So, I have an S10e (SM-G970U) that was bought from Verizon a while back. The phone was set up on a Verizon post-paid plan, but was later switched to prepaid. The phone worked fine for months, but about a week ago, the phone randomly stopped making and receiving calls, texts, and the ability to use mobile data. It was taken to Verizon, and they tried "all they could" in their words, which included a new SIM card, resetting network settings, and eventually a factory reset from settings. Nothing seemed to work, and they gave up, claiming it "seemed like a bad antenna." They did call their "tech support" who claimed the most recent Android 11 update supposedly caused an issue with mobile network connection with the Verizon S10e devices, which I haven't heard of, but didn't know. He claimed a reset would fix it.
Since none of that fixed it, it was taken to a shop to be inspected. They claim the phone has nothing wrong with it. So, that, in theory, rules hardware issues out. Their only claim was that when an AT&T SIM was inserted, it was able to connect to the network, but never tried to make any calls due to the SIM not being activated. I assume this is due to someone trying to "help" inserting an activated AT&T SIM into the slot when testing, which I assume ended up installing the carrier branded version of the firmware. They gave a couple possible reasons, but neither seemed to make sense.
Since it had the AT&T bloatware and was working with only AT&T SIMs, I decided to flash both the VZW G970U firmware (the earliest version I could to ensure the supposed "issue" from Verizon support wasn't a problem) and the G970U1 firmware. Both firmware flashes have seemed to have done nothing, as the phone is still having the issue. Most times, it will connect to the Verizon network, but the signal seems to rise and fall quickly (like the bars going from 5 to 1 to 3).. Still no calls, texts, or data, though. I have no idea what's going on, at this point, honestly. Any ideas?
Hardware problem
iBowToAndroid said:
Hardware problem
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LanGar21 said:
Since none of that fixed it, it was taken to a shop to be inspected. They claim the phone has nothing wrong with it. So, that, in theory, rules hardware issues out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the people it was taken to were competent and did their jobs correctly (one of the best around, according to reviews and carrier recommendation), their diagnostic results show no hardware damage to the phone. Then again, their explanation for the problem was that it had been locked to ATT network (a Verizon bought phone that never had any affiliation with another carrier, aside from Verizon and a month-long stint with Straight Talk). Some idiot she knows that used to work for a Verizon retailer popped his ATT SIM in there, and it flashed ATT firmware.. Their POSSIBLE solution was to try and have it network unlocked from ATT. As we know, though, the IMEI obviously did not change, and the process of confirming the identifier is done on the mobile network level. Therefore, flashing a different carrier's firmware won't do much (permanently), aside from changing the boot screen and bloatware apps. We even tried to explain to the guy that the ATT SIM had never been popped in until after the problem began, as there was no reason to beforehand. I also mentioned I had flashed firmware multiple times before I ever came to him, to no avail. I should've pushed harder, but I had been out all day, frustrated and ready to go home.
It's been over a month since that issue began, and I haven't thought much of it lately.. We've since found her a new phone (and stowed the other one in a drawer). Those guys did blurt some moronic statements.. In hindsight, I'm not too sure I should trust their judgement after hearing what I did. Maybe it was an antenna issue or otherwise hardware, but I sort of assumed if anyone can happen to keep a repair shop open, they'd at least be able to complete the simple tasks fairly easy. I don't know. I'm not paying another repair shop to find out, though.
I had a very similar problem where my phone would just randomly lose all connection for about a minute, then it would reconnect I would start doing whatever I was and it would do it again and this one on for months. I took it to AT&t and they told me to replace the SIM which I did and it didn't work. after a couple updates it fixed itself.
Related
Yeah just another update thread. Who here is still getting the no sim error after installing the update it is now worse for me! I am more of a reader and not a poster im just curious is there a work around for this like for example has anyone installed a rom and the problem went away?
LIttle Rant: I have had nothing but motorola smartphones Droid X, Droid Bionic, Razr Maxx so I got curious since the S3 is one of the top selling phones to check it out and let me tell you love the phone but getting that stupid error all the time is annoying I picked my s3 up thinking I could make a quick sell on my razr maxx but now im stuck switching back and forth between the S3 and the razr maxx Verizon even sent me a replacement did that help? nope now its been 3 days they have a ticket open so who knows any help would be apprectiated and lets hear your story!
