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[Q] silly settings question for foreign travel

hi all
so I am going out of the country later this week and had a simple silly question. I want to be able to use wifi on my phone for late night email checks. I do not want to accept calls or send text or use any data over the network.
are these the settings I need:
wifi - on (duh!)
mobile network - off
data roaming - connect to data services when roaming - off
Is there a setting for roaming for regular calls? I do not see it. note this is with a rooted inspire using rcmixkingdom.
thanks

aeneas3 said:
hi all
so I am going out of the country later this week and had a simple silly question. I want to be able to use wifi on my phone for late night email checks. I do not want to accept calls or send text or use any data over the network.
are these the settings I need:
wifi - on (duh!)
mobile network - off
data roaming - connect to data services when roaming - off
Is there a setting for roaming for regular calls? I do not see it. note this is with a rooted inspire using rcmixkingdom.
thanks
Click to expand...
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I'll try and answer your questions, but I would still recommend you contact your mobile provider and confirm first. This is from my personal experience.
BE PREPARED ... THIS IS A LONG REPLY
Whenever you leave your service area, the area covered by your mobile provider's network, you enter what we call "roaming." Two things can now happen. Either your phone will not work at all in terms of calls or data, or everything will work. It depends on what agreement you have with your provider. With me, for example, I had long ago called my provider and asked them to NOT allow my phone to operate if I went "roaming." Then, suddenly, when I visited the U.S. last week, I realized that my phone wasn't working and remembered what I had told my provider. A quick phone call to them corrected the issue.
All that being said, if you are set up to roam with your provider, you need to consider a few of things.
One, you need consider where you're going. If you're in Canada, and you're traveling to the U.S., roaming charges may be somewhat expensive. If you're doing the reverse, visiting Canada from the U.S., the same would probably apply. However, if you're going overseas, your roaming charges could be quite expensive, as much as several dollars per minute, depending on the country. Data can also be expensive. For example, with my provider (Rogers - Canada), I have 500MB of data with my monthly plan; however, when I visited the U.S., my plan no longer applied, and I would be charged 3-cents per KB, or a whopping $3.00 per MB. I ended up buying a 10MB extra service fee for $10.00.
Okay, let's consider what you want to do.
If you only want to use WiFi, it will work perfectly if you have the WiFi name and password (if applicable). If you do NOT want to be able to take calls, send texts, or use data, you MUST TURN THEM OFF. Keep in mind, too, that certain programs may automatically access Data for up-dating, such as weather, stocks, sports scores, currency exchange rates, etc. You can turn off this automatic function, which I would suggest. I don't know exactly where this function is on your phone, but you'll have to check it out. This applies to the SYNC function as well. Turn OFF sync to make sure it doesn't accidentally access Data.
Now, for your other question re local phone calls. Once you leave your service area, your phone either works, or it doesn't. There is no other choice. If you don't want to accept calls from home, or make long distance calls, then you have to turn off roaming. If roaming is off, you cannot make local calls either.
Also, keep in mind that if you did make local calls, they would all be considered long distance because, as far as your provider is concerned, your phone's area code is static. If you leave your area code, ALL calls become long distance even though, if you're in another country, and you only want to make a phone call across the street, it will still be a long distance call. Think of it this way, billing begins the moment you press call on your phone, yet in this case, that call effectively begins from you home area code. Therefore, to make a call across the street, it would be identical to making the same call from you home, plus roaming charges.
There is one work-around for the local call issue. You could buy time from a local provider in the country where you will be travelling. This may end up being quite inexpensive. Think of it as a pay-as-you-go plan, if they offer it. So, you would simply remove your existing SIM card and replace it with a new one from the provider in the new country. Use it for local stuff. It may even include data, who knows?
When I visit China, which is rather often, I have a "pay-as-you-go" SIM card which I have with me when I visit. I always keep a balance on the account so they don't cancel it. Then, when I arrive, I make the SIM switch, and voila! Cheap local calls.
Peter

If ALL you want is data for email and internet, turn airplane mode ON (I use a power widget to have this close at my fingers, but you can long push the power button and the option is there as well as in menu>settings>wireless & networks) then turn wifi back on.
Airplane kills all radios, then you have the option to turn wifi only on (specifically for those airlines that provide wifi).

thanks guys! I figured I was going to call AT&T today to make sure but stealthpsycho - airplane + wifi will work wonders. I just tested it out at home and it is beautiful I am going to turn off roaming by calling just to make sure as well. In case I need to reboot and forget that airplane mode is not on.
thanks again!

