The wife just upgraded to an VZW S4 and so far loves it. Thank the gods as she was coming from a problematic Incredible 2. We do some internation travel and the question is How friendly are custom ROMs when it comes to travelling in other countries? We took a trip to Belize with the DInc2 running Virtuous Affinity and then another to Norway and neither trip did the phone work correctly, but I'm not sure if this was a ROM issue or something else.
I've tried to Google this question, but hadn't found an answer. Perhaps I'm wording it wrong.
Should we just stick with the stock ROM since international service is a must? Rooting isn't a must, but the deciding factor is the ability to tether which can be done rooted or unrooted so sticking with stock shouldn't be an issue.
Im here for the same question. Any one else have an idea if custom roms still work with international travel and Verizon international plans?
I am currently running CleanRom 1.6.5 and just got back from Italy. I used a sim card from over there, popped it in, and an hour later was up and running, data included. I used the data the entire time, and made a couple calls. It was only $26 for the sim and the service, and may be a better/cheaper option for you. I can't say about the VZW International service, but if that worked, I don't see why it wouldn't. Hope this helps.
Related
OK I have looked and looked but to no avail. Can someone just give me a straight answer. Will the i717 work with a T-Mobile SIM? t-mobile finally works in my area and decided to go with them, on their $30 a month plan. Which is 100 min( I don't talk much) and unlimited text and data ( data up to 5GB first 2 4G, 3G then on also they give you SIM or $.99 if you order their web site Another reason I went with them, cause I can use any unlocked GSM phone on their network. I never had much of a choice when it came to cell service since I live up in the mountains of East Tennessee. Only Verizon and Sprint Picked up at my house. You'd have to go 4 miles down the road to pick any GSM carrier. So any ways I just got a sweet deal on an i717 on eBay for $238 in great condition with some accessories. I read around that the Radio's and can be changed to accommodate T-Mobile's service? I have rooted devices before and know that's not a problem to put a custom ROM it so as to have the right radio. But Need advice on what to do and where to start. Anyone's help and I will forever be indebted to you. I apologize if This has been answered else where ....I just couldn't find it.
Yes this note will run on t-mobile network. Nice plan!
1. Flash CWM kernel.
2. Flash rooted kernel.
3. Flash Blaze modem.
4. Input APN settings.
Everything you need is here on Bigjoe's Super Everything page:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=28040353
Just follow the above sequence to get to your goal. Flash the fancy roms after you get your rig working.
And hit the thanks button for Bigjoe and the other threads you will visit.
A buddy of mine is wanting to do the same thing only he wants the N7000 instead of the i717. I know that the N7000 in the international Version but could you do the same with what yo explained to me with the i717?
Send a PM to Bigjoe. He is a contributor to the international version as well, so he will guide your friend.
sacosta115 said:
A buddy of mine is wanting to do the same thing only he wants the N7000 instead of the i717. I know that the N7000 in the international Version but could you do the same with what yo explained to me with the i717?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The international version doesn't support the bands and features a different chipset altogether. I wouldn't recommend getting it for T-Mobile, you'll probably be stuck on EDGE data forever.
Tmobile wont work on Note-7000
Brought a international note on Ebay, used with Tmobile in San Francisco area.
Getting only edge speeds.
So I am leaving Montana for south Korea soon and was pretty excited to learn that my Rezound is global capable. The only thing is I am unsure if it will work on a Korean SIM card, or how to do so. I am s-off running the first leaked ics ruu. Do I need to ruu to the global firmware? Or will any gsm capable roms work without a firmware update? Also, if there's any one out there who has been to south Korea and could give me some tips on providers to choose from it would be appreciated.
Sent from my ... Rezound
You need to install the official Global RUU, leaks can be problematic because they prevent you from getting OTAs on stock rom and may not be the latest, most stable software.
I think there have been like 2 official firmware upgrades and several leaks between what you are running and global.
You do need a GSM enabled ROM, and one that is based on the global firmware. Simplicity or Newts One XXX 5.08 may be good options for you if u want to stick with a Sense ROM.
You may still need to call Verizon re: international calling, although I wouldn't mention I was rooted.
Sent from my Rezound using Tapatalk 2
brenuga said:
You need to install the official Global RUU, leaks can be problematic because they prevent you from getting OTAs on stock rom and may not be the latest, most stable software.
I think there have been like 2 official firmware upgrades and several leaks between what you are running and global.
You do need a GSM enabled ROM, and one that is based on the global firmware. Simplicity or Newts One XXX 5.08 may be good options for you if u want to stick with a Sense ROM.
You may still need to call Verizon re: international calling, although I wouldn't mention I was rooted.
Sent from my Rezound using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for helping. I was a little unclear in my original post however; I actually am running Newts One XXX 5.1.0 currently (awesome by the way). What I am wondering though is this; will the fact that I am not on the global firmware mean that I will need to RUU update in order to get service with a South Korean provider. I do not plan on trying to remain with Verizon as I will be in South Korea for more than a year.
