This utility for the Motorola Photon Q sets the RF NV item 8322 to the value 0,
which allows the device to be used on GSM carriers in the US.

Usage:

$ make
/build/Android/cm-11.0/prebuilts/gcc/linux-x86/arm/arm-linux-androideabi-4.7/bin/arm-linux-androideabi-gcc --sysroot /build/Android/cm-11.0/prebuilts/ndk/9/platforms/android-10/arch-arm/ -Wall    xt897-fix-usa.c   -o xt897-fix-usa

Now copy xt897-fix-usa to the phone and run it as root:

root@asanti_c:/data/local/tmp # ./xt897-fix-usa
Setting logging_mode to internal...
Opened diag...
Getting value of NV-item 8322...
GSM outside USA only: 1
Setting value of NV-item 8322 to 0...
Getting value of NV-item 8322...
GSM outside USA only: 0
Setting logging_mode to usb...

You can get a precompiled binary from:
http://bork.cs.fau.de/~michael/photonq/xt897-fix-usa