Using Verizon Galaxy S6 on T-Mobile

[xBabax]

Hey,

I have T-Mobile and now have enough Verizon gift cards to get a gs6 for half price. I've been researching/comparing the LTE bands needed for T-Mobile to those the Verizon gs6 has and it seems it has everything I'd need except band 12. I want to know if the gs6 is missing anything i need to basically fully work on tmobile, so at least guaranteed LTE. I saw someone mentioned it doesn't have aws and I know it doesn't have utms 1700/2100 so I don't know if that matters or not. From what I've read I only need to have 1900, which it does, and bands 2 and 4 for LTE.

Currently I have a nexus 5 so I don't have band 12 right now, so I'm not sure if I really care about not having it with the gs6.
Thanks for any help

 

[maj71303]

You won't be able to get 3G, 4G, or 4G LTE on T-mobile with the Verizon version. For a refarmed area on T-mobile you only need 1900 for 3G. For a non refarmed area you need aws which is band 4 1700/2100 for 3G service and both bands must be present for 3G. Otherwise you will be trapped on Edge speeds and that's it. For LTE you need AWS but it does have band 4. The key for t-mobile is to have the AWS bands, the 1900 band is a bonus but you really need to have the AWS bands otherwise edge speeds will be your friend.


This is based off the verizon site stats for the phone but gsmarena list more bands so don't know which on is true.
.

 

[xBabax]

Oh, I was going off of the FCC stats from one of the posts I saw online. That lists it as having bands 2, 4, 5 and 13, while the Verizon site showed like half of those. I tried some site that determines compatibility and it said it would have everything but i have no idea if that is accurate. Thanks for the info though

 

[tippmann15]

It would not work out that well, band 12 is a huge deal.

 

[xBabax]

Ok , thanks for the info. I guess I'll just stick with the nexus until the Asus zenfone 2 announcement on the 18th, then hopefully that is a good option.

 

[dpham00]

You won't be able to get 3G, 4G, or 4G LTE on T-mobile with the Verizon version. For a refarmed area on T-mobile you only need 1900 for 3G. For a non refarmed area you need aws which is band 4 1700/2100 for 3G service and both bands must be present for 3G. Otherwise you will be trapped on Edge speeds and that's it. For LTE you need AWS but it does have band 4. The key for t-mobile is to have the AWS bands, the 1900 band is a bonus but you really need to have the AWS bands otherwise edge speeds will be your friend.


This is based off the verizon site stats for the phone but gsmarena list more bands so don't know which on is true.
.

That's wrong where ever you got it. It is missing aws 4g so you will only get 4g in refarmed areas, but if you are in an aws 4GLTE area most of the time then this isn't an issue. It also does lack band 12 lte support but the Nexus 5 doesn't have it either.

Keep in mind certain tmobile features like wfc won't work

Sent from my Pearly White Verizon Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

 

[titans30dude]

The product page for the verizon s6 at samsung.com lists all the band the phone has and states the bands its capable of having with a software update to unlock those bands

According to the samsung website, the verizon galaxy s6 has LTE bands 13/4/2 activated and 3/5/7 are able to be utilized by a software update from verizon (or if you have root access)

 

[bob13bob]

i've got vz s6 on tmo. just got 24/ 12 on speedtest.

 

[NewAndroidNoob]

i've got vz s6 on tmo. just got 24/ 12 on speedtest.

What are your APN settings? Just found out I can't send or receive MMS text. Also, 4G LTE isn't very good for me. Usually bounces between 3G, H+, and 4G.

 

[bob13bob]

yeah, i can't recommend it. my reception seems worse, teh phone is buggy, and can't get updates. i think it needs to be on vz's network to get updates. Im kind of hating it and wil never do a locked nonpure android again.

 

[Davetalks]

I typically get 4G LTE @ 24 Mbps down and anywhere between 2Mbps - 20 Mbps. Depending on my location I get hpsa+ or 3g but generally 4g. My one gripe is with phone calls. I drop to 3G during phone calls whilet I can talk and surf my speeds are around during 4 Mbps. Before on my nexus 6 I stayed on lte when I made a phone exchange call and could even do wifi calling.

 

[Suhas Kamble]

What you said is not the case
I could not use internet and apn was the problem.

After setting below it started working fine.

Android Lollipop



From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Settings.
Scroll to 'Connections,' then tap Mobile networks.
Tap Access Point Names.
If available, tap the T-Mobile US APN (the bullet point fills with green). If not available, tap the MORE icon, and then tap New APN.
Note: To reset your APN settings, tap the MORE icon and then tap Reset to default.
Verify and update the following settings for the Data APN:
Name: T-Mobile US LTE
APN: fast.t-mobile.com
Proxy: <Not set>
Port: <Not set>
Username: <Not set>
Password: <Not set>
Server: <Not set>
MMSC: http://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc
MMS proxy: <Not set>
MMS port: <Not set>
MMS protocol: WAP 2.0
MCC: 310
MNC: 260
Authentication type: <Not set>
APN type: <Not set> OR Internet+MMS
APN protocol: IPv4/IPv6
APN roaming protocol: IPv4
Enable/disable APN: <greyed out unless there are multiple APN's>
Bearer: Unspecified
Tap Save.
Tap the desired APN profile you want to use. The bullet point fills with green next to the APN profile.

 

[Luan v Nguyen]

Thank you so much for your post, Suhas Kamble! It works like a charm. My unlocked Verizon Galaxy S6 Edge Plus is now setup to run on T-Mobile 4G LTE Network! You really know what you're talking about!

 

[justnivek]

It works fine on T-Mobile, BUT you will face a lot of issues that need googling... like why the number pad doesn't work during a phone call (Press 1 to speak to a person etc) or that after every reboot you have to force close the app that says "no verizon sim inserted"

Besides those few things... it'll work fine... I wouldn't do it myself after the experiences I went thru and I would advise against it (turning on airplane mode on and off just to get signal back for example, don't know if it was my area of just using a vzn phone on tmobile in general) and having to use a PC/Mac to update it to official software because you can't OTA without a verizon sim thats active