4G LTE Band 41 Can be Enabled

[Summer_Moon]

So I am not sure who all knows about this, but apparently LTE Band 41 is disabled out of the box. It is easy to re-enable it (although doesn't really matter on AT&T since they don't use that band, this should be a Sprint band). Go to phone dialer and enter ##DATA# and it will display field test. Under settings there is an option for band locking. That will then let you enable/disable various bands. Band 41 is the only one that is unchecked.

Not sure this really matters to anyone, but thought I would mention it.

 

[Alexander Long]

Nice. Though I am not sure who need that either, but thanks for the ##DATA# tip though.

 

[Nathanael Lusk]

Never even heard of it

 

[bulls96]

One of those work with Verizon?

 

[RumoredNow]

enter ##DATA#

Usually it is written as ##3282#. Thanks for that fresh spin. Now I see what might have prompted the selection of that hash code for Field Test.

Never even heard of it

Field Test Menu? It's all over these forums...

Band 41 LTE? Useful in Asia: China, Japan, India, the Philippines all have Band 41 deployments. Madagascar has some too. The FCC auctioned off some Band 41 in the states, but it is underutilized here for Cellular.

 

[RumoredNow]

One of those work with Verizon?

You won't be able to activate a 950Xl onto Verizon. Sorry. No one has managed it that I've ever heard of.

 

[Summer_Moon]

One of those work with Verizon?

Technically speaking LTE bands 2 and 4 should work on Verizon, but their main band 13 is not supported. So no, you cannot activate the phone on Verizon (besides you would have to convince them to let it onto the network and I don't think anyone has been successful talking to Verizon). So I agree with RumoredNow

 

[ChumsFuture]

I will be traveling next month to some Asian countries. Any negatives if I turn this on?

 

[Summer_Moon]

There should not be any negatives for turning on additional bands. Even if the phone does not end up using those bands it should not cause any kind of problems. For what it's worth here are the cell service providers that support LTE Band 41 in Asia:

China Mobile
China Telecom
China Unicom
KDDI (Japan)
SoftBank (Japan; also owner of Sprint)
Globe (Phillippines)

 

[TheJoester09]

Any guesses as to why I can't pull this up on my RM-1085? When I dial in the number, it just tells me my phone number. Could it be that AT&T is blocking me from that menu?

 

[RumoredNow]

Any guesses as to why I can't pull this up on my RM-1085? When I dial in the number, it just tells me my phone number. Could it be that AT&T is blocking me from that menu?

Yep. ATT Firmware would be my guess.

 

[TheJoester09]

Yep. ATT Firmware would be my guess.

I have the international version though--the single sim RM-1085. Can AT&T really dictate that kind of thing? Or maybe the code is different for this model?

 

[PepperdotNet]

Nope, ATT has nothing to do with this one. Some firmwares have field test menu in them, some don't. I've never seen a reason why that is.

 

[RumoredNow]

I have the international version though--the single sim RM-1085. Can AT&T really dictate that kind of thing? Or maybe the code is different for this model?

Sorry, I didn't track down the RM # and mistakenly assumed you had the ATT variant.

I have a factory unlocked 1520.3 that can't access Field Test. As PepperdotNet says: some do, some don't and dang if we know why from this end.

 

[mflotron]

What if i enable only my country LTE bands? (28,4) It will eat less battery?

 

[Summer_Moon]

What if i enable only my country LTE bands? (28,4) It will eat less battery?

I actually thought about that and I went through and disabled all bands except for those that AT&T uses to see how the battery does. I could not tell any kind of difference. But it has only been 2 days so far since I did the change.

Anyways, give it a try, but I would not expect much if any battery improvement.

 

[RumoredNow]

What if i enable only my country LTE bands? (28,4) It will eat less battery?

Probably not.

What you could do, if you are in an area where your data signal wavers between H+ and LTE is disable the H+ Bands or disable the LTE Bands to force one connection speed throughout.

Battery is impacted by shifts between data speeds and search for signal lock (handoffs). Your device won't try shifting between LTE it can "see" and LTE that does not exist.

 

[Dinky89484]

Tried the ##DATA# on my Lumia 950XL and it gave me an error. I have the Single SIM International RM-1085 variant of the 950XL and I'm on USA T-Mobile. It actually looks like it tries to gather up the field data, but then pops up an error message. Oh well.

 

[Summer_Moon]

Tried the ##DATA# on my Lumia 950XL and it gave me an error. I have the Single SIM International RM-1085 variant of the 950XL and I'm on USA T-Mobile. It actually looks like it tries to gather up the field data, but then pops up an error message. Oh well.

That's probably due to your specific firmware. Apparently some firmware's don't allow it

 

[Keith Lorenz]

Lumia 950 xl only 4g