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Hi,
I just received an unlocked International Galaxy Note II in the US. Ordered from Handtec in the UK, and the phone appears to be the French model. I have observed what I think is a problem when trying to use the phone on T-Mobile USA.
I put my T-Mobile USA SIM card in the phone, and the phone thinks I am roaming. Uhhhh no. It's a T-Mobile USA SIM card on the T-Mobile USA network. It is NOT roaming. Now, it probably doesn't have any impact beyond the "R" notifier, and a "Roaming" page which shows up on TouchWiz, but it DOES make me feel very uneasy. I have to enable "Data use while roaming" to be able to use data while on my home network!! It's crazy!
To those who will point out, yes, I know that T-Mobile USA has their 3G currently on the AWS 1700/2100 band, which the Note II does not support. I am therefore using EDGE with this phone. (Yes the data speeds suck, but T-Mobile's refarming will make this problem go away in the next few months). Even though I am on EDGE, I am not "roaming" unless the Note II's definition of roaming is different from mine. I am still on the home network, regardless of whether I am on 2G or 3G.
Has anyone else seen a problem like this?
If I can't figure this out in the next day or two, I may return the Note II and just wait another month or so for the T-Mobile US version. (Probably that's what I should do anyway, but I figured the GT-N7100 would get more developer support).
Hope someone can help!
Thanks!
Edit: I forgot to add - I also have and unlocked international Note 1 GT-N7000 and an unlocked iPhone 4. Neither possess the T-Mobile USA 3G band, and neither of which show roaming when I'm using T-Mobile USA. So, either T-Mobile did some funky network work today which changed something, or there is something different (and possibly a bug) about how the Galaxy Note II determines if it's roaming.
Unfortunately I cannot be of any assistance to your issue, just wanted to comment however. I find it very odd that ALL Note II's don't work on every frequency. Bear with me, I'm under the impression that they are identical hardware wise, every version. So, maybe it's a simple matter of flashing a different radio.img? Not that there are any available currently, but there will be shortly. I hope (think) it will be similar to the ATT Note on Tmo. Hopefully it works out better though. We still don't know if the Tmo Note II will be HSPA+42 or not, but it will support next years Tmo LTE.
So, as of now, this is a little bit of a disappointment for Tmo customers looking for the N7100. Hope you can find a workaround for at least HSPA+21 soon :good:
ccampbell1 said:
Hi,
I just received an unlocked International Galaxy Note II in the US. Ordered from Handtec in the UK, and the phone appears to be the French model. I have observed what I think is a problem when trying to use the phone on T-Mobile USA.
I put my T-Mobile USA SIM card in the phone, and the phone thinks I am roaming. Uhhhh no. It's a T-Mobile USA SIM card on the T-Mobile USA network. It is NOT roaming. Now, it probably doesn't have any impact beyond the "R" notifier, and a "Roaming" page which shows up on TouchWiz, but it DOES make me feel very uneasy. I have to enable "Data use while roaming" to be able to use data while on my home network!! It's crazy!
To those who will point out, yes, I know that T-Mobile USA has their 3G currently on the AWS 1700/2100 band, which the Note II does not support. I am therefore using EDGE with this phone. (Yes the data speeds suck, but T-Mobile's refarming will make this problem go away in the next few months). Even though I am on EDGE, I am not "roaming" unless the Note II's definition of roaming is different from mine. I am still on the home network, regardless of whether I am on 2G or 3G.
Has anyone else seen a problem like this?
If I can't figure this out in the next day or two, I may return the Note II and just wait another month or so for the T-Mobile US version. (Probably that's what I should do anyway, but I figured the GT-N7100 would get more developer support).
Hope someone can help!
Thanks!
Edit: I forgot to add - I also have and unlocked international Note 1 GT-N7000 and an unlocked iPhone 4. Neither possess the T-Mobile USA 3G band, and neither of which show roaming when I'm using T-Mobile USA. So, either T-Mobile did some funky network work today which changed something, or there is something different (and possibly a bug) about how the Galaxy Note II determines if it's roaming.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That happened to me as well using my International Galaxy S3, I dug into it for about a month and trust me, it's something with the phone detecting that it can't connect to the HSPA+ bands it supports, and when it "defaults" down to EDGE it considers it "Roaming". Stop digging for answers, I was at it for weeks, this is the reason.
You wont get charged for roaming or anything though, so use EDGE until T-Mobile's refarming finally happens; I waited for 2 months and nothing, so I jumped ship and got Straight Talk. I use over 15 GB of data a month, no throttling, $45 bucks. :good:
Hope this helps, because NO ONE gave me a straight answer, Dont even bother calling T-Mobile, they're of absolutely no help. I flashed all sorts of custom ROMs, Kernels, Network Tools, Diagnostics, etc. trying to figure it out. It's just the way these Samsung phones (GT-I9300 and N7100 by the looks of it) work when their 3G/HSPA+ bands are not supported.