I'm still getting it, even worse than before I installed the new modem (radio). It seems to be more prevalent in areas where it's switching from 4g to 3g and back. If I'm in an area that has a strong 3g or 4g signal, it never gives me that problem. Has to be a Verizon thing or something with the SG3 that can't handle the switching between the two modes, just not sure......
amaury48 said:
I'm still getting it, even worse than before I installed the new modem (radio). It seems to be more prevalent in areas where it's switching from 4g to 3g and back. If I'm in an area that has a strong 3g or 4g signal, it never gives me that problem. Has to be a Verizon thing or something with the SG3 that can't handle the switching between the two modes, just not sure......
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UPDATE: I can confirm that if I place myself in a particular position in town where my phone will constantly switch between 3g and 4g and I attempt to send SMS messages my phone inevitably drops all data signal and gives me the no sim and no connectivity message.
I haven't been to were I used to get them bad....but I got one in an area yesterday where I generally get a strong 4G single that I had never had the no SIM issue before.
I was not happy.
galaxy. s3. synergy. yadda yadda.
I am getting it all the time at my house sometimes to the point where the phone does not work at all but if I drive down the road phone works flawless no errors even at work no errors im starting to think it might not be the phone it could be there network but for the hell of it lastnight I switched back from my razr maxx at home and the phone worked fine and when I woke up phone was fine im wondering if this only happens when the network is more at peak operation im growing very frustrated with this phone might off it and just use the razr maxx or hope for another update.
jparasita said:
I am getting it all the time at my house sometimes to the point where the phone does not work at all but if I drive down the road phone works flawless no errors even at work no errors im starting to think it might not be the phone it could be there network but for the hell of it lastnight I switched back from my razr maxx at home and the phone worked fine and when I woke up phone was fine im wondering if this only happens when the network is more at peak operation im growing very frustrated with this phone might off it and just use the razr maxx or hope for another update.
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I had the same situation just moving from one room to another in my house. Yesterday evening I received a text from my neighbor asking if I had noticed we were receiving a 4g signal in our area (we are in a rural area about 12 miles outside of Tallahassee, FL.). Since yesterday I have a solid 4g in my home area so the no sim problem has disappeared. But there are pockets of weak coverage areas on the way to work in town and at the Florida State University where I work and I continue to find small areas where the problem persists. It has to be the SG3's inability to handle the hand-offs between 3g/4g which produce the no sim problem. My Thunderbolt would handle the switching from 3g/4g much better and not produce the no sim error. I'm sure Samsung could remedy this with a software change (at least not display the no sim) when switching service.
I still have the error on 2 phones. Funny thing is it seems that now it is worse on my wifes phone where it was the other way prior to the update.
From reading this thread and similar threads/topics regarding the sim errors with the GS3, I figured I'd post this here. This is confirmed, my friend and I both have a GS3 bought on the same day at the same VZW store. She keeps getting a sim error while I have never gotten one regardless of coverage or 3G/4G switch frequency, I frequently switch from 4G to 3G when on the subway. She went into the store and requested a new sim card, wound up arguing with the rep, according to him there's no possible way the error could be related, she finally got a new card by calling reps at various levels. After doing a factory reset and reprovisioning the internal SD card with the new sim, she has not yet had a sim error with the newest OTA. So it seems many Verizon sim cards aren't necessarily defective, but are improperly configured with the VZW network. This is just an educated guess based off personal experience, hopefully this is helpful to those with frequent sim errors.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Shibby87 said:
From reading this thread and similar threads/topics regarding the sim errors with the GS3, I figured I'd post this here. This is confirmed, my friend and I both have a GS3 bought on the same day at the same VZW store. She keeps getting a sim error while I have never gotten one regardless of coverage or 3G/4G switch frequency, I frequently switch from 4G to 3G when on the subway. She went into the store and requested a new sim card, wound up arguing with the rep, according to him there's no possible way the error could be related, she finally got a new card by calling reps at various levels. After doing a factory reset and reprovisioning the internal SD card with the new sim, she has not yet had a sim error with the newest OTA. So it seems many Verizon sim cards aren't necessarily defective, but are improperly configured with the VZW network. This is just an educated guess based off personal experience, hopefully this is helpful to those with frequent sim errors.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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How do you reprovision the internal SD card with the sim? If you are correct, some people may be able to fix the problem by doing so with their existing sim cards.
eagene said:
How do you reprovision the internal SD card with the sim? If you are correct, some people may be able to fix the problem by doing so with their existing sim cards.
