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GSM Data & Phone Settings - Overseas

I am visiting Australia for 3 months this summer and was hoping to use my TP2 with a Virgin Mobile Australia SIM card for voice and data. From searching the forum it looks as if I am going to need some setting for data access, and possible to disable CMGuardian.
When I have used my UK Orange or Italian TIM SIM in my Motorola Razr under Tools I see some SIM specific menu items for checking credit, recharging etc. Will I see the same things in the TP2 once it make a connection?
I would appreciate any suggestions for anybody who has used a GSM SIM for data access.
Thanks

No you need to contact the provider and find out the settings for data

GSM Overseas settings
Now in Australia, I have had to adjust several settings and I want to pass on what I learned. After inserting the Virgin Mobile SIM, don't forget to switch to GSM only. There are some CDMA services in Australia and you don't want to roam onto them or you will be paying the Sprint Roaming rates. The Virgin SIM did not show up as an icon under settings and tools the way that other SIM cards have.
I found my phone worked as a phone, GPS worked and it would go on the internet thru Opera. However, at first it would not access my email and required me to dial local calls in Australia as if they were long distance.
I found I needed to change the Global Smart Dialing settings which can be found under Phone, Menu, Global Smart Dialing (need to scroll down to see this option on the Menu). Change the "dialing from" to the correct number required before country code. So for Australia, where you dial 00 before the country code when dialing out internationally, selecting Australia will change the 011 (used when dialing from the USA) to 00.
Next I needed to change the dialing rules. Go to Start, Settings, Menu, All Settings, Connections, Connections, Advanced Tab, Dialing Rules. I ticked the box for "use dialing rules", and edited the rules for Mobile, Work and Home to use the Australia country code of 61 and blanked the area code. I think I could have got the same result by editing the dialing pattern for local calls to remove the E and the F so that local calls did not have the country code or area code prefixed to them.
To fix the Email issue, I had to go to my email accounts by going to the Inbox, Menu, Tools, Options and tapping on each email setup in turn. Once in an email setup, select "Edit Account Settings" and tap Next 4 times to get to Advanced Server Settings. Here there is a drop down list of Network connections. I had to change mine from "The Internet" to VirginGPRS.
NOTE: Have not had a chance to try this, but probably the easier way to fix the email issue is to go to Start, Settings, Connections, Connections, Advanced tab and under Programs that automatically......should connect using "VirginGPRS" or whatever service you are using.
At this point I have phone calls, local SMS, internet and email working. I still have a problem with international SMS.
I am sure somebody understands this better than me and perhaps their is a more elegant way of doing this, but at least it worked.

[Q] UK Nexus S - Using in Spain with Spanish SIM

Hi guys,
I have 2 x Nexus S SIM free mobiles which I bought from Car Phone Warehouse in the UK, which we are using now in Spain.
Both handsets have SIM's for the Simyo network (Which is basically Orange's network).
Even though both handsets are unlocked to all networks, I constantly have the roaming icon showing, and I have to enable roaming and data roaming to have coverage.
Now I know beyond any doubt the handsets are NOT roaming.
Has anyone encountered this bug in the Nexus S please, it is really annoying.
Regards

not a bug, simyo has its own network code, which is different from orange's. Therefore, when you use orange's network, it's roaming. Simyo and orange have a roaming agreement, just like yoigo and movistar.
For now, you'll have to enable data roaming for data to work. (there was a discussion somewhere about not labeling it roaming when the country code is the same, which is the case for most of MVNOs)

spamlucal said:
not a bug, simyo has its own network code, which is different from orange's. Therefore, when you use orange's network, it's roaming. Simyo and orange have a roaming agreement, just like yoigo and movistar.
For now, you'll have to enable data roaming for data to work. (there was a discussion somewhere about not labeling it roaming when the country code is the same, which is the case for most of MVNOs)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that info. My misses is saying she tried a mates Orange SIM and that it did not show roaming.
However, we also both had Nexus One's, which we purchased here in Spain. Did not get the roaming icon when using the Simyo cards on those...
It is bloody annoying, as we also loose connectivity sometimes and keep having to re-enter the passwords to our google accounts :-\
Regards

kuntstubble said:
It is bloody annoying, as we also loose connectivity sometimes and keep having to re-enter the passwords to our google accounts :-\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, you can fix that!
simyo uses dual sim cards (sims with 2 numbers), to make their roaming agreements easier to manage internationally. When you go abroad, it switches from the spanish number to a netherlands one, i believe (though you don't notice it), just like if you changed the sim card.
The thing is, the switch is made when the sim card detects no service for a while. Problem is, that can happen when you lose signal for a while (underground parking, metro, etc...) And what happens when you change your sim card on an android device? yes, you lose google login.
Solution is to lock the sim card to use the spanish number always. You need a phone with STK app (sim menus), and you need to go to Servicio Simyo -> servicio roaming -> seleccion de red -> Seleccion manual -> Nacional. All nokias can access this menu, for example, but stock nexus doesn't have a stk app.
After changing that, hopefully you won't see the login error again. And about the nexus one: it must use a slightly different method to determine roaming, something I don't really know too well.

