[Q] SCH-I545 T-Mobile Switch

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ElBow513

Senior Member
Apr 20, 2011
58
4
Howdy all,

I bought the VZW S4 when it was brand new and am lucky enough to still have an mdk bootloader. But wow vzw is expensive and living in Denver and being a world traveler for work, T-Mobile has peaked my interest with their prices and the international data usage...

I am running hyperdrive 17.1 and the phone is great and running like butter. From what I've read I can get a T-Mobile Sim card, change the APN and voilà. But T-Mobile employees say my 4G LTE will go in and out and only work where T-Mobile has certain bands of 4G. The coverage map looks good but I have no idea what band of 4G LTE it is.

My question is if I can flash the T-Mobile version of hyperdrive or another T-Mobile rom onto my mdk vzw s4, change the APN and have a fully functioning T-Mobile S4? Or will it lack certain frequencies and drop 4G often? Anyone who has attempted the switch please feel free to comment on your experience so far. Thank you XDA!
 

levilib

Senior Member
Nov 29, 2011
151
13
Howdy all,

I bought the VZW S4 when it was brand new and am lucky enough to still have an mdk bootloader. But wow vzw is expensive and living in Denver and being a world traveler for work, T-Mobile has peaked my interest with their prices and the international data usage...

I am running hyperdrive 17.1 and the phone is great and running like butter. From what I've read I can get a T-Mobile Sim card, change the APN and voilà. But T-Mobile employees say my 4G LTE will go in and out and only work where T-Mobile has certain bands of 4G. The coverage map looks good but I have no idea what band of 4G LTE it is.

My question is if I can flash the T-Mobile version of hyperdrive or another T-Mobile rom onto my mdk vzw s4, change the APN and have a fully functioning T-Mobile S4? Or will it lack certain frequencies and drop 4G often? Anyone who has attempted the switch please feel free to comment on your experience so far. Thank you XDA!

Nothing you flash will add more bands than this phone has, it's a hardware issue, it only has AWS (which T-Mobile uses) and 700c (band13) which (I think only) Verizon uses.

I'm not sure exactly what other (if any) bands T-Mobile uses for LTE
 

kyedmipy

Member
Oct 27, 2011
28
4
Chicago
I've got the sane setup in Chicago. I'm not a world traveler but while your her you can expect anywhere from 20 to 33 mbps. You should tell your job to get you a dedicated line w/ tmo.
 

ElBow513

Senior Member
Apr 20, 2011
58
4
I've got the sane setup in Chicago. I'm not a world traveler but while your her you can expect anywhere from 20 to 33 mbps. You should tell your job to get you a dedicated line w/ tmo.
That's great to hear! Did you flash a T-Mobile rom or just use the vzw rom with T-Mobile APN?

I just want to make sure that I still get a decent connection in most cities, not slugging along at 2g, 90% of the time because its not a T-Mobile phone. If that's the case, I might consider buying a T-Mobile phone, but that hurts the whole argument of ditching vzw to save $$
 
J

Jimmy Rudedog

Guest
changed mine to metroPCS...

That's great to hear! Did you flash a T-Mobile rom or just use the vzw rom with T-Mobile APN?

I just want to make sure that I still get a decent connection in most cities, not slugging along at 2g, 90% of the time because its not a T-Mobile phone. If that's the case, I might consider buying a T-Mobile phone, but that hurts the whole argument of ditching vzw to save $$

I changed mine to MetroPCS which runs on the T-Mobile network. the guy at the store did the swap and it runs on the network and 4G/LTE in most metro areas very well, but loses any data connection in remote areas (I live in east-central Wyoming and it only works data in the larger towns here but still gets calls and texts anywhere you get a signal. It will at times toggle between 3G to 4G in some areas. and foxfi will run on it too if you hide the data usage when tethering. hope it helps.