950 XL no LTE on AT&T?

[snakebitten]

PGT1 just explained a laborious and thorough routine for getting AT&T to provision his 950XL spoofing as an AT&T branded phone.

And it works. Simply because it provisions the phone with a properly configured LTE profile.
This is not on Microsoft. Perhaps other issues you might have ARE on Microsoft, but not this.

Also, please note, there are many folks at AT&T that do not require the cloak & dagger of secretly spoofing your IMEI.
Many will be willing to use the IMEI of another phone you are holding in your hand. (I used my 1520 IMEI)
And the folks at AT&T that say there is no way to get your 950XL to provision for LTE can't possibly be right. Right?

Me personally, I just want Jayk82 to have LTE & Hotspot. He is the posterboy of AT&T torture.
Once he gets sorted, I'll quit coming to this thread and irritating the "it's Microsoft's fault" folks.

(I will admit that I think Microsoft should strongly urge AT&T's efforts to get this taken care of. But I don't know that they haven't)

 

[mesazoo]

Just to confirm others experience. I called ATT to install my new SIM card. They used the IMEI of the 950xl. This just produced 4G n LTE. I complained and the support tried to claim since it was an ATT phone it would be guaranteed to work. I explained that it had the same internals as the ATT 950 so it should. I got nowhere that night so the next day I did the chat method, this took about an hour but was resolved. I mentioned during the call I had LTE on my Note 3 and previous Lumia 920. so after several reboots and revised providing it worked. I realized later why. looking at my account on line it showed I was using the Lumia 920. I have maintained the LTE since they did this which indicates it is an issue with ATT provisioning.

 

[snakebitten]

Just to confirm others experience. I called ATT to install my new SIM card. They used the IMEI of the 950xl. This just produced 4G n LTE. I complained and the support tried to claim since it was an ATT phone it would be guaranteed to work. I explained that it had the same internals as the ATT 950 so it should. I got nowhere that night so the next day I did the chat method, this took about an hour but was resolved. I mentioned during the call I had LTE on my Note 3 and previous Lumia 920. so after several reboots and revised providing it worked. I realized later why. looking at my account on line it showed I was using the Lumia 920. I have maintained the LTE since they did this which indicates it is an issue with ATT provisioning.

And with that post, I think I've said enough on the subject.
AT&T will sooner or later not need to spoof to get LTE on your new 950(XL).
But for now, the customer service employee has no other method to work with.

 

[trooper11]

The forums are filled with 950/XL users complaining of various bugs (not necessarily relating to LTE on AT&T) that others with the exact same devices are not experiencing. Some devices are working correctly; some aren't. I suspect the same applies here. It's not as much AT&T's problem as it is that some of these phones are not working as they should be. If it is a problem on AT&T's end, how can any of them get LTE without manual intervention?

I would have to disagree with your conclusion here. Just because there are bugs or glitches on a phone of any kind does not mean that every issue is due to the phone.

In this case, I have to agree with the conclusion that this is an AT&T issue. You don't have to look far to find that AT&T is not friendly to unlocked phones when it comes to support. The only reason you end up seeing say unlocked iPhones or high profile android phones working properly is due to demand forcing AT&T to add their IMEI numbers to their database. I wouldn't be shocked if the 950XL simply doesn't interest AT&T enough to even bother adding it to their database. What will change that is a constant drumbeat from us users. I think they are getting enough complaints that they will eventually sort it all out and add the phone properly.

Right now, the consistant method for getting LTE is to use your existing nano sim from a phone that was already on ATT or register the phone using the IMEI of an ATT branded phone. I have yet to see that not work. If you try to use a 950XL IMEI, your at the mercy of getting someone from ATT support to fix it on a case by case basis.

 

[tgp]

I would have to disagree with your conclusion here. Just because there are bugs or glitches on a phone of any kind does not mean that every issue is due to the phone.

In this case, I have to agree with the conclusion that this is an AT&T issue.

