Help How to buy Samsung with 4G VoLTE in Europe? (No foreign phones work in US at all now??)

[kite]

EDIT - question seems answered; see my reply below

Is there a way to find out before purchasing the phone if Samsung A22 or A32 sold in Germany have 4G VoLTE? Or other Samsungs too, with or without 5G. I'm flying to the US in 5 days and it looks like no phones sold outside the US can be used on Tmobile at all (my carrier; I have a US account but haven't been there since the 3G shutdown), because I think they've cut off access to all phones that don't have 4G VoLTE along with shutting down the 3G network, and no phones sold outside the US have VoLTE(?) I'm not sure but I think even if your phone purchased outside the US has 5G it still won't work because T-Mobile blocks the whole phone.

So I hope I'm wrong about non-US phones not having VoLTE - but how would you find out if a phone has it before you buy it?

The thing about non-US phones not having VoLTE came from: https://www.pcmag.com/news/why-your-att-smartphone-may-suddenly-stop-working-soon

 

[kate]

how would you find out if a phone has it before you buy it?

For T-Mobile the best way to check is to get the phones IEMI number and enter it here:
https://www.t-mobile.com/resources/bring-your-own-phone

 

[kite]

For T-Mobile the best way to check is to get the phones IEMI number and enter it here:
https://www.t-mobile.com/resources/bring-your-own-phone

That doesn't work because you have to physically have the phone in your possession to get the IEMI. I'm talking about BEFORE PURCHASING.

 

[kite]

I did just find an article from Germany from three years ago that says most phones besides the cheapest are VoLTE "capable" which seems mean to it's physically capable but in addition the manufacturer must also enable in the firmware, and they give the following as a partial list of VoLTE capable Samsungs. This is a positive sign for me because I need to buy the phone in Germany

A3, 5, 7, 20, 40, 50, 70, 80,

J3, 4

S 5 through S 10

 

[kite]

Just got off a chat with Samsung Germany. They said all their phones have VoLTE now. So my original source article in PC Mag about non-US versions doesn't apply to Samsungs from Germany at least.

 

[svim]

It's not as bad as no foreign phones will work here in the U.S. but rather some won't. Well, unless you're limiting your usage to only 5G connectivity than yes, in that case it is a problem as 5G implementation here is pretty dismal compared to in the E.U.
Phones like the A22 and A32 will include support for a pretty wide range of 4G/LTE bands so as long as you buy a carrier unlocked model, it's likely to work with T-Mobile. For example:
https://www.kimovil.com/en/frequency-checker/DE/samsung-galaxy-a32
T-Mobile uses bands 2, 4, 12, 71 (primary) and 5, 66 (secondary) for 4G/LTE

Regarding 'T-Mobile blocks the whole phone' that's an odd interpretation, or just linguistic sematics -- basically T-Mobile, won't 'block' a phone because it still contains support 2G or 3G (most phones do). Now that 3G cellular networks have been decommissioned here it's not that phones are 'blocked', it's just that there's hardly any 3G networks to connect to now. Perhaps you're confusing this 'blocked' matter with phones that have been blacklisted for various reasons. Mostly this involves phones that have been reported as stolen or lost, or the alleged owner has stopped making payment obligations. All the major carriers will honor the national blacklist and not provide cellular service to phones on that list. But it's still not a matter of being 'blocked' but rather not being able to get a carrier to allow you to use their cellular network.

 

[mikedt]

I believe all phones sold in Europe have to be VoLTE capable now. As the carriers there might(will) be turning off their 3G networks.

 

[nickdalzell]

Not all 3G has been shut down. Verizon still has an active 1x data network up in Kentucky, and AT&T as well only AT&T only allows 911 calls even with an active SIM. You won't get data anymore. T-Mobile still has Edge as well, but it seems phone calls don't work unless you have VoLTE. You can still text, use data. I was using two Galaxy SIIs, one on AT&T, one on T-Mobile (via MVNO Straight Talk) but recently they stopped making and receiving phone calls. The still were able to use SMS/MMS and data.

Verizon still has phone call capability without VoLTE but that's scheduled to end come December 2022. Any remaining 1x/3G is going to be used strictly for M2M networks like security systems and in-car infotainment.

