The Samsung Galaxy S24
jmiguel2k12's profile

Tutor

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8 Messages

Saturday, May 31st, 2014 4:57 AM

S5 SM-G900A Unlocked Amazon, hotspot another carrier not work

any employee of at & t help me with this problem.

 

I can not use hotspot with another operator, I'm a foreigner and I'm restricted.

 

is an expensive phone, I lost money because of at & t and my ignorance as a consumer.

 

there is no possible way to run a simple function as a hotspot because of the customization layer at&t.

 

many forums, many complaints, all in vain. You can not activate it.

AT & T? that I can do.?

 

Smiley Frustrated

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

Guru

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450 Messages

10 years ago

Hi jmiguel2k12,

 

All of the AT&T branded devices are sold and configured to work exclusively with the AT&T Network. When these devices are sold, they are made to ensure that they will work on the AT&T Network without any issues. AT&T is one of the only GSM carriers in the United States and our devices are usually unique becasue of that as well as our LTE Bands in our devices.

 

I apologize you having issues with the hotspot, but the AT&T Firmware can't be removed from the device without going though a rooting process or unauthoried firmware which may cause serious harm to your device and render it inopperable.

 

If you always want to ensure you have full functionally of a device ensure you buy the unlocked international edition of the phone.

 

Hope this helps

Professor

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3.1K Messages

10 years ago

As you noted it is well documented that even unlocked, AT&T branded devices tend to be locked to AT&T for Hotspot functionality since they are running AT&T versions of the OS/Firmware. There is no easy fix - and nothing anyone from AT&T can do to change the firmware. Your best bet is to return this phone to the seller for a refund, and buy the correct model.

 

You want the "Samsung Galaxy S5 G900i 32GB Unlocked - Black - No Warranty - International Version - Factory Unlocked" - $750 at amazon. That model won't check AT&T to see if you've paid for tethering.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-G900i-32GB-Unlocked/dp/B00KCZ01KC/ref=sr_1_4?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1401546985&sr=1-4&keywords=galaxy+s5

 

Tutor

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8 Messages

10 years ago

Sorry but I'm from another country, warranty policies established only within North American territory, no Rebate once the mobile is outside the USA.

 

Why not send an OTA update to remove the limitation, if they do not want to root or unlock the bootloader.

It would be as healthy and fair.

 

-----

 

the ironic thing is that I have a motorola atrix 2 also att and with this if you can use the hotspot thanks to the community, has managed to make a root and to place.

 

The general problem of this is that one buys phones abroad with the hope of having no problems, but unfortunately at & t as a provider of telecommunications is very restrictive in the software layer.

 

One purchase at an online store, call it "Amazon" with the guarantee that mobile phones are released, which is not specified att, but when it reaches its destination you find that you have placed a mobile att.

 

What can we do there? nothing. You can not control the entire market to be aware that if you are an AT&T or not.

 

It would help if at & t release these restrictions.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

10 years ago

The us has different rules than other countries.  The other problem is Samsung is region locking there phones

Professor

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3.1K Messages

10 years ago

The problem is people buy AT&T branded phones instead of international unbranded world phones. Because the AT&T phones are a bit cheaper. You want the more expensive unbranded phone. That one works as expected off AT&T.

ACE - Expert

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23.9K Messages

10 years ago

there not that much cheaper tho.

Tutor

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8 Messages

10 years ago

I got an email saying that if there was solution.

 

Well unfortunately not.

 

at & t be bad off as the worst company that does not give rights to consumers who pay their products and not being able to control their phones.

 

what makes me angry is that I am from another country buy a purchase page where I specified that is NOT at & t, and look what happened, they sent me at & t.

 

They do not realize they are massively selling these phones already released, are being sold across the globe without the consent of the buyer, as the buyer requires international model unfortunately will continue to sell at & t, in short the market is contaminated and saturated at & t and people are coming out of these phones and will continue affected.

Professor

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3K Messages

10 years ago


@jmiguel2k12 wrote:

 

Why not send an OTA update to remove the limitation, if they do not want to root or unlock the bootloader.

It would be as healthy and fair.

 


Unfortunately, the occurance of folks who purchase phones from AT&T is relateively uncommon.  And of those, the number who need WiFi hotspot is probably a minority.  There really isn't much motivation for AT&T to release a special update for this issue, as unfortunate as that may be.

 

There is usually a method to get the WiFi hotspot working if the phone is rooted.  But unfortunately, the S5 is bootloader locked and root has not yet been achieved AFAIK.

 

I would strongly recommend against any persons living outside the USA from purchasing an AT&T device for use on their local network due to their imposed software limitation, locked bootloaders, etc..  Especially if a version is available specifically for your region/carrier.

 

If the feature is critical, my only advice at this point would be to try to sell the phone and recoup as much of your money as you can.  Then buy a different phone.

 

Professor

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3K Messages

10 years ago


@jmiguel2k12 wrote:

 

at & t be bad off as the worst company that does not give rights to consumers who pay their products and not being able to control their phones.

 

what makes me angry is that I am from another country buy a purchase page where I specified that is NOT at & t, and look what happened, they sent me at & t.

 

They do not realize they are massively selling these phones already released, are being sold across the globe without the consent of the buyer, as the buyer requires international model unfortunately will continue to sell at & t, in short the market is contaminated and saturated at & t and people are coming out of these phones and will continue affected.


Your post is confusing, and I understand that English is probably not your native language.  Are you saying you purchased the device from a 3rd party vendor (not AT&T?) and specified that the phone not be the AT&T version?

 

If so, it sounds like they sent you the wrong item from what you ordered, which is either a mistake or fraud, and the seller should fix this.  If the seller offers no method to fix this (exchange, refund, etc.) than you should not have purchased from them in the first place.   I would never buy electronics from a vendor when there is no reliable return policy.

 

Always research throughly before buying a device from any source except your local carrier (even then, research anyway!).  And only buy from a source when there is a reliable return policy.  A "good" deal is not so good, when you end up with a phone that doesn't do what you need it to do.

 

 

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