I have been following this thread (and need to get my Donation in on PayDay) and did this one a couple friends phoned and it works like a champ on T-Mobile now, no more Edge, just 3G/3G goodness!!
Quote:
Ok. I have successfully managed to get T-mobile 4G working on an AT&T Galaxy Note with absolutely no freezing. I have been able to replicate T-mobile 4G with three different modems: (1) T-mobile SGH-T989 KID, (2) T-mobile SGH-T989 VKL1, and (3) Telus KJ3. These modems can be found in this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1507825. Also, there is full phone functionality.
Here is how I achieved T-Mobile 4G on an AT&T Galaxy Note.
PRELIMINARY NOTES
The AT&T Note was networked unlocked
I have been on T-Mobile for the past 3 years
I am on the T-mobile post paid 5GB Data Android Plan (with unlimited talk and text)
T-mobile sim was in the device while testing the solution
The Galaxy Note was rooted, and running the latest Saurom Projekt Team Rom with the kernel that comes with that rom (DA_G's kernel I think).
The phone functions perfectly. My family called while I was testing and there were no issues.
Photo evidence and in follow up posts.
Video evidence here T-Mobile Voice/Data/3G/4G/HSPA+ working on my AT&T Galaxy Note SGH-i717! - YouTube by zedomax.
CAVEATS
Signal strength on my note was less than it was on my GS II. Indoors, I struggled to get two bars of reception.
I have yet to break 5Mbps download speeds and upload speeds are low, usually 1 Mbps or less.
EDIT: In some locations I am getting excess of 9Mbs down and 2Mbs up.
HOW THIS SOLUTION DIFFERS FROM OTHER ATTEMPTS
All other attempts I have seen in both threads attempt to flash both the modem (mdm.bin) and the software that runs/communicates with the modem (amss.bin). CWM solutions were worse because those solutions also flashed two lib files (libril.so and libril-qc-qmi-1.so) that might be adding to the conflict.
Since all of the other solutions were resulting in lags/freezes/crashes, it seemed that either mdm.bin, amss.bin, or one of the lib files must be conflicting with some other component on the device. Since it was confirmed that 4G was possible before the lags/freezes/crashes, it seemed that the modem file was compatible. The only solution left was to eliminate any conflict possibly arising from the amss.bin or the lib files. In a nutshell, the solution is to flash mdm.bin without amss.bin or the lib files.
THE SOLUTION
I recommend using SOLUTION 1 below. It is easy and all you have to do is download the modem you are interested in and flash through CWM. But if you are game, you can go for SOLUTION 2 which is a bit more technical and requires comfort with adb and the dd command. That solution relies on adb and dd to write the mdm.bin file directly to the mmcblk0p17 partition on the device. Before we do that you MUST (1) have a NANDdroid back up and (2) you must follow the instructions here to backup your current mdm.bin/mmcblk0p17 partition so you can restore it when you need to.
- NANDROID and OTHER PREP
1. Do your nandroid backup (sorry, I can't explain that here)
2. Power off phone, remove battery, and install T-Mobile sim with a smartphone/data plan.
3. Power on phone
4. Make sure you have adb working on your pc with all the necessary samsung usb drivers etc. (sorry, I can't explain that here)
5. Make sure usb debugging mode is on (Settings, Applications, Development)
6. Make sure "Unknown sources" is on (Settings, Applications ... this may not be necessary, but it worked for me, so let's just do it.)
- SOLUTION 1 - THE NICE AND EASY WAY
1. Using CMW, flash your modem of choice from the following:
Since most people won't need Solution 2 (below) I'll post any updates/tweaks here.
1. Build.prop - using this build.prop I was able to reach average downloads speeds of 9Mbps and uploads of 2-3Mbps at work where I had very strong reception. Before the this tweak I was stuck at around 4Mbps down and 1Mbps up. At home I went back to around 4MBps down, but it was consistent while up speeds remained poor (less than 1 Mbps). At least one other user has reported improvements with this build.prop. I'll ask him to post his results. You can find the file here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...&postcount=290. The file is NoT a flashable zip. You have to (1) unzip it (2) remove .test from the end of the file name so it reads build.prop and then use root explorer (from market) to place it in your /system/ folder. back up your old build.prop for safe measure. Reboot.
