What are they doing that makes them have this ability? They seem to be able turn off things like VoLTE, video calling, and WifI calling but also make it non selectable. For example if VoLTE is not selectable even with the hidden controls from *#*#4636#*#* when a phone is compatible with the network and even previously worked why is that? Does it differ by carrier on how this is accomplished or do they all use basically same methods? Or is it generally all the same thing? I already know they run an IMEI check and have a white list but I’m talking about what happens after that.
Is it the APN settings? I think I also heard there is something called an IMS setting that is sometimes seporate from the APN settings that VoLTE is dependant on and not always visible to the user. I know there is something network side they have control over but from recent experience being told that I do have features like VoLTE enabled on their end unless I am being lied to I think something also is done on the phone itself. Do the network carriers have the ability to just push settings to the phone and can push out improper settings causing such issues? So does that mean they can push over the proper settings or can it only be controlled from the user side? If it can only be controlled from user side then why is it that certain features are forcibly non selectable? It makes no sense if the user side is the only one who has control because this clearly is an indication the network carrier is the one in control.
I have this issue and am just throwing a broad topic before I cover the issue in it’s own dedicated section for my phone model to get a better understanding of what is going on since I know this is by no means device specific as I’ve heard from many different makes and models of similar occuring over different network carriers too. In my specific case it’s Verizon’s network through Straight Talk on an unlocked phone I got through them.
The carrier isn't necessarily remotely enabling or disabling anything. When your device is provisioned, it receives a configuration file that tells it what channels to use, what APN to use, and what features are available. If this configuration file does not indicate the network supports features such as VoLTE, video calling, or wifi calling, these features will not be available. Your device is most likely capable, but you can't use features that don't exist.
Think of it like the cable internet industry - while you might own the modem, the carrier pushes the configuration file that allows it to work on their network. You as the user don't get to decide what that configuration entails, beyond what features your plan supports and what the network is capable of. The only thing you can change are whether you use features that are available. Trying to change the network side configuration is absolutely against the carrier's terms of use, and in most cases is illegal - just like hacking a cable modem or cable TV box to get channels you don't pay for.
It sounds like you need to contact Verizon support and explain that even though your plan and device support VoLTE, video calling, and wifi calling, these features aren't working for you. It's going to be a real pain because they're going to assume something is wrong with your device and try to walk you through the infuriating process of basic troubleshooting, but you'll eventually get some real help.
V0latyle said:
The carrier isn't necessarily remotely enabling or disabling anything. When your device is provisioned, it receives a configuration file that tells it what channels to use, what APN to use, and what features are available. If this configuration file does not indicate the network supports features such as VoLTE, video calling, or wifi calling, these features will not be available. Your device is most likely capable, but you can't use features that don't exist.
Think of it like the cable internet industry - while you might own the modem, the carrier pushes the configuration file that allows it to work on their network. You as the user don't get to decide what that configuration entails, beyond what features your plan supports and what the network is capable of. The only thing you can change are whether you use features that are available. Trying to change the network side configuration is absolutely against the carrier's terms of use, and in most cases is illegal - just like hacking a cable modem or cable TV box to get channels you don't pay for.
It sounds like you need to contact Verizon support and explain that even though your plan and device support VoLTE, video calling, and wifi calling, these features aren't working for you. It's going to be a real pain because they're going to assume something is wrong with your device and try to walk you through the infuriating process of basic troubleshooting, but you'll eventually get some real help.
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These features all were available on same phone and same network before working fine and stopped working a few months before the 3g shutdown and after the shutdown it made it so Im unable to make calls at all since I cant use VoLTE. Im not sure if they had pushed a bad configuration to prepare for this whether intentional or not or if it was result of a bad configuration caused by an Android security update or something. I’ve heard of this happening a lot particularly with unlocked phones on bring your own phone prepaid plans.
