Hello, I am well aware of the fact that you can flash the international firmware on a T-mobile branded device. However, is it possible to flash the t-mobile firmware on the international version of the phone? If it is indeed possible are there any benefits to doing this? Such as RCS, or USCC roaming? Maybe even better reception? Any help would be great. I am genuinely just curious. Thank you.
From what I can see, there would only be disadvantages. TMo has suffered another data breach, see here, and they are at least 1 month behind the general releases for non TMo OP devices (I really only looked at the 6T for that evidence)
I recommend saving your time and not researching that further, but if you wanna, go for it.
Related
Hey all posting here and a bit new, so excuse me as I had some questions.
Now, I have done research on unlocked factory phones for S5 but wanted to clarify as I will not jump into a purchase yet. I am thinking about a factory unlocked phone for the S5 on ebay. But, as I understand, this runs on GSM internationally. I am thinking of bringing one to Verizon, but as I am aware they run on Cdma technology and I wouldn't be able to use a sim card. Also, is it true the Exynos version of the S5 doesn't actually have LTE yet? If so, it may be a deciding factor.
Also, my girlfriend wants to possibly bring one to Virgin Mobile but I didn't think that you could as they are also Cdma. Again, wasn't sure how this would apply to unlocked phones from the factory that weren't locked to any carrier. I would also check the frequency, but there is no point of the international version has no ability to utilize LTE which are pretty fast in my areas. Any insight is greatly appreciated and as mentioned, I tried up read up a lot, but still want to make sure I fully understand. Thanks!
vexsilver said:
Hey all posting here and a bit new, so excuse me as I had some questions.
Now, I have done research on unlocked factory phones for S5 but wanted to clarify as I will not jump into a purchase yet. I am thinking about a factory unlocked phone for the S5 on ebay. But, as I understand, this runs on GSM internationally. I am thinking of bringing one to Verizon, but as I am aware they run on Cdma technology and I wouldn't be able to use a sim card. Also, is it true the Exynos version of the S5 doesn't actually have LTE yet? If so, it may be a deciding factor.
Also, my girlfriend wants to possibly bring one to Virgin Mobile but I didn't think that you could as they are also Cdma. Again, wasn't sure how this would apply to unlocked phones from the factory that weren't locked to any carrier. I would also check the frequency, but there is no point of the international version has no ability to utilize LTE which are pretty fast in my areas. Any insight is greatly appreciated and as mentioned, I tried up read up a lot, but still want to make sure I fully understand. Thanks!
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as far as I know the GS5 is not dual radio, so it is GSM only, if you want to use it on CDMA, you probably have to buy from the carrier. But be warned, as of now there is no chance of bootloader unlocking and root on many carrier devices.
Exynos version has no LTE and has very little dev support.
Hellscythe said:
as far as I know the GS5 is not dual radio, so it is GSM only, if you want to use it on CDMA, you probably have to buy from the carrier. But be warned, as of now there is no chance of bootloader unlocking and root on many carrier devices.
Exynos version has no LTE and has very little dev support.
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Hey there and thanks for taking the time to reply. Yeah seems like the phones too fresh. I will think about that then and maybe give the phone more time. Meanwhile, seeing what my S3 could do for flexibility.
Hello all,
I will need some UberGeek advice for this one...lol
I use TING as my MVNO provider. They offer CDMA and GSM networks backboning on Sprint and T-Mobile. I had to get a new phone and ordered a Sprint CDMA version G900P but received a Verizon model G900V. It works perfectly fine on the TING network.
I am just wondering if there is any reason not to get this phone and to go with a T-Mobile model instead? I normally would go Sprint/CDMA but wanted to try out GSM this time. Both have excellent coverage in my area. I also know about the ATT/Verizon bootloader being locked. I have already rooted this and it's running Lollipop just fine a sper the instructions found in threads here.
TING told me the phone is no different essentially and there should be no problems. As always their cust, svc. was excellent and informative. This phone apparently has dual radios...CDMA and GSM. I don't have to worry about warranties, KNOW tripping or Verizon's bs. As I said, I am rooted and running fine. I will either debloat this sucker or go with another ROM. Right now THE only bugaboo I see is that there are so few ROMs for the Verizon model. I am not into switching ROMs. If I ditch a debloated stock setup, it would have to be very something very clean and stable based on Lollipop. Seems like CM 12.1 could be nice but right now slightly risky and they don't have the Fingerprint feature working either.