Woo, OK thank you for the info. Never knew about the dual number thing. Interesting...
This STK stuff, you know of any app for Android mate?
Regards

Hi, just to confirm, I did manage to fix the SIM issue, I borrowed a mates Nokia 1200 and as you said, I entered the STK menu and switch it to Nacional.
MANY THANKS!!

Nexus S roaming problem with ICS

Hi,
I have a Nexus S I9023 with baseband I9023XXKI1
Provider is Telenet in Belgium, which is a full MVNO with its own MNC
When running any Gingerbread version, the phone works fine when going out of the country, and returning.
But with any ICS rom (stock or CyanogenMod) the phone will not be able to connect to any international providers, when my providers SIM is installed. But when I stick my providers SIM into another phone the SIM will switch over, after which I can put it back into my Nexus S and I can roam to any other international provider without problems, but the phone will not switch back to my own provider when I get back into the country. At this point I again have to put the Telenet SIM into another phone to force it out of roaming mode after which I can put it back into my Nexus S and it works again on my own provider.
I also tried with another Telenet SIM and had the exact same problem, so it is not a problem with the specific SIM itself. But when I stick in a non-Telenet SIM it does switch to roaming and non-roaming without problems. So it clearly is a combination of the ICS ROM with the Telenet SIM.
The only other thing I found is that the MNC code in apns-conf.xml is wrong for Telenet. It is listed as MNC=10 which used to be correct until sometime last year when everyone was issued a new SIM with MNC=05. But with a custom APN setup mobile data works fine.
If anyone has any idea how I could solve this issue, I would love to hear about it!

Cant Activate/Deactivate International Call Roaming on Nexus S.
Hi,
Same issue here, mine is Nexus S, running ICS 4.0.4, baseband version I9020XXKI1. I am not able to make calls in roaming. I spoke to my provider (O2 Germany) and they say that, I have to deactivate the lock (Lock to activate roaming). I haven't found any way to unlock this service. I have not tried what the OP has mentioned in his post (i.e., to put the sim into another phone and then try back in Nexus S). But I would like to know, how can I Activate or Deactivate the roaming lock ??
Thanks,
Cheers!!

esunny said:
Hi,
Same issue here, mine is Nexus S, running ICS 4.0.4, baseband version I9020XXKI1. I am not able to make calls in roaming. I spoke to my provider (O2 Germany) and they say that, I have to deactivate the lock (Lock to activate roaming). I haven't found any way to unlock this service. I have not tried what the OP has mentioned in his post (i.e., to put the sim into another phone and then try back in Nexus S). But I would like to know, how can I Activate or Deactivate the roaming lock ??
Thanks,
Cheers!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only roaming feature you can enable is for Data. This has no effect on roaming for normal phone usage.
You can change this setting under "System Settings" -> "More..." (under Wireless & Networks) -> "Mobile Networks"
Here you will find a "Data roaming" option, and possibly a "National data roaming" option

I have a Desire Z with Android 4.0.4 and Telenet for the cellphone also. I noticed I have to activate the romaing in Belgium to have the data connection which is strange as I'm in Belgium. Now I hear that they can be issues calling/sending sms abroad... I'll see when I'll be in Croatia.
I activated for the moment all the option (data roaming, national roaming) for the moment, nothing more strange than having the romaing activated and the 'R' in the network signal.

National Roaming seems to be needed on some phones, since the Telenet SIM swap last year to get a data connection in Belgium. On my own Nexus S phone I don't have the problem. But on my wife's SE Xperia Mini Pro (2011 model) with stock Android 2.3.4 it does have this issue.
The old sim used MNC=10, while the new SIM uses MNC=05 and it seems that some phones have some kind of issue with that.
MNC is the Mobile Network Code, which together with the MCC (Mobile Country Code) forms a identifier per provider.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Network_Code

I narrowed down the issue somewhat.
Basically my prior workaround that the SIM needed to be swapped to another phone to force the network to connect was false.
What actually needs to happen to force the phone to enter or exit roaming is to pull the battery.
Rebooting the phone, or shutting it down and rebooting (cold boot) does not make a difference, the battery needs to be pulled and then the phone will switch networks.
I found this by accident, because I was out of the country and it was as normal refusing to switch to roaming mode. Then the battery died and I connected power to the phone and booted it, and it suddenly connected to a foreign provider in roaming mode.
Getting back to Belgium, it again refused to switch back, so I verified it by just pulling out the battery and putting it back and the phone successfully was able to connect to Telenet again.
In other words, some component needs to be reset for it to successfully switch to roaming and back. This component does not get turned off when the phone is turned off, so the battery needs to be pulled.