Yes, it’s difficult to get ahold of anyone who understands what is going on. I’m not even sure if i can contact Verizon since their support looks like it’s setup where you need a Verizon account for them to assist and my service is through Straight Talk which while its now owned by Verizon I imagine they will give me the runaround because of that small detail and the people at Straight Talk arent high up enough to know some details about the network I would assume as Ive been on the line with them a few times already and their solution came down to get a new phone which I dont want to be pushed into even if it came to a point they start offering it for free since I dont want this to be the case in the future potentially happening over and over. I want them to show they are competent enough to run their own network. The Straight Talk support just keep doing the same things even after getting to higher levels of support, checking my IMEI and ICCID are correct and that they have VoLTE turned on their side in some settings then commonly they work backwards and assume I’m an idiot and ask if I have data turned on.
Related
I know for some the title is a little contradicting, but here is what I am looking for:
I would like to turn off calls and sms, and enable only mobile data (3g). Airplane mode is not good for this as it turns off mobile data. I have done this on an old windows mobile phone I used to have (motorola q) but I haven't found much info on android for this. I know some people have also asked the same question but no answer (forums.androidcentral.com/htc-evo-4g/61387-how-turn-off-cell-phone-radio.html).
I have an Samsung exhibit 2, it's on gingerbread.
I am wondering if it isn't as simple as to replace the normal phone apks with the ones from a tablet (since tablets cannot make voice calls or sms) was anyone tried this? Maybe can point me to a place to try? I think the apks to replace would be the 2 being discussed here:
android.stackexchange.com/questions/7133/how-do-i-turn-off-the-cellular-radio-without-disabling-bluetooth
Thank you.
Tablets can make voice calls AFAIK. Although one looks very stupid holding a large pad onto the ear. Normally, it goes to Loudspeaker by default.
Anyways, what you are looking for might not be in Android. From the look of it, this is a driver feature. So if the drivers of the phone's radio does not support this feature it might not be possible.
Anyways, is it possible to do this in real GSM radios? Isn't GPRS in the same band as in Voice calls? I'm not sure about HSPA.
Why would you want to do that?
Do you just want to disable texting and calls? (You could just ignore them?), or you could just use Wifi.
In older phones (like 2g and basic cell phones), they did not have mobile data, so all they had was the cellular radio. In newer phones though, the cellular radio and 3g/4g is the same piece of hardware, so it is not possible, as far as I am aware, to disable one or the other selectively. Sorry
If you're own a sprint phone and try to download a phone call can break the connection. I am also looking for a way to temp disable the cell radio while downloading.
"Juice" might do it. I know some of the battery saver apps will allow this customization where you can have data only, radio off, radio on data off...etc
Hey all! I've tried googling/searching XDA, but I must have my terms wrong or no one is talking about it.
Question: Is there a way to restrict which mobile networks my phone will connect to?
Device: Google Nexus 5 32gb, Stock Rom/Kernel with Root access
I'm switching to a T-Mobile Simple Choice plan with free 2g data in 100 countries, and going on a cruise shortly after. A couple of the ports of call are on the list, while others are not on the list. It sure would be nice to just leave my phone on and have it only connect to the free networks. I contracted T-Mobile and was pointed to a document letting me know that I will be notified if charges are incurred, but I'd rather not get charged at all. This I could solve manually by carrying the list of countries with me and only turning off airplane when I am there, but that does seem like a pain to me.
The other problem, cruise ships have cell networks onboard now. These networks are charged as international and not included in the Simple Choice deal. Even if I am in port, I am concerned I may still connect to this netowork. I imagine there is an app I could use to at least see which network I am on (I can't find it indicated in Settings anywhere - probably blind), but I would need to prevent my phone from roaming onto that network when both are in range.
I'd really appreciate any thoughts/suggestions. The only thing I can think of is some kind of custom block that would like me restrict network connections. All way over my head.
Thanks again
Matt
You're going to have to manually select them. I'd turn data roaming off until you get some where you know you can turn it on. Also, most port of calls have Wi-Fi and I'd use that where you can. You can often even get it on the ship at a port, although you might have to find the right location on the ship where you can do that.
jd1639 said:
You're going to have to manually select them. I'd turn data roaming off until you get some where you know you can turn it on. Also, most port of calls have Wi-Fi and I'd use that where you can. You can often even get it on the ship at a port, although you might have to find the right location on the ship where you can do that.
