950 XL no LTE on AT&T?

[Allen Rhodes]

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.

Gotcha, makes sense. The only gripe I have now that I have researched more and found all this to be true, my sim2 only connects at 2g/Edge on AT&T. 3G would at least get my on my offices microcell, plus just in general I can make calls on 3g since i know LTE isnt used ofr voice here yet.

 

[RichHowerton]

has anyone been able to connect to their microcell with both sims simultaneously? I do not have reception on both sims through the microcell. I can turn one sim off, and the other will connect/call/txt and vice versa, but never both at the same time.

 

[Joe920]

Well, add me to the list of struggling users. I had LTE on the XL that I returned earlier, using the IMEI of an ATT950 in the store. Fast forward to today, and my second XL doesn't give LTE despite being provisioned with the IMEI of my old 1020. I'll try once more to get it provisioned with the IMEI of my old ATT 1520.

Question, if you select "Update settings" in the SIM settings ("get the latest cellular settings from your mobile operator"), does that screw with the provisioning in any way? Or should the 'fake' IMEI stick even when you hit "Update settings"?

 

[PepperdotNet]

Well, add me to the list of struggling users. I had LTE on the XL that I returned earlier, using the IMEI of an ATT950 in the store. Fast forward to today, and my second XL doesn't give LTE despite being provisioned with the IMEI of my old 1020. I'll try once more to get it provisioned with the IMEI of my old ATT 1520.

Question, if you select "Update settings" in the SIM settings ("get the latest cellular settings from your mobile operator"), does that screw with the provisioning in any way? Or should the 'fake' IMEI stick even when you hit "Update settings"?

I have not noticed any effect from the "Update settings" button, good or bad.

I suspect that the provisioning of your account might be as important as the provisioning of the phone. The last time I chatted with them (and I have had LTE since) the rep said she used a "shadow IMEI" from a 640XL. I'm not sure what else she did, but a few days later I noticed my online account was indicating I had made a service change. I looked in the detail and on the day I did the chat, my "Mobile Share Value Smartphone" plan ended and was replaced with a "Mobile Share Value Smartphone 4G LTE w/ VVM" plan. Both prorated so the bill didn't change.

Previous to this, I had had the phone reprovisioned several times, even got a new sim card in a corporate ATT store, and let their onsite tech fiddle with it, all to no avail, and up until this time nothing actually changed on the account and I never saw LTE.

 

[Scott Z]

I recently left VZ for AT&T to get the new 950XL. My dad joined me as he wanted his first smart phone. So I went to the MS store and grabbed a 950XL and he got the 950 from AT&T.

Sure enough he was fine but I could not get LTE. After reading many of the post in this forum I decided to use my dad's IMEI of his 950 when I called AT&T support. I quickly explained I could not get LTE and suggested if AT&T added my IMEI it might work thanks to researching on the internet. The person I got was happy to help. She entered the IMEI I gave her (again from my dads 950) and I restarted. LTE is on and happy. Dads phone is still happy.

I read a little about IMEI and find it a bit confusing. Is this number unique to every phone or just phone models? I don't think having the same IMEI as my dad is going to cause an issue and so far it hasn't but I cant seem to find a solid answer on this.

Thanks

 

[RichHowerton]

Still cant understand why ATT wont just provision the 950xl for LTE on their network. Why doesn't some senior dude at Microsoft tech, and ATT tech get their heads together and get this sorted out?

 

[EliteMikes]

I am having a different but similar issue. I have my 950xl out for service so I popped the sim back into my old 920. I have no data connectivitiy. 920 is at&t branded.

 

[poit57]

Is this number unique to every phone or just phone models?

The IMEI is unique to each phone. As you've already experienced, it won't affect your dad's service for AT&T to duplicate his IMEI on your phone number. This is an explanation of the IMEI structure:

IMEI number is structured by the BABT. It has 15 decimal digits. Actualy it has 14 digits plus a check digit. The structure of the IMEI is specified in 3GPP TS 23.003. First 8 digits of IMEI number are TAC (Type Allocation Code) which will give you the mobile phone brand and model. Other 7 digits are defined by manufacturer (6 are serial number and 1 is check digit).

The carriers should have a database of IMEI's and supported capabilities based on those first 8 digits that identify the phone make and model. The issue here seems to be that, for some reason, AT&T either hasn't received the range of IMEI numbers for the 950 XL from Microsoft or they haven't loaded into their system that this range of IMEI's are compatible with LTE data usage. They obviously do have the IMEI's in their database for the 950 which is why your dad's IMEI allowed them to correctly provision LTE for your phone number.

I have no data connectivitiy. 920 is at&t branded.