 

[mikedt]

Not all 3G has been shut down. Verizon still has an active 1x data network up in Kentucky, and AT&T as well only AT&T only allows 911 calls even with an active SIM. You won't get data anymore. T-Mobile still has Edge as well, but it seems phone calls don't work unless you have VoLTE. You can still text, use data. I was using two Galaxy SIIs, one on AT&T, one on T-Mobile (via MVNO Straight Talk) but recently they stopped making and receiving phone calls. The still were able to use SMS/MMS and data.

Verizon still has phone call capability without VoLTE but that's scheduled to end come December 2022. Any remaining 1x/3G is going to be used strictly for M2M networks like security systems and in-car infotainment.

Yeah, certain carriers are maintaining their 2G/EDGE networks with data and SMS only for all the legacy devices that are still out there, e.g. ATMs, EPOS terminals, vending machines, utility meters, remote substations, vehicle tracking, etc

 

[svim]

....
The thing about non-US phones not having VoLTE came from: https://www.pcmag.com/news/why-your-att-smartphone-may-suddenly-stop-working-soon

Suggest you re-read the article again. I see references to 2G and 3G VoLTE but not anything about 'blocked' phones nor any nation without 4G VoLTE phones.

 

[kate]

That doesn't work because you have to physically have the phone in your possession to get the IEMI. I'm talking about BEFORE PURCHASING.

In the US the phones IMEI is printed on the outside of the box, if you go to a retail store it's possible to check before you buy the phone.

Just got off a chat with Samsung Germany. They said all their phones have VoLTE now.

But did they confirm their phones in Germany are VoLTE compatible with US carriers? There are phones that are only VoLTE certified on some carriers here, not all. Samsung makes several models of the same phone, so the US version of the A22 would work but the German/international version might not.

 

[Davdi]

MY wife ans I both have Ulefones (Note9p and note 11p (both android 11 - both support VoLTE (I'm in the UK) so some Chinese phones should work in the US as well. I'm not using my Nokia X20 anymore as it has a charging problem.

 

[kite]

Y'all are not going to believe this and I guarantee you haven't heard anything about it - to use any Germany-purchased Samsung outside of the EU (purcchased within the last couple years) you have to send Samsung an email at least three weeks before you leave containing your exact travel dates, destination country, IMEI number, receipt of purchase, and optionally the name of your non-EU SIM providers.

Then they'll decide whether they'll unlock your phone for non-EU use - *decide*, as in, you don't automatically get unlocked but rather, they make a decision about it.

The only way to perform the procedure is to contact Samsung, then they send you a special email with instructions, then you email your details back, then they send you a code after three weeks.

email text is below
======================================================================
Guten Tag,

Sie möchten Ihr Samsung Smartphone zukünftig auch außerhalb der EU nutzen – vielen Dank für Ihre Anfrage.

Wir prüfen gerne, ob wir Ihnen einen Aktivierungscode zusenden können. Schicken Sie dazu bitte folgende Informationen an hotline@samsung.de:

- IMEI-Nummer (15-stellig, beginnend mit 35)
- Land
- Ihren Netzanbieter der außereuropäischen SIM-Karte (optional)
- Kopie des Kaufbelegs inklusive Kaufdatum

Sobald Sie uns die Daten geschickt haben, informieren wir Sie zur weiteren Vorgehensweise. Vielen Dank für Ihre Mithilfe!
Sie können uns diese Informationen ganz bequem als Antwort auf diese Nachricht zusenden.

Bei weiteren Fragen melden Sie sich gern wieder.

Samsung Electronics GmbH
Customer Communication Center
Tel: 06196 77 555 77 *
Fax: 06196 77 555 20
*(Kosten laut Konditionen des Vertragspartners für Festnetzanschlüsse oder Mobilfunkanschlüsse)
http://www.samsung.com/de

Informationen dazu, wie die Samsung Electronics GmbH, Am Kronberger Hang 6, 65824 Schwalbach/Ts., als Verantwortliche im Sinne der DSGVO Ihre personenbezogenen Daten verarbeitet, finden Sie hier.

