Question Origin OS and enabling 5G outside of China

[Xharyel]

Hello guys,

So I've imported a Vivo X Fold from HK and I was wondering how do I enable the 5G bands? I've seen this thread for Samsung, is there perhaps a similar method or something else to do for Vivo?
(Of course, I checked, my carrier is using bands supported by the Vivo X Fold)

Thanks!

 

[frcraig]

I've just imported the Vivo X Note from HK and it has the identical Origin OS Ocean firmware and the same radio hardware and frequency bands as the Vivo X Fold. I just plugged in the Sim Card I had been using in my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, and voila, I had 5G service. I had the same question as you, because sitting in my study at home my phone displayed 4G+ at the top, but the other day I put it in the car cradle and as I drove down the street it switched to 5G. I then realized that my house is not within transmitting distance of the local 5G tower, but many other areas of the city I live in are. As a brand new technology 5G coverage is not as broad as 4G.

 

[rquick]

Hello guys,

So I've imported a Vivo X Fold from HK and I was wondering how do I enable the 5G bands? I've seen this thread for Samsung, is there perhaps a similar method or something else to do for Vivo?
(Of course, I checked, my carrier is using bands supported by the Vivo X Fold)

Thanks!

Not sure if this helps you but I ordered mine from China. I live in the Netherlands and 5G worked "out of the box".

 

[frcraig]

There is actually a setting on the phone that is off by default. Settings/Mobile Networks/Sim has a toggle for 5G. I toggled it on and had a 5G connection (Canada) right away. The options that appear in that Sim submenu, however, are activated by inserting your carrier's Sim card. If your carrier supports the Vivo X Note or Vivo X Fold for 5G, VoLTE, and WiFi Calling, you will see three toggles there - one for each. In my case I only have the toggle for 5G, no VoLTE or WiFi Calling settings because my carrier will only provision those services for phones that it sells. If you go to that submenu and don't see the toggle to turn 5G on, then you may need to get a new Sim card from your carrier. Some carriers require the use of a new 5G Sim card, others allow 5G with an ordinary LTE Sim card.

 

[minhajmsd1]

I am using the X Fold on T-Mobile USA, while the 5G icon is showing when I go into System management≥ Status Info≥ SIM 1 Status it's only displaying my phone as connected to LTE and shows as having no signal for NR. From running speed test I can confirm I'm getting the same speeds as my Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra which only runs on LTE. I have T-Mobiles 5G home internet where I get 400+ download speeds so 5g coverage isn't an issue in my area.

 

[frcraig]

T-Mobile's "5G Home Internet" uses a Wi-Fi Gateway (combination modem and router) that connects to T-Mobile nationwide XR (extended range) 5G towers which broadcast on 5G frequency n71. The Vivo X Fold can't connect to these towers. It can connect on 5G frequencies n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n28, n38, n40, n41, n66, n77, n78, and n79, but not n71. T-Mobile has put up a few Ultra Capacity (UC) 5G towers in big cities and if you are range of one of these your Vivo X Fold will connect on 5G n41 and display "5G UC" when it connects. These new towers also broadcast on 5G n258, n260, and n261, but the Vivo X Fold won't connect on those frequencies. So long story short - your T-Mobile Wi-Fi Gateway will connect to 5G n71, but your Vivo X Fold won't, and unless you are within range of one of the new 5G UC towers your calls will connect on 4G.

 

[minhajmsd1]

I am aware, I am in NYC my TMo gateway is connected to N41. The tower is across the street from me. Here what I see on my phone.

 

[frcraig]

Odd that your phone is displaying the 5G symbol (as well as VoLTE 'HD') when your Sim Status signal strength shows 0 for NR (5G), but is showing a strong 4G signal. I wonder what triggers the 5G symbol when you clearly aren't receiving a 5G signal. Have you used a signal diagnosis app like OpenSignal to see what is broadcasting in your neighborhood?