I've had a similar issue before when my 920 broke and I temporarily used an HSPA+ smartphone. Based on the IMEI I was using a the time, AT&T automatically removed my LTE provisioning and provisioned my phone with an older data plan. When I switched back to the 920 after it was repaired, I no longer had LTE. I was already being billed for my smartphone data plan, which I thinik is all AT&T was concerned with. I had to contact them to have a representative manually add the LTE provisioning back to my account. This was not an automatic change since my phone number was already provisioned for the minimum billing requirements.

I don't know why you would have no data connectivity at all. You should at least get 3G data since their system should automatically recognize that you have a smartphone that requires a data plan.

 

[EliteMikes]

Turned out that the neither APN was being set. MMS and internet.

 

[fpostrow]

When I activated my xl I had to get a new nano SIM as my previous phone was a 920. I never ran the old phone with the new SIM, just installed it in the new phone and set up my xl. When I replaced my 2 sons 920's with 950's I replaced their SIM's, installed the new SIM's into the old 920 ATT branded first. Ran the phones for a few days and then installed into the unlocked 950 and setup the new phones. The end result is my phone only runs at 4g speed where my Sons phones connect at LTE. Time to pop the sim into my 920 and fix this. Jeez.

 

[fpostrow]

OMG that was too easy. LTE and VVM. Voila.

 

[RichHowerton]

When I activated my xl I had to get a new nano SIM as my previous phone was a 920. I never ran the old phone with the new SIM, just installed it in the new phone and set up my xl. When I replaced my 2 sons 920's with 950's I replaced their SIM's, installed the new SIM's into the old 920 ATT branded first. Ran the phones for a few days and then installed into the unlocked 950 and setup the new phones. The end result is my phone only runs at 4g speed where my Sons phones connect at LTE. Time to pop the sim into my 920 and fix this. Jeez.

Let me get this straight, just take the sim out of the XL, put in another at&t lte phone, use it, then return sim to the XL, and voila, LTE in enabled on the XL?

 

[fpostrow]

Let me get this straight, just take the sim out of the XL, put in another at&t lte phone, use it, then return sim to the XL, and voila, LTE in enabled on the XL?

Yes.

 

[Keng C]

What do you know, I switched from SIM 1 to SIM 2 and got the LTE back....

 

[falconrap]

I just wanted to post to this thread so that others may avoid the "no LTE" issue on the 950 XL. From what I had seen and heard, but was apparently buried in this thread, those who took their phones into AT&T without ever powering up the phone have had no issue getting LTE service. I don't know if the 950 XL IMEI's are now in AT&T's database or not, but I got my phone today and took it into AT&T without powering the phone on. AT&T provisioned the nano sim, placed it in the phone, then we had to charge the phone before it could be powered. After about 10 minutes, the phone booted up and I have LTE service. No issues at all so far.

Mine is the international (single sim) version, so I can't speak 100% for the dual sim, but it appears that this works for both. The store rep (this was a corporate store - checked this first to avoid any issues) even noted that you didn't want to power up the phone without a properly setup nano sim already in the phone.

Hopefully, this will be a guide to anyone else who gets this phone to use on AT&T and wants to avoid issues with LTE service.

 

[RichHowerton]

After 7 months, I finally have lte. Finally did the customer service chat. Sent me up to advanced support, and after some haggling, got them to enter a New imei for the phone. Gave them one off 640lte. Reboot, presto, LTE!

 

[RichHowerton]

Visual voicemail finally started working also. Love double tap to wake with the latest update. Guess I will hold.one to this phone a while now.

 

[PGrey]

After 7 months, I finally have lte. Finally did the customer service chat. Sent me up to advanced support, and after some haggling, got them to enter a New imei for the phone. Gave them one off 640lte. Reboot, presto, LTE!

Good that you have LTE, but that's going to give you grief, if the IMEI "sticks" for that 640, and it gets connected to AT&T, it's UID for a reason...

I got mine working, with a simple provision. They don't have the "right" phone in their DB for me, mostly because I think they're being lame, and don't want to enter the info for phones they don't sell, or have much volume of.
My LTE has never been great though, it's mediocre, my daughter's 1020, running 494 (and previous builds) and only getting 4G, blows my speeds out of the water, same location, but she consistently gets 30-40mbps, and I'm lucky to get 15, it's a little frustrating, that part. Tricky to debug though, AT&T says I'm getting what they consider "sufficient" for LTE, and don't really care that the other 4G phone is getting almost triple.
Do I notice it, probably not usually, maybe more when tethering, but not typically. It's annoying though, if anyone has thoughts...

 

[bill2455]

I have a 950 xl dual sim purchased from a MS store. I was just getting 4G on my carrier, net10. Put an AT&T sim card in the phone and it was provisioned for LTE after about a minute. Put my own net10 sim back in and now I have LTE.

Thanks to all who suggested this tip.