On-the-fly carrier switching - Verizon Samsung Galaxy S7 Questions & Answers

Good evening!
I recently purchased the VZW S7. My immediate plan is to root it and then enable the Samsung carrier info (which VZW disables) so I can get to the engineering screens to check out LTE/network connection information.
I have been searching all over XDA for some type of answer to my question and haven't found it yet. What I can gather is the VZW variant has all the hardware requirements to have every band from every major carrier in the US, however VZW has disabled specific bands in their firmware. This lead me to thinking I will push the 930U firmware to it which, from what I have read here, unlocks all the specific bands as dictated by the SIM card currently inserted into the phone.
Here is my question: with the 930U firmware, how complicated is it to switch carriers on-the-fly, and to have all the bands a particular carrier utilizes?
My main line is VZW, but I also have a T-Mobile line on my Nexus 6P. However, there is zero engineering mode on the 6P, so I am unable to see information like current band, bandwidth, carrier aggregation status, etc. SignalCheck Pro only tells me the band.
So if I want to use the S7 on Verizon and then swap my T-Mobile SIM card in, how does the phone handle this, and it is a hassle once I put my VZW SIM back in?
I hope all this made sense. Essentially what I am wondering is if switching carriers on the fly is as easy as it is on the 6P- just pop the card in and go, with all the necessary LTE bands enabled.
Thank you for your time!

Related

SM-G900i use with AT&T

Hello all, i have a question regarding an Australian Telstra Galaxy S5 with att service. the phone works with voice and text but has no data or mms. i have added an apn from my sim card in a galaxy nexus that gets me edge service. i have found band selection in the service menu but non seem to make it any better. I'm sure LTE won't work but thats ok. as long as i can get 3g at least. do i need to flash say the att s5 modems? if so how? i have the modem file and another already extracted from the att firmware. thanks in advance.
Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900i branded telstra
i think firmware ANE1 4.4.2
Rooted
Using a foreign handset on a system will never give you perfect coverage. That is by design, as both Samsung and carriers want to lock you in, not make it easy for you to change carriers. Or do so without buying a new phone.
The specs for your variant suggest that it has full coverage on ATT's 3G bands and partial coverage of their LTE allocations. You don't need an ATT modem, just make sure that your firmware is recent - which it will be by definition, as the S5 was only released a few months ago.
Unfortunately you didn't provide much detail, in particular whether you were roaming or a regular ATT customer. Things that you might check in general, that your phone doesn't blacklist any ATT MCCs (roaming restrictions). That you have the correct APN information and that your ATT SIM is properly provisioned for LTE.
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Thanks for the reply. I figured it out. In service menu, I was picking compatible gsm bands. Back to network screen in settings, had it on gsm/lte only. That was giving me edge. Read more into wcdma and used network mode wcdma/gsm. That gives me H or H+. I know I won't get lte but with that network mode and another apn, I'm satisfied with the end results.
It sounds like you inadvertently blocked coverage with your previous settings. The default setting is automatic band select which should have worked fine.
Glad you figured it out in the end.
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Yeah. It was the apn that was hurting me. Default it used the wap.cingular apn. I put my sim in a galaxy nexus and used the apn that gave me. Plus changing network mode. Thanks though!

att and tmo galaxy s5 identical or different?

I cant find a clear answer if an ATT galaxy s5 will work on tmobile ( phone is unlocked) or will it be missing some features
and also if I install a tmobile stock rom on att phone will it have the wifi calling and all the features of a t mobile phone?
im trying to buy a phone today and cant find any solid info on the internet its a bit confusing
There are lots of existing threads that ask and answer this, so your search missed those (or you didn't search).
Anyway, you can use a TMB phone on ATT without any issues. It doesn't work as well in the reverse as you want to do. The ATT model is missing several frequency bands that the TMB phone has. And ATT, unlike most carriers, also locks the bootloader.
So a (SIM unlocked) 900A phone will work on TMB but will have some gaps in coverage. In a large city with lots of redundant bands that may not be much of a problem. But you will be subject to more congestion, dropped calls and outside of large, urban centers you may even have no coverage i.e. if an area is only served by the bands your phone doesn't have.
And the locked bootloader means that you can't install a custom kernel or recovery. Although you can emulate them with the Safestrap program on an ATT handset. The best way to get the TMB apps, wifi calling, etc is to root and install a custom ROM that is 900T based or 900F based, with the TMB apps added.
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Will S7 Edge SM-G9350 Dual Sim work fully on AT&T?

