Lumia 950 Dual Sim Primer (AT&T)

[ACF1]

Ok, I should be receiving my dual sim Lumia 950 sometime today. My carrier is AT&T and I am coming from a Lumia 920. Since Windows 10 still unpolished, buggy in some instances, and this particular phone not sold by AT&T, I have a few questions to have the best experience possible. After most of you have chimed in, maybe somewhat can recap the most useful and relevant suggestion and make it a sticky for new buyers.

1) Since I am coming from a L920, I don't have an activated nano sim. Does the Lumia 950 have to have the sim activated and installed before turning on the phone for the first time, like it was the case for the Lumia 950 XL so AT&T can recognize it?

2) Is the Dual Sim L950 IMEI recognized by AT&T or, (contingent to the answer of question #1) would I need to provide AT&T with a previous IMEI or a ATT version L950 for it to work properly?

3) I have seen here that people suggest updating to the latest firmware/and OS build and hard reset the phone afterwards? Wouldn't a hard reset roll back to the build original installed in the device memory? Or does it pull the latest build from the cloud after a hard reset?

4) Contingent to the answer in #1, #2, and #3, Can I run it sim-less, set it, update, play with it, and then install the sim and do a hard reset? Will this be exactly the same as original factory state? What I mean, assuming it has the same issues as the 950XL, Daniel R. article suggest to either have the sim installed before the first set up, or obtain a working IMEI to trick the ATT system into activating the sim properly. He never suggested in that article that you could, after the fact, hard reset the phone, and it would act like if you have the sim installed before turning on the phone the first time. Hope that makes sense.

5)From what I have read, to avoid any risk of more bugs introduced, a clean setup is recommended. I don't care to use my back up as I can download most of media stuff and apps separately, at a later time. The only think I would care is my text messages and Whatsapp messages. I don't think I can export/import the whatsapp messages, but is there a way to import text messages at a later time? Not big deal for me, but preferred if I could.

6) Has the messaging backup thing where it was excessively consuming LTE data being resolved as of .107? OR should I keed it off for the time being?

7) Lastly, I think it is all about downloading apps, optimize battery setting etc.

Thanks in advance for all suggestions.

 

[Albatross2]

I came from a 920 to the dual sim 950 with a stop on a 735 in the middle. My 735 required a nano sim. I visited my local AT&T store at the mall and they traded my old micro sim for a nano which I installed in the 735, no charge. When I got my dual sim 950, I moved the nano sim from the 735 to sim1 on the 950. I did heed Daniel's warning and ensure that this was done prior to powering up for the first time, not sure if this was essential or not.

I never shared my new 950 IMEI with AT&T and I've had no issues with my service.

Visual voice mail will not work for you with this setup. There is another thread on this forum describing a good workaround involving YouMail and ISeeVM.

Your old text messages should slowly populate on the new phone. Give it a few days or a week before you turn off the messaging backup feature to save LTE data.

I set up my phone as follows:
1) login with microsoft account and allow the minimal setup to proceed without a restore.
2) get any OS updates available, this should get you to .107
3) hard reset will reinstall .107
4) install all of your apps from this clean base

BTW, I'm quite happy with my 950.

 

[gordonfink]

I have a 950 dual sim running on AT&T ? it works great.

Here?s answers, I think, to most of what you asked.
- You don?t need a sim to set it up. The sim will read any time you stick it (powered off), then power it on. You don?t have to reset anything to read a sim.
- If you are not registered, sign up for Windows Insider.
- Turn on your phone, enter your MS ID, and set it up. Do not restore from a backup just yet, because it will take too long, and you?re going to erase it anyways.
- Install Windows Insider, and update to .107.
- After updating, do a factory reset. This will maintain .107.
- Make sure you back up everything, including text messages, on your 920.
- Go to the ATT store, or call ATT support, and get a nano sim. I?d go to the store, and have them add the nano sim number to may account. It?s free.
- If you feel like it, bring the phone with to put it in. If you don?t feel like it, you can grab the sim, then later, when the phone is ready to use, call into support and have them add that sim number to your account. You?ll be on hold for less time if you go into a store.
- Once you have the sim, you can put it in the phone, and set up the phone again. You can set up the phone prior to this, if you want. IE ? set it up, then go into the store to get the sim and have it activated, and you can put it in the phone right there. Their network should pick up your IMEI all on its own. If you can?t get data, then the system did not, and you?ll have to call in to support to put that IMEI on your account. If you prefer, you can do it that in the store while you?re getting your sim.
- After you have you sim in, your text messages will restore, but it takes a long time - hours, so don?t panic.
- With the dual sim, you lose visual voice mail. If you want that, you can download iSeeVM, set it up, then you?ll have VVM.

I think gets it? Anything else?

 

[ACF1]

I think that covers most of my concerns, thanks. I just received the phone so I'll play with it a little before I go to ATT to get the nano sim.

So, ATT will accept the dual sim L950 IMEI if I call in?

 

[gordonfink]

you likely don't have to call - I didn't. the system will pick it up. remember it has 2 imei's - one for each sim slot, so you have to make sure to give them the right one if you call. really, you should just have to put in the sim.

 

[Albatross2]

The latest preview build (14267.1004) fixes visual voicemail for the dual sim 950. Wonderful news!

 

[jbowyer1]

So, ATT will accept the dual sim L950 IMEI if I call in?

If LTE and VVM worked on your 920, meaning your ATT account was provisioned for them, then you shouldn't have to provide them with the new IMEI; everything should just work. I'm on ATT and change phones all the time, and I've never had a problem with LTE or VVM not working, even after using phones with IMEIs they don't recognize, like an international 1520 (that just showed up as an 'unrecognized phone' or something along those lines on ATT's web site under my account, but everything still worked fine.)

 

[ACF1]

Ok, i can answer my own question, yes it works, AT&T does accept L950 dual sim unlocked IMEI.

Now, to answer jbowyer1, I guess the reason I have to provide a new IMEI, is because I can't use my sim card in the L920, which is a microSim, and bigger than the nanoSim for the L950, so I am forced to use a new IMEI. If what jbowyer meant is the I could use the same L920 Imei (i still need to provide an IMEI so they can activate the new sim), then I could have done so. However, my original question is meant to know if AT&T accepted unlocked L950 phones.

Lastly, now that I use IseeVM, I don't think i will use built in visual vm. I am liking I see VM since it gives me nicer answering options, some TruCaller features and ability to see my emails. I think I will stick with it in the mean time.