Verizon U12+ vs. Unlocked U12+

[Ry]

But if the carrier certification is there in the first place, who's fault is it really. I was really pissed about the XZ2 not having the features but I didn't blame Sony. It is capable just as much as a stupid Galaxy phone. Had all the bands and radios necessary. Carrier certification is certification through the carrier. No matter how you look at it, it's the carriers fault.

It's the carriers fault that the OEM doesn't want to go through the process? Sure.

Again, other OEMs can make it happen.

 

[bhatech]

Yeah I still blame the useless carriers putting all sorts of hurdles for non carrier branded phones to work. At least with T-Mobile that list is not that large and most phones do have WiFi calling and VoLTE. HTC fault on U12+ is they don't have band 71 which is getting important for T-MOBILE network. Most phones including even OnePlus 6 have band 71 now. So that's the only disappointing thing network wise for me.

 

[holz75]

Yeah I still blame the useless carriers putting all sorts of hurdles for non carrier branded phones to work. At least with T-Mobile that list is not that large and most phones do have WiFi calling and VoLTE. HTC fault on U12+ is they don't have band 71 which is getting important for T-MOBILE network. Most phones including even OnePlus 6 have band 71 now. So that's the only disappointing thing network wise for me.

The U12+ (and U11) doesn't include band 30 which AT&T is using more and more. Luckily, it seems it's not that big of a deal... yet.

 

[Milt K]

Yeah I still blame the useless carriers putting all sorts of hurdles for non carrier branded phones to work. At least with T-Mobile that list is not that large and most phones do have WiFi calling and VoLTE. HTC fault on U12+ is they don't have band 71 which is getting important for T-MOBILE network. Most phones including even OnePlus 6 have band 71 now. So that's the only disappointing thing network wise for me.

On my unlocked-variant Samsung S8+, you had to flash the carrier firmware through Odin to get the more advanced features like Wifi-Calling and Advanced Calling but you couldn't get most of them. For TMob, I flashed the T-mobile firmware and was able to get Wifi-calling and AC but could not use the built-in DIGITS support that the phone had. For VZW, i flashed the VZW firmware to obtain VoLTE and AC, but still could not use the video calling features. It really is up to the carriers and how the whitelist the IMEIs to enable all the carrier-specific features. Either way, the stock unlocked firmware didn't have access to certain features that the carrier-variants had.

Based on everyone's experiences, I honestly feel like the carrier-variants will have their IMEIs whitelisted with the proper firmware to support the features. The unlocked variants would not and you may have to go the root of flashing carrier-firmware to get some but potentially not all of the carrier-specific features. The phones are all the same and "compatible" with each network, its the firmware and whitelisting that will end up being differen

 

[Milt K]

It will be up to your carrier to support those features. The U12+ has the ability to do those things, but it's not up to HTC. You will have to contact the carrier directly. There are no unlocked bootloader codes for your carrier to give you. They don't have any of their software installed, sell the phone, or provide any support for it. The previous "T-Mobile" variant I bought direct through HTC was the same as the unlocked version. The SKU was the same, no carrier support, no carrier software, it was the unlocked version.

Carriers don't supply bootloader unlock codes but HTC does/did for unlocked phones they sold directly. The question i was asking was if these codes are going to be available for the carrier-variants that they sell directly (since no carrier stores are actually selling them) like the unlocked versions (which i assume will happen).

 

[holz75]

On my unlocked-variant Samsung S8+, you had to flash the carrier firmware through Odin to get the more advanced features like Wifi-Calling and Advanced Calling but you couldn't get most of them. For TMob, I flashed the T-mobile firmware and was able to get Wifi-calling and AC but could not use the built-in DIGITS support that the phone had. For VZW, i flashed the VZW firmware to obtain VoLTE and AC, but still could not use the video calling features. It really is up to the carriers and how the whitelist the IMEIs to enable all the carrier-specific features. Either way, the stock unlocked firmware didn't have access to certain features that the carrier-variants had.

Based on everyone's experiences, I honestly feel like the carrier-variants will have their IMEIs whitelisted with the proper firmware to support the features. The unlocked variants would not and you may have to go the root of flashing carrier-firmware to get some but potentially not all of the carrier-specific features. The phones are all the same and "compatible" with each network, its the firmware and whitelisting that will end up being differen

If you read a few posts above what HTC told a couple of us, there are no carrier variants. It's all the same unlocked phone, and they even said AT&T Wi-Fi calling will not work, and they weren't sure about VZW.

 

[Milt K]

If you read a few posts above what HTC told a couple of us, there are no carrier variants. It's all the same unlocked phone, and they even said AT&T Wi-Fi calling will not work, and they weren't sure about VZW.

That was a chat with HTC support I did with them by the way which stated the issue with ATT. My point is that they are the same phone but the IMEIs for the carrier-variants could be whitelisted and can have specific firmware (NOT hardware) to enable certain features, especially for carrier-specific features like wifi-calling, Advanced Calling, and video calling. All the phones will still work on whatever network you choose to use (save Sprint) on the same basic level but may be limited w/r/t some carrier-specificfeatures. And that's based on the experience I had with the unlocked S8+.