Cheers!
farfromovin said:
Unfortunately I cannot be of any assistance to your issue, just wanted to comment however. I find it very odd that ALL Note II's don't work on every frequency. Bear with me, I'm under the impression that they are identical hardware wise, every version. So, maybe it's a simple matter of flashing a different radio.img? Not that there are any available currently, but there will be shortly. I hope (think) it will be similar to the ATT Note on Tmo. Hopefully it works out better though. We still don't know if the Tmo Note II will be HSPA+42 or not, but it will support next years Tmo LTE.
So, as of now, this is a little bit of a disappointment for Tmo customers looking for the N7100. Hope you can find a workaround for at least HSPA+21 soon :good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
farfromovin,
I agree it's a complete pain why one model can't work worldwide - or even between carriers in one country, the US!! I'm not sure that all the revisions are the exact same hardware though. Certainly the different revisions will support different LTE bands from one another, different 3G bands (ie T-Mobile USA) and even different technologies (VZW, Sprint, US Cellular CDMA). Whether there is one uber radio chip that's the same in all versions, with different bits enabled here and there, I don't know. I would doubt that a chip currently exists to support all GSM, UMTS, LTE and CDMA bands in the one, but you never know.
I really cannot wait (getting super sick of it) until T-Mobile's 1900MHz refarming, and finally all UMTS/HSPA phones will work on pretty much any UMTS/HSPA network worldwide. But just as we finally get 3G harmony, LTE comes along with a zillion different bands, and we're back to where we were at the start of GSM, and the start of UMTS - all over again.
As far as getting the GT-N7100 to work on T-Mobile AWS bands - unless the radio supports that band somewhere, and can be enabled by some hacky flashing, I don't think there's much chance. I followed a thread for a while which was trying to do that for the original GT-N7000 and it ended up nowhere unfortunately.
I'd be very, very surprised if the T-Mobile US official Note II did not support DC-HSPA +42. Given how TMO pushes that, I don't think they'd sell a phone without it these days. I'm kind of surprised the GT-N7100 doesn't have it, to be honest, but I guess it's not yet that widespread, and most carriers will bypass it to go to LTE.
Cheers!
Ars-Hexis said:
That happened to me as well using my International Galaxy S3, I dug into it for about a month and trust me, it's something with the phone detecting that it can't connect to the HSPA+ bands it supports, and when it "defaults" down to EDGE it considers it "Roaming". Stop digging for answers, I was at it for weeks, this is the reason.
You wont get charged for roaming or anything though, so use EDGE until T-Mobile's refarming finally happens; I waited for 2 months and nothing, so I jumped ship and got Straight Talk. I use over 15 GB of data a month, no throttling, $45 bucks. :good:
Hope this helps, because NO ONE gave me a straight answer, Dont even bother calling T-Mobile, they're of absolutely no help. I flashed all sorts of custom ROMs, Kernels, Network Tools, Diagnostics, etc. trying to figure it out. It's just the way these Samsung phones (GT-I9300 and N7100 by the looks of it) work when their 3G/HSPA+ bands are not supported.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Ars-Hexis,
Thanks so much for the reply. I googled about the same issue on the i9300 as you mentioned - and sure enough a couple of threads on androidcentral, and tmobile support - and all with pretty much a bunch of people going "what?" I think you're right, and this is either some crazy change which Samsung has made to the "S3" generation of phones, or it's an unintended bug which was introduced. I contacted Samsung support on twitter but I'm sure they'll tell me to go away since this is an international model and not sold or supported in the US.
I would love to have this properly reported to Samsung though because it is NOT correct behaviour, and I'm sure it does not meet the 3GPP standard behaviour. These phones' definition of "roaming" is frankly wrong. It's possible they know about the bug but don't care about it too much, because it only affects the minority of importers or travelers, and then only on the very few networks which use AWS band for 3G.
The phone and data works fine of course, so it's really a cosmetic annoyance. However, if I was actually outside TMO's network without knowing it (maybe camping on to some network on the Canadian border or something) then I'd never know if I was actually roaming or not. So the phone's roaming indicator, by being permanently false, is useless in the times when I'm actually roaming. Since this is not a likely scenario for me to be on the Canadian border and roaming onto an AWS-only network any time soon, I'll not worry too much about it.
Yes, I'm really sick waiting on this refarming. It's a huge undertaking of course, so I understand why. I do have a Straight Talk AT&T SIM which I got for my Galaxy Note 1, however I don't use it often for several reasons: haven't ported my number to it, am wary about data throttling or cut-off, and I find the data hit or miss on Straight Talk anyway. I heard stories about people being warned or cut off after 100MB in any day, but if you're saying 15GB and no throttling, it may be something I want to put to the test!
Thanks a lot for your reply! It's nice to know I'm not crazy!
Cheers!
ccampbell1 said:
Hey Ars-Hexis,
Thanks so much for the reply. I googled about the same issue on the i9300 as you mentioned - and sure enough a couple of threads on androidcentral, and tmobile support - and all with pretty much a bunch of people going "what?" I think you're right, and this is either some crazy change which Samsung has made to the "S3" generation of phones, or it's an unintended bug which was introduced. I contacted Samsung support on twitter but I'm sure they'll tell me to go away since this is an international model and not sold or supported in the US.