- SOLUTION 2 - THE TECHNICAL WAY (or if you have trouble flashing the above)
1. Create three folders on your internal sdcard (/sdcard) or your external sd card (/sdcard/external_sd). These folders are (1) ATT, (2) TMOBILE, and (3) TELUS. Then create two subfolders in the TMOBILE folder: (a) KID, and (b) VKL1.
2. Backup your original mdm.bin and amss.bin partitions
- Get adb up an running and make certain your phone is connected to your pc.
- Run the following commands to back up your mdm.bin. You may as well back up your amss.bin as well for good measure.
- For those using the internal storage use the following commands.
- Good. Now your original modem files are backed up on your internal storage or external sd card. Please don't overwrite them. Back them up somewhere else just to be safe.
3. Now we need to download and store either one of the T-Mobile mdm.bin files or the Telus mdm.bin file.
- Download the modem you want to test from this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1507825.
- I had the best results with the T-mobile SGH-T989 KID so I'll use that for these instructions.
- After downloading the modem, extract the mdm.bin file. Remember, this is the only file you want to mess with right now. (Maybe when we do more tweaking we can optimize the amss.bin file and the lib files as well.)
- If you downloaded the T-mobile SGH-T989 KID, save the mdm.bin file in /sdcard/TMOBILE/KID folder (internal sd) or the /sdcard/external_sd/TMOBILE/KID (external sd card).
- if you downloaded the T-mobile SGH-T989 VKL1, save the mdm.bin file in /sdcard/TMOBILE/VKL1 folder (internal sd) or the /sdcard/external_sd/TMOBILE/VKL1 (external sd card).
- if you downloaded the Telus KJ3, save the mdm.bin file in /sdcard/TELUS/ folder (internal sd) or the /sdcard/external_sd/TELUS/ (external sd card).
- Good. Now you have the mdm.bin file in a location that tells you exactly which modem you will be flashing.
4. Now all we need to do is copy the mdm.bin to the correct partition on the Note.
- For those using the T-mobile SGH-T989 KID modem the use the following command without the quotes.
5. If all of that went well, all we have to do now is reboot, let the device settle down (updating the storage takes a little while longer since we put all those modem files in there), and then force the device to use HSDPA.
- Enter the following command without quotes
"adb shell reboot"
- Let the device restart
- Let media scanning complete (really, be a little patient with it)
- Look for the 4G icon to appear where only an edge symbol used to be.
- If there is no 4G icon, check you reception strength. I had low reception indoors that improved when I went outdoors.
- If after trying to get a stronger signal you still only get edge, you might need to force your phone to use HSPA only.
6. Forcing your phone to use HSPA
- Go to Settings
- Go to Wireless and network
- Scroll down and go to Mobile networks
- Go to Network mode
- Select HSPA only
OR
- Enter *#2263# on the dialpad
- Select [2] WCDMA Band Preference
- Select [3] WCDMA 1700
__________________
|Talderon|
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Last edited by Talderon; April 6th, 2012 at 06:41 PM.
Reason: Added links to ICS Modems
The Following User Says Thank You to Talderon For This Useful Post:
Hey all, this really worked. I was only getting Edge on my AT&T unlocked/rooted Galaxy Note using TMobile sim, but now I am getting 4G everywhere in the Santa Clarita CA area. Even in my home! And I was able to do this all on my own after watching countless You Tube videos on rooting to unlocking to flashing. If I could do it, so can you. I am so happy. Thanks to everybody for posting all this how-to information.
2. In order to Odin you have to put your phone into download mode. To do so, turn off your phone, hold VOLUME DOWN and POWER buttons, once you see the prompt
to put your phone into download mode press VOLUME UP.
