Re: Need input please from anyone using Unlocked Z Play on AT&T
I purchased the unlocked GSM version of the MOTO Z Play from Best Buy when they came out in October 2016. I got the Incipio wireless charging battery mod for free with the phone.
My story with AT&T LTE service has been one of frustration. Previously, I had a 2014 MOTO X, unlocked, purchased directly from MOTO. That phone worked fine on AT&T's LTE network.
I recieved my new MZP and put the sim from the MOTO X into the MZP and all was good. Full LTE service. The new radio takes advantage of AT&T's LTE speed more so than the older phone.
Three weeks of owning the phone, I suddenly have no service. The LTE service just cut out. I called AT&T and spent 2 hours of futile effort. All I was recieving for data was H+. My take away from AT&T at this time was, well we didn't sell you the phone, we can't guarantee that you will see full service. But wait, the phone is advertised as being AT&T capable & ready. As far as AT&T was concerned it was an unknown phone because they did not sell it to me.
Next step, I go to AT&T corporate store & get phone reprovisioned with a new sim card. Still no LTE, the same mantra, AT&T didn't sell you the phone, we can't guarantee service.
I went back to Best Buy, the store rep spent 2 hours on telephone "trouble shooting" with a higher tier of AT&T tech reps. Out of this, I received the higher tiered phone number for the AT&T techs.
No LTE at this point, two months into owning phone. Only H+. I put out several threads in forums to find out that other people were experiencing the same. What annoyed me was that when I put the sim card into my old MOTO X, I received LTE service.
Time goes by, I get the 7.0 update. I download the update & I'm receiving LTE service again. But only for one day. I factory reset, no LTE, only H+.
I kept Internet researching and found a thread on AT&T's own tech support web site, same problem. The solution was to get AT&T to change the IMEI for the MZP to the old IMEI of your last phone that worked on their system. I called about a week ago to the tech support number I have.
I spoke with a great woman that did change my IMEI for my current phone to the old phone IMEI. Initially, after this change, still only H+ service. However, the rep looked at the AT&T wireless connection logs and saw that my phone was being seen in their system as an LTE phone.
That was about a week ago. I kept thinking about it more and finally tried this. With my MZP powered on, I took out the sim card. I put it into my MOTO X phone. Started the phone up and was greeted with LTE service. With the phone powered on, I took the sim card out and put it back into into my MZP, while it was powered on. I went about some chores inside my house (the phone was on my wireless network), left the house and saw that I was now getting LTE service.
With the LTE Discovery app, I am receiving signal from bands 2, 5 & 12. I'm in the Boston area.
I hope your experience is smoother than mine. I'm also hoping that my LTE service doesn't disappear again.