De-brand your AT&T Lumia 640 LTE.

[bartclan]

I got an AT&T Lumia 640 from Best Buy on Black Friday and now it is unlocked. I'm currently in Belgium and would love to use LTE with my current provider, but they require LTE 1800 Band 3. I'm guessing since Band 12 comes alive when flashing the T-Mo ROM, that there might be a ROM that will activate Band 3 but can't find any authoritative source. Anybody got any ideas which ROM would be appropriate to flash? Thanks!

 

[boonesmi]

I got an AT&T Lumia 640 from Best Buy on Black Friday and now it is unlocked. I'm currently in Belgium and would love to use LTE with my current provider, but they require LTE 1800 Band 3. I'm guessing since Band 12 comes alive when flashing the T-Mo ROM, that there might be a ROM that will activate Band 3 but can't find any authoritative source. Anybody got any ideas which ROM would be appropriate to flash? Thanks!

i don't think band 3 is possible (hardware related) on the RM-1073 (att/tmobile/etc version)

 

[pankaj981]

Successfully de-branded to the unbranded LTA MX ROM.

This is great, and will be very helpful to some people out there, thank you for writing this up and sharing! I do wonder if it's possible to flash to another country variant that is single sim, and unlocked.

^^

 

[Jonathanmr7]

So now its possible? i mean really? :O

 

[Arunabha Goswami]

I'm getting a vague idea of what de-branding is from reading this thread, but can someone clarify it for me please in a debranding-for-dummies manner? I'm guessing it could be useful for me, since I'm from India, and imported an unlocked AT&T GoPhone Lumia 640 from America.

 

[barber76]

I'm getting a vague idea of what de-branding is from reading this thread, but can someone clarify it for me please in a debranding-for-dummies manner? I'm guessing it could be useful for me, since I'm from India, and imported an unlocked AT&T GoPhone Lumia 640 from America.

As I understand, replacing the firmware. Low-level code underneath the OS itself. The only reason because providers can enable/disable certain features on the firmware level. Like extra frequencies, wi-fi calling etc.

 

[PepperdotNet]

I'm getting a vague idea of what de-branding is from reading this thread, but can someone clarify it for me please in a debranding-for-dummies manner? I'm guessing it could be useful for me, since I'm from India, and imported an unlocked AT&T GoPhone Lumia 640 from America.

Debranding or Unbranding is simply replacing the branded (AT&T in our case) firmware with a more generic version for the same hardware. It gets rid of whatever customizations and additional apps that AT&T decided to install on the phones they sell. In some cases, AT&T built their firmware to disable specific radio bands used by their competition, or make built-in features (voicemail, tethering) not work properly when used on another network. The generic firmware has no such restriction.

 

[dwaynebritton]

Tag

 

[Arunabha Goswami]

As I understand, replacing the firmware. Low-level code underneath the OS itself. The only reason because providers can enable/disable certain features on the firmware level. Like extra frequencies, wi-fi calling etc.

Debranding or Unbranding is simply replacing the branded (AT&T in our case) firmware with a more generic version for the same hardware. It gets rid of whatever customizations and additional apps that AT&T decided to install on the phones they sell. In some cases, AT&T built their firmware to disable specific radio bands used by their competition, or make built-in features (voicemail, tethering) not work properly when used on another network. The generic firmware has no such restriction.

Thank you both for the replies. I guess I'm going to do it, since there are indeed some features that are unavailable in my phone, like the option to set the highest connection speed(it's always 4G). Also I don't know if it's related, but I can't install the MyVodafone App either.

 

[brusbrother]

Unbranded an ATT 640 and while it did add Band 12 to the phone, a side by side comparison of a branded and unbranded version of the 640 on TMobile network produced no better reception based on RSSI field test numbers.
It does add wifi calling for those on TMo.

 

[boonesmi]

Unbranded an ATT 640 and while it did add Band 12 to the phone, a side by side comparison of a branded and unbranded version of the 640 on TMobile network produced no better reception based on RSSI field test numbers.
It does add wifi calling for those on TMo.

im not sure im reading your post right? are you saying a branded ATT phone side by side with an unbranded ATT phone? or an unbranded ATT phone side by side with a branded TMO phone?

either way were you verifying that it was using band 12? if band 4 gets good signal strength then it will stay on band 4 (band 4 is faster then band 12)

assuming you live somewhere band12 has been rolled out. try using it deep inside an office building, or deep basement (places TMO is famous for no signal) thats when the phone will swap to using band12.


edit to add:
band 12 has no advantage over other LTE bands other then the fact that since its a low freq it can penetrate much better, and travel farther distances. and for the most part no phone will use band 12 if any other faster LTE bands are available.

2nd edit to add:
for testing purposes you can force the phone to use band 12 by going into field test and disabling all other bands. if the phone is not able to get a signal then you know band 12 isn't available in your area OR band 12 doesn't work on your phone.

 

[brusbrother]

I am following this debranding on xda developers where others report that Band 12 is showing as an option but is not working in known areas of Band 12 being active. They turned off all but Band 12 and had no signal.
Could there be different HW versions?
For those who can verify Band 12 working, is there such a thing as a HW version that you can specify. Perhaps there is a change in HW for the Go phone ATT?

 

[STORMY13]

Can anyone recommend a non-branded ROM for North America? Was asked in the xda thread but no one ever answered.

 

[pankaj981]

LTA-MX ROM. I am running it right now and its running great.

 

[alen14]

hello guys

i just got at&t lumia 640LTE and i want to unbrad it

i live in EU and my version is RM-1073 and i use this site for rom's lumiafirmware

can i use rom's from RM-1072 because it have more EURO rom's inside

or if someone can tell me what would be best euro rom for me

thx a lot

 

[theefman]

LTA-MX ROM. I am running it right now and its running great.

Does that rom still give you band 12, and with that band active is there really a need for WiFi, calling? With Tmo already disowning the phone I'd rather avoid putting their rom on it as I assume it will see no further updates. Thanks.

 

[pankaj981]

Does that rom still give you band 12, and with that band active is there really a need for WiFi, calling? With Tmo already disowning the phone I'd rather avoid putting their rom on it as I assume it will see no further updates.

I can't test Band 12 nor Wi-Fi calling since I am not on T-Mobile.

 

[theefman]

I can't test Band 12 nor Wi-Fi calling since I am not on T-Mobile.

Ok, thanks. Guess I'll find try it myself and see what happens.

 

[boonesmi]

Ok, thanks. Guess I'll find try it myself and see what happens.

many reported issues with wifi calling and band 12 not working unless then included the "-do_full_nvi_update" parameter. you can find more info in the xda thread in post #257 (it fixed issues for several people who were having problems) obviously you would replace the tmobile .ffu with the one of your choosing.

 

[theefman]

many reported issues with wifi calling and band 12 not working unless then included the "-do_full_nvi_update" parameter. you can find more info in the xda thread in post #257 (it fixed issues for several people who were having problems) obviously you would replace the tmobile .ffu with the one of your choosing.

Thanks for the info. I'll be perusing that thread over the weekend.