UPDATE 9/9/2011 International Use of the Photon

[Cagtex]

Great job on this thread... helps alot of us who travel abroad.

Im also interested in what Cagtex posted on the info for Barcelona. My girl travels there in 2 weeks. TIA

Be there next week will update as soon as I get a local SIM card.

 

[S2W]

Be there next week will update as soon as I get a local SIM card.

thanks... will be checking back to see the update. I appreciate the effort.

 

[jorjitoc]

I just got back from a ten day trip to Greece. I used a Wind sim card and it worked well all over Athens and in Mykonos. I used these APN settings:

Operator: - Wind
GPRS APN: - gint.b-online.gr
Username: - {blank}
Password: - {blank}
MCC=202
MNC=10
APN type=default

which I got from this site: http://androidgreece.gr/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=130&start=10

I couldn't connect until I manually added the above APN but then once I connected a second Wind APN showed up that I assume downloaded from the carrier automatically. I purchased a 7 day unlimited Internet package for 14 Euros and then a 2 day package for 7 Euros. I stopped at Charles de Gaulle in Paris and it worked there as well for a short time. I received an automatic message that I think said something about signing up for a cheaper roaming package with a French carrier but it was in Greek and I couldn't fully understand it.

The one thing I noticed was that battery life on GSM was about half of what I get here in the US on CDMA. My phone would be at 30% or less battery by 5 in the afternoon and that was with very light use as I was on vacation and with the foreign sim almost no one knew my foreign phone number and thus I received almost no calls or texts.

One other note - I have ported my Sprint number to Google Voice so while I was overseas I could send and receive texts to U.S. numbers using Google voice. Couldn't do MMS but it was nice being able to text friends, etc. wherever I was.

 

[devilsshadow]

Currently using my photon in greece on vodafone. Didn't test data but calls are working flawlessly. Data's probably working on 3G but I don't dare test it since data costs are ridiculous over here.

 

[HoboTheClown]

Am curious, would anyone know how international calling works while under Sprint? It says I have to call Sprint to activate international roaming to use the phone. But what's the point of getting a foreign sim card to use locally at the foreign country? I thought that's what getting the foreign sim card was for. So you wouldn't have to use Sprints network. Anyone can confirm, I just need to get a sim card from the foreign country to use that local network?

TIA.

 

[devilsshadow]

Am curious, would anyone know how international calling works while under Sprint? It says I have to call Sprint to activate international roaming to use the phone. But what's the point of getting a foreign sim card to use locally at the foreign country? I thought that's what getting the foreign sim card was for. So you wouldn't have to use Sprints network. Anyone can confirm, I just need to get a sim card from the foreign country to use that local network?

TIA.

Yes I can certainly confirm that. I just popped my greek vodafone card in, some sprint crap popped up but I firmly **** it off and continued on my merry way. Just make sure to select the proper network settings (gsm mostly) for europe. Phone tents to want to use 4G and all that bull so you just disable any 4g settings, set the phone on GSM only and you're good to go.

 

[HoboTheClown]

Thanks Devilsshadow. I was using the Sprint Chat and the CS insisted that I had to use sign up to their International Roaming. She kept on saying in order to use the phone, I had to sign up as the phone was based in the US. I'm going to be in Southeast Asia for over a month and plan on using their network as a backup for internet usage.

I'll definitely provide an update since the only other person that said they were going to use it in Malaysia and Singapore hasn't posted an update yet.

 

[xenkato]

City, Country, Continent:Europe, Greece,Tripolis
Carrier: Wind GR
Carrier Plan: 12 months contract
Voice working: Yes
SMS/MMS: Yes/Yes
Data APN Settings: NO(dont care-dont use-ridicoulous prices here in Greece)

Using my Photon us my prime phone for my personal calls, etc.Bought it from eBay.
No problems here, good signal & voice quality.
Manually can add Data settings to work

 

[beartrap]

I'll definitely provide an update since the only other person that said they were going to use it in Malaysia and Singapore hasn't posted an update yet.

I just got back yesterday from Malaysia, Singapore and Japan. After not getting a signal in Singapore, I got on Sprint international chat and she activated my SIM card. I was assured it was activated when i got the phone, but evidently not. Once that was done, I got very good service and GSM signal strength. I only turned on 3g data for a short time in Japan, so i can't comment about that because I had wifi at my hotels for data.

