.
[size=+1]Use your phone anywhere[/size]
[size=+1]Have you ever wondered why your phone doesn't work nearly as well when you travel?[/size]
Or tried to change carriers only to be told that you'd need to buy a different version of your high end phone for it to work properly?
It's happened to a lot of us and there is no good reason for it. Other than greedy carriers that is.
Most phones should work on a lot more bands. And have good reception when roaming. The S5 in particular is one of the first phones that is fully capable of working on every GSM and LTE frequency in the world. So.. why doesn't it actually do that? Well because your carrier doesn't want to make it easy for you to leave. And because Samsung and other manufacturers want to force you to buy a new phone everytime you change telephone companies. So they put restrictions in your phone to limit how many bands you can use. Wouldn't you rather have your phone work on all carriers?
This guide will show you how to do that.
Okay okay, I'm convinced already.
I don't want to read any more. I'm a power user (or reckless).. just show me how to do the hack!
[size=+1]The lawyers made us do it[/size]
We have to post an obligatory warning
We don't think that this mod will cause you any problems. But we can't guarantee that.
You assume all risks if you proceed, including the risk that your phone might object, meltdown, brick or void your warranty.
[size=+1]Quick Start Guide[/size]
[size=+1]So now what?[/size]
Well, if you decided to jump in and follow the Quick Start Guide.. that's it. The Quick Start Guide has everything that you need to add new bands to your phone. Unless you run into difficulties, you don't need anything else. The guide is a bit terse as I don't have a lot of spare time to rewrite or polish it. But all of the important information is there.
If something doesn't make sense or you get stuck somewhere, you can (and should) try a quick search for details. If that doesn't resolve your issue, then post in this thread for help. If you want to learn more about how this works, why more bands is a good thing. Or how to make custom edits that choose particular frequency bands, then keep reading this post and the rest of the thread.
This is a proven working method, despite a few trolls claiming otherwise. It's also new territory and there are model specific quirks.
If you run into problems, most likely you missed a step somewhere. Less likely, you may have discovered something new that needs to be unraveled.
The purpose of this thread is to discuss new findings and suggest ways to improve this method.
This is not a support thread, although if you make an effort to provide enough detail about your situation, someone will probably try to help you.
[size=+1]Is this mod hard to do?[/size]
No. There really isn't anything hard about it. But it's not a one click kind of mod either. These are recent discoveries and there are a lot of steps needed to make these changes. Samsung doesn't want to make it easy for you - they'd rather sell you another phone. In particular, there is one hidden menu (USB settings) that is hard to find because it's in a different place on almost every brand of phone. So we have to Google around for details and experiment a bit to find the hidden menu for some brands. But the mod works. If you have a little patience and don't get frustrated at temporary obstacles, then you can add bands to your phone!
One surprising finding was that people with older phones were having better results. Why? It seems that Qualcomm quietly added some anti-tamper code into recent Android versions to keep us from doing this. It's almost like they read our forum and know what we're trying to mod. But they wouldn't spy on us like that, would they?
We don't know where the anti tamper code was added yet but we found that we can avoid it on newer phones by installing a custom kernel & ROM. So until we discover where they added the anti tamper stuff, you also need a custom kernel & ROM (probably the custom kernel is the essential part) to make this mod work. Unless you happen to have an older phone that is still running Jelly bean (4.2.2) firmware. So that's it in a nutshell.
[size=+1]Okay. So give me a quick overview again[/size]
Our phones have artificial restrictions in them so that they only work properly on the original carrier. If you travel (roam) or change phone companies, your phone won't work 100% because it will have gaps in coverage. It will be missing some of the frequency bands that the other carrier uses. This isn't a technological limitation. It's just your wireless carrier siphoning more money out of your pocket by forcing you to buy a new phone when you change carriers.
This mod has a lot of steps in it, so it won't be for everyone. But if you have some patience or enjoy a challenge then it's a great way to really improve how well your phone works when you roam onto another carrier. There are three parts to this mod. You need:
That's it. It takes about thirty steps to do those three things but nothing really good ever turns out to be easy, right?
.
[size=+1]Use your phone anywhere[/size]
[size=+1]Have you ever wondered why your phone doesn't work nearly as well when you travel?[/size]
Or tried to change carriers only to be told that you'd need to buy a different version of your high end phone for it to work properly?