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Thanks for the tip about Wi-Fi networks. Absolutely. Unfortunately, I'm not even sure how to manually select the network to which my phone connects. Any advice on where/how to select that?
Matt
Settings, Wireless and network, more, mobile networks, network operators
13I find myself with a few phones handed down to me, and I am often in areas where there in no mobile phone network available,
I am curious as to weather or not these Android phones (on which I have gained root access) could be perhaps booted to a system that allows communication directly between the phones instead of via the non available mobile network.
If I remember correctly, an article I read some years ago described an open source project designed to offer telecommunications using the transceiver in each phone to create a network for areas that had no other available network.
If anyone could point me to some information on the above described network, or just using these as "walkie talkies" I would very much appreciate it.
I was not able to find much in the way of relevant information, but Wikipedia says,
Developments
Some cellular telephone networks offer a push-to-talk handset that allows walkie-talkie-like operation over the cellular network, without dialing a call each time. However, the cellphone provider must be accessible.
Motorola has IDEN cellphones (e.g., i867) that can have 15 conversations over each of 10 900Mhz channels (see Moto Talk) between compatible cellphones without using the cellphone network or a base station. This is very useful outside the range of a cellphone provider as well as reducing network charges.
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Smartphone apps
A variety of mobile apps exist that mimic a walkie-talkie style interaction. They are marketed as low-latency, asynchronous communication. The advantages touted over two-way voice calls include: the asynchronous nature not requiring full user interaction (like SMS) and it is voice over IP (VOIP) so it does not use minutes on a cellular plan. Applications on the market that offer this walkie-talkie style interaction for audio include Voxer, Zello, and HeyTell, among others.[7] An application that offers this style of interaction for video is Glide.[8]
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Nothing in this seems to be what I am looking for.
have you tried restarting your phone? my phone sometimes crashes and restarting works perfectly, try it seriously
There may be apps that provide Walkie Talkie like functionality over Wifi, but I think you need to distinguish what you are doing over wifi, bluetooth, and cellular. I'd go with one of these. You might even be able to setup some kind of mesh-based network using wifi - depending on the area you are trying to cover.
iDen and other carrier based PTT solutions are based on connectivity to cellular networks, and won't help you here. Additionally, most GSM networks are not outfitted with native PTT functionality. You are best working with Local Area Networks (LANs, like WiFi) or Personal Area Networks (PAN, like bluetooth)
WiFi and Bluetooth operate on spectrum which is unlicensed and available for public use - with some restrictions, such as power output and the like. Anything you could coax out of WiFi or Bluetooth should be fine.
Cellular, on the other hand, is an entirely different breed. Cell networks are generally regulated and licensed by relevant government authorities. Trying to setup your own cell towers is likely illegal in most countries without licensing or regulatory approval - with a few exceptions, like carrier sponsored micro cells. That would include tampering with the cellular radios in most devices.
3234
Yes,,, the legal issue is something I had not yet considered and you make some important points.
It is likely that even if I find the information on the project I mention above I will not be able to do anything other than learn a little from it, that's OK.
You mention IDEN as being carrier based, as far as I can tell IDEN is one of the few that is not.
From my previous quote
Motorola has iDEN cellphones (e.g., i867) that can have 15 conversations over each of 10 900Mhz channels (see Moto Talk) between compatible cellphones without using the cellphone network or a base station. This is very useful outside the range of a cellphone provider as well as reducing network charges.
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There is more info on this at this site .wikipedia.org/wiki/MOTO_Talk ( need to make more posts before I can give a link ).
I do however note that some carriers do not allow this feature to be used, or limit its use.
MOTO Talk also works only on some specific Motorola phones, reading between the lines there seems to be some hardware as well as software that is unique to these models.
I'm most interested in the open source project ( I think it was open source ) that I read about some years ago, perhaps it is on SourceForge?