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I would also LOVE to know how to do this!!! Very frustrated with this!! Hopefully reprovisioning the sim finally works!!
After searching around, I found to reprovision, you need to go to stock and dial this in the dialar, *2767*3855#. My question is,
- Is it def not possible to do this from an AOSP rom?
- When they say "go to stock", can I just flash a TW based rom and do it?
reprovisioning does not work, don't waste your time
ripken204 said:
reprovisioning does not work, don't waste your time
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Agreed, I have reprovisioned before, to no avail. I thought it might be my SMS client, GO SMS, but I am getting the same NO SIM error with that client that I get with Handcent as well as the stock messaging client.
I called Verizon back today, to note my account that it's still happening, and spoke to them about a replacement phone. (I am already on my second S3 and second SIM) They offered me my choice of Android device, which currently is a bad deal. So I asked them if their deal would hold true once the Note 2 came out, and the nice lady at level 2 support said yes.
So unless this gets fixed prior to the Note 2... a switch is almost inevitable for me.
Dont waste your time doing the reprovision does not work I tried it earlier today.
mdt73 said:
Agreed, I have reprovisioned before, to no avail. I thought it might be my SMS client, GO SMS, but I am getting the same NO SIM error with that client that I get with Handcent as well as the stock messaging client.
I called Verizon back today, to note my account that it's still happening, and spoke to them about a replacement phone. (I am already on my second S3 and second SIM) They offered me my choice of Android device, which currently is a bad deal. So I asked them if their deal would hold true once the Note 2 came out, and the nice lady at level 2 support said yes.
So unless this gets fixed prior to the Note 2... a switch is almost inevitable for me.
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Interesting...I might be doing the same thing. This issue is beyond frustrating. However, I have not called Verizon about it yet. Mainly because there doesnt seem to be a fix. I dont want a refurb S3 and there currently isnt a valid replacement. Might try the Note 2 if its possible.
dmbfan13 said:
Interesting...I might be doing the same thing. This issue is beyond frustrating. However, I have not called Verizon about it yet. Mainly because there doesnt seem to be a fix. I dont want a refurb S3 and there currently isnt a valid replacement. Might try the Note 2 if its possible.
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call verizon just so that they can put a note in your account.
vzw put a note on my account and I should be able to just call up and replace my S3 with something new... just have to wait for something good to come out
ripken204 said:
call verizon just so that they can put a note in your account.
vzw put a note on my account and I should be able to just call up and replace my S3 with something new... just have to wait for something good to come out
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100% agree with Ripken... call them and have them note it in your account. Basically, I am documenting it once per day (it happens more, but calling more than once per day seems redundant) so they see it, but more importantly, I have some ammunition if I finally move to a new phone. Today's call to 2nd level tech support was a bit frustrating to me, as the nice lady said that, in fact, verizon did get a bad batch of SIM cards. When I pointed out that the bad batch must have been sent all over the country, because it's not a localized issue, and there was a software update addressing it... she didn't have a response. We went thru the same rigamarole with the phone... ie pull the battery, read the number on my SIM, read the numbers from my software build, etc. Again, she offered me any Android phone in exchange, which I turned down. But, at the end, she mentioned she was sending this issue up to a different tier of support that (her words) works with Samsung to fix these issues. I kindly asked her to have them address the headphone jack - bluetooth non-coexisistance, which she giggled at but assured me was working as intended.
So, back to waiting for a fix... or an inevitable new phone.
VRLHD Modem
Ok guys try this at your own risk! I might have found a fix looks like there is another modem floatng around called VRALHD I just flashed it in odin and guess what my phone seems to be working good here at home so try this at your own risk!
Download Link:
http://goo.im/devs/invisiblek/i535/modems
also if you google VRALHD modem galaxy s3 something will come up I cant confirm for sure this will help I will report back after some usage between now and tommorow.
Here it is on rootzwiki
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/34053-of...zon-sgs3-sch-i535-odin-or-recovery-flashable/
Guess I had high hopes for that modem does not fix the issues nevermind lol I am hoping when the jellybean update hits with a new modem this will fix the problem the waiting game begins.
