IMEI for Lumia 950 xl?

[Windows Central Question]

IMEI for lumia 950 xl

Waiting on the delivery of a Lumia 950 xl that I purchased for my wife. I myself have a Lumia 950. From what I have been reading online AT&T does not support Lite for the 950 xl and when setting up this phone I should use the IMEI from my 950. Has anyone had a similar experience? Has AT&T corrected this issue? If I do set it up with the 950 IMEI will I receive future updates? Trying to be proactive. Thanks for your help.

 

[MDK22]

Re: IMEI for lumia 950 xl

Waiting on the delivery of a Lumia 950 xl that I purchased for my wife. I myself have a Lumia 950. From what I have been reading online AT&T does not support Lte for the 950 xl and when setting up this phone I should use the IMEI from my 950. Has anyone had a similar experience? Has AT&T corrected this issue? If I do set it up with the 950 IMEI will I receive future updates? Trying to be proactive. Thanks for your help.

One has NOTHING to do w the other. The IMEI drives provisioning on the network. The updates for the 950 xl will come from Microsoft directly, as it's NOT an AT&T device (though it should work on their network).

 

[Thazal]

See this blog entry by Windows Central from back in November. Here is why you are not getting full LTE on AT&T when using the Lumia 950 XL

Unless AT&T haven't corrected he 950xl problem with LTE, using the 950's IMEI for the XL's sim shouldn't be a problem. I used my wife's 640 IMEI for my XL and the AT&T tech in chat had to use an old system that at the time they were moving away from to get it work, so I don't know if you'll need to set the new sim card up in the 950 as well. The XL has been out long enough though that maybe AT&T has figured it out, best chance is to go into a store or talk to online chat.

 

[PGrey]

AT&T still doesn't seem to have the phones in their DB, the last time I checked, maybe a month or so ago. I tried to get it corrected, but the CSR just kept saying my IMEI didn't match a known device type, and they couldn't do anything about it.
I think it's all part of their "BYOD and we'll happily de-feature it, for you!" plan, but maybe that's my paranoid self, the one that looks at the branded 950, with VoLTE, and probably targeted for WiFi calling, ugh.

I don't think you can use another devices' IMEI though, these are supposed to be a UID for reason, otherwise messages, calls, etc, would all get crossed six different ways.

I think the way it is now, our phones are in their DB, as the correct IMEI, but an unidentified device type.

 

[mggm100]

Re: IMEI for lumia 950 xl

I purchased a 950 XL from a Microsoft store about 6 weeks ago. At the time I asked if they could give me an AT&T SIM to save me a trip to the AT&T store. (My previous phone was a 1020 with a different SIM size.) They were able to give me the SIM. I have always been able to get LTE with the phone and did nothing at all to the settings. Apparently this issue has been fixed.

 

[PGrey]

Re: IMEI for lumia 950 xl

I purchased a 950 XL from a Microsoft store about 6 weeks ago. At the time I asked if they could give me an AT&T SIM to save me a trip to the AT&T store. (My previous phone was a 1020 with a different SIM size.) They were able to give me the SIM. I have always been able to get LTE with the phone and did nothing at all to the settings. Apparently this issue has been fixed.

Try logging into your AT&T account, and go to your device page. Do you see your 950XL, or is it an "unrecognized device", like mine?
My LTE works too, not great speeds, but it works, consistently.

 

[mggm100]

Re: IMEI for lumia 950 xl

Try logging into your AT&T account, and go to your device page. Do you see your 950XL, or is it an "unrecognized device", like mine?
My LTE works too, not great speeds, but it works, consistently.

It just shows a grayed out image of a phone with the word "Device" It used to have an image of a 1020 labeled Nokia Lumia 1020.