It's happened to a lot of us and there is no good reason for it. Other than greedy carriers that is.
Most phones should work on a lot more bands. And have good reception when roaming. The S5 in particular is one of the first phones that is fully capable of working on every GSM and LTE frequency in the world. So.. why doesn't it actually do that? Well because your carrier doesn't want to make it easy for you to leave. And because Samsung and other manufacturers want to force you to buy a new phone everytime you change telephone companies. So they put restrictions in your phone to limit how many bands you can use. Wouldn't you rather have your phone work on all carriers?
This guide will show you how to do that.
Okay okay, I'm convinced already.
I don't want to read any more. I'm a power user (or reckless).. just show me how to do the hack!
[size=+1]The lawyers made us do it[/size]
We have to post an obligatory warning
We don't think that this mod will cause you any problems. But we can't guarantee that.
You assume all risks if you proceed, including the risk that your phone might object, meltdown, brick or void your warranty.
[size=+1]Quick Start Guide[/size]
[size=+1]So now what?[/size]
Well, if you decided to jump in and follow the Quick Start Guide.. that's it. The Quick Start Guide has everything that you need to add new bands to your phone. Unless you run into difficulties, you don't need anything else. The guide is a bit terse as I don't have a lot of spare time to rewrite or polish it. But all of the important information is there.
If something doesn't make sense or you get stuck somewhere, you can (and should) try a quick search for details. If that doesn't resolve your issue, then post in this thread for help. If you want to learn more about how this works, why more bands is a good thing. Or how to make custom edits that choose particular frequency bands, then keep reading this post and the rest of the thread.
This is a proven working method, despite a few trolls claiming otherwise. It's also new territory and there are model specific quirks.
If you run into problems, most likely you missed a step somewhere. Less likely, you may have discovered something new that needs to be unraveled.
The purpose of this thread is to discuss new findings and suggest ways to improve this method.
This is not a support thread, although if you make an effort to provide enough detail about your situation, someone will probably try to help you.
[size=+1]Is this mod hard to do?[/size]
No. There really isn't anything hard about it. But it's not a one click kind of mod either. These are recent discoveries and there are a lot of steps needed to make these changes. Samsung doesn't want to make it easy for you - they'd rather sell you another phone. In particular, there is one hidden menu (USB settings) that is hard to find because it's in a different place on almost every brand of phone. So we have to Google around for details and experiment a bit to find the hidden menu for some brands. But the mod works. If you have a little patience and don't get frustrated at temporary obstacles, then you can add bands to your phone!
One surprising finding was that people with older phones were having better results. Why? It seems that Qualcomm quietly added some anti-tamper code into recent Android versions to keep us from doing this. It's almost like they read our forum and know what we're trying to mod. But they wouldn't spy on us like that, would they?
We don't know where the anti tamper code was added yet but we found that we can avoid it on newer phones by installing a custom kernel & ROM. So until we discover where they added the anti tamper stuff, you also need a custom kernel & ROM (probably the custom kernel is the essential part) to make this mod work. Unless you happen to have an older phone that is still running Jelly bean (4.2.2) firmware. So that's it in a nutshell.
[size=+1]Okay. So give me a quick overview again[/size]
Our phones have artificial restrictions in them so that they only work properly on the original carrier. If you travel (roam) or change phone companies, your phone won't work 100% because it will have gaps in coverage. It will be missing some of the frequency bands that the other carrier uses. This isn't a technological limitation. It's just your wireless carrier siphoning more money out of your pocket by forcing you to buy a new phone when you change carriers.
This mod has a lot of steps in it, so it won't be for everyone. But if you have some patience or enjoy a challenge then it's a great way to really improve how well your phone works when you roam onto another carrier. There are three parts to this mod. You need:
1. A phone with a Qualcomm processor, that is rooted.
2. (For now) Install a custom ROM & kernel to get rid of the anti-tamper code
3. Edit six values in your phone's non volatile (NV) memory to enable a lot of additional frequency bands
2. (For now) Install a custom ROM & kernel to get rid of the anti-tamper code
3. Edit six values in your phone's non volatile (NV) memory to enable a lot of additional frequency bands
That's it. It takes about thirty steps to do those three things but nothing really good ever turns out to be easy, right?
.
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