Installed the HD modem last night. I have one area at work that I can test it. I'll report back later with my results.
Update: Flashed the HD radio last night (in CWM touch recovery), install went fine. Didn't have an opportunity to check it out till this afternoon when I put myself in a exact known location where I could reproduce the 3g/4g constant hand-off with the "no sim" notification. Sent out 6 text messages and a couple of phone calls with no problem. Either this new radio did the trick for me or it may be coincidental that Verizon has corrected this "dead" area that would produce this problem without fail everyday I was at work. Couldn't tell you for certain. All I know is that it's not happening anymore at this particular location. I used to have the "no sim" "out of area" notifications constantly at my home until just last week when Verizon finally covered this area with a strong 4g service. Only time will tell as I travel thru areas that have weak coverage. It's very obvious that this problem stems from weak coverage areas and the SG3's inability to handle the transfers effectively.
My husband finally let me root and rom his S3 (I have a Gnex). Unlocking the bootloader and rooting (using Odin) went well. When I installed SlimBean+GApps, however, we started having an issue. He kept losing 3 & 4G signal. We didn't know about the roaming issue, so I had not backed up the IMEI. I flashed Clean Rom, and the issue is partially fixed.
The phone's signal is fine now, 3-4 bars 4G most of the time. The trouble is, we can't dial out to any numbers, and any calls to the phone go straight to voicemail. We've pulled the sim card and let it sit for a bit, but that didn't help. Dialing *228 (as Verizon tech support had him do about 4,583 times) just brings up a message about the phone being activated by the sim card, and roaming capabilities being updated. All tech support had to say was that Google Voice was probably the problem, even though we've both had it for ages with zero issues. :/
Any ideas? I don't really want to unroot and take it in to the Verizon store, but I will if there is no alternative.
EDIT: Just discovered that 4G is only working when "Preferred network mode" is set to Global, rather than LTE/CDMA.
*228 is for 3g phones only, it does absolutely nothing for LTE sim phones. Here's your solution btw.
I knew it! I kept telling them I didn't think that was supposed to do anything when I have a sim card. Crazy first string tech support. They also didn't know my battery was removable.
Will try the things listed in that link, thanks.
Falconfree said:
I knew it! I kept telling them I didn't think that was supposed to do anything when I have a sim card. Crazy first string tech support. They also didn't know my battery was removable.
Will try the things listed in that link, thanks.
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Haha Verizon lost credibility with me when I rented their global phone for travel last summer and when I got back to the US the instructions to get my GSIII working began with dialing *228. There wasn't even a warning about it being unnecessary for LTE sim phones.
Good luck and let me know how that goes.
It's an H950 from the $250 ebay deal. I am on ATT service and the phone worked fine at H95010d
I contacted ATT customer service and had them pushed OTA software update to me. The first agent pushed H95011x to me, and things went wrong since then.
The phone cannot read the sim card (but no missing sim notice), baseband shown as unknown, if I press the "status" under the "about phone" page, the screen will flash black then go back to the about phone page.
Then I tried a factory reset. The phone started normal as if everything was fine, it just works on the first boot after the reset. But once I restart the phone, it went back to the same situation as above. I tried many times and the whole process is highly repeatable.
After that, I contacted ATT again, had the H95011z pushed to me, and it did not change the problem. Replacing sim card does not help, either.
Then I tried to get to those recovery methods on the forum, including installing the LGE mobile device drivers. But then under download mode, the phone (LGE Android MTP device) is shown as "this device cannot start (code 10)". Thus I was not able to perform fix with the tools.
I am kinds of stuck in the middle. Any help and/or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
neeviour said:
It's an H950 from the $250 ebay deal. I am on ATT service and the phone worked fine at H95010d
I contacted ATT customer service and had them pushed OTA software update to me. The first agent pushed H95011x to me, and things went wrong since then.
The phone cannot read the sim card (but no missing sim notice), baseband shown as unknown, if I press the "status" under the "about phone" page, the screen will flash black then go back to the about phone page.
Then I tried a factory reset. The phone started normal as if everything was fine, it just works on the first boot after the reset. But once I restart the phone, it went back to the same situation as above. I tried many times and the whole process is highly repeatable.
After that, I contacted ATT again, had the H95011z pushed to me, and it did not change the problem. Replacing sim card does not help, either.
