topic Re: Re: Carriers in Samsung Lounge

Carriers

Brooklin — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:05:09 GMT

Something ive been confused about since paying my first contract is how Carriers operate the phones.

Ive been told that carrier only allow updates when they approve of them. Vodafone (my network carrier) tells me they don't mess with updates at all and Gemini tells me they do but only to add small bits of their software.

Ive not gotten a definitive answer from anyone at all.

Re: Carriers

johnz237 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:15:46 GMT

I Always listen to what the provider says, not the retailer.
https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/galaxy-s23-series/how-badly-vodafone-uk-delays-galaxy-security-updates/td-p/8902092?src=ShareByUserCM
For the most part, they're guessing on a general basis; they won't know for each provider.

Generically no provider "blocks" updates- they just do some extra checks before releasing it, which sometimes delays it a little.

Though- the hard thing is. The online support seem to have no clue either a lot of the time

Re: Carriers

Piper123 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:10:42 GMT

Vodafone absolutely test the updates before release.

Don't believe what VF Customer Service say

Re: Re: Carriers

Brooklin — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:15:44 GMT

Which is odd because ive gotten updates the same day as everyone else? Ive not been delayed once.

Re: Carriers

MNas04 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:15:59 GMT

They usually test certain things within their own firmware so that they don't cause or override any issues.

Re: Re: Carriers

Brooklin — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:16:18 GMT

Do they do they testing before it releases officially because again i receive updates the same day as everyone else.

Re: Re: Re: Carriers

johnz237 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:17:19 GMT

Wouldn't stress—sometimes there would be a delay, sometimes you won't notice it—can't vouch personally for Vodafone in their efficiency.

Re: Re: Carriers

Brooklin — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:17:21 GMT

So the update itself isn't delayed at all?

Re: Re: Re: Re: Carriers

Brooklin — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:18:48 GMT

Neither can I. I am close with some at a store but even they've said they not 100% sure but they believe testing is done on locked phones or something.

Re: Re: Re: Carriers

MNas04 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:25:49 GMT

It depends. If it's security updates, then it shouldn't have any issues. But again, the carrier would have to approve the update. Where as my phone, I bought it directly from samsung 2 years ago. The updates are released and controlled by samsung with no delay

Re: Re: Re: Re: Carriers

Brooklin — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:26:59 GMT

I see.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Carriers

MNas04 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:33:15 GMT

Check out this link. This one is from the samsung US community, which explains a bit better 👍
https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S22/Explanation-on-what-does-the-carrier-has-to-do-with-phone/td-p/2723401

Re: Carriers

arianwen27 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:45:38 GMT

In america, cell providers add their own software and tweak things. Over in Europe, that mostly doesn't happen.

The same system is in place, just over here it doesn't get used, so cell providers just accept normal samsung updates.

It does mean using a phone in the wrong country can break updates, since the carrier might give the ok for uk updates, but if the phone wants us updates, those aren't approved by the carrier

Re: Carriers

keith30 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 13:46:35 GMT

O2 only release the updates when they happy to approve them to the O2 users after checking them.

Re: Re: Carriers

Brooklin — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 14:07:35 GMT

OK so in the UK we just get the update as is but in the US Carriers need to approve it?

Re: Re: Re: Carriers

Piper123 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 14:15:22 GMT

Yes they do. Samsung release updates to carriers long before they release them to users generally.

Re: Re: Carriers

Piper123 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 14:16:23 GMT

Same with Vodafone and EE

Not sure about Three but now they are part of Vodafone....

Re: Re: Re: Re: Carriers

Brooklin — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 14:16:45 GMT

That might be why I receive updates at the sametime as everyone else then but it doesn't explain why I am able to access to beta. If updates need to be tested shouldn't I be restricted from the beta program?

Re: Re: Re: Carriers

arianwen27 — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 14:25:23 GMT

Lemme explain a little differently.

If you have an american phone in america. The cell carrier tends to tweak updates and add things before they approve the update to be sent to the phone. Now and again Americans ask for help here showing screenshots of settings pages I've never seen before. Turns out they're showing a setting page only added by a single american cell provider.

In the rest of the world, cell carriers still have the ability to change things, but they usually don't. They just approve the normal update and release it to phones. So regardless of carrier, most eu phones run the same updates.

All carriers have to approve updates, just american carriers tend to modify the updates first before approving them.

Because of region reasons, there's slightly different updates for different parts of the world. If a phone is in part of the world that gets different updates, the cell provider isn't going to approve updates for the other side of the world. This causes updates for that device to stop working. Roaming works fine as the kinda current location of the phone is based off the sim card in it, not the physical country. So a uk phone with a uk sim in america would probably still get uk updates.

TLDR, all carriers have to sorta approve updates, american ones just tend to modify them first

Re: Re: Re: Re: Carriers

Brooklin — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 14:58:16 GMT

Ohh okay that makes sense. Thank you for giving me clarification.