I would love to have this properly reported to Samsung though because it is NOT correct behaviour, and I'm sure it does not meet the 3GPP standard behaviour. These phones' definition of "roaming" is frankly wrong. It's possible they know about the bug but don't care about it too much, because it only affects the minority of importers or travelers, and then only on the very few networks which use AWS band for 3G.
The phone and data works fine of course, so it's really a cosmetic annoyance. However, if I was actually outside TMO's network without knowing it (maybe camping on to some network on the Canadian border or something) then I'd never know if I was actually roaming or not. So the phone's roaming indicator, by being permanently false, is useless in the times when I'm actually roaming. Since this is not a likely scenario for me to be on the Canadian border and roaming onto an AWS-only network any time soon, I'll not worry too much about it.
Yes, I'm really sick waiting on this refarming. It's a huge undertaking of course, so I understand why. I do have a Straight Talk AT&T SIM which I got for my Galaxy Note 1, however I don't use it often for several reasons: haven't ported my number to it, am wary about data throttling or cut-off, and I find the data hit or miss on Straight Talk anyway. I heard stories about people being warned or cut off after 100MB in any day, but if you're saying 15GB and no throttling, it may be something I want to put to the test!
Thanks a lot for your reply! It's nice to know I'm not crazy!
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there! Sorry I hadn't answered in such a long time. We'll actually I've found that the S3 (sold it) and the Note 2 (own it) some how cannot be tracked for data usage correctly by straight talk. It's quite interesting... I ported my number over from T-Mobile, so if you have an S3 with a T-mobile prepaid sim... I think you have nothing to lose! I'm in Dallas and regularly get around 3-4Mbits/S during high usage hours and 6-7Mbits/S after 7 pm when network usage goes down.
There have been 2 occasions over the past 2 months where I'm throttled for like an hour and suddenly it gets uncapped on its own (?!?!?) lol. Last month I used about 25 GB... It's insane. Btw, if you if get throttled for real (happened to me once), you can just call them and say your "Internets is slow" (act technologically challenged) and they'll reset it.
Ah 1 last thing: I got the at&T ST sim card when I switched.
Cheers!
Sent from my GT-N7100 using XDA Premium HD app
I just got my International Note 2 today, and I am using it on the T-Mobile network also. I am seeing that I am roaming but my data is off and I am just using wifi. I have turned off my phone and back on again and its still showing. But after reading this whole thread I am getting that is a bug or something along those lines is that correct? Thanks.
I really need to know
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
roaming
I am on prepaid tmobile and I have Roaming sign only in areas where I used to loose signal with my old phone . Basically when I go in Garage underground my signal starts getting weaker and weaker and then roaming kiks in and signal is up all the way . T-mobile does not charges for local roaming . If you use USA tmobile and you are in usa you are fine . My texts and voice are still the same rate for me . When I had Chinese rom it was showing all the time , now I flashed German t-mobile and R shows only sometime , but it does not bother me .
Hope this helps .
I too have a Note II (GT-N7100) I purchased in Thailand in December. I use it on the T-Mobile network and have the same issues with the "R" symbol. I am located in Tampa Bay area, Florida.
T-Mobile was indicating to me in January that this was an issue in weaker signal areas for their data network as they prepare to refarm it. Don't know if this explanation is entirely accurate, but I find in my local area that the R symbol goes away in certain areas and it behaves "normally". This includes the area where my T-Mobile office is located. It seems to be somewhat of a patchwork network, and for some reasons certain areas cause it to go into the Roaming mode.
I was just on a trip with stops in Los Amgeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia and noted the same behavior in some of those cities: Getting normal signal indications in some places, and Roaming in others.
Hi guys!
Okay so more rather to cater to my burning curiosity of how the T-Mobile Varient would do with HSPA+ 42 and the 1700/2100 I went down this morning grabbed a white version and came home and did some test. And here's what I've found.
#1) The T-Mobile Variant of the Note 2 is Made in CHINA! While the N7100 is made in Korea
#2) The T-Mobile Variant had worse download speeds where I live and testing the HSPA+ speeds in my house resulted in the unlocked N7100 beating it on the 1900mhz band. (Keep in mind I only get HSPA+ On t-Mobile near my house all other are's that were tested I have edge on the N7100 they are still refarming.
#3) So I took it upon myself to see is the T-Mobile branded version actually faster? I drove around for about 10-20 miles stopping in different area's and testing, The highest I've Gotten with it was 15mbps down. However I was not able to compare it to the N7100 in the same exact location because that area is not yet refarmed. However Comparing it side by side the N7100 at home the N7100 had the edge in download speeds which was funny to me.
Besides that fact, the N7100 is fully unlocked and no bs from T-mobile on it and the instant I used the T-Mobile version I wanted the N7100 back. So Moral of the story for me was that is it worth getting the T-Mobile version? If your on the Re farmed network I'd say no get the N7100 instead no bloatware faster updates, Speeds won't vary much, and You can tether devices without rooting!
Good to hear others thinking along these same lines. Guess it really depends on whether tour city is being refarmed.
I live in Memphis, and I've heard rumors that we're getting / already have the 1900 band. Guess I might need to find a good way to test before hand.
km
Nyxagamemnon said:
Hi guys!
