5G not working in NZ

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#3235281 27-May-2024 15:01

ScuL:
But if a phone supports the local frequency band it should be possible to pop in a SIM card and operate on the network.

Nope its more than that, frequency alone is not enough, there are things called profiles.

What these do is tell the phone where the IP gateway, call server, and other relevant information is to connect to the network.

This is stored in the phones software, without this it will not work.

Different manufacturers put different carriers' profiles into their handsets, I suspect, that Sony see the NZ market as too small to bother.

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#3235285 27-May-2024 15:15

@ScuL Just cause the Ad mentions the handset supports 5G which it does! This does not mean the carrier is going to support the handset!

If you want features like 5G, VoLTE, Wi-Fi calling to work then don't buy a parallel imported handset

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#3235292 27-May-2024 15:28

The retailer is not even a New Zealand company. Having a .co.nz does not indicate that it is a locally registered business.

The 5G claims may apply to Australia only, seeing they are an Australian business based in Australia.

It could be something as simple as your SIM not having 5G enabled. As suggested, try it on a known working 5G phone. If it fails then you have to get 5G enabled on your SIM before burning your bridges.

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#3235301 27-May-2024 15:55

Linux:
@ScuL Just cause the Ad mentions the handset supports 5G which it does! This does not mean the carrier is going to support the handset!

If you want features like 5G, VoLTE, Wi-Fi calling to work then don't buy a parallel imported handset

Specifically Android

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#3235355 27-May-2024 19:12

https://www.gsmarena.com/sony_xperia_1_iii-10712.php

This one, eh? It shows it as supporting band 78 (5G for Vodafone) but as Tim said if the profile isn't right, you're probably out of luck.

I guess it's a sign of the times that mobile phones have come a long way from when someone like Parallel Imported was still a reasonably new company, and you could just buy any old phone, insert your SIM card and get full signal on Vodafone's network - phones back then were just for voice and texting!

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#3235447 27-May-2024 21:43

quickymart:

I guess it's a sign of the times that mobile phones have come a long way from when someone like Parallel Imported was still a reasonably new company, and you could just buy any old phone, insert your SIM card and get full signal on Vodafone's network - phones back then were just for voice and texting!

Those days are well behind us

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#3235683 28-May-2024 07:35

@ScuL Another test pick up a 2degrees $1 prepaid SIM card and put that into your handset and see if you get 5G coverage on the Sony handset

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#3241810 28-May-2024 15:48

In the firmware of the phone, for every carrier (that the phone manufacturer supports, in this version of the firmware[1]) there will be a set of configuration data, which includes:

The APNs available
Voicemail configuration
VoLTE configuration (including if VoLTE is supported at all)
VoWiFi configuration
PLMN settings
VVM (Visual Voicemail)
AML (Advanced Mobile Location)
4G Anchor Frequencies to NR (New Radio: 5G)
VoLTE Roaming
SMS OTA (Over The Air) configurations
NITZ (Network Identity and Time Zone)
...

[1]If you buy an Android phone in NZ, it'll have the NZ carriers that it developed firmware for in it. If you take that phone to Hong Kong and while there update to a new version of firmware, it'll have those NZ carriers in that version (it knows to update its firmware with the NZ firmware, regardless of where in the world you perform the update). But, if you buy that same phone in Hong Kong, it WON'T have the NZ carriers in it, and won't work with them in NZ unless you somehow load the NZ firmware.

But, if a carrier in NZ never sold a particular phone model, then the phone manufacturer won't have developed the firmware for that carrier. There won't be any firmware you can update the phone with. AFAIK there isn't any easy way to input the configuration manually. The most you can usually do is change the APN. And, if you reset the phone, or change (or re-seat) the SIM, the phone will blow your manual configuration away and replace it with the firmware defaults.

The firmware/configuration isn't on the SIM. The phone recognises the carrier from the SIM and loads the appropriate configuration data, for the phone and for that carrier, from its firmware.

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#3241825 28-May-2024 16:35

michaeln:

If you buy an Android phone in NZ, it'll have the NZ carriers that it developed firmware for in it. If you take that phone to Hong Kong and while there update to a new version of firmware, it'll have those NZ carriers in that version (it knows to update its firmware with the NZ firmware, regardless of where in the world you perform the update). But, if you buy that same phone in Hong Kong, it WON'T have the NZ carriers in it, and won't work with them in NZ unless you somehow load the NZ firmware.

The sub model of the phone will have a subset of carrier profiles from around the world, I am not sure you can take the firmware from one sub model and load it into another sub model you will brick the phine

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#3241903 28-May-2024 18:09

nztim:

michaeln:

If you buy an Android phone in NZ, it'll have the NZ carriers that it developed firmware for in it. If you take that phone to Hong Kong and while there update to a new version of firmware, it'll have those NZ carriers in that version (it knows to update its firmware with the NZ firmware, regardless of where in the world you perform the update). But, if you buy that same phone in Hong Kong, it WON'T have the NZ carriers in it, and won't work with them in NZ unless you somehow load the NZ firmware.

The sub model of the phone will have a subset of carrier profiles from around the world, I am not sure you can take the firmware from one sub model and load it into another sub model you will brick the phine

Not so. So far as I'm aware different firmware can be loaded. I've done it with Android tablets and I know of people who have done it with Android phones.

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#3241905 28-May-2024 18:19

michaeln:

But, if a carrier in NZ never sold a particular phone model, then the phone manufacturer won't have developed the firmware for that carrier. There won't be any firmware you can update the phone with. AFAIK there isn't any easy way to input the configuration manually. The most you can usually do is change the APN. And, if you reset the phone, or change (or re-seat) the SIM, the phone will blow your manual configuration away and replace it with the firmware defaults.

Interesting post. As an aside, I imported my phone new from the UK and it's never been sold in NZ, ever - but everything works perfectly fine, including VoLTE and 2G/3G/4G reception.

If only Samsung followed Apple's lead and had all the firmware etc loaded into the device instead of having different models for different regions...issues like this wouldn't exist.

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#3241912 28-May-2024 18:25

@ScuL Have you done any basic fault checking as spoken about?

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#3242085 29-May-2024 08:50

quickymart:

Interesting post. As an aside, I imported my phone new from the UK and it's never been sold in NZ, ever - but everything works perfectly fine, including VoLTE and 2G/3G/4G reception.

You are lucky, most likely that model is configured for inbound roaming to NZ

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#3242223 29-May-2024 10:57

nztim:

quickymart:

Interesting post. As an aside, I imported my phone new from the UK and it's never been sold in NZ, ever - but everything works perfectly fine, including VoLTE and 2G/3G/4G reception.

You are lucky, most likely that model is configured for inbound roaming to NZ

Dunno, maybe, but it seems to work absolutely fine. Is there a way to determine if this configuration is in place?

Disclaimer: I've never taken phone this anywhere overseas, so not sure if actual roaming would work or not.

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#3242267 29-May-2024 13:14

No need to be like this, people.

I have removed a couple of replies that were not on topic.

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