Sent from my Windows 8 PC
You will have to ruu to global firmware to obtain global radios to work with the global Rom
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2
rezound in rok
I'm also heading to the rok and hoping to use my rezound. I'm on stock ics ota. I'm going to see what I get on a stock rom before I do any unofficial releases, but I expect to drop SMS capabilities or maybe data like you see in the states with a T-Mobile sim in. I arrive in Korea on the 31st so I'll update sometime late next week and let you know. I've been to Korea before and I believe we will have to go with SK Telecom as our carrier because it is the only GSM network. The other networks are cdma to the best of my knowledge. Hopefully my next update will be from my phone on a Korean network!
Rezound in South Korea update
In Korea now. I just flashed my phone from a stock OTA ICS, unrooted, s-on over to the Global RUU found on Androidpolice.
I have tried to buy just a sim card from several stores, SK, KT Olleh etc, and the stores all say that I have to go to the headquarters stores located in Seoul, Yongsan Train Station on the top floor. Apparently this is the ONLY way to get a sim for a global phone, other than having a korean national get one for you and give it to you. This weekend I will be going to the headquarters stores and getting a sim, Other problems you may run into are related to being a foreigner in Korea. They will sometimes not want to sell you a phone on a contract because you as a foreigner could disappear at any time without paying the bill. So, they will try to get you to buy prepaid. I don't want to deal with prepaid anything, but that may be a viable option to get a SIM card easily. Just buy a reallllly cheap prepaid phone that has a sim in it, pull the sim and throw it in your global enabled device. Unless you speak Korean, navigating to the headquarters and getting what you want may prove a bit difficult. Fortunately, I do speak Korean, so I will let you know how it goes.
I will update again once I actually have a Sim in my phone!
Thanks for the valuable information so far. I will be arriving there at the end of November and am looking forward to hearing more about how It's going for you there.
Sent from my... Rezound
got a sim, no data!
Finally got a sim from KT Olleh today. The girl at the counter didn't believe me that the phone would work, but I got her to do it anyway. By the way, don't try to set up service for a phone anywhere in Korea on a weekend. They cannot activate a new phone unless its a weekday. So anyway, got it all setup and the girl sits there and plays with my phone for a while without saying anything to me. Then she tells me that the calling and texting is fine but the phone won't get a data signal. I asked her to set the APN, and she said she did. I checked it out and she had put in the KT APN as alwayson.ktfwing.com Looks right to me, and she seemed to know what she was doing for the most part. Then she started to go on about how Korea runs on CDMA for the most part and not GSM yadda yadda.
So, I have a Rezound, working for incoming and outgoing calls and text on KT Olleh, but no data signal at all. I might repost a similar message in another forum topic to see if any gurus have any advice on how to get it working. Also going to do some more research. I'm new to this but there is tons of information out there. I will post again once I have resolution or give up and buy a new phone!
PS Phones in korea can be REALLY expensive. Dropped 850 on my wifes LG phablet (optimus VU2)!!! Equivalent to the instinct in the states I think?
didn't flash twice
So, I am a phone noob, and did a lot of reading last night. Saw that most people flash rezounds twice anytime putting on new firmware etc. I think I will try that tonight and see if I pick up the data signal.
The ruu's generally need to be flashed twice. However I did not need to do so going to the global, the ruu automatically took care of everything.
Sent from my...rezound
website for kt olleh
Some helpful information that KT Olleh has to say about using a non-korean phone in Korea.
http://expatblog.kt.com/71
The rezound may not have the radio frequency that network uses. That would be the main problem as to why you aren't picking up data.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium
jonezj said:
Some helpful information that KT Olleh has to say about using a non-korean phone in Korea.
I am currently in Seoul and have rented an Evergreen Mobile Sim Card that works on KT Olleh's network. I am curious as to whether you were ever able to get your Rezound to work with their Data network, and if so, how? Mine works with Olleh Wifi for free but will not even recognize the 3G, despite my having changed the APN settings, and even going to the Evergreen Mobile office in Yeoksa-dong today (they said they couldn't get it to work after an hour of fiddling with it themselves).
Suggestions? Do I have to root?
