EE sim cannot switch to 3G

[lynsg]

I recently changed from 3 to EE, as my new address had no signal from 3, inside or out in the park. The EE signal here is also flaky inside, while in the park it has download speeds of as much as 50Mbs.

If the phone picks up zero 4G signal inside it locks onto a 3G signal, which is sufficient. After discussions with EE's help, their only solution was to get a phone that can switch to 3G. This Huawei Mate 9 cannot do that with an EE sim, and I had thought that this was just Huawei being smart. Today I discovered that Vodaphone and O2 sims both allow the phone to show all options: 2G, 2G+3G,3Gonly, 2G+3G+4G auto, and allow me to switch to any of those four options. Putting the EE sim back in the phone, and the only option is the last: auto.

Plainly then the EE sim is forcing the phone to do this. A bit rich really. Has anyone else seen this? Or have a solution? I'll call again on Monday but it would be nice to solve it before that.

Cheers

[bristolian]

Hi @lynsg 

I'm not sure about the menus on your device, it's entirely possible the EE SIM is controlling this.

By means of general advice, whilst there will be locations where 3G provides a stronger indoor signal than 4G, suggestions to disable 4G really are not in your long-term interest.

Auto-selection of the best network layer should be transparent to you, and in many areas 4G coverage now exceeds that of 3G. There are also long-term plans to switch the 3G network off entirely - having a device locked to 3G could potentially lead to "no-service" issues.

Indoor coverage issues aside, what are the problems you're having with using your phone?

[lynsg]

Thanks for your reply, and after further testing today it seems the problem is indeed EE.

Early this morning I put the EE sim into my old chinese phone - this is rooted with a custom rom and so takes control back to the user. On this it is possible to switch between LTE and 3G, and forcing 3G almost always gives an improved download speed by a factor of 3 or 4. Sometimes 4G is below 0.5Mbs. I also put my Vodafone and O2 payg sims into the Huawei Mate 9, and both showed full lists of options from 2G to 4G. Though when the O2 signal is weak it only shows up to 3G, without the 4G option. And when this happens and I try to select a network manually, there are no 4G networks available.

On the Huawei, sometimes EE switches to H+ and then the map shows it connected to a particular mast 250m away, and this mast gives only a 3G connection, never 4G. But even when the phone has selected 3G, the menu still shows only the single option of 3G/4G/auto.

So in summary, it seems that the EE sim is directing the phone to only offer a single option with 4G and the Huawei is silly enough to accept that direction. Therefore my only options are to change to another phone, or change to Vodafone. I don't want to replace a perfectly good phone just because EE wants to dictate the way I use it. And without testing I don't yet know if other phones will ignore EE's diktats.

Does anyone here know if other phones will ignore EE's dikats and allow you to change to 3G only?

[lynsg]

Turns out to be a simple solution to force 3G. Network selection is normally automatic, but if set to manual selection it will display three EE networks - 2G, 3G, 4G. So, pick 3G while in this 'not spot' and set it back to auto when out of it. QED.

[EssexBoyEE]

There is no reason why a 4G Huawei handset should behave like this.

Couple of things to check, first off make sure the EE SIM is in the 1st SIM Slot position then try again.

Second could be the Network Selection within the Huawei Software is out of Sync with the Android Network Selection or is not been.set correctly, with the SIM in Sim Slot 1 or 0,  go to Network SIM Settings and select 2,3,4G preferred or what ever it displays meaning the same thing, then Dial *#*#4636#*#* next go to Phone Information and if Dual SIM select Phone 0, a list of Info should come up, scroll down to Set Prefered Network Type, what is this set to ???, Then Select from the drop down list

LTE/CDMA/UMTS auto (PRL)

Reboot Phone, you should now be able  to switch between 2, 3 or 4G Prefered Networks 

One more thing is the Huawei a Global Phone version or a China Version.?

If need be I can show you how to Force the Phone onto 3G only, but I would prefer you get the Network Selection issue sorted first.

[lynsg]

Thanks for that. Yes the EE sim is in the first slot and my SD card now back in the second. The phone is MHA-L29 global version. That code does nothing, just exits. I looked up all the other secret codes and most of them do nothing - very few give a result. This phone was updated OTA to Android 9, EMUI 9.1.0, so perhaps the update has reduced the functionality for unknown reasons. It's getting a bit old now though still a good enough phone for my usage, but my next phone will not be a Huawei.

I was focussed on the 'preferred network mode', which is what fails to work. 'Carrier/network selection', as I found above, is a good enough solution. Locking onto a local 3G mast while in the house is good enough to make video calls to my brother in Australia, so I'm happy.

Cheers and thanks.

[lynsg]

I swear there's a pixy living in this phone. Just been for a long walk in the park, and the phone switched itself to the 4G network - despite the 'automatic network selection' being turned off. So I turned it back to 3G, and before I got back to my front door the damn pixy had put it back on 4G again. Once inside, with different signal strengths, it stays where I put it. This is totally out of order for Huawei to do this.

[EssexBoyEE]

If the *#45.... Phone Info Dailer Code does nothing then it's being blocked by the Huawei Firmware over Android,  Samsung apear to block this on a lot of there phones as well or through Updates.

There are ways around this but if your ok with your recent setup then happy days.