[Q] Modifying APNs with 4.4.2 (NE1)

Hello,
I've been putting off asking the question as I thought that somebody else had to have gone through this already but I've had poor luck looking through the forum and Google hasn't been able to help.
I'll be traveling to Italy in the near future with my Verizon Samsung Galaxy S3 (Build KOT49H.I535VRUDNE1). I would like to pick up a TIN or WIND SIM while I'm there, primarily for data usage. From what I've read, once I install the 3rd party SIM, I'll need to update the APN settings to get data to work.
Stock, it looks like the APN settings are uneditable. I rooted the phone with towelroot (if only everything were so easy) and then checked the APN settings to see if I could add another network. No dice.
Poking around on the web, it looks like in the past, people have been able to work around this by downloading build prop editor and adding the following two lines:
ril.sales_code=LOL
ro.csc.sales_code=LOL
I gave this a shot and was surprised to see the APN menu gone when I went back into my network settings. Through trial and error, I determined that the inclusion of ro.csc.sale_code=LOL changes my Mobile Networks options from:
- Mobile Data
- Global Data Roaming Access
- Roaming
- Signal Strength
- Network Mode
- Access Point Names
- Network Operators
to:
- Mobile Data
- Data Roaming
- Network Mode (GSM is not an option in here)
- System Select
- Dial Up Networking
There is no option to modify APN settings there. Am I missing something silly? Did something change in KitKat 4.4.2 that has caused this approach to "unlocking" the APN settings to become invalid? Is everything really ok and I'll have access to the APN settings when I insert the italian carrier's SIM card?
I'm game for other approaches as well. At one point, I thought I saw an article that talked about setting up a pointer to the APN settings prior to updating the prop file but I haven't been able to relocate that.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Aaron

In the event somebody else is looking for the answer, I got my hands on a TIM sim card today, installed it in the phone and the APN menu reappeared and let me enter a new APN. Looks like the answer as of today for this phone is TowelRoot, SuperSU, BuildProp and install the 3rd party sim.
Take care,
Aaron

S6 unable to see test mobile network

I'm building a test mobile network on some laptops and with a software defined radio based on Open AirInterface (is googleable, but I can't post the link cos I'm a newb) code, and I have this up and running. Additionally, I've bought some programmable SIMs to work with it on a bunch of phones. The information on these I've added into my HSS implementation. The Country Code/Network code deployed on the SIMs is 901/70 - so it doesn't interfere with commercial networks.
I'm testing with a bunch of phones in an isolation chamber, and my end goal is to shift the network into something I have a license for and "go public", but this network will have a low channel bandwidth (3MHz or 1.4MHz in Band 3 LTE). Not many phones have supported this, so I started with a 5MHz channel, which most do support - and I've successfully connected an S4 and a Nexus to my little network. However, when I tried the S6 with a SIM that worked in another phone, it cannot even see the network. I've seen hints of Samsung doing operator whitelisting, but would like to know if this is the case and, if possible, how to add my operator codes into the whitelist.
So far, I've tried the following:
a) "*#0011#" puts you into ServiceMode where you used to be able to enable/disable frequency bands and other such settings with the "Q0000" menu entry - but it looks like Samsung have squished this, also I know the phone has Band 3 operational as I can put a commercial SIM in it that runs on that band. I've not found any way of actually modifying any settings within this mode.
b) I found the file "/system/etc/apns-conf.xml" which contains a list of operator APN addresses - I updated mine to contain my settings, but no joy, and if I "reset to default" my APN settings, my settings are not picked up and I have to manually add my APN (but at least that stays selected)
c) I found some databases in "/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/", in particular "nwk_info.db" and added my network details to it. The phone then changed from basically saying I was only able to make emergency calls to "Selected mobile network (901/70) unavailable", which kind of at least hints I've moved it in the right direction
The S6 is running a rooted factory reset, and allows SIMS from two different commercial operators on it so it should be completely unlocked. It's never been out of the country, so should have "defeated" the region locks that Sammy put on the phones nowadays (although it begs the question whether rooting the phone resets this and perhaps it's still awaiting 5 mins of calls via a local SIM?).
Does anyone know of a whitelist of MNC/MCC numbers I can add my settings to? Or any other possible solution to this?
The long winded solution is to change the MNC/MCC info on each of my SIMs, but that's a PITA and I'm not even sure it'll work yet (I will attempt to try one soon, but changing the configs on my mobile network is also non-trivial!)