Went to Vietnam a few weeks ago. Turning on airplane mode and then turning wifi back on does the trick you want.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

W00t! I gots a thx!!!
You're very welcome. I use this trick a lot at the school where I work, b/c I have no cell signal and I want to prevent cell searching. It's also a useful trick if you want to install market apps that AT&T blocks (I.E. PDAnet)

Easy way I go to Japan all I do is take out the sim. Wifi on.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App

Traveling outside the US -- WiFi Calling ??

Hey guys.
My co-worker has a G2X has well. He'll be traveling to Spain at the end of this month. Would there be a way to use Wifi calling without incurring charges?
From the T-Mobile Cust. Service rep told us we'd need to have the phone on airplane mode ON & Data Roaming Off. If we have the airplane mode ON the Wifi Calling app doesn't let us turn on Wifi Calling. So what can he do not to get any sort of bill increase while he's over there?

Having airplane mode ON obviously will disable wifi calling since it disables EVERYTHING (radio, bt, wifi, etc.).
Log onto wifi, enable wifi calling, place your call. It works overseas like it does here domestically.

GideonX said:
Having airplane mode ON obviously will disable wifi calling since it disables EVERYTHING (radio, bt, wifi, etc.).
Log onto wifi, enable wifi calling, place your call. It works overseas like it does here domestically.
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Well, if I enable Airplane Mode ON, then I can still go right after and enable Wifi and surf the web with Wifi. It even still shows Airplane Mode as being ON. The thing is that Wifi Calling doesn't like airplane mode on. Err. So What do I need to disable in order not to see any insane charges of the phone roaming onto cell towers, 2G, 3G, 4G, etc?

flexnix said:
Well, if I enable Airplane Mode ON, then I can still go right after and enable Wifi and surf the web with Wifi. It even still shows Airplane Mode as being ON. The thing is that Wifi Calling doesn't like airplane mode on. Err. So What do I need to disable in order not to see any insane charges of the phone roaming onto cell towers, 2G, 3G, 4G, etc?
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Click to collapse
Turn data roaming off. I use the wifi calling feature from China quite a bit and to avoid crazy bills make sure data roaming stays off and only use the phone when connected to wifi.

jlevy73 said:
Turn data roaming off. I use the wifi calling feature from China quite a bit and to avoid crazy bills make sure data roaming stays off and only use the phone when connected to wifi.
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Follow this ^^^ and you are golden.

If Data Roaming is turned off, and I go to Canada, will I get an extra charge for incoming text messages?

I used to use Wi-Fi Calling internationally all the time on my G2. In order for it to activate, it has to register on a cell network first. So if you're roaming, you still need to allow the phone to pick up and show connected to the foreign cell network. Then when you activate Wi-Fi calling it disables the cell connection. Make sure you turn Wi-Fi Calling off before disconnecting from Wi-Fi. Otherwise it gets stuck and you won't be able to turn it off and get your cell signal back until you connect to a Wi-Fi signal again.
Some warnings. When first connecting to the foreign carrier's network, make sure the data connections on the phone are disabled. Otherwise the phone will automatically start syncing and T-Mobile's data roaming fees are outlandish. My G2 always disabled the cell signal when Wi-Fi Calling was enabled. I used the G2X once overseas and, because the cell signal indicator still showed active, I wasn't sure that everything I was doing was over Wi-Fi. Have your friend watch for this.

Not entirely true regarding cell network connection.
I've used wifi calling in datacenters with zero cell reception. It registers and enables without needing to connect to anything first.

Very helpful, I'll just disable mobile data all together once I am out of the US!