3. To get Odin to work, start Odin and load the .tar, etc BEFORE plugging in your phone. Then put your phone into download mode and connect the USB. Once you plug in your phone the program will show device in COM port.
6. To put your phone into recovery.
a. Turn off your phone, hold both VOLUME UP and VOLUME DOWN and POWER. After you feel the first vibration, let go of the POWER button but keep holding the VOLUME UP and VOLUME DOWN. You should go into CWM assume it’s flashed correctly.
7. First thing you do after installing CWM is to create a nandroid backup before you try to flash anything so you can restore if anything goes wrong.
8. Also you should check the md5sum of the rom, kernel, theme, etc file size before you flash to verify that downloaded file is correct and complete. To do that you can use any md5sum apps from the market such as this one. Some devs don't post md5sum info, so you have to ask for it.
9.Why clear cache, dalvik cache, and wipe data/factory reset before flashing a new rom?
a. cache: main data cache is used by the Android OS at runtime to write temporary files for specific reasons. You want to clear this out when you try a new ROM so it doesn't re-used that cached data.
b. dalvik cache: when you install an application on Android, it performs some modifications and optimizations on that application's dex file. It then caches the resulting odex (optimized dex) file in the /data/dalvik-cache folder, so that it doesn't have to perform the optimization process every time it loads an application. This is important if you flash a new kernel.
c. As a general rule you do all of above when flashing a new rom.
can someone please tell me WHY this works? i've been selling phones for tmobile for almost a year now and have decided to learn the frequency aspect of it all and the fact that this phone that supposedly doesn't have the proper 1700/2100 frequency is working on tmobile's 3g/4g is just confusing me now :/
Is it possible to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich after running this? Also, I am in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, and I tried all 3 modems, yet I can't seem to get more than 800kbps download speed (My wife's Samsung Galaxy S2 that is on T-Mobile, and my LG Thrill (is originally an ATT phone but running much faster than this).
Any ideas?
Last edited by eastbayarb; June 3rd, 2012 at 08:58 PM.
Could this same technique theoretically work on other AT&T devices such as the motorola atrix 4G? I thought there were hardware limitations but this thread seems to suggest that if you flash the right radio on a devices, with some software tinkering, it could work. Am I understanding the process correctly??
Could this same technique theoretically work on other AT&T devices such as the motorola atrix 4G? I thought there were hardware limitations but this thread seems to suggest that if you flash the right radio on a devices, with some software tinkering, it could work. Am I understanding the process correctly??
Thanks,
-Brendan
NO NO NO! Please do NOT try this on other devices!
The ONLY reason this works on a few of the Samsung devices is that they have the radio hardware to support these network frequencies. Reasons are plentiful, but for some phones, they were planned for after the mergers (which didn't happen) or they have a T-Mobile counterpart and Samsung just used the same hardware to support all bands.
Trying this on another device that does not meet the right requirements will render it a paperweight, that is, IF you were able to successfully flash a radio.
NO NO NO! Please do NOT try this on other devices!
The ONLY reason this works on a few of the Samsung devices is that they have the radio hardware to support these network frequencies. Reasons are plentiful, but for some phones, they were planned for after the mergers (which didn't happen) or they have a T-Mobile counterpart and Samsung just used the same hardware to support all bands.
Trying this on another device that does not meet the right requirements will render it a paperweight, that is, IF you were able to successfully flash a radio.
I understand it would not be wise to use these specific radios for my device I was just wondering if a similar project could be attempted for another device. Thanks for the information though!
I understand it would not be wise to use these specific radios for my device I was just wondering if a similar project could be attempted for another device. Thanks for the information though!
No problem.
I would have to say that for 99% of the phones out there, this would not be possible on. We just had some luck with a few of the Galaxy phones. Not sure how common this is as I don't roam forums for phones and I don't have or have much of an interest in.
(GB and ICS) Run your AT&T Galaxy Note on T-Mobile 3G/4G
