I added Sprint Open World to my MXPE device. This week, I had my first opportunity to use it, while I'm visiting Canada.
When I first landed in Canada, I made sure that my phone was set to "Global" as advised. That allowed my phone to establish a connection with Rogers Wireless, Sprint's (only) roaming partner in Canada. After the connection was established, I received an SMS from Sprint, confirming that Open World was available in that area, complete with a reminder of the terms (voice/text/1GB data).
I quickly realized that my voice and SMS connectivity were good, but I had no data connectivity.
After spending time on the phone with Sprint (and they spent considerable time trying to help me resolve this issue), I was able to finally establish a data connection after two days. Here's what happened. I'm posting this as a tip for other Pure Edition users traveling to Open World countries, and also to get some advice on easier ways to connect to data when outside the USA (this won't be brief, but it will be detailed):
Sprint contacted Rogers Wireless, and they were able to determine that my phone was still trying to establish a connection over LTE. Of course, there is no LTE roaming outside the USA. Instead, my phone should be using some form of 3G, GSM-based mode (UMTS, or some variation of HSPA). Despite this, my phone was stuck on LTE.
Sprint then had me check the APN settings on the phone. Only one minor problem--there seems to be no way to do that. The only APN settings seems to be accessible through the DATA code via the dialer, but that's LTE only.
Once I was educated on the function of an APN, I threw a "Hail Mary" pass, and looked for an APN app. Luckily, I found one called APN Configurator. It allowed me to check and change APN's. The list contained the APN that is required for Open World roaming, with the name "cinet.spcs." I selected that, rebooted the phone, and FINALLY had connectivity.
Although it worked, it's not stable. If I lose Rogers, and the phone tries to establish connection on another carrier, the settings go away, and I have to go back and recreate the settings in the app, and restart again. Sometimes, it takes a couple of attempts to make it work.
There's gotta be a better way!
It seems to me, that this information would be loaded on the SIM, so that the phone knows what to do once it leaves Sprint's domestic network. Without that, one would think there would be an easy way to view/edit APN settings, built in to the MXPE's menus. Some online help suggests that this should be possible through the Cellular Network Settings menu, but there is no option to either view or edit APN, at least not with a Sprint SIM installed.
If you've run into this problem yourself, with a Moto X Pure Edition, did you experience similar problems? Does anyone have advice to simplify the data connection process? For those who haven't been outside the USA with your phone yet, consider this a cautionary tale.
Oh, and the data connection is actually a tunnel from Rogers, into Sprint's servers. My IP address is from Sprint, and the data is measured in near real-time, when I view my account usage at Sprint.
Thanks for your advice.
When I first landed in Canada, I made sure that my phone was set to "Global" as advised. That allowed my phone to establish a connection with Rogers Wireless, Sprint's (only) roaming partner in Canada. After the connection was established, I received an SMS from Sprint, confirming that Open World was available in that area, complete with a reminder of the terms (voice/text/1GB data).
I quickly realized that my voice and SMS connectivity were good, but I had no data connectivity.
After spending time on the phone with Sprint (and they spent considerable time trying to help me resolve this issue), I was able to finally establish a data connection after two days. Here's what happened. I'm posting this as a tip for other Pure Edition users traveling to Open World countries, and also to get some advice on easier ways to connect to data when outside the USA (this won't be brief, but it will be detailed):
Sprint contacted Rogers Wireless, and they were able to determine that my phone was still trying to establish a connection over LTE. Of course, there is no LTE roaming outside the USA. Instead, my phone should be using some form of 3G, GSM-based mode (UMTS, or some variation of HSPA). Despite this, my phone was stuck on LTE.
Sprint then had me check the APN settings on the phone. Only one minor problem--there seems to be no way to do that. The only APN settings seems to be accessible through the DATA code via the dialer, but that's LTE only.
Once I was educated on the function of an APN, I threw a "Hail Mary" pass, and looked for an APN app. Luckily, I found one called APN Configurator. It allowed me to check and change APN's. The list contained the APN that is required for Open World roaming, with the name "cinet.spcs." I selected that, rebooted the phone, and FINALLY had connectivity.
Although it worked, it's not stable. If I lose Rogers, and the phone tries to establish connection on another carrier, the settings go away, and I have to go back and recreate the settings in the app, and restart again. Sometimes, it takes a couple of attempts to make it work.
There's gotta be a better way!
It seems to me, that this information would be loaded on the SIM, so that the phone knows what to do once it leaves Sprint's domestic network. Without that, one would think there would be an easy way to view/edit APN settings, built in to the MXPE's menus. Some online help suggests that this should be possible through the Cellular Network Settings menu, but there is no option to either view or edit APN, at least not with a Sprint SIM installed.
If you've run into this problem yourself, with a Moto X Pure Edition, did you experience similar problems? Does anyone have advice to simplify the data connection process? For those who haven't been outside the USA with your phone yet, consider this a cautionary tale.
Oh, and the data connection is actually a tunnel from Rogers, into Sprint's servers. My IP address is from Sprint, and the data is measured in near real-time, when I view my account usage at Sprint.
Thanks for your advice.