 

[Cks69]

City, Country, Continent: Baja California, Mexico
Carrier: Iusacell (Using CDMA)
Carrier Plan: Contract
Voice working: Yes
Data working: Yes (3G) will play with 4G but dont know how
Sim Card Type: Telcel, Movistar & Iusacell
Sim Card Memory Size: ???

With phone being active on CDMA, a sim will work too on the phone.......Will play some more and try to add some additional info....

P.S. Iusacell has both CDMA and GSM.

 

[nizaamh]

Hey guys. I am in South Africa and I am able to get a Photon from the US.I am using Vodacom which is basically Vodafone.I dont want to buy something that will only half work - sometimes.Please advise.
Thanks
Nizaam

 

[thestallion]

I know how to fix it in some places

I purchased a Sprint/US Photon, intending to use it here in JAPAN for an extended period of time. I was surprised by how hard it was to get MMS working using a Softbank Prepaid SIM card. Turns out, as far as I can tell, APN settings alone are of no use. There's another problem, and surely this must be affecting users outside of Japan as well (perhaps all the people stuck in AUS/Vodaphone with this same problem?).

There a file on your phone here: / system / etc / ppp / peers / pppd-Ril.options
It contains two lines for the Username and password, which you must change to correspond to the same username and password in your APN settings. Otherwise, it never seems to use the right one, and therefore your MMS or data will not work. You'll need to root your phone and figure out how to edit or copy an edited file onto your phone. So, change those two lines to look like this:
user yourusername
password yourpassword

for me, that's:
user softbank
password qceffknarlurqgbl

BTW here are APN settings for Japan softbank prepaid (some are probably unnecessary):
APN: mailwebservice.softbank.ne.jp
Proxy: sbwapproxy.softbank.ne.jp
Port: 8080
Username:softbank
Password:qceffknarlurqgbl
Server: <censored by XDA forums for containing a URL>
MMSC: <censored by XDA forums for containing a URL>
MMS Proxy: sbmmsproxy.softbank.ne.jp
MMS Port:8080
MCC:440
MNC:20
Authentication: PAP
APN type: mms

You can thank the Japanese bloggers for helping me find a little info about that pppd-Ril.options file

 

[nik29]

in italy works perfectly!
Carrier 3
Data ok voice ok
Name: 3 APN : tre.it Proxy: not set Port: not set Username: not set Password: not set Server: not set MMSC: http://10.216.59.240:10021/mmsc MMS Proxy: wsb.treumts.it MMS Port: 8799 MCC: 222 MNC: 99 APN Type: not set

 

[leomaxi]

I live in Italy and I have a photon with operator Hutchison 3, and I disabled apk sprint account, my apn is valid and also work for mms

 

[thestallion]

some other Photon quirks

This may be useful info for Photon users in other regions, but here are some more issues I've had using Softbank prepaid service in Japan.

1. For some reason, whenever I first turn on the phone, the messaging only receives a header for each message, but refuses to download the actual message body. Even if I click 'download' on the message in the message app, it will not work, and will give me an error. The solution for this is to go into Settings->Battery/data manager->Data delivery and turn "Data Enabled" off, and then back on again. It must be left on for mms to work, but for some reason after booting the phone it must be toggled off then back on for my mms service to begin functioning properly.

2. I also found that it would work with the APN type set to blank instead of 'mms' in my APN settings. HOWEVER, with it set to blank, it was CONSTANTLY, I mean non-stop, using my 3G connection (as indicated in the status bar). It was trying to connect to the internet I presume. My Softbank prepaid service includes messaging but not internet service, nor do I have the APN for internet in my settings. But, without specifying my mms APN as 'mms' type, it trys to use that APN for internet as well. Anyway, that drained my battery very quickly! Set it to 'mms' so your 3G radio isn't working overtime to no benefit.

P.S. for other Softbank users, if you don't already know, unless your phone is from Softbank, you'll also need the Softbank mail app or some other mail app that allows a proper user agent to be set for softbank. Even with proper APN settings, you can't do MMS without that being correct.

 

[Koala Kid]

Works great here in Israel, i'm pretty happy with the phone.


City, Country, Continent: Israel
Carrier: Rami Levy (a mobile virtual network operator based on Pelephone network)
Carrier Plan: no plan
Voice working: Yes
SMS/MMS: Yes/Yes
Data APN Settings:
Name: Rami Levy 3G
APN: internet.rl
Username: [email protected]
Password: rl
APN type: default

 

[ascanio1]

@ thestallion

There a file on your phone here: / system / etc / ppp / peers / pppd-Ril.options
...
user yourusername
password yourpassword

Thanks... appreciate the help!

