Bionic on tmobile

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jr8801

Senior Member
Apr 21, 2010
86
3
savannah
I was wondering if it is possible to unlock the bionic to work on tmobile network. My girlfriend got this phone but already has an iphone and said i could use it. For my galaxy its simple to allow other sim cards but i cannot seem to find anything that would allow the bionic to accept my tmobile card.

Thanks in advanced
 

lrs421

Senior Member
Sep 29, 2010
3,796
454
New York
I was wondering if it is possible to unlock the bionic to work on tmobile network. My girlfriend got this phone but already has an iphone and said i could use it. For my galaxy its simple to allow other sim cards but i cannot seem to find anything that would allow the bionic to accept my tmobile card.

Thanks in advanced

Nope. GSM vs CDMA.
 

wiltgen

Senior Member
Jun 24, 2009
124
13
Jundiaí
I got it partially working on GSM network...

Definitely not. The SIM card on the Bionic is only for the 4G. It's still a CDMA phone. T-Mobile is a GSM network.

I know this is a pretty old thread but I'm trying this phone right now in Brazil (TIM) GSM/UMTS network.

So far I was able to: install both Gingerbread and ICS stock ROMs as well as Gummy but working real deep into the configs I found that on GB Stock I could enable GSM radio and worked perfectly voice and data (2&3G) however when I switched to ICS (Gummy or Stock) when I follow the same steps to enable GSM radio when the phone actually locks signal in the com.android.telephony (or something like that) force closes and the only way to unloop is wiping data and all.

Does anyone have further information about this?

Thanks in advance
 
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wiltgen

Senior Member
Jun 24, 2009
124
13
Jundiaí
You got Droid Bionic Working on GSM ?? How ? Can you post the steps please.

Yes but I want this working completely first. I'll review my procedure to get this working on GB and post here. Then if more people start using it on gsm maybe we can have a fix for ICS ROMs.

On Monday I give you an answer...
 

projektorboy

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2010
417
95
Phoenix, AZ
I know this is a pretty old thread but I'm trying this phone right now in Brazil (TIM) GSM/UMTS network.

So far I was able to: install both Gingerbread and ICS stock ROMs as well as Gummy but working real deep into the configs I found that on GB Stock I could enable GSM radio and worked perfectly voice and data (2&3G) however when I switched to ICS (Gummy or Stock) when I follow the same steps to enable GSM radio when the phone actually locks signal in the com.android.telephony (or something like that) force closes and the only way to unloop is wiping data and all.

Does anyone have further information about this?

Thanks in advance


It locks up because there's ZERO support for GSM bands in the Bionic hardware. There's an LTE700 radio, and a CDMA 800/1900

http://developer.motorola.com/products/droid-bionic-xt875

There's Moto's official developer spec sheet for the Bionic. No GSM bands to be found whatsoever. It cannot and will not ever work.
 

cellzealot

Senior Member
Jan 4, 2008
1,314
815
Philadelphia, PA
This is not true. The Bionic has a fully GSM capable MDM6600 chipset, but the GSM bands are disabled in the radio firmware. There is no hardware incompatibility for having a completely global CDMA/LTE/GSM device, it's just VZW not having the network and billing infrastructure in place to make desirable(profitable) to do so. Motorola has already made the device capable of supporting all the bands, including the diversity antenna required.

The D4 has been reported to be slated for an update that will enable the global GSM radio bands and be the first such device available on VZW. No time frame has been released or even official confirmation of their intentions.
 

wiltgen

Senior Member
Jun 24, 2009
124
13
Jundiaí
Fair enough. I'll just wait for the Bionic dev community to cook up GSM-capable Bionic radio firmware from scratch and then figure out how to bypass the locked bootloader to flash that into the phone.

I got this phone working on a 100% GSM network on Gingerbread... Now on ICS when the signal locks in the telephony process hangs and force closes... but I'm working on that
 

fragulina

Member
Apr 23, 2012
9
31
I got this done - no gsm data yet

Looking for someone to help make DATA working... I have all files but nowhere to upload to...

PROCEDURE
1. Update Bootloader to (0A.72)

2. Install stock ROM with RSD Lite
----> GB: VRZ_XT875_5.9.904.XT875.Verizon.en.US_CFC_01

Make sure Debug Mode is ON and it's connected as CHARGER ONLY (not Mass Storage)

3. Root the phone with motofail (motofail_windows.zip)

4. Install Bootstrap (BionicBootstrap.apk)

5. Reboot into recovery and install ICS Gummy (Gummy_targa-Release-1.0.2.zip + speargapps-ics-20120317-signed.zip)

6. To enable GSM/UMTS follow these steps:
1. Ensure USB is connected as PC Tools mode (not Mass Storage)
2. In Radiocomm go to MA->CDMA1X->QSC60x5
3. After it comes up, switch to FTM Common1 tab and wait for the phone to enumerate purple.
4. On the upper right side in the NVAccess, scroll to NV item 1877 NV_RF_BC_CONFIG_I
5. Read the value from the device
6. Replace the first 8 bytes (16 digits) with: 8703E80400000200
7. Write the data to the device and powercycle.
This will enable GSM/UMTS bands.