Managing Director/Geschäftsführer: Man Young Kim, Commercial Register/Gerichtsstand Königstein, HRB 4657, WEEE Reg. No.: DE 57734404, USt.-ID: DE811710402

Diese E-Mail sowie evtl. Anhänge sind ausschließlich für den/die genannten Empfänger bestimmt und können vertrauliche Informationen enthalten. Wenn Sie nicht der genannte Empfänger dieser Nachricht sind, sind Sie nicht autorisiert, diese E-Mail zu lesen, zu kopieren, weiterzuleiten oder in anderer Form zu verwerten. Bitte verständigen Sie den Absender über den irrtümlichen Erhalt dieser E-Mail. Löschen Sie bitte anschließend diese E-Mail inkl. Anhänge und jegliche gegebenenfalls davon existierende Kopien. Die in dieser E-Mail enthaltenen Informationen können dem Berufsgeheimnis unterliegen oder anderweitig rechtlich geschützt sein.

 

[Davdi]

How about Non EU Samsungs (UK maybe?)

 

[Hadron]

EDIT - question seems answered; see my reply below

Is there a way to find out before purchasing the phone if Samsung A22 or A32 sold in Germany have 4G VoLTE? Or other Samsungs too, with or without 5G. I'm flying to the US in 5 days and it looks like no phones sold outside the US can be used on Tmobile at all (my carrier; I have a US account but haven't been there since the 3G shutdown), because I think they've cut off access to all phones that don't have 4G VoLTE along with shutting down the 3G network, and no phones sold outside the US have VoLTE(?) I'm not sure but I think even if your phone purchased outside the US has 5G it still won't work because T-Mobile blocks the whole phone.

My European Galaxy s21 has VoLTE (technically "4G VoLTE is a tautology because LTE = 4G), so it's certainly not true that only US phones have this. And while I don't know about German handsets specifically a quick web search found that the UK A22 has VoLTE, and as European mobile networks have always worked to common standards I would expect a German phone to have this also.

My one concern would be that US networks tend to do their own things more than elsewhere, so I can't be certain that T-Mobile don't have a different implementation of VoLTE (I'm not American, but over the years I've seen enough posts about odd things like that it insert this caution).

 

[kite]

But did they confirm their phones in Germany are VoLTE compatible with US carriers? There are phones that are only VoLTE certified on some carriers here, not all. .

I'd be very surprised (aka, pretty sure there's zero chance) if any company will know that, because it's hundreds of models x hundreds of bands x dozens of providers x hundreds of countries = hundreds of thousands of possible combinations. I strongly suspect it's a moot point and that ultimately, the large majority of recent-ish EU phones will work in the US, because if huge numbers of European visitors couldn't use their phones in the US we'd be hearing about it.

 

[kite]

My one concern would be that US networks tend to do their own things more than elsewhere, so I can't be certain that T-Mobile don't have a different implementation of VoLTE (I'm not American, but over the years I've seen enough posts about odd things like that it insert this caution).

Yes theoretically anything could be incompatible with anything that it appears to and ought to be compatible with; and it's the business model of tech to weaponize incompatibility as a (pretty mean-spirited IMHO) way to maximize profits, but I'm cautiously optimistic that the thing I said just above about not enraging millions of EU visitors to the US will allow most EU phones to work in the US although some frequency bands and coverage areas maybe aren't all available.

My 2017 J5 from Germany (obscure mid-low range model) still worked great in the US as of March 2022 except in rural Massachusetts and even there I think it was no worse than the Nexus I had previously

 

[kite]

How about Non EU Samsungs (UK maybe?)

All Germany (surely all EU I would think) Samsungs have VoLTE now.. and as someone said, maybe all EU phones from all companies. the PCMag article I started with was very incomplete and misleading because it should have said "if the phone that you bought in the US was for the EU market, you don't have to worry about the VoLTE issue" and much more egregious - it should have said, EU-market phones are locked and unusable in the US if they haven't FIRST been used at least once n the EU; there's a way to unlock but it's a hassle (see above, takes three weeks) and might not even work at all. At least that's what Samsung told me just now.

 

[mikedt]

Y'all are not going to believe this and I guarantee you haven't heard anything about it - to use any Germany-purchased Samsung outside of the EU (purcchased within the last couple years) you have to send Samsung an email at least three weeks before you leave containing your exact travel dates, destination country, IMEI number, receipt of purchase, and optionally the name of your non-EU SIM providers.

Then they'll decide whether they'll unlock your phone for non-EU use - *decide*, as in, you don't automatically get unlocked but rather, they make a decision about it.