You could be correct. We really don't know. I'm just going off of personal experience. I've not heard of lack of LTE being an issue on other platforms. This issue doesn't directly affect me since I don't use an unlocked Windows Phone on AT&T. I have used several unlocked Androids on AT&T with no problems with LTE.

It would be interesting to go to iMore and Android Central and see if the same issue exists there. Either way, there's not much we can do about it.

The only reason you end up seeing say unlocked iPhones or high profile android phones working properly is due to demand forcing AT&T to add their IMEI numbers to their database.

I doubt this. Unlocked iPhones and Androids seem to get LTE right out of the gate, and I'm pretty sure AT&T doesn't put all their IMEIs in their databases. They would have to be entered ahead of time, and that would be a virtual logistical impossibility.

Maybe the unlocked 950XL provisions LTE differently and that's why it doesn't work. But then again, why do some of them get LTE but not others?

 

[Khyzersoze]

When I first bought the phone i had LTE on ATT. Then I made the mistake of calling in to check the status of visual voice mail and giving them the IMEI of my 950XL. Ever since I did that, my LTE disappeared. This is an ATT issue.

 

[pvcleave]

I certainly think this is an AT&T issue. AT&T just does not care ornis in some.power play with Microsoft. All I know is I make AT&T pay. I contently call and get various credits. When I got my 1520, I ended up not paying anything, plus getting several hundred dollars credit.

My point is if you want AT&T to change, you need to constantly complain. Make there life miserable, but be respectful.

Call and complain, make them give you credits for your trouble. Don't just complain about lack of LTE, complain about no HD calling(not sure what it is called) and wifi calling. The more people that complain, eventually they will have to listen.

 

[GenghisKhent]

I know this is not the carrier forum. But is T-Mobile's coverage so much worse that we have to put up with AT&T's lack of support for unlocked phones? I realize some of us have family plans which may lock us into AT&T, but for the rest of us, T-Mo is a bit less expensive, and gives LTE without this grief. Or am I missing something?

 

[maevinj]

I know this is not the carrier forum. But is T-Mobile's coverage so much worse that we have to put up with AT&T's lack of support for unlocked phones? I realize some of us have family plans which may lock us into AT&T, but for the rest of us, T-Mo is a bit less expensive, and gives LTE without this grief. Or am I missing something?

In my area, T-Mobile coverage is that bad, that I'm going to put up with AT&T shenanigans...

 

[mesazoo]

You could be correct. We really don't know. I'm just going off of personal experience. I've not heard of lack of LTE being an issue on other platforms. This issue doesn't directly affect me since I don't use an unlocked Windows Phone on AT&T. I have used several unlocked Androids on AT&T with no problems with LTE.

It would be interesting to go to iMore and Android Central and see if the same issue exists there. Either way, there's not much we can do about it.



I doubt this. Unlocked iPhones and Androids seem to get LTE right out of the gate, and I'm pretty sure AT&T doesn't put all their IMEIs in their databases. They would have to be entered ahead of time, and that would be a virtual logistical impossibility.

Maybe the unlocked 950XL provisions LTE differently and that's why it doesn't work. But then again, why do some of them get LTE but not others?

Actually the Nexus 6p is having the same problem, dual sim unlocked phone. ATT thing not phone thing.

 

[snakebitten]

I know this is not the carrier forum. But is T-Mobile's coverage so much worse that we have to put up with AT&T's lack of support for unlocked phones? I realize some of us have family plans which may lock us into AT&T, but for the rest of us, T-Mo is a bit less expensive, and gives LTE without this grief. Or am I missing something?

Not sure I would switch even if T-Mobile matched the price of my 40Gig rollover. (They are not less expensive, because of my very fortunate timing and locking in a promotional price. I'm wondering when or if AT&T ever makes the same offer again)

And I do a fair amount of Adventure riding (motorcycle) all across this great land. With AT&T, you are very likely to find LTE over the next hill when\if you lose it. Our corporate staff is about 650 users. Vast majority are provisioned on AT&T. For world travel folks they simply have advantages. (Including unlocking phones without a war)

If they carried the 950XL, I would have purchased it "locked" over my unlocked unit.