 

[holz75]

That was a chat with HTC support I did with them by the way which stated the issue with ATT. My point is that they are the same phone but the IMEIs for the carrier-variants could be whitelisted and can have specific firmware (NOT hardware) to enable certain features, especially for carrier-specific features like wifi-calling, Advanced Calling, and video calling. All the phones will still work on whatever network you choose to use (save Sprint) on the same basic level but may be limited w/r/t some carrier-specificfeatures. And that's based on the experience I had with the unlocked S8+.

Sorry, I didn't look for your username. I'd specifically ask HTC chat exactly how you just worded that and see what they say. Otherwise, we'll just have to wait until people start getting their phones.

 

[anon(10464842)]

It's the carriers fault that the OEM doesn't want to go through the process? Sure.

Again, other OEMs can make it happen.

Sorry mate, our carriers in the UK don't do this nonsense... because we have laws to protect consumers and ensure we have varieties and that the market is not locked under 1 or 2 carriers! In fact I was looking around me last week in public gathering, I found more HTCs in ppl's hands than I saw iphones and galaxies!

Americans need to get together against these scamming carriers

 

[NEXUS_HTC_PS]

Sorry mate, our carriers in the UK don't do this nonsense... because we have laws to protect consumers and ensure we have varieties and that the market is not locked under 1 or 2 carriers! In fact I was looking around me last week in public gathering, I found more HTCs in ppl's hands than I saw iphones and galaxies!

Americans need to get together against these scamming carriers

Yes. But it'll never happen because you know, the great ol' American government.

 

[bhatech]

Sorry mate, our carriers in the UK don't do this nonsense... because we have laws to protect consumers and ensure we have varieties and that the market is not locked under 1 or 2 carriers! In fact I was looking around me last week in public gathering, I found more HTCs in ppl's hands than I saw iphones and galaxies!

Americans need to get together against these scamming carriers

Well said, our US carriers are the worst and give zero ****s about users or user experience on phones. All they do is take a phone, crap up it up, modify/remove features which they don't like irrespective of it's helpful to user or not. I don't buy carrier branded phones if I have a option to buy non carrier phones. Unfortunately, majority of people don't see any issues with carrier phones, they are perfectly happy with it. I'm pretty sure that's not going to change anytime soon.

Other than prices, I envy how better the phone sales channels are in many other parts of the world compared to here in the US where the crappy carriers are the gate keepers for most Android phones.

 

[Ry]

Well said, our US carriers are the worst and give zero ****s about users or user experience on phones. All they do is take a phone, crap up it up, modify/remove features which they don't like irrespective of it's helpful to user or not. I don't buy carrier branded phones if I have a option to buy non carrier phones. Unfortunately, majority of people don't see any issues with carrier phones, they are perfectly happy with it. I'm pretty sure that's not going to change anytime soon.

Other than prices, I envy how better the phone sales channels are in many other parts of the world compared to here in the US where the crappy carriers are the gate keepers for most Android phones.

Sorry mate, our carriers in the UK don't do this nonsense... because we have laws to protect consumers and ensure we have varieties and that the market is not locked under 1 or 2 carriers! In fact I was looking around me last week in public gathering, I found more HTCs in ppl's hands than I saw iphones and galaxies!

Americans need to get together against these scamming carriers

With this thread being about VoLTE and WiFi calling, I found this on O2's site:

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ectivity%2Fwifi-and-4g-calling&token=UDRrCWof

Wifi and 4G Calling is available on many of our devices*

Check if your device is supported.

*For Android devices, Wifi and 4G Calling will only work on devices using O2 firmware. To learn more and check if your device is compatible click here.

...not so much different than the US market.

 

[anon(10464842)]

With this thread being about VoLTE and WiFi calling, I found this on O2's site:

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ectivity%2Fwifi-and-4g-calling&token=Oip0xavU



...not so much different than the US market.

I just had a chat with O2, he said if the phone is compatible with wifi and 4g calling and you only order a sim card, you will be able to make the calls without the firmware.
I'll test that once i get my U12, it is not in the list of supported phones being new.

 

[Ry]

I just had a chat with O2, he said if the phone is compatible with wifi and 4g calling and you only order a sim card, you will be able to make the calls without the firmware.
I'll test that once i get my U12, it is not in the list of supported phones being new.

I hope it works out for you.

 

[BigDinCA]

... and can have specific firmware (NOT hardware) to enable certain features, especially for carrier-specific features like wifi-calling, Advanced Calling, and video calling. All the phones will still work on whatever network you choose to use (save Sprint) on the same basic level but may be limited w/r/t some carrier-specificfeatures. And that's based on the experience I had with the unlocked S8+.

Not for nothing, but what you're basically talking about here are carrier variances of the device. There aren't any. If HTC was making tweaked versions of the software for each carrier, they wouldn't be doing it for free. They would expect the carriers to be selling the devices too. But they aren't.

There isn't going to be specific firmware for the Verizon model vs. the T-Mobile model. You won't see a carrier splash screen. There's just no difference. It was the exact same way with ordering the U11, save the Sprint version. But you could also buy that version from Sprint. It does seem like the unlocked version will work properly on Verizon though (minus CDMA capabilities apparently), as they haven't crippled it like they did the U11 last year. I saw someone had posted a page from VZW where it shows the U12+ and all of the bands it's certified on, etc. It's somewhere here in the AC forums.