Does anyone feel it would be smarter to return this and get a T-Mobile model? Any food for thought or advice or "Here is why you'll regret the Verizon model 6 months from now" kind of advice?
Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!
Besides the locked bootloader, the G900V is the same phone as the rest of the S5's (of course with different radios for CDMA). If you're cool with just running stock firmware forever then keep the Verizon model. The T-Mobile model would allow you to do whatever you like with it though, as the bootloader is unlocked. Virtually no possibility of losing root.
Sean89us said:
Besides the locked bootloader, the G900V is the same phone as the rest of the S5's (of course with different radios for CDMA). If you're cool with just running stock firmware forever then keep the Verizon model. The T-Mobile model would allow you to do whatever you like with it though, as the bootloader is unlocked. Virtually no possibility of losing root.
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Thanks for the response. Pretty much what I figured. I have it rooted and using Safe Strap and MIGHT toy with CM 12.1 since there are many out there with the Verizon model that seem to like it. Plenty of YouTube videos too.
I'm kind of newb at this S7 stuff, I'm more of an HTC guy. Yesterday, I bought an unlocked G930P (sprint) and am not sure, but think I learned that normally, people don't change out the ROMs to use a different carrier, they simply unlock the phone and live with the old carrier's bloatware. I started reading up, and first learned that TWRP apparently isn't available on a Snapdragon processor, so the G930A, G930P, etc, aren't candidates for TWRP. At first, I was kind of dismayed. Then, I found the G930U ROM and on a whim, I tried punting the G930U ROM to the G930P. I bought the phone off craigslist, and he said he didn't know where HE got it from, but it was unlocked. Anyhow, the phone took the rom without a hitch and now it looks like a U model...
My goal: Go with T-Mobile. Use Wi-Fi calling. Eventually have Nougat. Remove bloatware, but possibly keep some nice T-Mobile add-ons, if any, because I don't have their service yet (I hated ATT's crapload of stuff). Note this isn't specifically a "TMobile" question, substitute your carrier of choice for the questions...
Get to the damned question, you say? Ok, here goes:
1. I'm not going to ask any "do these bands work" when moving from a P model to T mobile. You guys seem to fight about that stuff until you can't type any longer. I'm going to assume what whatever bands work, that's what I get. Unless I get a T-Mobile specific phone.
2. But I will ask this: do the over the air bands it uses depend on the baseband ROM that is on the device? This is something I can't figure out.
3. I heard T-Mobile uses an updated boot kernel (3.0?) and ATT & others use an older boot kernel, and that if I move to T-Mobile boot kernel, I can't go back to any of the older ones. This process I seriously don't understand. Can I run a T-Mobile OS (or any OS) while using an older boot kernel ROM? I would think NO, right?
4. I don't like all of Carrier X's bloatware. I'd rather use a stripped down, cleaner ROM. I guess there are apps for that, but is it cleaner to do it with a stripped down generic ROM that I see floating around?
6. Speaking of ROM's - I saw a lot of Xetheros or whatever ROM's floating around, but it seems like there aren't any for the snapdragon-based ones. Is this true? The posts on this site don't really talk much about the snapdragon-based phones and why there aren't any ROMs for them, and why it won't work, and what, if anything, is being done to get around this. I guess the G930U is Samsung's answer to that, and allows fooling around with roms, but will the other phones ever be actually rom-able, or should I ditch this G930P and actually buy a G930U? Now that my phone THINKS it's a G930U, did that get me around some weird barrier and NOW I can update other funky roms intended for a G930U?
I'm considering selling the G7 I just got and going from a G930F (now that I'm a bit wiser). Any common sense why not to do that? I already HAVE an ATT G7 (not the sprint one I just bought), but it has a "bad signal". It gets only about 1 bar indoors, on a good day. I took it to a repair facility and they said, "nothing wrong with the antenna, it's your mainboard, don't bother just buy a new phone". Anybody have any advice on that?
thanks
BroncoBilli said:
I'm kind of newb at this S7 stuff, I'm more of an HTC guy. Yesterday, I bought an unlocked G930P (sprint) and am not sure, but think I learned that normally, people don't change out the ROMs to use a different carrier, they simply unlock the phone and live with the old carrier's bloatware. I started reading up, and first learned that TWRP apparently isn't available on a Snapdragon processor, so the G930A, G930P, etc, aren't candidates for TWRP. At first, I was kind of dismayed. Then, I found the G930U ROM and on a whim, I tried punting the G930U ROM to the G930P. I bought the phone off craigslist, and he said he didn't know where HE got it from, but it was unlocked. Anyhow, the phone took the rom without a hitch and now it looks like a U model...