 

[chsoriano]

I got the "SIM settings changed, please restart" message today and now my phone is back on 4G. Anyone had experience with this? Do I have to ask ATT to reprovision my SIM for my old Lumia 1020 again?

 

[dgantz]

That's only a workaround. It will get kicked back down again just like it did today. I'm trying to get my issue handled properly with a case through advanced tech support by having them add my 950XL IMEI number manually to this mythical database that controls proper provisioning of LTE.

 

[trooper11]

You could be correct. We really don't know. I'm just going off of personal experience. I've not heard of lack of LTE being an issue on other platforms.

Someone in this very thread mentioned Nexus issues and if you did look around the net, you would see that it is not isolated to Windows. If you want more evidence, its out there.

Plus, the fact that LTE works just fine when you use a sim card provisioned for an existing att phone (Windows, iOS, Android, etc), is a strong indicator that the 950XL is not doing anything differently.

As others have said, the common piece could be dual sim phones, which ATT does not officially support, regardless of OS.

I doubt this. Unlocked iPhones and Androids seem to get LTE right out of the gate, and I'm pretty sure AT&T doesn't put all their IMEIs in their databases. They would have to be entered ahead of time, and that would be a virtual logistical impossibility.

How sure are you really that they don't? We already know Verizon does for sure, and we also know ATT has told customers that if the phone is not in their database, it is provisioned for 4G only.

I think its fairly likely that ATT has a team that makes sure that a certain range of phones are in their database.

 

[arcitekt]

I also have had many experiences with tech support with AT&T over the last month. My last call was to make the mobile hotspot to work on the phone. The system showed my phone as an iPhone which does light up in LTE, but no mobile hotspot. The IMEI was provided to AT&T at least 2 other times. It is the "IPv4v6" protocol that makes the phone seem to be in 4g LTE mode. You need to make a custom APN profile because the default APN cannot be edited.

Since agent was friendly, I connected with the call with my iPhone so I could experiment with different settings. With that said we also spoofed another AT&T phone IMEI, used the iPhone provision and did some testing. Leaving the phone as iPhone indeed resulted in faster LTE downloads, but mobile hotspot will not work because of the different recognized OS's. Using my real IMEI and a spoofed AT&T IMEI resulted in the same download speeds and ability to use mobile hotspot. Yes the phones always showed LTE. But my real gripe is that the Lumia 950XL do not connect as LTE speeds. I performed about 100 tests using SpeedTest comparing my iPhone 6 Plus and the Lumia 950XL. The results show something more epdemic. LTE speeds on the Lumia and not even close to the speeds on the iPhone 6. They are almost always 1/2 the speed.

Heck even my Andoid tablet has the same download speeds as the iPhone, but the Lumia 950XL is stuck in the slow lane at half the download speeds.

In strong cell signal areas data speeds of 8mb vs 15 mb are more than adequate. Sometimes the phone can connect at speeds of 20mb downloads, while the iPhone is at 35 to 40mb download. Gheez.

But it is the areas weaker areas with signals like 2 to 3 bars where this phone has problems. Many downloads consistently range 0.79mb to 2 mb down, while iPhone shows 5 to 6 mb. Sometimes uploads are faster than download speeds. So in real life results is slow loading of web pages or even white web screen pages with no content. I believe it is all related to slow bandwidth. Unfortunately, these are not rare occurances, but almost a constant in malls, restaurants or inside office buildings. It is hard to believe an iPhone can make cellular connections while the highly touted Lumia 950XL cannot. In my opinion, this is big step backward in time to the old days of cellular data. Remember 54k is equal to dial-up speeds which this phone shows all too often. While the Lumia 950XL's does indeed shows LTE, they certainly do not operate at those fast speeds.