I bought an S7 Edge SM-G9350 Dual Sim that is unlocked. I was planning on using it on AT&T but apparently the Dual Sim model isn't compatible with the 4G LTE in the US. The AT&T rep I worked with called his Samsung rep and verified it wouldn't work on 4G. We checked all the APN settings and bands the device is capable of, verifying it should work. Is there any way to make it work correctly as it seems to be a software issue?
I spoke with another AT&T rep who said it doesn't appear to have the region lock as it wouldn't activate on the AT&T network at all then but he didn't know why it wouldn't work. From the article I read the region lock is separate from the network lock. The region lock is removed if a phone call of 5 min is made in the area the phone is from. Then the region lock is deactivated. Here is the article I found. www . androidcentral.com/your-unlocked-euro-galaxy-s7-still-region-locked-thats-not-huge-deal
Would flashing another ROM work, or what level is the incompatibility? In the network settings there are listings for the carriers and their 2G and 3G settings but nothing else.
Apparently this thread double posted so this one can be deleted by a Mod
really... i'm calling BS on the reps... what is your definition of "working fully"? i have a dual sim G935FD and LTE works just fine on AT&T. the international version is missing 2 bands (29 and 30?), that's used in certain areas. other than that, i personally have not had any issues/ have you tried using an AT&T sim to confirm the phone won't work, use LTE? see below as well (WillMyPhoneWork.net):

Activate T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S4 on Sprint networks

Hi I was wondering if anyone had tried to activate a T-Mobile S4 variant on Sprint networks . I read where one will need a valid ESn Number . I realize that Sprint uses different bands for their voice text and LTE data then T-Mobile does . Would I need to install a Sprint variant S4 rom to solve this issue with the cellular modem radio . Any help appreciated
Late reply here. You have issues that will make it very difficult for you to accomplish what you're trying to do.
1. You can't install a Sprint ROM on a T-Mobile device. Odin will check to determine whether the ROM is correct for the device, and if it isn't, will refuse to install it.
2. Installing a Sprint baseband on a T-Mobile device, if it were possible, would render the wireless capabilities of the device useless until the T-Mobile baseband were restored.
3. You'd need to convert the IMEI to an ESN. This is perhaps the easiest thing to do since the ESN is the IMEI, but ignoring the very last digit in the IMEI (the check digit).
4. Sprint is extremely reluctant to activate non-Sprint phones on their network, to the point of outright refusal in some cases.
I personally recommend switching from Sprint to T-Mobile or an MVNO using T-Mobile if you really want to use this device. Not only is the service better than Sprint, you don't have any hoops to jump through in order to get the S4 working on the network. If you insist upon using Sprint, find a different device.

US996 on sprint

I got a us996. I popped in my sim card, added an APN, and changed my imei. I got data but no mms or calls. I've searched around a bit but I couldn't find much. If anyone has a work around or knows a solution let me know.
Appreciate it
I would be surprised to see a US996 work on the Sprint network (I happen to own both LS997 ZV7 and US996 USA models). It is known to work on Verizon, but I've never heard of anyone using it on Sprint.
First, the phone's IMEI would have to be whitelisted by Sprint. You can use various Sprint IMEI checkers to verify - Ting's BYOD checker works well for this: If the IMEI is clean, then it will tell you the phone will work on their CDMA network.
And don't you need to do a specific activation process for all phones on Sprint? Just transferring a SIM card between phones is not enough.
Also, I don't think any of the US996 variants have all of Sprint's LTE bands (they seem to lack bands 26 and 41), so even if you get it to work, your LTE signal coverage won't be very good.
C D said:
I would be surprised to see a US996 work on the Sprint network (I happen to own both LS997 ZV7 and US996 USA models). It is known to work on Verizon, but I've never heard of anyone using it on Sprint.
First, the phone's IMEI would have to be whitelisted by Sprint. You can use various Sprint IMEI checkers to verify - Ting's BYOD checker works well for this: If the IMEI is clean, then it will tell you the phone will work on their CDMA network.
And don't you need to do a specific activation process for all phones on Sprint? Just transferring a SIM card between phones is not enough.
Also, I don't think any of the US996 variants have all of Sprint's LTE bands (they seem to lack bands 26 and 41), so even if you get it to work, your LTE signal coverage won't be very good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just changed the IMEI to my sprint model to get the Sim card to work. I can get data but can't send MMS or make calls (besides it saying it's forwarding me to a Sprint operator). So I know I can make calls, it's just not setup right.
That's where I think the activation features of a Sprint-branded phone (hands-free activation, profile update, PRL update) come in. Without those or some magic action of a Sprint employee, you're probably out of luck. Unfortunately, there is no LS997 KDZ firmware out there; otherwise, you may have been brave enough to try to cross-flash that onto your US996.

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