The only way to perform the procedure is to contact Samsung, then they send you a special email with instructions, then you email your details back, then they send you a code after three weeks.

email text is below
======================================================================
Guten Tag,

Sie möchten Ihr Samsung Smartphone zukünftig auch außerhalb der EU nutzen – vielen Dank für Ihre Anfrage.

Wir prüfen gerne, ob wir Ihnen einen Aktivierungscode zusenden können. Schicken Sie dazu bitte folgende Informationen an hotline@samsung.de:

- IMEI-Nummer (15-stellig, beginnend mit 35)
- Land
- Ihren Netzanbieter der außereuropäischen SIM-Karte (optional)
- Kopie des Kaufbelegs inklusive Kaufdatum

Sobald Sie uns die Daten geschickt haben, informieren wir Sie zur weiteren Vorgehensweise. Vielen Dank für Ihre Mithilfe!
Sie können uns diese Informationen ganz bequem als Antwort auf diese Nachricht zusenden.

Bei weiteren Fragen melden Sie sich gern wieder.

Samsung Electronics GmbH
Customer Communication Center
Tel: 06196 77 555 77 *
Fax: 06196 77 555 20
*(Kosten laut Konditionen des Vertragspartners für Festnetzanschlüsse oder Mobilfunkanschlüsse)
http://www.samsung.com/de

Informationen dazu, wie die Samsung Electronics GmbH, Am Kronberger Hang 6, 65824 Schwalbach/Ts., als Verantwortliche im Sinne der DSGVO Ihre personenbezogenen Daten verarbeitet, finden Sie hier.

Managing Director/Geschäftsführer: Man Young Kim, Commercial Register/Gerichtsstand Königstein, HRB 4657, WEEE Reg. No.: DE 57734404, USt.-ID: DE811710402

Diese E-Mail sowie evtl. Anhänge sind ausschließlich für den/die genannten Empfänger bestimmt und können vertrauliche Informationen enthalten. Wenn Sie nicht der genannte Empfänger dieser Nachricht sind, sind Sie nicht autorisiert, diese E-Mail zu lesen, zu kopieren, weiterzuleiten oder in anderer Form zu verwerten. Bitte verständigen Sie den Absender über den irrtümlichen Erhalt dieser E-Mail. Löschen Sie bitte anschließend diese E-Mail inkl. Anhänge und jegliche gegebenenfalls davon existierende Kopien. Die in dieser E-Mail enthaltenen Informationen können dem Berufsgeheimnis unterliegen oder anderweitig rechtlich geschützt sein.

This is Samsung's region lock, that's been around for a few years now.

AFAIK all you need to do is to unlock it, is to make one phone call of at least five minutes using a local SIM within the region, and then it will work with any SIM outside of the designated region.

But something I have to ask; why do you particularly want to buy and import a German(EU/EEA) variant of the A22 or A32 into the US? That may or may not work with T-mobile rather than the unlocked US variant of these devices, that's guaranteed to work with T-mobile.

I've known expats with Samsung phones that were bought in the US and EU, and they've worked with SIMs from carriers here in China no problems. But of course those phones were originally used in their designated regions, and so Samsung's region lock was deactivated.

 

[kite]

AFAIK all you need to do is to unlock it, is to make one phone call of at least five minutes using a local SIM within the region,

why do you particularly want to buy and import a German(EU/EEA) variant of the A22 or A32 into the US? That may or may not work with T-mobile rather than the unlocked US variant of these devices, that's guaranteed to work with T-mobile..

Re:- the thing with just making one 5-minute phone call with an EU SIM card - note that I asked Samsung support, "Do you mean to tell me that EVERY SINGLE ONE of the millions of Samsung owners in Germany (surely all EU) who travel outside the EU, have emailed Samsung their travel dates, copy of receipt and IMEI number THREE WEEKS IN ADVANCE in order to use their phone while traveling?" and they said, yes, every one of them has done that. It's the only way to use an EU Samsung outside the EU. No exceptions.

Then I tried support again the next day and they said that's wrong; you can email if you need to but you can also just do the 5-minute call and he explained how it's all about preventing people from buying phones and reselling them on other continents, which makes you wonder, who is buying phones *retail* in the EU and reselling them in some continent where you can't even get them?

Not importing - I live in Germany and will be traveling to the US.