So either Microsoft or AT&T or both need to fix this fast! This is totally unacceptable. This is not counting terrible battery life, no visual voicemail and lack of Windows Moble app support.

 

[Allen Rhodes]

OK.... heres my deal. Dual sim 950XL with two at&t sims. One from a 1020(sim 1) and the other from an iphone 6(sim 2). Sim 1 works great whereas sim 2 only connect to 2g, and thats all it finds under search. What gives? Also, the signal strength is rarely the same, its the same carrier.

 

[pvcleave]

I have two SIMs also. One AT&T and one T-Mobile. Only one SIM can do data. The SIM not doing data will connect at 2G, because it is doing voice only.

 

[snakebitten]

arcitekt, that was a fine first post! Nice to see a complaint put forth with less emotion and more facts.

I too have similar opinions and experiences with the LTE performance of the 950XL Dual Sim. I carry several AT&T provisioned phones with me. And during the day, I am usually in a very strong and robust AT&T metro area. The 950XL performs plenty fast and runs similar speeds to my other Lumias. (A bit faster throughput than the 640, but slower than the 1520.....that HUGE gorgeous antenna in the 1520 has always been a treat)

But when I get home, very rural........like deep-in-the-woods rural, the 950XL struggles. In the house it will drop to 4G, prompting me to go out on the porch for it to recover. But usually I just Hot-spot one of the other Lumias and go WiFi with the 950XL. I'm only guessing, but I think the Dual Sim is an antenna compromise in some way.

I'm thinking of grabbing a Single Sim "for testing", before I make an outright claim that the Dual Sim design is the culprit.

Oh, and lest anyone thinks I am whining about my AT&T cellular service when I am at home, they should know that I can't believe ANYONE built an LTE tower close enough to my porch for me to have internet. AT&T LTE is my ISP. There are no other services available other than satellite. I'm actually thrilled. 40 Gig plan and never have ran out. (I stream Netflix in SD, of course. Wish Amazon had that setting)

 

[trooper11]

OK.... heres my deal. Dual sim 950XL with two at&t sims. One from a 1020(sim 1) and the other from an iphone 6(sim 2). Sim 1 works great whereas sim 2 only connect to 2g, and thats all it finds under search. What gives? Also, the signal strength is rarely the same, its the same carrier.

I have discovered that this is the common behavior for all dual sim phones, so its not OS specific. There are no current phones that have two LTE radios built in to allow two lines to operate at LTE simultaneously, so the best you can get is LTE on one and 2G/3G on the other. I have done tests with my dual lines and I did find that you can at least control this behavior in software.


If you look under the sim settings in Windows 10, you can choose which sim to use for data. Whichever you choose there will get LTE service. Since I have no need for data on both lines at the same time (my second line is a business line for mostly voice and messaging only), I can just toggle the switch as needed. This works immediately in my case, so it works.

 

[yeewiz]

... But my real gripe is that the Lumia 950XL do not connect as LTE speeds. I performed about 100 tests using SpeedTest comparing my iPhone 6 Plus and the Lumia 950XL. The results show something more epdemic. LTE speeds on the Lumia and not even close to the speeds on the iPhone 6...

I can confirm this result somewhat. I've run a bunch of side-by-side Network Speed Tests with my 950XL against my wife's 1520.3. In virtually every test, the 950XL was always slower. On average, I'd say the 950XL was 10%-20% slower.

I should note that my 950XL dual SIM isn't using a spoofed IMEI. On 11/27/2015, I walked into an AT&T store and had my 950XL provisioned with the real IMEI and I've had LTE ever since. The rep didn't do anything special and wasn't aware of the LTE issue. I was out of the store in 15 minutes. Everything works, as far as I've seen, including mobile hotspot. No VVM as expected. Only issue I can report is LTE speeds 10-20% slower than a 1520.3.