Okay so more rather to cater to my burning curiosity of how the T-Mobile Varient would do with HSPA+ 42 and the 1700/2100 I went down this morning grabbed a white version and came home and did some test. And here's what I've found.
#1) The T-Mobile Variant of the Note 2 is Made in CHINA! While the N7100 is made in Korea
#2) The T-Mobile Variant had worse download speeds where I live and testing the HSPA+ speeds in my house resulted in the unlocked N7100 beating it on the 1900mhz band. (Keep in mind I only get HSPA+ On t-Mobile near my house all other are's that were tested I have edge on the N7100 they are still refarming.
#3) So I took it upon myself to see is the T-Mobile branded version actually faster? I drove around for about 10-20 miles stopping in different area's and testing, The highest I've Gotten with it was 15mbps down. However I was not able to compare it to the N7100 in the same exact location because that area is not yet refarmed. However Comparing it side by side the N7100 at home the N7100 had the edge in download speeds which was funny to me.
Besides that fact, the N7100 is fully unlocked and no bs from T-mobile on it and the instant I used the T-Mobile version I wanted the N7100 back. So Moral of the story for me was that is it worth getting the T-Mobile version? If your on the Re farmed network I'd say no get the N7100 instead no bloatware faster updates, Speeds won't vary much, and You can tether devices without rooting!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So would you be able to tell me if the T-mo Note and the N7100 are exact the same dimensions/shape. I want to buy a case for the T-mo version but I think all the ones on ebay are for the N7100. Maybe you can switch out battery covers to see if they fit. Thanks!
I too was sitting on the fence on whether to pick the the N7100 or T-mobile's handset. I eventually chose the latter for the following reasons. It may not necessarily apply to everyone. I'm not an engineer so I don't know much about technical details but I am very logical in understanding how things work:
1) Tmo has done a fairly good job on refarming the 1900 band for hspa+ and true enough you will get speeds >10mbps. I previously tested this service on an international SGS2 and international GN1. And that was using a prepaid sim. So clearly international versions of samsung will have hspa+ service IF there is coverage. However as to date, we still have to see consistent and widespread coverage of hspa+ on the 1900 band. Who's to say that by year's end the refarming would have been completed to a satisfactory level as promised by T-mobile? What if coverage would still be practically the same in YOUR area? What if completion simply means additional cities/towns but your area basically has already been refarmed to completion. I feel that will be the case with MY area. It's still really "wait and see" for the refarming project. While with the t-mo variant you get consistent hspa+ ALREADY, NOW and greater coverage simply because they have been designed to work with the existing hspa+ AWS bands of Tmo. 1900 hspa+ is just additional for the Tmo variant.
In my case, I use my home wifi. So that situation negates the 4G coverage comparison between the 2 .
I'm curious as to what your home speed differences were? Was it that significant to outweigh the benefit of more consistent hspa+ coverage outside your home? I understand your mobile tests showed Tmo's variant to be the winner by "default". Meaning N7100 didn't have a chance to even compete. That alone is enough for me to chose Tmo's.
2) N7100 has a 21mbps hspa+ radio. Tmo's variant has a 42mbps radio. Although I am not seeing speeds proportionate to the advertised 42mbps radio in my area. I believe some folks around the US have demonstrated 20-30mbps on Tmo's network. Just scourge the net for those blogs and anecdotes. Obviously the 42mbps radio is required for those speeds. I guess it will all depend on the location and if 42mbps hspa+ is enforced on the surrounding towers.
3) re: bloatware - They don't bother me much. However for the tinkerers out there, this may be a deal breaker. But I am certain there is always a way around this for the advanced users.
4) N7100 doesn't have an LTE radio. Tmo's variant potential has this feature. That adds a little future proofing value to it. Check engadget's latest review of Tmo's variant. To quote:
"Also, according to the T889's FCC application, the device includes support for LTE bands 4 (AWS) and 17, though this particular set of radios is currently locked on T-Mobile. We're hoping the AWS LTE band will be enabled for us as soon as the network is ready to push ahead with its next-gen technology, but we haven't heard any official word from Magenta about this. Regardless of what happens, we wouldn't put it past hackers Android programming aficionados to come up with a way of taking advantage of this."
Regardless, by the time LTE would be fully and satisfactorily enforced, we all would have probably moved on to another device.
trojanlawyer said:
So would you be able to tell me if the T-mo Note and the N7100 are exact the same dimensions/shape. I want to buy a case for the T-mo version but I think all the ones on ebay are for the N7100. Maybe you can switch out battery covers to see if they fit. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are the same damn phone except for the International version is made in Korean (says on label) and the U.S. variants are made in China (again, on the label) but the specs are the same as far as the meat and bones and the accessories will all work together just like the Galaxy S 3.... I have both a T-mobile (which I picked up today) Titanium color and An International Note in white and my T-mobile is performing a tad quicker as far as benchmarks but that really does not mean much... As far as where it's made.... I, personally, don't care cause they are both the same phone and qc for Samsung (in general) is the same across the board. I almost want to keep the T-mobile AND the International but I don't know if my budget will like that although I did get the International N7100 for $589.99 plus $12.00 back in ebay bucks so I can't complain on the price! The T-mobile was $688.00 OTD when I purchased it today but the HUGE difference is that the T-mobile will work on HSPA+ networks with both T-mobile and AT&T (if unlocked) and the International is edge on T-mobile(nothin you can do)... So I have more options as far as Pre-paid services and I can obtain insurance or a warranty without a problem in the US with the T-mobile version also... Another big plus! The International version is nice because it has hardly any bloat and it gets updates quickly! Who knows when we will see multitasking on the T-mobile version although they aren't as bad as some networks for updates... My opinions on the two versions....