My goal: Go with T-Mobile. Use Wi-Fi calling. Eventually have Nougat. Remove bloatware, but possibly keep some nice T-Mobile add-ons, if any, because I don't have their service yet (I hated ATT's crapload of stuff). Note this isn't specifically a "TMobile" question, substitute your carrier of choice for the questions...
Get to the damned question, you say? Ok, here goes:
1. I'm not going to ask any "do these bands work" when moving from a P model to T mobile. You guys seem to fight about that stuff until you can't type any longer. I'm going to assume what whatever bands work, that's what I get. Unless I get a T-Mobile specific phone.
2. But I will ask this: do the over the air bands it uses depend on the baseband ROM that is on the device? This is something I can't figure out.
3. I heard T-Mobile uses an updated boot kernel (3.0?) and ATT & others use an older boot kernel, and that if I move to T-Mobile boot kernel, I can't go back to any of the older ones. This process I seriously don't understand. Can I run a T-Mobile OS (or any OS) while using an older boot kernel ROM? I would think NO, right?
4. I don't like all of Carrier X's bloatware. I'd rather use a stripped down, cleaner ROM. I guess there are apps for that, but is it cleaner to do it with a stripped down generic ROM that I see floating around?
6. Speaking of ROM's - I saw a lot of Xetheros or whatever ROM's floating around, but it seems like there aren't any for the snapdragon-based ones. Is this true? The posts on this site don't really talk much about the snapdragon-based phones and why there aren't any ROMs for them, and why it won't work, and what, if anything, is being done to get around this. I guess the G930U is Samsung's answer to that, and allows fooling around with roms, but will the other phones ever be actually rom-able, or should I ditch this G930P and actually buy a G930U? Now that my phone THINKS it's a G930U, did that get me around some weird barrier and NOW I can update other funky roms intended for a G930U?
I'm considering selling the G7 I just got and going from a G930F (now that I'm a bit wiser). Any common sense why not to do that? I already HAVE an ATT G7 (not the sprint one I just bought), but it has a "bad signal". It gets only about 1 bar indoors, on a good day. I took it to a repair facility and they said, "nothing wrong with the antenna, it's your mainboard, don't bother just buy a new phone". Anybody have any advice on that?
thanks
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All U.S. models are built the exact same and will all accept each others firmware if done right , so any unlocked s7 you put the U firmware will essentially be a g930u other than the number stamped on the back , I dont believe the U firmware supports wifi calling or VOLTE , There is a t-mobile nougat firmware floating around if you want to try that , your att g7 if it has a hardware issue should be under warranty but if your using it with a different carrier I would flash the appropriate firmware to it and see if that fixes you signal issue and if not put it back to stock and call Samsung , as far as switching from the international model , Well i bought a international edge as soon as they release and it took a crap on me within 4 months and I was unable to warranty it , that was my only issue with using a international model but also i dont think you can get wifi calling on those either . hope that helps
edit* and yes the bands are dictated by the rom , U firmware opens all of them otherwise carrier roms unlock specific , and T-mobile nougat dowgrade back to MM will be dictated by the baseband , I know the Sprint nougat can be downgraded but not T-mobile for sure
goonygugle said:
All U.S. models are built the exact same and will all accept each others firmware if done right , so any unlocked s7 you put the U firmware will essentially be a g930u other than the number stamped on the back , I dont believe the U firmware supports wifi calling or VOLTE , There is a t-mobile nougat firmware floating around if you want to try that , your att g7 if it has a hardware issue should be under warranty but if your using it with a different carrier I would flash the appropriate firmware to it and see if that fixes you signal issue and if not put it back to stock and call Samsung , as far as switching from the international model , Well i bought a international edge as soon as they release and it took a crap on me within 4 months and I was unable to warranty it , that was my only issue with using a international model but also i dont think you can get wifi calling on those either . hope that helps
edit* and yes the bands are dictated by the rom , U firmware opens all of them otherwise carrier roms unlock specific , and T-mobile nougat dowgrade back to MM will be dictated by the baseband , I know the Sprint nougat can be downgraded but not T-mobile for sure
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The U firmware does support WiFi calling and VoLTE on T-Mobile.
myphone12345 said:
The U firmware does support WiFi calling and VoLTE on T-Mobile.
