[SPRINT] Enable Tri-Band LTE on your N5!

[Rodya234]

I'm sure all of us who own Nexus 5s on Sprint are aware that the phone is one of Sprint's first devices to support their "Spark" Tri-Band LTE. I'm sure you're all also aware that Sprint says they'll send an update to allow us to use Tri-Band LTE in "Early 2014". However, if you live in one of the first Spark launch cities, you can activate and use Tri-Band LTE early using the following simple trick:


1. You need to acquire your six-digit MSL code. You can either do this by talking to Sprint customer service and asking for it, or you can get it from a logcat if you follow a few steps that I'll get to later in order to keep this simple.

2. Dial *#*#3282#*#* into your dialer.

3. Select LTE and then Edit. Enter your MSL to access the menu.

4. On this screen, set both "Band26 Enable/Disable" and "Band41 Enable/Disable" to enable.

5. I was told set the Band priorities to the following:
Band 25 - 0
Band 26 - 0
Band 41- 1

This prioritizes Band 41.

6. Press the back button to reboot, and you're all done! So far (in Chicago) I've seen better LTE coverage indoors, and superior speed in general.



If you need to get your MSL from a logcat, please follow the following steps:

0. Download the Android SDK and correct drivers for the phone (if you don't have this already you're doing Nexus wrong.)

1. Connect your phone to your computer, with USB Debugging enabled.

2. Open a command terminal, change directory to wherever you have the Android SDK's platform-tools installed.

3. Enter "ADB devices" to ensure your device is properly connected. This should print your device's serial number.

4. Enter "ADB logcat" to print the device log.

At this point the terminal window will start vomiting up tons of information. Wait for the scrolling to stop and then continue.

5. Now, on your phone, enter the dialer and type *#*#3282#*#*.

6. Select "LTE/Edit" again.

7. At this point the terminal on your PC should spit out a few more lines. A few of them will look like this:
D/QC_RIL_OEM_HOOK(18638): sendOemRilRequestRaw returns value = 10
V/LG_SVC_ITEMS(18638): length =6 responseBytes=REMOVED itemValue=******
D/LG_SVC_ITEMS(18638): getCommands commandId 200 = ******-END
D/LG_SVC_CMD(18638): itemID = 200, Value = ******

Where the "*" values are the digits to your MSL.



There you have it! If you've followed all the steps here, you now know your MSL (which is important to know) and have activated Tri-Band LTE on your device far ahead of time.

 

[IIMaxII]

Great work. Should be useful to Sprint users.

 

[randalldeflagg]

You can skip the computer part if you install logcat and begin at step 5 after launching.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

 

[grizzlywan]

Wouldn't battery use increase from enabling this? Because it would be constantly scanning for the other 2 frequencies?

 

[mattrb]

This thread was already done by me a week ago. Use the search function to avoid repost clutter.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[P.Mobile]

sweet!! thanks been wanting to get my MSL since i got the phone.. just hate talking to sprint reps to get it.. worked great thanks!!:good:

 

[parmend]

i live in fort worth and set 41 to 1 and the others to zero and i have lte , so does mean i have tri band in my area? and will the other bands set to zero still be used when needed . thanks

 

[mevensen]

You can skip the computer part if you install logcat and begin at step 5 after launching.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

True enough, but you need to get the right logcat app, some don't work as well as others. I initially tried aLogCat, but didn't seem to work. CatLog app worked great, however.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using XDA Premium HD app

 

[lilotimz]

Just saying. No one has been able to get a B41 (TDD-LTE 2496-2690) connection with a Nexus 5 and that's with actual maps of Clearwire sites that's been upgraded and knowing where each site is located at. I've personally visited over 24 sites to no avail and know of others that visited many sites as well. Looks to be a much bigger issue than just changing up the LTE Engineering settings and may be network related.

 

[nsxla]

Just got the phone but I'm pretty disappointed with the LTE speeds 1/2mb down, outside it's a bit better. Went downstairs and it disconnects from LTE altogether. Anyone know if it's a radio (hardware) issue with the phone or firmware radio? Some spots of my house won't even catch LTE, whereas my s2 would get wimax.



