Phones brought from outside North America may have issues with receiving phones calls, texts messages, or using data. If your phone was flagged in the IMEI lookup as having limited network access, here's why:
The wireless network is broken down into two different bands.
- LTE Band: Used for VoLTE calls and data usage.
- 3G Band: Used for non-VoLTE phone calls and texting.
To check what coverage your device will get:
- Check your IMEI in the IMEI database.
- Find the network information for HSDPA (3G) and LTE.
- Compare them with the information in the table below.
Example
The phone below is able to use 850 MHz on both HSDPA (3G) and LTE, so it would have full coverage on both.