Why am i getting very low signal on my note 5

[OldElPaso]

Hi all,

I'm having a very frustrating and annoying problem with my note 5. I have just bought a note 5 brand new from a local store, and it seems it is from America. It is a unlocked at&t phone from America. The model is SM-N920A.

Now the problem I'm having is that it has a really weak signal. I have tried multiple sim cards in it and all are 2-3 bars lower then on my other phone. Most the time it has no reception or service and it is very frustrating.

Anyway I have done a tonne of research and it seems that the bands that at&t have are the same as the bands required for 4g and 3g service here in Australia.

I was wondering if anyone knows weather it may be a compatibility issue or weather there may be a problem with the phone.

The next few questions relate to installing a different region firmware on the phone. I want to flash it with an Australian firmware. So from what I understand if the model of my phone is SM-N920A, I need to flash it with only a firmware with the exact same model. Is this true. The problem with that is that no Australian firmware exists with the model N920A. So what would happen if let's say I tried to flash let's say SM-N920I which is an Australian firmware available in v7.0.

I don't know if what I've written makes any sense lol, but I'm pretty new to Android and I'm hoping someone can shed some light.

I would appreciate any help, thanks all.

 

[underway99]

BLUF, I'd start with contacting my carrier to see if they can provision the phone as is before I looked at flashing new firmware. Sometimes, making it work is about more than just inserting a SIM. It could be as simple as a new SIM (doubtful, but possible).

1. Just because the phone has the radio frequencies doesn't mean that the phone WILL work right out of the box on every carrier that uses those frequencies. Only that it's POSSIBLE. Provisioning for your network could be the fix. Look also at your APN settings if you have SMS issues or trouble keeping a data connection.

2. As to flashing a local firmware, that will be hit and/or miss. Normally, you want to match the firmware to the specific model. There are often variances between the different models produced for specific carriers and markets. Some of the differences are very minor and some aren't. Using a carrier-labeled model on a different network in a different region is possible, but you likely will be missing features. It will probably work, but not as you expect.

3. If you want to flash a local firmware, you'll probably want to use the Australian version of the international firmware. The SM-N920A is manufactured for AT&T, so you won't find a version for that phone to be used outside the US.