 

[minhajmsd1]

Odd that your phone is displaying the 5G symbol (as well as VoLTE 'HD') when your Sim Status signal strength shows 0 for NR (5G), but is showing a strong 4G signal. I wonder what triggers the 5G symbol when you clearly aren't receiving a 5G signal. Have you used a signal diagnosis app like OpenSignal to see what is broadcasting in your neighborhood?

Everything except mmWave. If you have the phone and T-Mobile service are you running into the same issues?

I'm leaning towards following this tutorial as this is a Chinese phone and 5G might not be configured to work in the US.

Modify OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, 8 and 8 Pro, 9 and 9 Pro NR/LTE-A band combos - MT-TECH.FI

On this instruction we will modify OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, 8 and 8 Pro band combo profiles with Qualcomm software. OnePlus has limited 5G access and 4G+/LTE+ Carrier Aggregation combinations and this instruction help you to unlock. However this instruction doesn’t unlock hardware defined combinations...

mt-tech.fi

 

[frcraig]

I think you have hit the nail on the head. Countries and telecom carriers had the choice of deploying 5G NSA (not stand alone) or 5G SA (stand alone) technology. 5G NSA provides a 5G signal that piggyback's on a 4G signal and actually relies on an already established 4G infrastructure (towers, servers, switches, etc.). For a 5G phone to work on a 5G NSA network, the phone must have both the radio bands for the 5G frequency, and for the underlying 4G frequency that is necessary for the 5G NSA to work. Most American carriers opted for mmwav 5G NSA technology. On T-Mobile, therefore, your Vivo X Note or Vivo X Fold are 5G SA and 5G NSA compatible, but because T-Mobile uses 5G NSA the phone must not only be capable of connecting on T-Mobile's 5G frequency, but also on the 4G frequency that its 5G frequency piggybacks off. That 4G frequency for T-Mobile is LTE 71, which the Vivo X series doesn't have. I'm in Nova Scotia where my carrier (Rogers) built a 5G SA (stand alone) network, so as long as I can connect on one of its three 5G frequencies (I can connect on two) then I don't have to worry about the phone also connecting on an underlying 4G frequency. But unlike T-Mobile, my carrier won't provision VoLTE for my Vivo X Note, so all my voice calls drop to 3G. If T-Mobile followed my carriers policy you wouldn't be able to place any phone calls because you have shut down your 3G towers. So I have 5G for data (downloads, streaming, etc.) but 3G for voice calls, and you have 4G for data and voice, but no 5G.

 

[minhajmsd1]

I think you have hit the nail on the head. Countries and telecom carriers had the choice of deploying 5G NSA (not stand alone) or 5G SA (stand alone) technology. 5G NSA provides a 5G signal that piggyback's on a 4G signal and actually relies on an already established 4G infrastructure (towers, servers, switches, etc.). For a 5G phone to work on a 5G NSA network, the phone must have both the radio bands for the 5G frequency, and for the underlying 4G frequency that is necessary for the 5G NSA to work. Most American carriers opted for mmwav 5G NSA technology. On T-Mobile, therefore, your Vivo X Note or Vivo X Fold are 5G SA and 5G NSA compatible, but because T-Mobile uses 5G NSA the phone must not only be capable of connecting on T-Mobile's 5G frequency, but also on the 4G frequency that its 5G frequency piggybacks off. That 4G frequency for T-Mobile is LTE 71, which the Vivo X series doesn't have. I'm in Nova Scotia where my carrier (Rogers) built a 5G SA (stand alone) network, so as long as I can connect on one of its three 5G frequencies (I can connect on two) then I don't have to worry about the phone also connecting on an underlying 4G frequency. But unlike T-Mobile, my carrier won't provision VoLTE for my Vivo X Note, so all my voice calls drop to 3G. If T-Mobile followed my carriers policy you wouldn't be able to place any phone calls because you have shut down your 3G towers. So I have 5G for data (downloads, streaming, etc.) but 3G for voice calls, and you have 4G for data and voice, but no 5G.

