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.

[Alan-Avella]

Come on man! are. you seriously defending your point? We are tech reviewers escalating this with Samsung as it is so important . Please stop misleading readers.

[internet use only]

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[SciGhost]

Can you then explain why a brand new QN90D 2024 model cannot see Wi-Fi 5 GHz in channels above 100?

Everything else, including my S24 Ultra/Samsung tablets, even my Xbox Series X, can connect on those channels. But the smart TV cannot see the network; it can only see the 5 GHz network between channels 36 and 48.

[internet use only]

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[SciGhost]

Thanks for the feedback. It's actually connected at 80 MHz on channel 36 according to my router's Wi-Fi logs. For DFS, we have channels 100 to 128 in South Africa according to this table:

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

Ah, well, it's not a major issue; devices that support 160 MHz will connect on that, and other devices will use 80 MHz. I'll have to keep an eye on radar checks in the environment and figure out a way to automate restarting the Wi-Fi subsystem to mitigate channel migration.

[internet use only]

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[Fromel]

I'm calling BS on this. Restricting phones to the 2.4 GHz frequency is absurd.

Until I see an official Samsung statement, this goes into the junk file.

[Fromel]

Samsung tech support is ridiculously  inadequate. The new phones are sold with the express capability to use the WIFI6 Extended frequencies and nobody in  support department seems to know anything about it.  

[Fromel]

Im calling BS on this.  Restricting devices to the 2.4 GHz frequency is absurd.

Until I see an official statement from Samsung this goes into the junk file.

[internet use only]

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