Network band selection no longer available

[Sabir1]

UPDATE (04/07/2022): This is the response Samsung gave about band selection being disabled. It won't be coming back it seems.

Ever since I had the Note 10+ 5g, I had been able to use the band selection app to open the hidden menu which would allow me to select which bands to connect to and which bands to avoid. This was particularly important as Band 3 (1800Mhz) would give me the worst speed (~0.5 - 4 Mbps) and is at the same time the band/frequency the phone connects to constantly since it has the strongest signal strength. Band 3 also prevents my phone from connecting to 5g in my weakly coveraged area which enabled me to fix my several year long issue with terrible speeds giving me speeds up to ~200+Mbps. 

I just received the May 2022 update for my phone and I decided to update due to the camera stability improvements. After completing the update I notice that my phone is no longer connected to 5g. I check the band the phone is connected to and notice it to be Band 3. Thinking I may have forgot to turn off the Band 3, I try opening the band selection app to which it gives and error that it can't find the hidden menu.

I've come to know that this issue is widespread on the latest updates for most if not all the galaxy phones.

I don't know why the menu has suddenly disappeared or been disabled, but it is a very important feature for me and many others. I see no reason as to why this feature would be made inaccessible on Samsung devices since it isn't destructive but rather a really useful feature for many users.

Could someone with a better understanding, or better yet Samsung themselves please explain what's going on?

PETITION:

https://www.change.org/p/make-network-band-selection-menu-available-again/sfs/copy/311609309?recruit...

[Yumikember]

We need this menu back. In rural areas, we often get connected to low Frequency LTE bands (such as 20 and 28) because there's a higher RSRP. However those bands really are saturated and this menu made possible to connect to higher bands with higher capacity and throughput even if the RSRQ is lower.

Removing such a feature is nonsense since it's not a benefit for samsung and another lost of a helpful feature for the users.

[NetworkTechGuy]

I used the Samsung Band Selection app ever since I knew of its existence. First on my Galaxy S9+ and now on my Galaxy S21 5G.

I find this hidden GUI menu which was surfaced through the Samsung Band Selection App extremely useful.

If I need to upload a larger file very quickly, I set my phone to prefer 4G band 3 or only 4G band 3 because my primary carrier has 2x 4G band 3 (20 MHz & 15 MHz) and the phone can aggregate the upload of both 4G band 3. The result is an upload of about 90 Mbps under good conditions.

Another carrier here uses only 4G band 20 and 8 in rural areas. These two bands can't be aggregated (limitation of most phones' software). Therefore, you might want to manually select the band with more available bandwidth at your location.

Even, for 5G this feature makes sense to use when you want your phone to connect to 5G C-Band (band n78) but not the other 5G bands which decreases battery life without a noticeable speed benefit.

An additional use case of mine for this feature is in combination with the app Cellmapper (an effort to create a map of all the cell sites from all operators around the world). One operator in my home country practices a rip and replace tactic when it comes to their 5G rollout. To go along with this, they also change the base station identifier which might have been used for another base station previously. With the ability to select specific bands it typically takes only two laps around the cell site to redo a cell site entry. Without this feature it may take months until the entry is complete. Furthermore, while I'm driving somewhere I tend to select a specific band in order for my phone to collect data for this band. I know that these are very niche scenarios. 

So, please Samsung don't dumb down your products. Settings like these are extremely useful and I'm sure that the people who used this feature all have a story to tell about why they used this feature.

It was an easy decision for me to upgrade from the S9+ to the S21 5G. Next time around it may not be this easy.

[Vipin diwakar]

Same problem with June update on s22

[JR7244]

U can dial *#2263#  and still do the same thing, a lot better with band app. How can complain to Samsung about this issue 

[JR7244]

They have all ready stated they can't get around June 2022 security update and probably will not be able to unless Samsung changes new security protocol. So we need to complain to Samsung 

[Sabir1]

The thing is, that code doesn't work. After the update it has be disabled. Maybe the Samsung Band Selection app made use of that code too and stopped working when it was disabled.

[Pugs1957]

Hmm. If Samsung did this on purpose they will be reluctant to change things back. Ita shame because the app was very useful. I've also read that those whose apps were active are now stuck with the band they selected presumably until they reset their devices.

Shame, it was a good app.

[Simransingh]

Same issue persists on the Galaxy S22. However, you can uninstall the Samsung Band App if you want the device to automatically select best band available.

But, you won't be able to lock band again. 

[Migo]

Before the update I activated only band 1. Now it is no more possibility to activate all bands. Uninstalling the app doesn't help because the settings were made in the modem.

[Members_LiAfchn]

I call that regression... Samsung please roll back or reinstate