So data roaming being turned off will solved that. Ok. How about text messages? Will they not come in until he enables Wifi calling or if they come in he'll be charged an insane amount.

flexnix said:
So data roaming being turned off will solved that. Ok. How about text messages? Will they not come in until he enables Wifi calling or if they come in he'll be charged an insane amount.
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If you have a messaging bundle or plan, international messages you receive will be pulled from your bundle. (quote from T-Mobile's website)

So basically, if I have unlimited international texting, and I receive texts while in Canada, I'm good?

Problem is that wifi calling is sensitive to having good wifi signal and it is easy to drop wifi calling without noticing it. And you could be making texts or calls on international roaming rates and not know it.
So, can you turn off cell service some how? Not just data, but voice too? And not airplane mode, because that disables wifi calling. So is there a way to turn off just cell service?

wildcard said:
Problem is that wifi calling is sensitive to having good wifi signal and it is easy to drop wifi calling without noticing it. And you could be making texts or calls on international roaming rates and not know it.
So, can you turn off cell service some how? Not just data, but voice too? And not airplane mode, because that disables wifi calling. So is there a way to turn off just cell service?
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Just completely uncheck roaming and International roaming. Was in the carribean and I never connected to a network.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda app-developers app

redmonke255 said:
Just completely uncheck roaming and International roaming. Was in the carribean and I never connected to a network.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda app-developers app
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However, that only works for data roaming? You will still connect to a voice network no matter what. Is there a way to not connect to a roaming voice network?

wildcard said:
However, that only works for data roaming? You will still connect to a voice network no matter what. Is there a way to not connect to a roaming voice network?
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I didn't connect to one. Under network providers, select only yours. Don't let it choose automatically.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda app-developers app

[Not-Fixed] How to install new Z3 D6603 LTE on AT&T network

[Not Fixed] see bottom of this post.
It is fairly easy to install a new D6603 to work completly on the AT&T network. It is not so easy to find the answer of how to do it in the threads and posts. I tried many suggestions and wasted a lot of time. Hopefully this will save you from that fate.
First you must know that you can't use the IMEI number of your new phone if you want it to work completly as it should. If you use the Z3 IMEI you will have trouble with data of various sorts and the phone will go off line when on LTE after 20 or 30 minutes and you will not receive calls or SMS messages. I do not know why but it has been suggested that the AT&T network does not recognise this phone so it causes trouble.
If you have an AT&T nano-sim from your old phone then just put it in the phone. (Cut downs work but can cause other problems some say.) When the SIM is inserted for the first time into a new phone there is a prompt that asks if you want to download the APN. Hit 'yes' and the phone downloads the APN itself.
If it does not ask then go to Settings>More>Mobile Networks>Prefered Network Type and be sure LTE (Preferred) is selected. Then connect your phone to the internet and then go to Settings>More>Internet Settings and select AT&T. You should be good to go.
If you need to get a nano-sim then go to the AT&T store or call and they will give you one or send you one for free. You will need to use the IMEI number from a LTE phone that is already on the AT&T system. You can use your old phone or borrow the number from someone. If the rep installs the sim in the Z3 with the 6603 IMEI don't worry. Just call support later and tell them you sent your new phone back and want to go back to your old IMEI or have a new IMEI (from an existing AT&T phone). They will enter it and off you go. The phone from the IMEI will show in the picture on your account page. Big deal!
Update: This worked for hours last night but this morning it is back to not receiving calls. Simply turning wifi off and it began to receive calls as GPRS was switched back on. My wifi was on which has been said to cause problems. I will test with wifi off and report back. Had "no service" instead of AT&T on upper left of lock screen. A full shut down for several minutes than re-boot solved that.

YMMV. I've been on ATT with a Z3 purchased from Sony store for several months and it was registered in an ATT store by scanning the IMEI off the box followed by updating Internet settings in Setup. ATT online shows unknown model but everything works including LTE and MMS. There is something else involved when problems like this occur probably some setting not getting reset. I registered the Z3 on a new line with a new Sim card because I wanted to take my time moving stuff off my old phone--this may have avoided the problems.

