[lift]

I'm starting a new thread because a similar one about this has been forgotten about. In another thread a user claimed to get LTE from T-Mobile on his STA100-3 (Verizon) Z30. I tried to duplicate his findings and it wasn't pretty. All I got with my active T-Mobile SIM was gsm and edge in my area. Not one time did I get LTE in a know LTE area. I didn't even get 3G/4G. The STA100-3 has band 4 LTE and has the refarmed 1900 band for 3G/4G so why doesn't it work? Any experts have an answer? The only thing I can think of is Verizon locks out the LTE and 4G bands on any network other than Verizons. Any information would be appreciated.

[pkcable]

Yes the LTE may be locked, BUT you should still be able to get H+ I was able to get H+ on my Z30 on T-Mobile. There IS talk that under certain circumstances in certain areas, like California for example you can get LTE on the Verizon Z30 or Q10 on GSM networks, via the 1700 frequency band 4.

[raino]

I've been searching for an answer to this question myself, and the only semi-sensible explanation I could come up with was the same as yours. But this behavior is not uniform, i.e. TMO users using a Z30 -3 do get LTE in some places (as do AT&T customers; see this thread.)

There is precedence for Verizon devices initially coming with "locked" band 4--devices such as the Galaxy Note 3. With this device, there was a software update pushed out which "unlocked" this band and made it available for use--possibly around the time Verizon began testing/deploying its band 4 LTE network (although pre-XLTE.) I would have thought the last pushed OS update for the Z30 would have done the same, but I guess not.

Re: HSPA+ on 1900 MHz, keep in mind, this is TMO's secondary UMTS network, so it may not be available around you. And there is no UMTS 1700 in the -3. But we know that TMO has LTE only on band 4 (for now.)

[lift]

Thanks Raino. I'm not using the official Verizon OS right now. The phone did come with Verizon's latest OS on it, but I used Sachesi to load the latest .3247 OS. That shouldn't matter would it? I would imagine that if Verizon's latest OS unlocked band 4 then any other later OS wouldn't re-lock it.
The point about the HSPA+ 1900 MHz sounds valid. Maybe this area has not been re-farmed to 1900 because I am not in a major city. I'm sticking with Verizon anyway. I just wanted to try T-Mobile on this phone to see what would happen.

[raino]

Thanks Raino. I'm not using the official Verizon OS right now. The phone did come with Verizon's latest OS on it, but I used Sachesi to load the latest .3247 OS. That shouldn't matter would it? I would imagine that if Verizon's latest OS unlocked band 4 then any other later OS wouldn't re-lock it.
The point about the HSPA+ 1900 MHz sounds valid. Maybe this area has not been re-farmed to 1900 because I am not in a major city. I'm sticking with Verizon anyway. I just wanted to try T-Mobile on this phone to see what would happen.

I'm not sure about the non-Verizon OS. Heck, I can't even say for sure if it made any difference. I was just saying that for the GN3, Verizon put out a firmware update that did unlock that band. Verizon release 10.2.1 for the Z30 on or around 1/28, and I tried to find out if it did anything, but didn't get too many answers. There was also a guy claiming he "[flashed] a GSM firmware and radio to the Verizon z30" but never did say which autoloader it was, and what else he did (it was a bit complicated)

There used to be a really nice website with a map that was tracking UMTS 1900 coverage. It seems to be unavailable now.

[lift]

Bump and an update if anyone is interested. I noticed yesterday with the Rogers STA100-5 .3175 OS that I was now getting 4G from T-Mobile on my Verizon Z30. This means I am in a refarmed market and should be getting LTE also. Well, no matter where I went again, I never saw 4GLTE. I saw 4G in some areas. Well, this is a Verizon Z30 and I needed to put my Verizon SIM back in, but before I did that, I updated the core OS to the Verizon .3247. I found the Verizon .3247 core OS file in one of the other threads. After the update, before I put my Verizon SIM back in, I noticed that I lost 4G and only get 2G, GSM or Edge now. So in conclusion, I think the core OS has a lot to do with the ability of this phone to work with other carriers SIM cards. I have my Verizon SIM back in and am enjoying the .3247 updated OS.

[raino]

Would you be willing to try an OS newer than .3247? Luckily, the Z30 OSes are model-neutral.

[lift]

I am going to wait a little while because I need to actually use this phone as a phone. LOL. I thought .3247 was the latest official? I'm kind of nervous about the 10.3 branch right now because it's not fully working nor is it official. I am definitely open to trying another OS soon though.