Then I tried to get to those recovery methods on the forum, including installing the LGE mobile device drivers. But then under download mode, the phone (LGE Android MTP device) is shown as "this device cannot start (code 10)". Thus I was not able to perform fix with the tools.
I am kinds of stuck in the middle. Any help and/or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am having exactly the same problem. I also replaced the SIM card, but instead of trying the 11z version I tried the rooted 11x version without any change.
As you wrote, a factory reset will restore the ability to make calls until the first reboot. For data, there is no APN listed. Manually inputing the APN info will cause data to work perfectly, but all APN data is lost/missing again on reboot.
icherub said:
I am having exactly the same problem. I also replaced the SIM card, but instead of trying the 11z version I tried the rooted 11x version without any change.
As you wrote, a factory reset will restore the ability to make calls until the first reboot. For data, there is no APN listed. Manually inputing the APN info will cause data to work perfectly, but all APN data is lost/missing again on reboot.
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I've sent the phone back for an exchange, and the new one is coming tomorrow. Just noticed your reply.
So there is no fix for this? Or is there a problem with the ATT OTA update we should be aware of?
neeviour said:
I've sent the phone back for an exchange, and the new one is coming tomorrow. Just noticed your reply.
So there is no fix for this? Or is there a problem with the ATT OTA update we should be aware of?
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This may not be a widespread issue, so there might've been an issue particularly with your Flex (maybe corrupt file?). I've used 11x/z without encountering this.
Ace42 said:
This may not be a widespread issue, so there might've been an issue particularly with your Flex (maybe corrupt file?). I've used 11x/z without encountering this.
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Feels nervous when finding others had the same issue.
Just want to make sure if there's anything i should know of before dealing with the new unit coming tomorrow.
quick report:
Received the exchange. Seems new as the last one but does not contain the ATT sim as the last one did.
Tried update with date changing, for like 20 times no luck. Chatted ATT service to push the two updates (11x and 11z) in, one after another. Gone through the process without problem, and seems working fine now.
So, it may be device dependent or case specific. Thank you for your input.
I also had to send mine back. It's sitting on my front step now. The strange thing is that the email telling me the phone was being sent back only listed a speaker problem, which I did not have and never mentioned. We'll see.
neeviour said:
quick report:
Received the exchange. Seems new as the last one but does not contain the ATT sim as the last one did.
Tried update with date changing, for like 20 times no luck. Chatted ATT service to push the two updates (11x and 11z) in, one after another. Gone through the process without problem, and seems working fine now.
So, it may be device dependent or case specific. Thank you for your input.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you an AT&T customer? I can not get the update to come OTA, whether with an ATT valid SIM or a different SIM. I also tried calling and because I have a business ATT line, I got business support and the lady was clueless about pushing the update to my phone from her end.
hamzer11 said:
Are you an AT&T customer? I can not get the update to come OTA, whether with an ATT valid SIM or a different SIM. I also tried calling and because I have a business ATT line, I got business support and the lady was clueless about pushing the update to my phone from her end.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What time of day are you calling? I found calling during east coast business hours got me the right people. Ask the agent if they can do a google search from their computer, when/if they say yes ask them to search for H95011x or H95011z. The first or second result should be the AT&T page that explains the update, once my rep had that info things went MUCH better. (I just noticed for me the first result is my post on this forum LOL)
I got my Flex 2 back and LG did nothing to fix it. The repair said "fixed speaker". I never said anything about a speaker. After a couple frustrated calls I had to send it a second time. The second time, it was returned "no problem found". The phone is unusable as it can only be used after a reset and before a reboot or power off. More fun with LG later today. Ultimately, though, the reps don't give a crap; I couldn't even get the last rep to increase shipping speed, even though they failed to repair it the first time.
Earlier today I was attempting to switch to Textra as my new texting app, but had issues getting MMS to come through, so I followed some steps to attempt and change the APN for my phone. Somewhere while doing this and rebooting a few times I lost signal on my phone and couldn't get it back. I flashed a new ROM (viper) and the signal came back for a while, but then the phone rebooted to finish an update and I lost it again (so I'm pretty sure its not my sim card).
I am able to get the signal to come back for about 3 seconds every time I toggle airplane mode. I'm not sure why this is, maybe its not actually connecting? Any ideas what to do to fix this issue? I tried a safe reboot through Viper but still had the issue so it doesn't seem to be any apps interfering or anything like that.
