Samsung's decision to restrict wifi 5Ghz and 6Ghz channels based on region

[Quazi Haque]

It basically applies to all Samsung devices.

Samsung has decided to region lock the wifi 5GHz and 6Ghz channels for all of their devices. The problem with that is if you bought your wifi router from a different region than the one you live in having different wifi channels, Samsung can't see the 5Ghz and 6Ghz SSIDs. They presumable use the mobile network to identify the region and then impose the restrictions on the wifi channels.

Phones from other manufacturers (Apple, OnePlus, Google, Huawei etc) don't have this restriction imposed. I'm really not sure why Samsung chose to do so. Its hardware supports all bands. The way to test this is if you put your Samsung phone/tablet in airplane mode, restart your phone and then turn only wifi on - you'll see the 5Ghz and 6Ghz SSIDs and can connect to them just fine. Then you can turn airplane mode off, the SSIDs will stay until you go out of range or turn on/off wifi and then they won't show.

I just bought TP-link Deco XE75 mesh routers with wifi 6e from the US - I live in Bangladesh. These routers don't allow for manually changing the channels. So none of the Samsung phones and tablets in my house (6 of them - S24 Ultra, S22 Ultra, S21 Ultra, Flip 5, A73, Tab S9 FE) can see the 5GHz and 6GHz SSIDs. I checked the method above to confirm my S24 Ultra can see and connect to 5GHz and 6GHz the SSIDs just fine when following the procedure, but they'll disappear if I turn off wifi and then turn it back on. 

Every other non-Samsung device in my house can see 5Ghz/6Ghz SSIDs just fine as per their specifications. It's just the Samsung devices that have the issue.

If no other big brands do it, why does Samsung have to do it? I really don't understand. Because of this, I can't enjoy wifi 6e or even 5 Ghz wifi on any of our Samsung devices although their hardware are capable to do so.

I really wish they would come to their senses and remove this unnecessary software limitation.

[J_Silva]

Hello,

I can confirm that your method works, at least on my S22. Right now I am enjoying WiFi 6E (6GHz), although I am aware I will lose it at the next disconnection. It is good to know, though, that ain't anything broken here... just Samsung blocking a band because of the phone location and/or, most possibly, the local e-sim/sim-card.

Thank you again for your time, letting all of us, with the same restriction, know how to temporarily solve it.

[imtiaz31]

Stupid move fron samsung. Though midrange devices like relame gt 6T can enjoy 160Mhz bandwidth. Here im limited to 80Mhz that too restricted with 149-161 channel. Can't enjoy wifi 6E though my router supports wifi7.

even apple doesn't block in this way. come on samsung, withdrwa your poor policy. if you put the hardware why dont you let the user to get full of it?

[wen9]

Came cross the  similar issue on S24-ultra in mainland China. My customer's S24u work find with wi-fi 7 routers with 320M 6G bandwidth in LA.  They plan to buy more than 50 pieces of S24u, not until they found this ***** problem. That's confusing and stupid policy. 🤧

[Evil Ted]

i can confirm this is true. about a week ago, my phone updated all by itself and would no longer connect to 5ghz at home. I was using channel 161, and with the opensourced wifianalyzer it showed up, but now its labelled as *hidden* and reports only 20mhz. my phone would only connect to 2.4ghz. After changing 5ghz to the default channel results in it working again. this is totally appaulling that a software update to apply hardware restriction. id be ok if it was like that oob, but ive had this phone since lauch and havent changed my wifi at home in years, well until this recent .. apparently much needed .. software update.

i just want it noted; for all the world too see, that this company has been region restricting their  hardware ,via software, and actually it has absolutely nothing to do with the region that your in. 

[Evil Ted]

what ive since learnt, dropping the channel width to 40mhz enables me to use the upper channels again 🙄

[Alan-Avella]

It is just ridiculous.  It's like having a V8, being only able to use 4 cylinders.  Oh Samsung! no wonder why they keep loosing battles.  And make no mistake I love my s24 ultra and have made many videos of why I switched back to Samsung from iPhone.  That is exactly what makes me so angry.

[SciGhost]

Exactly the same issue here in South Africa. My TV does not support DFS channels. Everything else in my house connects perfectly on channel 128. I had to set my router to use channel 48 to avoid overlapping with neighboring channels and still support 160Hz Wi-Fi 6 connections. The problem now is that I get DFS radar triggers more often on those channels, which then drops me from the 160Hz range. I bought my Samsung S24 Ultra in South Africa and my QN90D in South Africa, so why not set those regions to the same supported channels as a standard? You can clearly see the supported channels from this link: 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels#5_GHz_(802.11a/h/n/ac/ax)

[internet use only]

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[J_Silva]

Oh no... not again...

"OP and all above have no clue how to use your router".

Let me try to draw it to you:

Lived in the US. My Netgear RAXE500 happily connected with its 6E (6GHz band) to both my Samsung S22 Ultra and my Samsung QN900B tv. Moved to a certain country with all my stuff and obviously I didn't change anything with my setup. Now there is no 6E band to be seen by my phone my TV. That is the restriction we, "who have no clue", are talking about. With the OP's workaround I am able to connect my phone again to the router using the 6E band, but not the TV, unfortunately.

So, reconsider who has no clue here.

[internet use only]

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