EDIT: What he said above.... LOL He beat me to it! **I also notice on the T-mobile version that when you go to the dialer and press *#0*# there are more test options....??**
Hi all, here's a map you should all have bookmarked and contributed to:
http://www.airportal.de/
Quick comment - checked back of my phone and it says made in Korea . My model jumber is SGH-T889v. Thanks!
Aren't the white ones made in Korea?
Kawaisa - I have the titanium grey - the SGH-T889v I have is the Canadian variant.
That's one way to look at it I guess. If you get 1900 Mhz at your house and don't want to use your wifi, ok. I would take the Tmo version with wifi calling app and HSPA+42 radio with next years LTE bands built in and just run a debloated stock rom when they start popping up here (or pull your own bloat out using TB). I got one today at Tmo, rooted it, uninstalled a bunch of garbage, and am really happy with the device. The only thing I "want" is the TV animation when shutting the screen off lol. Oh, and I don't like the boot audio either of the SGH-T889, but that will change in a week or so when ROM's start getting released To each there own, although I'd bet the N7100 will get superior dev support...
Kawaisa said:
Aren't the white ones made in Korea?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to know too. Does anyone have the White US version and where it was made?
I have the white where i can check that
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
AndroidNoober said:
I have the white where i can check that
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Behind the phone, under the battery in the back. Thanks.
Tmo white note 2 is Made in china
Sent from my SGH-T889 using xda app-developers app
I'm going to receive my T-Mobile Note2 in a few days and I chose it pretty much for the same reasons as what had already been stated.
I am not based in the US..but I'm based in the Philippines and will just unlock my Note2. I got it through Wirefly so the price difference really did sway me to get it over the international variant. I also like that it is LTE capable so at least it's future proof somehow.
I am very capable of tinkering with phones so I can easily get rid of bloat and such.
My main concern is the amount of dev support this would be getting. I would imagine that due to the similar hardware, porting ROMs meant for international version would be relatively easy.
I'm wondering though if I could just flash an international based ROM straight away since I don't intend to use this with TMO anyway so I can live without sms/call/data of TMO as long as it can still somehow work with my international SIM and the phone still fully function.. I don't want to wait for updates via carrier.
I've read several of you are talking about uninstalling bloatware, wouldn't this hinder in the OTA update process (we should get one soon for the multi-window feature) whenever it gets pushed out. I thought it was best to disable or freeze the apps through TB rather than uninstalling it, could someone clarify that for me?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
GN2 TMo on ATT with 3G speeds?
shojus said:
They are the same damn phone except for the International version is made in Korean (says on label) and the U.S. variants are made in China (again, on the label) but the specs are the same as far as the meat and bones and the accessories will all work together just like the Galaxy S 3.... I have both a T-mobile (which I picked up today) Titanium color and An International Note in white and my T-mobile is performing a tad quicker as far as benchmarks but that really does not mean much... As far as where it's made.... I, personally, don't care cause they are both the same phone and qc for Samsung (in general) is the same across the board. I almost want to keep the T-mobile AND the International but I don't know if my budget will like that although I did get the International N7100 for $589.99 plus $12.00 back in ebay bucks so I can't complain on the price! The T-mobile was $688.00 OTD when I purchased it today but the HUGE difference is that the T-mobile will work on HSPA+ networks with both T-mobile and AT&T (if unlocked) and the International is edge on T-mobile(nothin you can do)... So I have more options as far as Pre-paid services and I can obtain insurance or a warranty without a problem in the US with the T-mobile version also... Another big plus! The International version is nice because it has hardly any bloat and it gets updates quickly! Who knows when we will see multitasking on the T-mobile version although they aren't as bad as some networks for updates... My opinions on the two versions....
EDIT: What he said above.... LOL He beat me to it! **I also notice on the T-mobile version that when you go to the dialer and press *#0*# there are more test options....??**
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Besides unlocking a TMo note 2, did you have to do anything else to make it work on 3G on ATT? Did you actually test that it would work on ATT 3G or this is just a guess based on specs?
dont be mad now that the cat is out of the bag that tmobile galaxy note 2 has LTE
RE: Bloatware
its called root and titanium backup if you want the Tmo version and no bloatware. root is achievable on the Tmo Note 2, along w/CWM. i am sticking w/the stock rom since i plan to use S-Pen quite a bit. we'll see as the weeks go by and roms start to appear.
i went the tmo vs international due to that 1900 isn't in my area yet and won't be until end of year and our version as prev noted does have the LTE hardware and cheaper than importing an unlocked phone. has anyone noticed VERY slow A-GPS lockons when in doors? my gnex was freakin instant indoors.