I've tried spark but it makes my connection more unreliable more pocket loss, but indeed it does seem to make it faster, placebo? I'm in Los Angeles don't know if it's been rolled out. I tried updating prl/profile to no avail. My next choice would be to try the LG 2 in hope of it having a better radio.

GPS is spot on, and wow this thing is fast!

 

[jxr94]

Just a question, but wouldn't prioritizing band 26 make more sense since that is the 800MHz frequency band?

 

[uh60james]

Just a question, but wouldn't prioritizing band 26 make more sense since that is the 800MHz frequency band?

No, band 41 has the most capacity so you would want to connect to that if you are actually in range of it. It will automatically drop you down to the lower frequency bands as you move out of range of the higher frequency bands.

 

[jxr94]

No, band 41 has the most capacity so you would want to connect to that if you are actually in range of it. It will automatically drop you down to the lower frequency bands as you move out of range of the higher frequency bands.

Sweet, thanks for the explanation!

 

[ggoomani]

Hello, I tried this on my N% for Sprint today. btw. I live in N. OC, near Los Angeles. If I happen to be in and out of spotty LTE coverage areas. Will these adjustments cause more battery use or or worse performance?

When viewing HD youtube videos, it seems to play smoothly for a while, and then pauses as it the speed is going and up and down or being throttled.

 

[guoting2409]

About Band 41

So you means the Band 41 is unopen under default setting?
we need to open it by manual?
You know, the biggest mobile carrier China Mobile's 4G is TDD-LTE, and also use the band 41
But if I use the 4G sim card, it still work in 2G.

 

[nsxla]

Hello, I tried this on my N% for Sprint today. btw. I live in N. OC, near Los Angeles. If I happen to be in and out of spotty LTE coverage areas. Will these adjustments cause more battery use or or worse performance?

When viewing HD youtube videos, it seems to play smoothly for a while, and then pauses as it the speed is going and up and down or being throttled.

I am with uh60james spark seems to offer more throughput and less disconnects.

I drove to Corona from Carson the other day and i was shocked how much coverage sprint has improved on. I wasn't able to stay connected to LTE on my the entirety of my drive but it is impressive how Sprint has extended lte coverage around corona at least on the freeway.

Spark works better for me, less drop offs.

 

[jtangm04]

I am in Naperville. Will check this out and see if tri band goes this far out west from chicago.

 

[tyler.durden]

i live in fort worth and set 41 to 1 and the others to zero and i have lte , so does mean i have tri band in my area? and will the other bands set to zero still be used when needed . thanks

I haven't heard anything about DFW having Spark anytime soon, so more than likely not. I live in Arlington myself, and would love to see this area Spark-enabled sooner than later.

 

[sbslammer]

Enabled this on my n5 a couple weeks ago .... dismal speeds on lte in downtown Los Angeles as usual around 4 down and 2 up.... Yesterday for the first time spark kicked in and I got 44down and 14 up. BUUUUT today its back and slower than ever. around 2 down/1up on LTE

 

[dr2001]

So you means the Band 41 is unopen under default setting?
we need to open it by manual?
You know, the biggest mobile carrier China Mobile's 4G is TDD-LTE, and also use the band 41
But if I use the 4G sim card, it still work in 2G.

Seems that due to Nexus 5 lacks TD-SCDMA for China Mobile 3G, it is very hard for Nexus 5 auto connect to LTE.
You need *#*#4636#*#*, change mode to "LTE Only" and wait connect to band 41/38 cell and then change it back to "LTE/GSM Auto (PRL)".
After it, you will on LTE until one of following happens: no LTE cell signal; incoming call; make a outgoing call. If fallback to GSM, you will need another round of "LTE Only" settings. Please check some chinese forums, there are plenty of guides.

It seems N5's baseband firmware did not implement some directly GSM to LTE function and do not support China Mobile 3G, so ...