To disable GSM/UMTS, perform the same 7 steps, but replace the 8-byte data with: 0700000000000000​

AFTER SOME WHILE GSM SIGNAL IS STRONG FOR VOICE BUT NO DATA
 

brandogg

Senior Member
Jul 27, 2008
673
86
For data you'll have to edit the APN settings (assuming this is possible) to match the carrier that you're using.
 
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cellzealot

Senior Member
Jan 4, 2008
1,314
815
Philadelphia, PA
This works...voice and data with no other modifications required on T-Mobile.
Its EDGE only data because the MDM6600 radio chipset does not support AWS bands for Tmo's HSPA.

Pretty amazing!! ;)
 
This works...voice and data with no other modifications required on T-Mobile.
Its EDGE only data because the MDM6600 radio chipset does not support AWS bands for Tmo's HSPA.

Pretty amazing!! ;)

WOW I'm impressed.

According to this https://developer.qualcomm.com/develop/mobile-technologies/3g4g-connectivity-gobi
MDM6600 supports HSPA+ data rates of up to 14.4 Mbps and CDMA2000® 1xEV-DO Rev. A/Rev. B

So I wonder what happens if you try AT&T instead of T-Mobile.

Also another question - you put in the t-mobile SIM vs an AT&T SIM - is there some type of unlocking you have to do in order to use these other SIM's or is all that's required the above instructions?
 

cellzealot

Senior Member
Jan 4, 2008
1,314
815
Philadelphia, PA
No SIM unlock required. When it boots there is a warning that the SIM is from an unknown source, that's all. The APN for data services auto provisioned from the SIM.
Google services sign in will fail and need reauthenticating.

Here is the kicker...no re editing of the NVM is required for full VZW service with LTE SIM replaced.
This edit supports either authentication ,mode.

It just works! :D

It should work exactly the same for an ATT SIM.

IMG_20120423_204451.jpg
 
Last edited:
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fragulina

Member
Apr 23, 2012
9
31
GB vs. ICS

Yes you left your phone on GB and then you do have both voice and data. I'm glad it worked for you!

Now if you try to go further moving to ICS you'll find data issue. In fact I just realized something inaccurate in my procedure: you have to update the bootloader AFTER installing the GB:

PROCEDURE
1. Install stock ROM with RSD Lite
----> GB: VRZ_XT875_5.9.904.XT875.Verizon.en.US_CFC_01

2. Update Bootloader to (0A.72)


Because the stock ROM actually installs the bootloader 0A.61.

I'll try a different custom ROM to see what happens on ICS.
 

jimmydafish

Senior Member
Nov 10, 2007
285
307
Yes you left your phone on GB and then you do have both voice and data. I'm glad it worked for you!

Now if you try to go further moving to ICS you'll find data issue. In fact I just realized something inaccurate in my procedure: you have to update the bootloader AFTER installing the GB:

PROCEDURE
1. Install stock ROM with RSD Lite
----> GB: VRZ_XT875_5.9.904.XT875.Verizon.en.US_CFC_01

2. Update Bootloader to (0A.72)


Because the stock ROM actually installs the bootloader 0A.61.

I'll try a different custom ROM to see what happens on ICS.

The xml file you reference above is not available to the public. Do you know of a link to it so we can try exactly what you are attempting?
 

KidJoe

Inactive Recognized Contributor
Aug 23, 2008
3,211
1,561
Thorndale/Romansville, PA
No SIM unlock required. When it boots there is a warning that the SIM is from an unknown source, that's all. The APN for data services auto provisioned from the SIM.
Google services sign in will fail and need reauthenticating.

Here is the kicker...no re editing of the NVM is required for full VZW service with LTE SIM replaced.
This edit supports either authentication ,mode.

It just works! :D

It should work exactly the same for an ATT SIM.
I can confirm Cellzealot's findings, after some gtalk last night... it does work... My bionic is now working with my T-Mobile SIM. Its just a "seem edit" (or NV edit as its called now)

Not sure if there will be a how to.
 

cellzealot

Senior Member
Jan 4, 2008
1,314
815
Philadelphia, PA
There will be a HowTo and more once I establish this works on other devices as well. The edits appear to be the same for the D4 and Razr. The implications of this are rather enormous, given VZW's reluctance to implement this yet due to not having the network infrastructure in place to support roaming agreements and billing interoperability for global use.

This is going to get very interesting!

There are many different ways this hack can be applied and we will explore all of them. It can easily be made into an update.zip for use with CWM recovery that will avoid the need for using RadioComm or other service software for the NV edits.
 

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