Are you able to manually turn VoLTE on with the code *#*#86583#*#*? There is also an option to turn on VoNR in developer settings.

 

[frcraig]

Are you able to manually turn VoLTE on with the code *#*#86583#*#*? There is also an option to turn on VoNR in developer settings.

Thank you for sharing this. I used the dialer code and it gave me the option to enable VoNR (although it didn't give an option for VoLTE). I enabled VoNR but while my phone shows I'm receiving 5G, when I place a voice call it still drops to 3G or H. I phoned my carrier, and they told me they have added the IMEI of my Vivo X Note to the line and have provisioned VoLTE, but I don't believe them. When I called them the other day they told me if I wanted VoLTE I would have to purchase the device from them. After enabling VoNR with the dialer code I can go into developer settings and there I see that it is toggled on, but the Settings/Mobile Networks/Sim 1 submenu still just shows the toggles for "enable 5G" and "enable data roaming", both of which are turned on. I just don't have the "enable VoLTE" option there. If I was rooted I would force the option to appear by editing my build prop, but I don't think anyone has figured out how to root the X Note or X Fold yet. Someone is working on root for the X70pro and they have successfully flashed FunTouch on the CN Origin OS Ocean model, but trying their experimental method on my new Vivo X Note is a bit to adventuresome for me.

 

[minhajmsd1]

I'm sure you've probably tried this already, is VoLTE greyed out in the *#*#4636#*#* service menu?

 

[frcraig]

I'm sure you've probably tried this already, is VoLTE greyed out in the *#*#4636#*#* service menu?

Yes, it is greyed out in the service menu where it also says IMS Status "unregistered".

 

[frcraig]

I just

Yes, it is greyed out in the service menu where it also says IMS Status "unregistered".

I just had an interesting argument with a service tech for my carrier just now. Each time I call I get a different tech and a different answer, but his guy gave me the stock "if you didn't buy the phone from us those features won't work" line. I told him I know people who have non carrier purchased phones and VoLTE and WiFi Calling works on their phones. He said: "that's because they are using a model we sell ourselves". Knowing that none of the Canadian carriers sell Huawei devices I aske him if that would apply to a non-carrier Huawei purchased in Hong Kong. He said "of course that wouldn't work". I then asked him to look up the account for my wife's line, which he did. I asked him what information his screen was telling him about her line. He said "I see her IMEI was registered on May 17th". I told him that was correct because on that date I swapped SIM cards between our phones and when I put her SIM back into her phone it would have registered again on their network. He went on to say: "it says in bold letters here 'non-carrier device' and VoLTE enabled NO, WiFi enabled NO.". Her phone is a Huawei Mate 20 X which I bought at Trinity Mobile in Hong Kong three years ago. VoLTE and WiFi Calling both work great on her phone. I can toggle off VoLTE on her phone and her 4G signal drops to 3G when placing a voice call, or I can toggle VoLTE on and place a voice call and it stays on 4G and displays the HD Call symbol as well. Weird science!

 

[atilcan]

I tried to check if volte is greyed out but *#*#4646#*#* doesnt work with the phone. how can i go to that menu?

 

[jtizzle34]

I have tmobile and live in illinois and my 5g and volte is working. Can confirm if you need pictures.

 

[domineus]

I have tmobile and live in illinois and my 5g and volte is working. Can confirm if you need pictures.

Same but i had to force root to get VoLTE working

 

[OrionBG]

Maybe it is Operator dependent as here in the UK (on Three.UK) I have 5G everywhere where other phones have it and also I have HD Calls icon and VoLTE enabled (have not done anything specific for those to work). Pretty soon Three.UK will be shutting down their entire 3G network so there will be only 4G and 5G...

 

[timalpipo]

Hi Guys, Just sharing my experience with you . I'm in Australia with Vodaphone. % g works as well as volte, haven't done anything special. I've travelled to the US this week, and 4g is ok, as well as Volte.