Can anyone else post what color they have and where it was Made?
I was reading that the international ones have Made in Korea, Made in China, and Made by Samsung.
Thanks.
I currently enjoy my Verizon M7 with an old "grandfathered" Verizon unlimited data plan... I really have no complaints about the service level, phone calls are clear and don't drop, LTE data speeds are great... Nonetheless, I dislike Verizon's increasingly-successful efforts to lock-down their devices to an unbreakable degree, I dislike the fact that Verizon STILL hasn't released Lollipop for their M7, AND I feel I'm paying way too much money every month for my line and 3 other lines for my wife and kids (they DON'T have unlimited data - I pay for 2GB per month for each).
So, T-Mobile's month-to-month plans, their offers to buy out Verizon contracts, and the fact that their LTE coverage is reportedly faster than VZW's in 20 USA major metros is tempting...
Questions:
Does modern GSM on T-Mo devices still buzz through every nearby speaker?
How solid are telephone conversations on T-Mobile? Are you happy with their USA network? I'm working around the greater SF bay area with business travel to major metro areas - few road trips...
Are T-Mo's "unlimited" data plans truly unlimited, or do they throttle down speeds after a certain threshold?
Dare I keep using my m7wlv (verizon's HTC One variant) on T-Mo's network? Presumably I can just swap out the SIM, but I suspect limited band selection, etc. Likewise with my girls' iPhone 5ses...
Thanks!
If you get coverage in your area with T-Mobile, then the choice is yours. Nobody will blame you for the cost and device support issues... Not having T-Mobile ever (because their coverage is horrible in my area) I can't vouch for the call quality being any better than AT&T, which was terrible on gsm.
If you travel outside of major metropolitan areas, your 4g will probably have a bad time. Just judging from the few friends that have T-Mobile service asking to borrow my phone to call or look something up...
T mobile lied to my wife about their coverage before she got the device and then tried to say she didn't send the device back when she decided to switch back to Verizon. Plus they have probably the worst customer service ever. It took nearly five days worth of phones calls just to get them to refund the $600 they charged her for the device she sent back. After this experience I wouldn't suggest anyone use t mobile but some people like it I guess.
Still haven't tried them - can our m7wlv work properly?
Thanks @disconnecktie. I hear you, although I expect there are many similar stories from former Verizon customers...
But yeah - I walked into the local T-Mobile store yesterday and it felt a bit slimy in terms of the say-anything sales force looking to have me sign up for a phone. I left without so much as a SIM.
I'll still probably try them to out, but I thought I should look into whether or not my m7wlv can be made to take full advantage of T-Mobile's network; or if the only fair test would be on a proper t-mo phone...
I've heard that our phone won't pickup the LTE bands used by T-Mobile by default, but I've also heard that with the MSL code one can enable all LTE bands for use. Has anyone messed with this and gotten their Verizon M7 to experience those kick-butt LTE speeds on T-Mobile I've been reading about? I'm also impressed by T-Mobile's deal with Google for Project Fi...
As far as I know the Verizon phones get locked out of the other frequencies at a hardware level which means no amount of software modifications will change anything.
I'm pretty sure it's set at the baseband firmware level, likely above my pay grade to edit...
bmeek said:
I'm pretty sure it's set at the baseband firmware level, likely above my pay grade to edit...
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Click to collapse
Most likely because of the model number difference, it is hardware dependant. You RUU a dev/att edition m7 (same model number) to a tmo edition, and you still will not get aws hspa. I am going to attempt doing some edits and see if it will work as a friend of mine gave me his tmo sim to test this over this weekend. I have read it is hardware locked and nothing software side will enable those frequencies. If I do get it to work or not work, I will let you know. The other variants of the m7 will not save NV edits upon reboot. Hopefully the vzw one will.
Edit: Tried QPST and QXDM... Odd thing is our NV shows all bands unlocked. Well, I did the same edits another user did for his Vzw M8 and still rebooted with only Edge. Checked NV and some bands were now disabled, so it did change the NV values. Sadly I would assume our hardware will not support GSM bands at the NV level. I could try to flash a T-mobile radio, but I would think it is different hardware, so hopefully I don't have a heard brick on my hands after that. I will update when I get some more testing done.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using XDA Free mobile app
Flashed the 7.x T-Mobile radio. Phone would boot and wouldn't get signal and reboot after about a minute. Still had the NV edits in place. So it must be hardware related on why we cannot get US carrier (ATT/TMo) HSPA and LTE.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using XDA Free mobile app
Uzephi said:
Flashed the 7.x T-Mobile radio. Phone would boot and wouldn't get signal and reboot after about a minute. Still had the NV edits in place. So it must be hardware related on why we cannot get US carrier (ATT/TMo) HSPA and LTE.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oki thank you for trying
Ran into something interesting today. So after my radio Flash, the edge in my area has been wonky and odd. I did an ruu to hopefully fix any damage to the partition the radio Flash did. Reinstalled nusenseven. I use the traffic monitor. Most of the time it caps out at 35 kbps as it is edge. Some rare times I will see it wig out and pump 500k to 1.5mb for about 3-5 seconds. I do not know if it is software glitching or if the phone is on a refarmed edge band and only doing edge because of software limitation.