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I guess us AT&T users just done get them features =/ , is it enabled or do you have to do something to enable those features ?
goonygugle said:
I guess us AT&T users just done get them features =/ , is it enabled or do you have to do something to enable those features ?
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I don't believe those features are supported on AT&T (probably at AT&T's own request). Perhaps that might change in the Nougat version but I wouldn't bet on it.
So I got burned on ebay on two separate US996 phones. The sellers never stated a provider and just said factory unlocked (some on ebay actually say US Cellular) so I naively assumed they were the same as the unlocked version B&H photo has been selling.
However after buying them I found a thread on how to tell the difference and the factory unlocked should say USA under the battery. However, the phone I got says UCL (which I think is US cellular) and my wife's phone says BPL (no idea what provider that is).
So, I am wondering if I should just keep these at this point. I paid $268 for my wife's phone about a month or two back and $250 for mine a week ago, so not a terrible deal, but I could have gotten an AT&T unlocked version for not much more new.
So anyway, these phones don't come with any carrier bloatware which is nice and why I'm considering just keeping them. I don't really care about rooting, however I am concerned about 2 things: future updates and cellular bands.
Does anyone know what the differences are hardware wise between these 3 variants or is the only thing that's different the software?
If it's just software shouldn't there be a way to flash these with the real factory unlocked firmware?
Here's a page with the latest ROMs for each variant of the US996:
https://lg-firmwares.com/lg-us996-firmwares/
The BPT one is the BrightPoint version.
The odd thing is that the US Cellular version of the US996 has a much newer version of firmware than the USA Factory Unlocked US996.
Interesting. It looks like the US Cellular firmware works on the unlocked version so I guess there is no difference. I wonder if that means I can flash my wife's phone with the US cellular firmware as well. Never heard of brightpoint.
shawnmos said:
Interesting. It looks like the US Cellular firmware works on the unlocked version so I guess there is no difference. I wonder if that means I can flash my wife's phone with the US cellular firmware as well. Never heard of brightpoint.
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not sure how true it is, but if you flash the US Cellular firmware on the unlocked version and try to unlock through LG then it would no longer be recognized as the unlocked version. that said you can unlock first and then flash... which is what I did so I can't confirm the former to be true
So I ordered a oneplus 6t factory unlocked on ebay. What I got was a T-mobile locked device, that when I tried to unlock actually did.
My question though is are there annoyances with using the t-mobile version on another carrier (t-mobile apps or any radio differences) that would warrant me to return it or should I just give them a low rating.
thanks!
Uh. Not sure. I have an International Variant but I've heard that there is the usual T-MOBILE Bloatware. But you can easily convert it to Global Variant by following the Guide in the Guides Forum. Just search T-MOBILE to International Conversion OnePlus 6T
th3drow said:
So I ordered a oneplus 6t factory unlocked on ebay. What I got was a T-mobile locked device, that when I tried to unlock actually did.
My question though is are there annoyances with using the t-mobile version on another carrier (t-mobile apps or any radio differences) that would warrant me to return it or should I just give them a low rating.
thanks!
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That's on the seller to provide as MUCH information he can provide before he lists. I'd say if it works out for you in the end, it's fine. But....I would message him and see if he does know the difference between T-Mo and Int'l.
I would take the T-mo and flash Int'l, honestly. T-Mo is slow to update, and there's an Int'l Beta release almost every month. I think the official T-mo is 4 or 5 months behind.
Let us know!
The TMobile version is not the international version in my opinion. On top of not getting regular updates like the unbranded version. They have been trying to do things in newer software versions to prevent people from flashing it to international versions by adding extra checks, not that it has worked so far. The international version is also dual SIM and has two IMEI, the TMobile version only has one. I guess it depends what you paid for it, but I would not accept a TMobile version personally.
OhioYJ said:
The TMobile version is not the international version in my opinion. On top of not getting regular updates like the unbranded version. They have been trying to do things in newer software versions to prevent people from flashing it to international versions by adding extra checks, not that it has worked so far. The international version is also dual SIM and has two IMEI, the TMobile version only has one. I guess it depends what you paid for it, but I would not accept a TMobile version personally.
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I agree completely.
Honestly, it doesn't really matter considering you can very simply convert a T-Mobile version into an International version.
The T-Mobile version by default is a few updates behind and doesn't support dual sim iirc. Like I said though, you can easily convert it and buy a sim card tray that supports dual sim if that's your thing.