AT&T LTE situation with US ASUS ZenFone 2 ZE551ML

This phone is capable of getting LTE on AT&T.  I called them up and they put another IMEI number of a phone that is 4G LTE capable and I get LTE speeds. THe guy that I talked to was like a wizard of their technical service.  His name was Eric.  I think what he did was he took the ASUS Zenfone 2E, which is sold by AT&T and LTE capable through their network, and used that IMEI number.  

I thought that I was only going to get 4G(not LTE) but I have been running speed test the past few days and just downloaded the CSV file and for connection type I see the HSPAP, Wifi,  and LTE.  There is no indication for the LTE though. These are the last 2 tests I took.  Here at work I don't get great service so when I went to a meeting and saw my phone drop to HSPAP I ran a test to see the difference.  I average 25 mbps outside of this place.

Date,ConnType,Lat,Lon,Download,Upload,Latency,ServerName,InternalIp,ExternalIp
"2016-02-24 09:54","Hspap","40.40541","-79.60617",8.94,1.45,67,"New York City, NY","10.78.152.169","166.171.186.175"
"2016-02-24 09:31","Lte","40.75880","-73.96800",13.31,5.79,47,"New York City, NY","10.78.152.169","166.171.186.175"

The IMEI is not being recognized as an LTE device so the provisioning does not assign Mobile Share Value Smartphone 4G LTE w/ VVM to the device. It simply applies Mobile Share Value Smartphone and this is HSPA+ and below only.

Just because a phone has the proper bands there is no guarantee it will get LTE. There isn't really anything that can be done on the backend. Some non-AT&T devices like iPhones, The Lumia 950XL and the Nexus 5X/6P will get LTE data, but never VOLTE. These phones get LTE because the first set of IMEI numbers (that defines the mfg/model) are recognized as LTE compatbile.

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@David606 wrote:

The IMEI is not being recognized as an LTE device so the provisioning does not assign Mobile Share Value Smartphone 4G LTE w/ VVM to the device. It simply applies Mobile Share Value Smartphone and this is HSPA+ and below only.

 

Just because a phone has the proper bands there is no guarantee it will get LTE. There isn't really anything that can be done on the backend. Some non-AT&T devices like iPhones, The Lumia 950XL and the Nexus 5X/6P will get LTE data, but never VOLTE. These phones get LTE because the first set of IMEI numbers (that defines the mfg/model) are recognized as LTE compatbile.

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@David606

And you can make it work by using a older phones imei.  What ATT needs is to allow the system to pickup the imei of the new device or allow the imei to be added.  Tmobile does not have problems like this just ATT.  There is a reason they are stealing more and more customers from ATT and Verizon.  Its about customer service and ATT needs to learn from it.  There is also no reason volte cant work on non ATT devices except ATT's backend systems wont do it.  And before you say its different the only difference is on the backed.  A verizon,tmobile, and ATT edge+ have the same exact code for Volte on the phones.  I checked.

I can confirm, this issue still exists. I have a ZE551ml and, yesterday, I chatted with an AT&T rep for almost 2 hours.

1. The line was provisioned to only allow 3g data.
2. The system will only only accept 3g data for that IMEI. 
3. The billing department will only allow 3g data.

I can confirm, through our conversation, the only way to get LTE on this phone, using AT&T is through another IMEI number. Luckily, I had a Zenfone 2 Laser, which gets LTE, just fine. We confirmed this by simply switching the simm cards. To fix the situation, the tech used the IMEI from the Laser and, instantly, the 551 picked up LTE. So, AT&T, when are you going to fix the problem?

~ A dissatisfied customer

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@talkinggoat wrote:

I can confirm, this issue still exists. I have a ZE551ml and, yesterday, I chatted with an AT&T rep for almost 2 hours.

 

1. The line was provisioned to only allow 3g data.
2. The system will only only accept 3g data for that IMEI. 
3. The billing department will only allow 3g data.

I can confirm, through our conversation, the only way to get LTE on this phone, using AT&T is through another IMEI number. Luckily, I had a Zenfone 2 Laser, which gets LTE, just fine. We confirmed this by simply switching the simm cards. To fix the situation, the tech used the IMEI from the Laser and, instantly, the 551 picked up LTE. So, AT&T, when are you going to fix the problem?

~ A dissatisfied customer

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There not going to fix a thing as there system reads the imei.  This is a asus problem and its not a surprise at all.

Its how the imei is coded and how ATT's system picks up said IMEI.

IMEI numbers can be update on the backend. Call technical support and they can submit a case to have an IMEI updated so it will provision LTE for that IMEI group. It won't happen instantly but it can get fixed.

GLIMMERMAN76, perhaps you can provide some technical details as to why this phone's IMEI is not compatible with AT&T's system?