ICS and world phone

[shawn510#AC]

Hey, the RAZR and Droid 4 got international GSM roaming support added when they went to ICS.
The Bionic also has the GSM hardware, but I haven't heard anything that confirms that the support was added in the OTA.

Does anyone know if the GSM roaming support was added in the OTA? Is there a way to test it without leaving the country?

I'll being travelling to a GSM only area soon and I would like to just use my Bionic with a global roaming package and not have to rent another phone.

 

[perkdog65]

This has been asked before and i think the short answer is NO. However, I did a search a while back, because I had to travel to London, and there is a way to get it to work with another SIM card, like a prepaid one you would buy once in country, but I didn't have the time to read up enough on the process so I just had to use the phone in WIFI and use Google talk or Skype to communicate. I think if you search Google for "bionic and GSM" you might find some information.

 

[Ry]

The release notes say Global roaming was added.

https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/90340/p/30,6720,8048

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Android Central Forums

 

[desplin]

That is good news. Has anyone verified that the Bionic has GSM enabled now?

The release notes say Global roaming was added.

https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/90340/p/30,6720,8048

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Android Central Forums

 

[burbley]

I was hesitant to do this based on my last "experience" where I fubar'd the Phone App that I had to factory reset the phone.

However, I did notice after I followed the instructions after googling for "bionic gsm" to enable the GSM bands, I now have the network mode set to "Global". I'm still using the Verizon SIM just to reassure myself it's all still good.

I found the RadioComm 11.12.2 (googled "bionic radiocomm") and installed that.
The built in drivers are super-old. When you run RadioComm it will install the old ones. Go install the latest from developer.motorola.com/tools/usb_drivers.
After all the drivers are updated, plug in the USB cable and switch the USB mode to MTP. (PTP and MSC won't work).

Set the RadioComm to: MA->CDMA1X->QSC60x5.
If necessary, set the connection type to USB PST.
RadioComm will detect the device and the "light" in the top right corner should be green.
Change tabs to FTM Common1.
On the right, look for the NVAccess section.
Pull down the selector and scroll waaaaay down to 1877: NV_RF_BC_CONFIG_I.
Push the READ button and the text box will fill up with 070000...more zeros...0000....
Very carefully modify the first 8 bytes to 8703E80400000200.
There are FIVE zeros between the 4 and the 2.
If it's all good, push WRITE.
If the top text box is green, you're good to go.
Unplug and power down.
Restart the phone and make sure you're still alive.

I set it to: LTE/CDMA/EvDo/GSM/WCDMA.

Now the Mobile Networks screen says that the Network Mode is "Global".

 

[burbley]

I put in an AT&T SIM and it came up on the AT&T network.

However, I made the mistake of switching it to WCDMA Only and rebooting. Now I'm in an infinite "Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped." loop.

 

[Tom in Bristol]

I was hesitant to do this based on my last "experience" where I fubar'd the Phone App that I had to factory reset the phone.

However, I did notice after I followed the instructions after googling for "bionic gsm" to enable the GSM bands, I now have the network mode set to "Global". I'm still using the Verizon SIM just to reassure myself it's all still good.

<snip>

Not sure I understand what the capabilities of your Bionic are once you implement it all?

Does (or will) it allow you to use the device on US GSM networks (with or without other network roaming charges?)?

Or, is does (or will) it to be used in Europe/Asia?

Really looks to be an interesting development!

 

[guardlights]

The release notes say Global roaming was added.

https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/90340/p/30,6720,8048

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Android Central Forums

I posed this exact question in this thread. The moderator for the forum, Matt, said the release note was a typo. You can decide for yourself what the nature of global support is for this build of ICS on the Bionic
https://forums.motorola.com/posts/2140f4f5cb

 

[Ry]

I posed this exact question in this thread. The moderator for the forum, Matt, said the release note was a typo. You can decide for yourself what the nature of global support is for this build of ICS on the Bionic
https://forums.motorola.com/posts/2140f4f5cb

shucks.

 

[shawn510#AC]

I tried going into the */*/info/*/* menu and changing the settings then putting in my wife's ATT sim. It never connected to a network, so assume I will still have to do the radiocomm mod to get it to work.

 

[hugo626]

Hello, I'm new here. I live in Mexico and have applied the hack on the Bionic running 902 and all was great voice and text, but once I upgraded to ICS 6.7.246 and reapplied the hack I can't send or receive text. Any idea on how I can get that to work? I know when I was on .902 and wanted to get APN to work I had to go into ro.mot.phonemode.vzw4gphone=1 and change the value to 0 and was able to get 3g to work, hope this helps someone that can't get data to work on there bionic .902. Would be great if someone knows of a hack to get texting to work on ICS 6.7.246 Bionic GSM, thanks

 

[Dailen]

I was hesitant to do this based on my last "experience" where I fubar'd the Phone App that I had to factory reset the phone.

However, I did notice after I followed the instructions after googling for "bionic gsm" to enable the GSM bands, I now have the network mode set to "Global". I'm still using the Verizon SIM just to reassure myself it's all still good.

I found the RadioComm 11.12.2 (googled "bionic radiocomm") and installed that.
The built in drivers are super-old. When you run RadioComm it will install the old ones. Go install the latest from developer.motorola.com/tools/usb_drivers.
After all the drivers are updated, plug in the USB cable and switch the USB mode to MTP. (PTP and MSC won't work).

Set the RadioComm to: MA->CDMA1X->QSC60x5.
If necessary, set the connection type to USB PST.
RadioComm will detect the device and the "light" in the top right corner should be green.
Change tabs to FTM Common1.
On the right, look for the NVAccess section.
Pull down the selector and scroll waaaaay down to 1877: NV_RF_BC_CONFIG_I.
Push the READ button and the text box will fill up with 070000...more zeros...0000....
Very carefully modify the first 8 bytes to 8703E80400000200.
There are FIVE zeros between the 4 and the 2.
If it's all good, push WRITE.
If the top text box is green, you're good to go.
Unplug and power down.
Restart the phone and make sure you're still alive.

I set it to: LTE/CDMA/EvDo/GSM/WCDMA.

Now the Mobile Networks screen says that the Network Mode is "Global".

So I was just given a Bionic that had Android 2.3.4 (or close to it) on it, I successfully was able to change the value using Radiocomm. Afterwards I discovered that 4.0.4 was available so since I read of people getting this to work on ICS i decided to upgrade. Well now that I've upgraded I can't get Radiocomm to properly read. I'm using the same version as you are. What motorola driver version are you using? Driving me nuts that I had this and botched it by upgrading.