Oh, and the link in your above post has expired. Could you summarize what KT said?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So after having this g2x for 2 years now I decided to Root it, all was well, it could access wifi and basically run like a phone without being connected to a plan (I recently upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S3). Well after rooting it and whatnot my girlfriend broke her ipod touch so I offered to give it to her and to put it on Net10 because my job now sells it. But when I put the SIM card in that's when things kind of went down hill, the phone, whenever I would place a call would start clicking and when I answered it with my phone the clicking continued on my end as well. I called Net10 Customer service and they didn't really help, so I put it back to stock everything except for the recovery menu. Still it doesn't work, the dude said that the t-mobile towers were having problems and that, that was the problem. I don't know if I trust that because my phone plan is with T-Mobile and I was talking with him just fine. So enough about my issues and on to the questions. Are there any Net10 friendly ROMs available and if so what are they? Is it the g2x that's being stupid or is it the network? Also my data stops working after I put in the Net10 APN. Any help would be greatly appreciated. To answer a question that I know some of you might have, yes I'm a rooting/ROM noob but I did it on my Galaxy S3 and it works like a charm. Thank you for your time.
gingerbread will be better
Hi,
I'm considering picking up a rezound for the GSM flexibility but I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around how it all works. Is there a stable and convenient way to go between GSM/CDMA besides dual booting/rom swapping? What's the point of the new OTA if it's not even JB? And is s-off necessary for everything? I'm not confident in the risks involved...and the wire trick.
Sorry for the noobness. Thanks!
Stormwing said:
Hi,
I'm considering picking up a rezound for the GSM flexibility but I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around how it all works. Is there a stable and convenient way to go between GSM/CDMA besides dual booting/rom swapping? What's the point of the new OTA if it's not even JB? And is s-off necessary for everything? I'm not confident in the risks involved...and the wire trick.
Sorry for the noobness. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do realize that switching between GSM and CDMA/LTE requires swapping out sim cards? You would need an AT&T or T-Mobile sim card to use a GSM network in the United States. So basically you would be paying for two separate wireless plans, one on AT&T and one on Verizon in order to switch back and forth. The purpose of the global GSM on the phone is so that if you go to say another country that only has GSM you could buy a cheap prepaid plan and insert the sim into the phone and be able to use the phone. And like myself who no longer has service with Verizon I can still use the phone as a GSM only in the United States by putting my AT&T sim card into it.
The phone once updated with the latest OTA will do this without being rooted or s-off. Verizon marketed this phone pretty much from the start as being a global phone right out of the box.
Yeah of course. I do a fair bit of traveling so I'd like the ability to jump to GSM on some foreign prepaid plan without having to purchase a secondary GSM-only device. My concern it's whether or not there's an easy way to switch without completely flashing a new ROM every time, or risking s-off (if it's even that risky?). Hot-swapping would be fantfantastic but rarely are things that convenient.
I'm not too keen on the OTA since it's not JB, and I usually go straight to custom roms anyway.
Stormwing said:
Yeah of course. I do a fair bit of traveling so I'd like the ability to jump to GSM on some foreign prepaid plan without having to purchase a secondary GSM-only device. My concern it's whether or not there's an easy way to switch without completely flashing a new ROM every time, or risking s-off (if it's even that risky?). Hot-swapping would be fantfantastic but rarely are things that convenient.
I'm not too keen on the OTA since it's not JB, and I usually go straight to custom roms anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should only have to swap out sims and change APN settings as the global GSM feature is built right into the phone now by default. There's noting you need to flash as long as you have the latest OTA update installed.
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/0...-bunch-of-stuff-you-probably-dont-care-about/
I'm thinking of getting a used phone, and I'd rather flash simply because stock Sense + bloatware is most likely terrible....unless the easiest way for global roaming is actually sticking with default software, which would suck.
Is there no convenient combo of custom 4.2 rom with some method for global roaming?
Stormwing said:
I'm thinking of getting a used phone, and I'd rather flash simply because stock Sense + bloatware is most likely terrible....unless the easiest way for global roaming is actually sticking with default software, which would suck.
Is there no convenient combo of custom 4.2 rom with some method for global roaming?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You would have to go into the development section and look at each individual custom ROM and see what build it is based off of to see if it had the gloabal gsm features baked in. I'm sure someone has already built a debloated custom ROM based off of the last OTA already. This is a spare phone I play with very infrequently and I don't use a custom ROM on it so I don't know which ones to suggest.
I am new to the whole cellphone scene. I have much more experience in the PC world.
I purchased an Verizon Galaxy S4 (I545) on e-bay, primarily for use as a media device. I have decided to get pre-paid service on T-Mobile. (My wife has a T-Mobile G2 and when I put her sim card in, I was able to make calls.)
I have the T-Mobile sim installed and will be initiating service tomorrow.
After reading many of the threads here, I see a lot of talk about flashing different ROMS onto the hardware. Since I am not a Verizon customer, I really have no need for "Verizon's" version of Android, other than if it is required for the hardware to work properly. I like to have my options for customization and installing various apk's, etc.... I like to control my hardware and not be limited to what one company or another says I should do. I do travel internationally, which is one reason why my wife has the T-Mobile account, since it has great coverage in Europe, etc....
So, I ask this:
Should I flash a different ROM on this beast?
What would be the benefits?
What would be the drawbacks?
Which ROM would be recommended and why?
Thanks in advance for your insights! :angel:
p.s. Before knowing any better, I updated my S4 using Verizon's Software Upgrade Assistant on my PC, meaning I currently am running Build LRX22C.I545VRUGOC1 w/ Kernel 3.4.0 [email protected] #1.