One of the biggest problems that users find when buying a new smartphone or switching to a SIM card of another operator, is that suddenly and without warning, they lose coverage. The first step is to check if we have coverage, and then
find out the frequency or band the mobile is using
. In this tutorial we will show you
how to know what band or frequency the mobile is using
in various ways, so that you have an alternative in case one fails.
The first thing that comes to mind is that the mobile does not work properly or that the new operator does not have coverage in the area where we are, so we have to find out
what band or frequency the mobile is using
. In order to perform this small audit it is important to remain in a fixed place and not in motion
(like in a car)
, since if we move, the phone can change the network.
How to know what band or frequency the mobile is using.
Find out how often the mobile uses an application.
First of all we will show the simplest method and that we can all use in any smartphone with Android operating system. It's about installing the free LTE Discovery app, available on
Google Play
.
Once the LTE Discovery app is installed, we can know how often the mobile phone is connected at any moment, it even shows us the band.
There are cases in which the application fails and does not give us any useful information
, it does not show the band or the frequencies, we only see a message that says
“EARFCN (LTE band unknow)”
and instead of the frequencies it says
“N / A "
In case LTE Discovery fails we can try the
SignalCheck Lite
application, also available on
Google Play
for free.
If both applications fail, we will have to try the second method that we will explain later, in the section on how to find out how often the mobile uses through the
“engineering menu”
or secret menu.
To find out how often our smartphone is working, sometimes you need to access certain APIs that have restricted access, unless we have root permissions. The proper functioning of the application will also depend on the device and operator we are using.
In case all the above has failed, do not be discouraged and keep reading.
How to find out how often the mobile uses using the "engineering menu" or secret menu.
As all of the above has failed us, we have to resort to the engineering menu, which is nothing more than a hidden menu that advanced users or developers can access. When we access this hidden menu, we must not change any settings, remember that we only access to see how often the mobile phone is working.
To access the engineering menu you must enter a code on the numeric keypad, from which we dial the phone numbers (also called dial).
The problem is that each manufacturer has its own code to access this hidden menu and not all brands offer this functionality.
Code to access the "engineering menu" or "Service Mode" on Samsung phones.
In Samsung phones we access this hidden menu by dialing the number
*#0011#
. The band, frequency and network type information (GSM, WCDMA or LTE) will appear on the screen.
Code to access the “Project menu” or “Service Mode” of Huawei (also works on Honor devices):
The most recent code we have is
*#*#2846579#*#*
and allows access to the "Project menu". This code has been tested on a Huawei P8 and P9, we imagine it will work on other models.
Code to access the secret menu or “Hidden menu” of LG:
To access the engineering menu on LG devices, the code is used:
3845#*MODELO#
Where it puts
MODELO
, we must enter the model number of our LG smartphone, this is achieved in
Ajustes -> General -> Información de hardware -> Número modelo
.
As an example we are going to imagine that the number that shows us is LG-D855, because we keep the numerical part, so that the code that you should enter would be
3845#*855#
.
If the previous code fails you, you can try the code
277634#*#
.
How to access the "Service Mode" or "engineering menu" in other brands:
There are two codes that are used for the vast majority of brands, since we cannot give instructions for all models. If you have a smartphone Lenovo, BQ, Xiaomi, Sony, Motorola, etc ... you can try the following codes:
-
Engineer mode:
*#*#3646633#*#*
-
Testing Menu:
*#*#4636#*#*
If the codes described in this article fail you, it is because in some models the code may vary, in that case I recommend you do a quick Google search of the type
“hidden brand and model menu”
or
“engineering brand and model menu”
.
Glossary of terms.
To understand the data of the engineer menu, it is recommended that some of the terms contained in this small glossary sound:
-
ARFCN (absolute radio-frequency channel number):
is a code that specifies a pair of channels used for reception and sending in mobile radio systems. One of the channels is used for "uplink" and another as "downlink". In 3G and 4G UMTS mobile phone systems, the ARFCN is replaced by the UARFCN and EARFCN respectively.
-
GSM:
global system for mobile communications, is a standard for mobile communications. GSM is considered 2G.
-
UMTS: it
is the successor of GSM and is known as 3G.
-
WCDMA:
technology on which the third generation UMTS standard is based.
If after following this tutorial or guide you have encountered a problem on how to know what band or frequency the mobile is using, do not hesitate to use the comments to ask.