I have trouble finding a useful search string for Google, any suggestions?
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!)
I do not have very good reception where I am, so I started looking for things to help. Got a booster which wasn't much help. I then thought voice over wifi, so I checked if the s8 had it and yes it does, or so I thought. Voice over WiFi did not appear anywhere in my settings, my Telus provider was baffled as I was. We have been on the phone for hours. I with guidance backed up and factory reset my s8. This brought in an app under settings>Apps>more>show system apps and then scroll till I came to WiFi Calling. This appeared with the reset. Apparently something like that should appear in the phone app settings and have a switch, Mine does not. Then I discovered there were codes and service mode. Under code *#9090# I found a setting that reads "VoLTE Weakcell Setting.
My question is please if anyone knows how to implement WiFi Calling on s8 I would be grateful. God bless.
kenmartel said:
I do not have very good reception where I am, so I started looking for things to help. Got a booster which wasn't much help. I then thought voice over wifi, so I checked if the s8 had it and yes it does, or so I thought. Voice over WiFi did not appear anywhere in my settings, my Telus provider was baffled as I was. We have been on the phone for hours. I with guidance backed up and factory reset my s8. This brought in an app under settings>Apps>more>show system apps and then scroll till I came to WiFi Calling. This appeared with the reset. Apparently something like that should appear in the phone app settings and have a switch, Mine does not. Then I discovered there were codes and service mode. Under code *#9090# I found a setting that reads "VoLTE Weakcell Setting.
My question is please if anyone knows how to implement WiFi Calling on s8 I would be grateful. God bless.
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Typically, VoLTE functionality is controlled by your carrier in their system.
This is how it normally works:
1) your device must support/offer VoLTE service
2) your carrier must support VoLTE
3) your carrier must support VoLTE on your specific model number
4) your carrier enables VoLTE service to your device in their system somehow or they send you a specific SIM to enable VoLTE.
In other words, VoLTE support and functionality is more controlled on their end than it is on your end.
Yes I understand, when their tech support says s8 should do wifi calling, and the settings dont appear where they should, and then after a reset an app called "wifi calling" appears in the app list, but nothing anywhere else. Except, as I was able to find, there is a service mode and there is a selection there that is called "Weak Cell Settings". Sadly I dont have service programming manual. Thank you.
kenmartel said:
Yes I understand, when their tech support says s8 should do wifi calling, and the settings dont appear where they should, and then after a reset an app called "wifi calling" appears in the app list, but nothing anywhere else. Except, as I was able to find, there is a service mode and there is a selection there that is called "Weak Cell Settings". Sadly I dont have service programming manual. Thank you.
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It could be that the network supports S8 but doesn't support your specific model number of S8, especially if the S8 that you are using is not the same model number as the specific model of S8 that they offered/sold on their network, if it's from another network and has been unlocked to be used on other networks, it may not be a specific model number that is specifically supported by their network. If this is the case, the specific model number(s) of S8 that they support would have a firmware that has the settings in the correct place but the firmware on your specific model number might not have it. Not all model numbers are equal, the firmware on each of them is designed and built by the specific network that it is branded to, with each if them having differences intentionally chosen by the network that is branded to, including what settings it has or doesn't.
Hi Everyone
Thank you for your help. Problem is solved. It is a service setting that sets the retail company selling you the phone and /or the plan. In my case I had a phone which my provider did not program when I began a new plan with them. all companies are listed and I guess the program for wireless calling is included with your selection of the company....phone responded immediately with all the proper programming. Thanks again for your time and effort
kenmartel said:
Hi Everyone
Thank you for your help. Problem is solved. It is a service setting that sets the retail company selling you the phone and /or the plan. In my case I had a phone which my provider did not program when I began a new plan with them. all companies are listed and I guess the program for wireless calling is included with your selection of the company....phone responded immediately with all the proper programming. Thanks again for your time and effort
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I've never known a device to have that setting. If your device is an international model, it would make sense to have that setting for the various regions/carriers.