Oukitel C21 with Q Link sim....SLOW internet. Possible apn issue?!?

[Android Central Question]

I have an Oukitel C21 phone and I never had mobile service on it. I was just using it with WiFi.

I got a Q Link lifeline sim card recently to use with the phone and it worked as soon as I put it in the phone but if I turn my WiFi off it's super slow on the internet.

I then manually entered the apn that came with the instructions and it's still very slow.

So then I tried different apn's I found online and when I manually enter them and save them they just disappear right away like I never entered them.

My friend also has a Q Link lifeline sim card and his phone's internet is fast

I am at a loss for how to speed up the internet which running a speed test is 0.48 MBPS

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

Oukitel tend to make super budget phones. Are you sure it isn't running on 3G instead of 4G? 3G is very slow.
It looks like a nice phone though for the money. You got a bargain. It is supposed to support both 4G and voice over LTE. So check your network settings to make sure it is on 4G and not 3G.

If this still doesn't help it may be an idea to reset network settings. Not a full reset of the phone just the network settings.

 

[mustang7757]

I'll leave a Link to register so you can communicate here as a guest account you can only post questions but can't reply

https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=409154

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! You need to determine if your phone is the North/South America variant or the EU/Japan variant: https://oukitel.com/pages/c21-specs. The latter doesn't support Q Link's 4G bands (Q Link uses T-Mobile towers) -- you can cross reference the bands here:

https://www.t-mobile.com/support/coverage/t-mobile-network

 

[pugglepup7]

Hi everyone and thanks for all the help so far.

Still no luck. I'm connected to 4G and have reset the network settings multiple times. My phone is the North + South American variant of the C21.

Here is some screenshots.... I'm not sure if any of it is relevant or helpful but figured it might be....

 

[B. Diddy]

Are you certain your Lifeline plan has unlimited high speed data? Or does it only give you a certain amount of high speed data each month, after which it slows you down until the month is finished? (They can still call that "Unlimited Data," -- it's just not very fast.)

 

[pugglepup7]

Are you certain your Lifeline plan has unlimited high speed data? Or does it only give you a certain amount of high speed data each month, after which it slows you down until the month is finished? (They can still call that "Unlimited Data," -- it's just not very fast.)

It has been this slow since the very start so even if they do throttle(and I don't think they do) then I was already throttled the moment I put the sim card in the phone.

 

[B. Diddy]

Hmm. And how did you determine that you have the variant for the Americas? From searching on the web, I couldn't find a specific variant model number or other designation for the two regional variants, so to some extent it seems like you have to trust Oukitel to give you the right one. You might want to contact Oukitel support and ask if there's any way to confirm you have the Americas variant: https://oukitel.com/pages/support

(Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any app that can tell you the LTE band support for a phone.)

 

[pugglepup7]

Hmm. And how did you determine that you have the variant for the Americas? From searching on the web, I couldn't find a specific variant model number or other designation for the two regional variants, so to some extent it seems like you have to trust Oukitel to give you the right one. You might want to contact Oukitel support and ask if there's any way to confirm you have the Americas variant: https://oukitel.com/pages/support

(Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any app that can tell you the LTE band support for a phone.)

From the Q&A section of the Amazon listing I bought it from....

 

[B. Diddy]

I just wonder how trustworthy that information is. It's still worth contacting Oukitel support -- hopefully they respond.