 

[PGrey]

Re: IMEI for lumia 950 xl

Exactly. While they realize it's an LTE (and VVM) capable device, and flag it as such, the actual device type is essentially "unknown".
Good luck getting this fixed, I spent a lot of time on the phone, and finally gave up.
Some people have managed to get things like the OnePlus fixed, with a LOT of calls, and waiting for DB updates, but most just give up.
AT&T isn't quite as BYOD friendly as they might seem, on the surface, they really want you to buy one of their marked-up or even better, contract phones.

 

[mggm100]

Re: IMEI for lumia 950 xl

I've taken that to mean it is "unknown" to AT&T because it isn't one they sell and/or load up with their apps. It probably won't change unless it is added to their lineup. It is of little concern to me, and I don't expect to be spending time and energy trying to get it "fixed."

 

[PGrey]

Re: IMEI for lumia 950 xl

I've taken that to mean it is "unknown" to AT&T because it isn't one they sell and/or load up with their apps. It probably won't change unless it is added to their lineup. It is of little concern to me, and I don't expect to be spending time and energy trying to get it "fixed."

Yeah, it's probably only an issue, IF (big, big IF), they decide to offer extended LTE services, like VoLTE and WiFi calling/texting, to non-branded devices. At that point, having it correctly identified would be important.
I gave up, for the same reason, time/energy, seemed like small likelihood of a real return.

 

[Allen Rhodes]

My $.02 on the matter... ATT knows about the phone. I went in for an issue with my wifes 950, while logged in I wanted to see if they had my 1020 IMEI still, since I gave them that to allow LTE back in Nov. Nope, sure enough its listed in their system as a 950XL. The fact their system recognizes the hardware, yet wont allow certain features, is borderline infuriating.

 

[PGrey]

My $.02 on the matter... ATT knows about the phone. I went in for an issue with my wifes 950, while logged in I wanted to see if they had my 1020 IMEI still, since I gave them that to allow LTE back in Nov. Nope, sure enough its listed in their system as a 950XL. The fact their system recognizes the hardware, yet wont allow certain features, is borderline infuriating.

Yep, it's truly maddening. I rant about it on the AT&T forums whenever someone asks about it, AT&T is notorious for de-featuring anything but a branded or iOS phone, infuriating is the right way to describe it.
I've often wondered, if people got together and filed a combined complaint, not sure if it'd be FCC or FTC, or maybe just the BBB, maybe it would be possible to leverage them somehow.
If it were only unbranded devices, I'd be *slightly* more understanding, but the fact that iOS devices get all the same features, un-branded, really gets me going, since we're all paying for those features, they just have a bigger influence behind their devices. I think worst-case, they should give us a discount, if they're not going to provide those services, out of choice.

Edit: You see a bunch of people coming to AT&T from T-Mobile now (probably figuring out they need rural coverage), and are asking why they don't have WiFi calling, where they had it on their XYZ Android device on the T-Mobile plan, no problem.

 

[Allen Rhodes]

Re: IMEI for lumia 950 xl

Well coming to att for rural coverage is not the smartest choice. Att is ditching their 2g/edge officially on Jan 1 2017. That's what's in rural areas. Att is hedging on having a faster network by ditching slower bands, imo. As for your prior point, unbranded phones are by no means the norm in the US. Most phones are branded somehow. So even though iOS gets priority, we are a very small percentage vs the percentage of non att iOS devices. They have the leverage, get he features. Sad, but is what it is.

 

[daimv]

Re: IMEI for lumia 950 xl

I'm surprised it isn't illegal to do what ATT does with phones not sold by them...

 

[PGrey]

Yeah, ATT is supposed to be "upgrading" all the 2G to 3G or better (really mostly 4G/LTE), that's their story anyway.
I think they're woefully behind anyway, from what I've seen in our state, but I can't see them just dropping all the rural, they'd lose a LOT of business to Verizon.

Yeah Daimv, me too, I wonder how they do it, give some people some features, because they have a phone with a marketing machine behind it, not because they couldn't technically give the same features to most of the others. It seems illegal to me too, unethical at-best.
I don't think anyone will really challenge them anyway, most people don't even know they want things like WiFi calling, hey, if they don't know what they're missing...