Replacing Telecom-specific firmware in J108 phone with VF firmware

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neb

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Topic # 105089 27-Jun-2012 01:31

A friend of mine was recently given a J108a (bought locally from Noel Leeming, not a parallel import) which, despite Sony's involvement with it, is actually quite decent. Problem is that although there's no indication of this on the box, the manual, or the phone itself, it's configured for the XT network rather than Vodafone. I've managed to switch it over to VF-specific settings for most things, but it still has a lot of XT just under the surface, and obviously no VF Live or anything like that. For political reasons (and more technically the lack of a receipt for it) it's not possible to take it back and exchange it. Is it possible to switch it to VF firmware? It has a bunch of options for firmware updates so I'm hoping it's possible to just tell it to upgrade to VF firmware from the existing XT version.

michaelmurfy

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Reply # 646760 27-Jun-2012 06:14

Short answer: No.

Reason: They are different hardware wise.

First Solution: Sell or Return it, get either the VF version or another VF phone.

Next Solution: switch to Telecom.

Last: Live with the branding.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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joff_nz

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Reply # 646884 27-Jun-2012 10:54

Surely Noels would be able to look up the receipt easy enough?

neb

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Reply # 647087 27-Jun-2012 16:25

michaelmurfy: Short answer: No.

Reason: They are different hardware wise.

Damn. I'd assumed that since it was quad-band UMTS the only difference between VF and XT would be the firmware (the HSPA or whatever data part doesn't matter, the owner is Old(tm) and only uses it for calls and SMS).

michaelmurfy: Last: Live with the branding.

Guess it'll have to be that. The branding isn't really a big deal, it's mostly the ability to do the over-the-air top-up while roaming overseas rather than having to use a dodgy Internet cafe somewhere.

(Which I thought I'd finally weaned her off, dammit!).

neb

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Reply # 647090 27-Jun-2012 16:26

joff_nz: Surely Noels would be able to look up the receipt easy enough?

Had a look earlier on but they only sell the XT version, so there's no VF version to switch to. A different phone is also out, for political reasons the owner can't be seen to be using a different phone than the one they were given :-).

tangerz

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Reply # 647316 28-Jun-2012 00:31

neb:
michaelmurfy: Short answer: No.

Reason: They are different hardware wise.

Damn. I'd assumed that since it was quad-band UMTS the only difference between VF and XT would be the firmware (the HSPA or whatever data part doesn't matter, the owner is Old(tm) and only uses it for calls and SMS).

michaelmurfy: Last: Live with the branding.

Guess it'll have to be that. The branding isn't really a big deal, it's mostly the ability to do the over-the-air top-up while roaming overseas rather than having to use a dodgy Internet cafe somewhere.

(Which I thought I'd finally weaned her off, dammit!).

Hey there! I actually think you can use this on Vodafone. It uses the right GSM bands etc. It probably is 'locked' to the Telecom network in firmware as you have guessed.

There are ways to get it unlocked but it may cost more than it's worth to you.

neb

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Reply # 648499 29-Jun-2012 22:06

Hey there! I actually think you can use this on Vodafone. It uses the right GSM bands etc. It probably is 'locked' to the Telecom network in firmware as you have guessed.

It works just fine on Vodafone. My only concern was the missing Vodafone-specific menu that allows (among other things) over-the-air topup for prepay, but it's actually present buried under an unexpected menu option. Not sure how that gets set up, whether it's a USAT capability or something, but in any case that's all I was after. There's still some Telecom-isms in places, but everything that's needed for VF use is now there. I've been using it myself while I fiddle with it and it's actually a rather nice phone... Sony must have licensed it from somewhere else or something.

AndrewMac

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Reply # 649064 1-Jul-2012 14:32

neb:
michaelmurfy: Short answer: No.

Reason: They are different hardware wise.

Damn. I'd assumed that since it was quad-band UMTS the only difference between VF and XT would be the firmware (the HSPA or whatever data part doesn't matter, the owner is Old(tm) and only uses it for calls and SMS).

just a correction, quad band GSM not quad band UMTS. it's dual band UMTS/HSPA, but as you said, not being used for data so that doesn't matter a great deal

johnr

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Reply # 649068 1-Jul-2012 14:40

neb:
Hey there!? I actually think you can use this on Vodafone. It uses the right GSM bands etc.? It probably is 'locked' to the Telecom network in firmware as you have guessed.

It works just fine on Vodafone.? My only concern was the missing Vodafone-specific menu that allows (among other things) over-the-air topup for prepay, but it's actually present buried under an unexpected menu option.? Not sure how that gets set up, whether it's a USAT capability or something, but in any case that's all I was after.? There's still some Telecom-isms in places, but everything that's needed for VF use is now there.? I've been using it myself while I fiddle with it and it's actually a rather nice phone... Sony must have licensed it from somewhere else or something.

Do you mean Vodafone Hotlink?

neb

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Reply # 649289 1-Jul-2012 22:28

johnr: Do you mean Vodafone Hotlink?

Yeah, I'd forgotten the name. Actually when I tried it I got "Hotlink Declined. You have selected an invalid account. Please try again", although it worked fine when I tried it from my phone a month or so back. Not sure if that was because of moving the SIM to the new phone or some other breakage that happened to occur at the same time.

neb

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Reply # 655695 14-Jul-2012 20:09

neb: When I tried it I got "Hotlink Declined. You have selected an invalid account. Please try again", although it worked fine when I tried it from my phone a month or so back. Not sure if that was because of moving the SIM to the new phone or some other breakage that happened to occur at the same time.

So it turns out that when you move your SIM to a new handset the Hotlink setup is invalidated. To make it work again I just had to go to my bank and use "Update Hotlink details", leaving everything the same as it was before.