I have a DesireHD, GB2.3.5 CoreDroid9.2 (w/ root access), and SB contract.
I followed EXACTLY the instructions in:
ht tp : / / w ww .howardforu ms.com/showthread.php/1724703-Using-another-SMS-MMS-app-on-Sharp-Android-phones-with-Softbank-%28Go-SMS-Pro%29?p=14700055
and copy/paste:
Vodafone/1.0/V802SE/SEJ002 Browser/VF-NetFront/3.3 Profile/MIDP2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1
In the UA menu (GoSMS).
Still NO MMS!
So I looked up your post and applied your fix too.
I only had / system / etc / ppp / ip-up-vpn
So I created and copied
peers / pppd-Ril.options.txt
(inside I had 2 liknes:
user softbank
password qceffknarlurqgbl)
I then renamed "pppd-Ril.options.txt" into "pppd-Ril.options"
Still no MMS!!!
Going mad!
I think that I need a specific UA for my DesireHD...
Can you help me? Pls help!
Thanks,
Tommaso

---------- Post added at 04:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:57 PM ----------

@thestallion

P.S. for other Softbank users, if you don't already know, unless your phone is from Softbank, you'll also need the Softbank mail app or some other mail app that allows a proper user agent to be set for softbank. Even with proper APN settings, you can't do MMS without that being correct.

I forgot to say that WITH the Softbank Mail app I CAN send and receive MMS. I want to do it with GoSMS and then delete the Softbank Mail App!!!

Pls help!

Tommaso

 

[HoboTheClown]

I just got back yesterday from Malaysia, Singapore and Japan. After not getting a signal in Singapore, I got on Sprint international chat and she activated my SIM card. I was assured it was activated when i got the phone, but evidently not. Once that was done, I got very good service and GSM signal strength. I only turned on 3g data for a short time in Japan, so i can't comment about that because I had wifi at my hotels for data.

Hmm, I thought I had updated when I got back from Indonesia. In any case, I was in Indonesia for 2 months from Oct to Dec. I never really took the time to test/setup the phone. What I was only able to do was test if voice worked. I took my wife's sim card from her blackberry and inserted it into the photon. After a couple tests, the voice worked. I was able to call out and receive calls. Again, the only thing I did was just insert the sim into the Photon and was able to get it to work. Wife didn't have data plan so missed out on testing that. If I'm out there again. I'll post an update with more details.

My apologies for not getting all the details.
It's a prepaid sim
Carrier: Xd ( or something similar Xt?)
Data: ?
APN: ?

 

[BrianInfo]

Thank you for the info.

I will use open.softbank.ne.jp APN settings since mine is silver SIM card. Report back if I can get MMS working properly.

I purchased a Sprint/US Photon, intending to use it here in JAPAN for an extended period of time. I was surprised by how hard it was to get MMS working using a Softbank Prepaid SIM card. Turns out, as far as I can tell, APN settings alone are of no use. There's another problem, and surely this must be affecting users outside of Japan as well (perhaps all the people stuck in AUS/Vodaphone with this same problem?).

There a file on your phone here: / system / etc / ppp / peers / pppd-Ril.options
It contains two lines for the Username and password, which you must change to correspond to the same username and password in your APN settings. Otherwise, it never seems to use the right one, and therefore your MMS or data will not work. You'll need to root your phone and figure out how to edit or copy an edited file onto your phone. So, change those two lines to look like this:
user yourusername
password yourpassword

for me, that's:
user softbank
password qceffknarlurqgbl

BTW here are APN settings for Japan softbank prepaid (some are probably unnecessary):
APN: mailwebservice.softbank.ne.jp
Proxy: sbwapproxy.softbank.ne.jp
Port: 8080
Username:softbank
Password:qceffknarlurqgbl
Server: <censored by XDA forums for containing a URL>
MMSC: <censored by XDA forums for containing a URL>
MMS Proxy: sbmmsproxy.softbank.ne.jp
MMS Port:8080
MCC:440
MNC:20
Authentication: PAP
APN type: mms

You can thank the Japanese bloggers for helping me find a little info about that pppd-Ril.options file

 

[3050]

I have sprint unlimited international data on my plan and currently use a touch pro 2 while traveling. Data works great everywhere I go.
If I buy a Photon will it automatically, while using the sprint sim connect to foreign GSM networks like the TP2 does?
I have the .cab file with the international settings for the TP2; would that be of any use?

Thanks