS998. See discussion

here

, which I"ve re-posted in this thread as it's relevant to the discussion.

Some of these phones are able to receive Oreo update as they are given full "documentation" shall we say -- while others are only given the US998/AS998 firmware but still have remnants of their Sprint origins.

_________

Very interesting. Thank you for that information! So, this Octopus box can do some magic. Wow.

But you haven't received any notifications for AT&T Oreo? I'm curious if your phone will allow you to update even if you flash AT&T Oreo KDZ with LG Bridge? Or maybe there's only a certain partition the update can be flashed to. I don't know.

"AS998" is from a regional U.S. carrier. (see this

thread back in November

when I was researching them.)

"US998" (as you know) is the model number for both U.S. Cellular and the open market LG US998.

I bet they're both pretty much identical phones/firmware which allows LTE/CDMA/HSPA/GSM.

I'm curious whether any of these problematic LS998 Sprint phones converted to "good" US998 or AS998 firmware can be updated via OTA or even LG Bridge?

ANSWER: apparently during the conversion your Sprint phone is given a corresponding US998 or AS998 IMEI (illegal in many countries and cannot be discussed on XDA), your phone will receive updates:

So, this would be the same for the "US998" Franken-phones. When you get the phone converted it has to be done completely, in order to receive OTA updates or updates via LG Bridge.

I wonder if these people with fake US998/AS998 phones (firmware only) but still bad IMEI (Sprint) can flash it with LG Uppercut?

UPPERCUT: Add Any LG Device to LGUP for TOT/KDZ Flashing

https://xdaforums.com/lg-g5/development/uppercut-lgup-loader-g5-variants-t3511295

That would keep the phones "legal" (original IMEI) but still allow for firmware updates.