JudH said:
YMMV. I've been on ATT with a Z3 purchased from Sony store for several months and it was registered in an ATT store by scanning the IMEI off the box followed by updating Internet settings in Setup. ATT online shows unknown model but everything works including LTE and MMS. There is something else involved when problems like this occur probably some setting not getting reset. I registered the Z3 on a new line with a new Sim card because I wanted to take my time moving stuff off my old phone--this may have avoided the problems.
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I've also had no problems with my Z3 on AT&T. Works great, receives sms/mms immediately, etc..

esheesle said:
I've also had no problems with my Z3 on AT&T. Works great, receives sms/mms immediately, etc..
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Click to collapse
AT&T's system sometimes takes a while to get updated with new IMEIs that trigger LTE provisioning for a users' account.
Once your account is provisioned for LTE you never have to worry about it again, but sometimes if you have a phone the system doesn't recognize, it is a pain to get AT&T to properly provision your account. Supposedly properly trained in-store reps can do it - the key being "properly trained" - Never try to do anything "unusual" by calling AT&T customer service, and NEVER use a franchise/kiosk in-person for service - make sure you're at a corporate-owned store! Even then, some stores might have incompetent staff. I've been lucky that all of my local corporate stores are pretty well staffed.

So you are saying that your Z3's with wifi and LTE on with AT&T are working as they should?
With LTE off my phone responds normally with wifi on. With LTE and wifi on it will not respond to calls after a 30 minute sleep. It does not show missed calls. Calls go straight to voice mail after 2 rings. Could you tell me what level your LTE dBm's are? Thanks!

I was told not to give them my imie# but, after recvng the minisim I had to call them in order to 'provision' it to work at all and they needed that #. I have never had any problems personally and am assuming this may be because you gave them the wrong #. Again I am only guessing. Oth, if I had had a different imie to give, I would have done so myself.

It is very strange and I am feeling it is more signal strength related than how you provision your phone. (Once it is provisioned correctly.) It seems that more people have less problems when they already have a nano-sim and just plunk it in the new phone. This might indicate that they already had a strong signal from the get go. My old HTC One + get's a better signal than the Sony in the same locations with the same (new) SIM. With the Devilcase bumper on it gets 5% less. My very limited tests yesterday seemed to indicate that it was signal strength related. I am not enough of a conspiracy theorist to imagine that AT&T would program their system to not function correctly with sims that are provisioned with these Sony phones which they are obviously ignoring for some reason. Or am I?

I had all kinds of problems with the Z3 on AT&T. The IMEI caused an issue since AT&T linked it to a flip phone and therefore couldn't provision LTE. I changed it to an old AT&T LTE device and then I was able to get LTE but was having the same issue with calls going directly to voicemail and texts showing up hours later in bunches. I found the solution was to switch off LTE in the quick settings menu. All calls and texts came through and on time while LTE was off. If I needed a data boost to stream, I turned it back on until I was finished streaming. This was while on KitKat. After upgrading to Lollipop, I was able to keep LTE turned on and calls and texts still arrived on time.

I use data rarely. Mostly wifi. If I don't leave LTE on, my phone reverts to wcdma preferred. And why can't LTE just work without me having to constantly turn it back on? What bugs me is having the APN settings greyed out. I want to be able to turn it off. If anything it seems the phone itself is preventing me from accessing the sim. It feels like I'm borrowing something which contains lots of MY private data. I know my phonebook is stored locally but I also noticed there is no option of specifying the sim or not. Anybody know how to switch APN on and off? In fact, overall even rooted, I still feel like I have almost no power over it. I can't even disable the cellular connection without going full on airplane mode and I do not trust that. I don't even fly so that needs work for sure. Dumb question but could I buy a working nanosim from say 7-eleven that my apn switch will work with?