I live in a big city where there is refarmed towers all over the place.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using XDA Free mobile app
I've just done a bit of traveling with my carrier unlocked HTC 10 on T-Mobile's network, and I've encountered quite a lot of reception issues with this device. I'm not sure what the issue is, but am curious about others experiences road tripping with this device.
Previously I've only used the phone in my home area (Chicago). The device has performed flawlessly there. This past week, however, I road tripped to Maine and back and had a lot of problems with coverage. I'm fairly new to T-Mobile, so I would normally write it off as their network, but my wife's iPhone 6s performed great in these areas, as did my Moto X Pure Edition.
Here are some of the issues I experienced:
In rural Maine, while the phone was roaming on AT&T, many incoming calls and texts would not come through at all. This behavior was intermittent, despite having 3+ bars of AT&T signal.
While the phone was roaming on AT&T, many outgoing texts would fail to send. Rebooting the phone was often the only way to get them to go through. Again, this was with strong AT&T signal.
Moving between AT&T and T-Mobile coverage areas in rural Maine, the phone would fail to reconnect to T-Mobile service on its own. In order to make this work, I would either have to reboot the phone, toggle airplane mode, manually select T-Mobile under Mobile network settings -> GSM/UMTS Options -> Network operators or, if those all failed, run the LTE Discovery app. I'm not sure why that would make the phone reconnect to T-Mobile service, but it seemed to do so consistently.
The phone would lose signal completly in areas where our iPhone 6s and Moto X Pure Edition had LTE signal
The phone would lose LTE signal and move to 2G/EDGE or no mobile data at all in areas where our iPhone 6s and Moto X had LTE signal
I've seen similar issues discussed over in http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-10/help/awful-lte-signal-update-t3378163, but it seems I'm experiencing more than just weak LTE signal.
Has anybody else experienced anything similar? Or am I having some sort of hardware issue? It seems crazy to me that this device would perform so poorly compared to the iPhone 6s and Moto X Pure Edition, both of which are also carrier unlocked. HTC told me I should try a new SIM, otherwise there might be a hardware issue, but I'm wondering if this is more widespread than just my device.
Haven't had any issues with mine
Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
I live in Maine and haven't encountered any issues yet. Although I do live in So Maine so T-Mobile is pretty solid here. I would try the new SIM to see if that fixes the problem.
Are you s-off and unlocked? If so which firmware version are you on? The US Unlocked version or something else? If you're not on the US unlocked firmware I would try flashing that, if you're S-Off. If that fails to fix it then I'd suspect a hardware issue.
BladeRunner said:
I live in Maine and haven't encountered any issues yet. Although I do live in So Maine so T-Mobile is pretty solid here. I would try the new SIM to see if that fixes the problem.
Are you s-off and unlocked? If so which firmware version are you on? The US Unlocked version or something else? If you're not on the US unlocked firmware I would try flashing that, if you're S-Off. If that fails to fix it then I'd suspect a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on the US Unlocked version--not sure if it's s-off, I haven't done anything to it myself, so I'm using it however it came from HTC. Not sure if they are s-off by default or not.
Unfortunately I won't be back to Maine to test this new SIM this year. I guess I'll have to test locally side by side with my wife's iPhone to try to determine if it's still dropping coverage so regularly once I get out of a metro area.
I have a T-Mobile model that is running unlocked firmware and I experience switching problems when moving from wifi to lte. Simply put, I cannot connect to T-Mobile after leaving wifi unless I reboot the phone.
3's&7's said:
I have a T-Mobile model that is running unlocked firmware and I experience switching problems when moving from wifi to lte. Simply put, I cannot connect to T-Mobile after leaving wifi unless I reboot the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you use the LTE Discovery app? I wonder if that would work for you too, running though that process once usually made my phone pick T-Mobile signal back up.
Trooper Thorn said:
Do you use the LTE Discovery app? I wonder if that would work for you too, running though that process once usually made my phone pick T-Mobile signal back up.
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Click to collapse
I have in the past on other phones and I will try here
same problem
I had a same experience where my phone roamed onto AT&T network and it would not come back to T-mobile network. This happened when traveling from Michigan to Columbus OH and Michigan to West Virginia.
Both of the time, only way to fix was go to advanced setting and choose carrier or reboot phone.
Hi all,
I have in my hands an unopened G960F/DS. I was considering this phone to replace an old model, it's long due. I thought I did my homework and was able to determine this phone worked on Verizon in the US, but a serious note on the box and further research suggests I may have been wrong. Although it would be nice to have new hardware, I am replacing the old one almost entirely out of a desire to flash a custom ROM on it. I was under the impression the lack of CDMA support wasn't a big issue given that Verizon (and everyone else) is phasing out CDMA and the phone still had LTE. Thus my choice of the F/DS. I am informed that opening the box and returning the phone will incur a charge, while keeping the box sealed and returning it will not. I am trying to decide to continue forward and test on Verizon's network here in the US or just return the thing, the choice lies in compatibility with this network. So now I get to play a guessing game.