Found a bit of a workaround that does something...
Went into the hidden phone info settings and set preferred network to LTE/CDMA (or LTE only, both worked). This allows me to use LTE for loading websites and apps and stuff but texting and calling do not work.
raznbagel said:
Found a bit of a workaround that does something...
Went into the hidden phone info settings and set preferred network to LTE/CDMA (or LTE only, both worked). This allows me to use LTE for loading websites and apps and stuff but texting and calling do not work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue. Seems to be the same problem that's been under discussion for months. Verizon just immediately blames it on the device (despite the fact that they can't explain why it worked fine a week ago or why I still get data). My solution is to just switch to t-mobile. I'll be saving myself $30-40, getting unlimited (instead of 6GB) and a network that works fully. Just waiting for my sims to arrive. I know it's not really a solution but Verizon seems to be completely unwilling to even acknowledge the issue let alone fix it. Problems seems to exist on other BYOD phones as well so it's debatable whether they're just incompetent or actively blocking devices they don't sell.
Smokex365 said:
Same issue. Seems to be the same problem that's been under discussion for months.
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Click to collapse
FYI, the tldr of that thread is that no fix or root cause is known, but it's happening to a seemingly significant number of people. Pretty much everyone gave up trying to use the U11 on Verizon after having the issue by either switching phones or carriers. With one or two getting a replacement U11 and claiming that it work, for now at least. The issue seems isolated to only Verizon.
Anon2016 said:
FYI, the tldr of that thread is that no fix or root cause is known, but it's happening to a seemingly significant number of people. Pretty much everyone gave up trying to use the U11 on Verizon after having the issue by either switching phones or carriers. With one or two getting a replacement U11 and claiming that it work, for now at least. The issue seems isolated to only Verizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Appreciate the tldr, I remembered seeing that thread before I bought the phone but didn't read through it completely. Not sure what I'll do, probably get a new phone...
So this past summer I purchased a 4G version of the A52 from Amazon, my main reason being it was cheaper than the 5G. Now I'm finding that this choice may be affecting my carrier situation. I am in the United States, and had Cricket Wireless at the time of purchasing the phone. It worked for about 4 hours, then the service quit on me. Apparently Cricket claimed that my phone did not have the proper technology, blah blah blah, something to do with the discontinuation of 3G and or VOLTE. This obviously does not make sense, since this phone is from 2021 and would not be made with old tech. Anyway, I got them to turn my sevice back on, after it being in a "suspended" state. It was still working for a while, and then some time in september I think Cricket sent a text to me (and my fiance as well, also has a phone cricket doesn't like) saying that they would start redirecting our calls to customer service to get us to "upgrade" since the phones would supposedly stop working completely in February or whenever 3G is supposed to go kaput. So, we switched to Mint, who claimed that our phones would both work on their network, and they did, except that the service sucks, even while being in a modest sized city. It also has little to no service at my work, and I'm convinced that T-mobile's service, at least through Mint, absolutely sucks.
So, my question is, what do you all suggest? Does anyone have this model, and what carrier are you with? What kind of luck (or lack thereof) has anyone been having?
Sorry if this has no place here, just doing all I can to get some answers
Well, I don't think I have a clear answer to your question, this is something that I found very very weird. I handed over a Galaxy S9+ to my fiancee who's carrier name I forget, I think it also got acquired by T-Mobile, but I'm not 100% certain. However, the phone didn't work properly. I can't remember what problems exactly it had but they were network related. Turns out that if you're going to change phones you need to go to a store for them to configure it and change it in their system. Otherwise it will either not work or not work properly.
And this was also the case with her sister who bought an unlocked, Mexican phone and she also had to take it to the store for them to configure it. It would have these problems unless she took it to them.
You would assume that all you need is to insert the SIM and it would work out the box but I don't know why this carrier had this method which just makes everything so annoying and complicated when it doesn't need to be. Oh and this isn't a one time thing, every time they changed phones they would need to do this! So you should probably look at going this route, it's my best guess.
EDIT: Oh and also before we knew this, we had also purchased a Galaxy Note 3 (which yeah it's old, but had 4G when I used it with my carrier and all of a sudden it turned to 3G when used on her carrier) so we ended up giving it away. So it was definitely a carrier problem. It was so annoying.