"Anybody know how to switch APN on and off?"
On my Z3 on OTA stock Lollypop I have an icon in quick settings to turn LTE on and off. Drag two fingers down from the top of the screen. If no LTE icon then select the pencil icon at the top and select the LTE icon. There is also a mobile data icon switch there.
To turn off your radio completly you can get the Advanced Signal Status app and select additional info at the bottom and click phone information and turn off radio. Probably a number of ways to do it but that is one.
Sim contact storage was a way to move information from phone to phone. You can still do it but not really necessary with cloud backup and storage. Google does it for me without me having to do anything which I like. I still save contacts to the sim just because I can. Export and import in your contacts app menu.

johnboatcat said:
So you are saying that your Z3's with wifi and LTE on with AT&T are working as they should?
With LTE off my phone responds normally with wifi on. With LTE and wifi on it will not respond to calls after a 30 minute sleep. It does not show missed calls. Calls go straight to voice mail after 2 rings. Could you tell me what level your LTE dBm's are? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works fine here. I don't pay attention to the dBm estimates since these aren't measured with calibrated test equipment and vary widely. Those numbers are basically worthless.
The only valid comparison is data performance in a given environment (ideally a difficult weak-signal one) - and at my desk with very weak signal, every phone I've ever used performs similarly to the Z3.

"Those numbers are basically worthless."
True, but we have narrowed this down to the possibility that it might be signal related so it is worth a shot. If people whose phones are working fine would measure the LTE dBm on Advanced Signal Status at the location where their phone sits and works well the most we might possibly see some measure of difference in the phones that are not working. Most of the non-working phones seem to work sometimes so signal strength is the next best parameter to rule out. Thanks!
Here are the screen shots of my phone with LTE on, LTE and wi-fi and LTE off and wi-fi.
How do the working phones compare? Does your CDMA (voice) also go to 0% when LTE is on and GSM = n/a?

Thanks. I think adv sig nfo actually works. I'm amazed actually. I can't find the phone's native greyed out apn switch anyways which really makes no sense.

How can VoLTE be used to much benefit?

VoLTE seems to me to be much ado about very little. I know what the technology does, but I also read from the wireless providers the limitations such as:
- Both ends must use VoLTE. Many phones have it off by default.
- It only works with another phone on the same wireless provider's network. What are the chances of that?
- If the phone is not a carrier's branded phone, you do not get VoLTE or VoWi-Fi.
- It cannot be used with landline connections.
- Even if the call does go VoLTE/HD Voice, you will be billed for the same number of calls or minutes.
- If you force VoLTE by enabling VoWi-Fi, and be able to make and receive domestic calls for free while abroad, any international local calls or data will be billed at the very expensive international roaming rates.
- If you use a local SIM while International, you will get inexpensive local calls, but unable to use VoLTE to send or receive calls from home for free.
VoLTE seems Mickey Mouse when you have apps like Signal where you get secure chat, secure calling, and secure video conferencing, without being charged by the text, being charged by the call or by the minute, with the only dependency is a data connection.

Textnow Has FREE Cellular service starting 1-28-2020

The free calling and texting app Textnow which formerly only worked on Wifi or with a paid subscription is now offering Free cellular service through the Sprint network. You just pay once for a $9.99 SIM activation kit and never need to pay a monthly fee or anything again. The Free part is only Voice and text. Their voice and texting does use mobile data but mobile data can't be used for anything else like surfing the Internet unless you pay extra. It does of course have ads to pay for this service but I haven't found them any problem. You have your own phone number and it automatically will switch between available Wifi and cellular for calls and texting. Great idea in my opinion for an extra phone number or backup phone or even a primary phone if you are in a good Sprint network area. Your phone must be compatible with Sprint's network (CDMA) or you can buy refurbished phones from Textnow that are all set to go.

Textnow now has a GSM SIM that works through T-Mobile. It took a bit of digging to find info needed to make the SIM work but so far I can only make outgoing calls and texts when on cellular (VoLTE) with
Wifi turned OFF. I can't receive calls or texts unless Wifi is ON. Is anyone else trying their new GSM SIM and had this problem? This is free cellular! You just have to put up with some ads. Textnow states you can make and receive calls on cellular but so far can't get the incoming working.

If you have trouble with this new GSM SIM even connecting here is the solution I found to at least make outgoing calls work: Go into settings > Wifi and Internet > SIM and network settings > SIM (T-Mobile) > Access Point Names > Add APN. Getting there may vary some by phone and OS version but you need to add the APN - Name : TextNow APN: textnow.static - then just save it and after saving choose it as the APN in the little circle. Turn on Airplane mode for about 10 seconds and then turn back off and you should see VoLTE and be able to make calls. If you can receive calls and text also please post here with anything you did to accomplish that.