I find myself in 4G LTE areas most of the time. I want to use data and make voice calls.
This 2-post thread suggests not much can be done:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s9/help/sm-g960f-verizon-network-t3856443
This guy demonstrating slower speeds, which I'm not too concerned about, but also HSPA+ in an area he usually gets LTE. In the video description he says after applying a software update it works 'fine':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkNXCK2iVO8
This site lists some band compatibility but doesn't say anything about not being able to use it with Verizon:
https://apn.gishan.net/en/apn/verizon/samsung-galaxy-s9
This site also lists band compatibility but warns about Verizon's strict device policy:
https://www.frequencycheck.com/carr...e-samsung-star/verizon-wireless-united-states
Is there any hope to use an unlocked S9 on Verizon in the US? I see this going one of several ways: 1) Everyone works out and I can make calls and use data and there are no issues and rainbows and unicorns 2) Data in certain places, no voice because something something "VoLTE" 3) Absolutely no data/voice whatsoever 4) I switch carriers I return this piece of junk and buy a phone that works. (might coincide with 2/3)
If I end up with (4), how can I avoid this issue in the future? I spent some considerable time deciding on this model, which has the features I want and an unlockable bootloader. Will the S10 have this issue? What about the Note 9? I apologize for the noobposting, and if I missed a thread that answered this question. Thanks for any help you can provide, I sincerely appreciate it.
Edit: This thread asks a similar question but isn't specific and neither are the answers:
https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S9/Unlocked-galaxy-S9-on-Verizon/td-p/277493
I have been using a G965f/ds on Verizon Wireless.
VoLTE, vowifi, text, and data work after rooting.
Having done a speed test with a U device and on the g965f/ds, the speed I can receive seems equal.
I haven't had issues with making LTE calls in my area.
CynicalHeight00 said:
I have been using a G965f/ds on Verizon Wireless.
VoLTE, vowifi, text, and data work after rooting.
Having done a speed test with a U device and on the g965f/ds, the speed I can receive seems equal.
I haven't had issues with making LTE calls in my area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the feedback. Are you based in the US? How did you activate the phone? I found instructions on LTE activation here:
www . verizonwireless . com/businessportals/support/how_to_use/activate_4g_lte.html
And an IMEI checker, which fails when I enter what I find on the box my phone is in:
www . verizonwireless . com/od/prepaid/bring-your-own-device/#/checkDevice
Edit: It also looks like they have a second page that checks IMEI (this also fails for me). Can you tell me what either of these pages say when you enter your IMEI?
www . verizonwireless . com/onedp/byod#/
I reside in the US.
The imei of my g965d/fs failed when inputted in to their system;however, the SIM is all that's needed for Verizon wireless to work on it. Initially, though, you might need to insert the SIM card into another imei Verizon wireless compatible device only to allow the system to have that imei in the system for your number. Since, you already have vzw, I'm assuming you already are activated on it with a device, so moving sims is the next step.
Thanks for your input. Anyone else have experience with this device on Verizon's network?
I could have written this exact post.
jmtroth said:
Thanks for your input. Anyone else have experience with this device on Verizon's network?
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Click to collapse
I am trying to do the same thing with the same model Note 9, SM-N960F/DS. I was told by Verizon Level 2 tech rep that simply installing an activated SIM would make the phone work, obviously 4gLTE only since there are no CDMA bands. He checked the 4 bands Verizon uses for their 4gLTE and the F/DS model has all 4 of them.
I am in the same boat as you though. IF I try it and it doesn't work I have to return and lose $125 or switch to GSM network (AT&T or TMO) I am also trying to decide whether to take the gamble. This Level 2 Tech guy didn't mention anything about having to root the phone.
I would also like to know about the advisability of attempting this. I thought I read somewhere that this phone won't have any warranty in US anyway but I am not 100% sure about that. Sellers seem to want to gloss over that issue.
I'm very very interested in this
to put this to bed, you cant use any F galaxy phone on verizon and get full usage. vzw is a CDMA based carrier whereby voice is transmitted primarily via CDMA and data over GSM (which includes voLTE, obviously). The F model do not have CDMA radios in them. You CAN get data to work and therefore voLTE as long as you can flash the vzw CSC to get the phone to install the voLTE app. Long story short, dont try it. Its a fruitless endeavor. I mean, do what you want, i guess, but dont expect for the F to work well, or at all on vzw. There is nothing anybody on xda or anywhere can do to alleviate that.
I had straight talk using Verizon towers on note 8, my note 8 broke, I missed flashing custom ROMs, I bought a note 9 n960f, read online it would work too. I inserted sim. Did not get data or calls. Flashed custom ROMs found a lineage is rom that worked with data for like 2 min then quit. I kept Singapore rom csc stock radios I guess from Singapore, guy on here said he flashed Singapore stock Odin flash and ended up making his work but didn't work with my straight talk Verizon sim. My buddy came over and he uses visible network on Verizon towers we popped in his sim and it worked flawlessly on stock Singapore csc/flashed custom rom from xda. I switched, it's cheaper, it works and first month was 5$ no fee to transfer my number over. Visible is great, join a group and it's 25$ a month.