Solved: Unlocked S20 FE 5G on Verizon 5G - Samsung Community

ThatGuyDan513 · ‎11-09-2020

Hi all, I recently upgraded and purchased an unlocked Galaxy S20 FE 5G. I have Verizon service and already got myself a new 5G Verizon SIM card. I already know this phone can't access Verizon's Ultra Wideband (mmWave 5G) which I'll never need, but they also have Sub-6 low band 5G which is available just about everywhere 4G LTE is. With this phone being a 5G phone I would think I could access it. I'm able to get LTE and LTE+ to show up top on my phone, but never 5G. I know it's available here because most of my Verizon friends have a 5G logo up top. I heard Verizon's low band nationwide 5G uses DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing) so what I'm trying to figure out here is will my unlocked S20 FE 5G ever be able to access Verizon's Sub-6 low band 5G? Maybe will a future software update unlock this, or the big update to Android 11 and One UI 3.0?

sethr · ‎01-19-2021

I thought so too but the Android 11 update didn't do it. I just updated mine to Android 11 yesterday morning. I'll give you the steps I went through, simple enough too, and hopefully it'll work!

1. Call Verizon customer care, or chat through the app like I did, speak specifically to a Tier 2 tech support rep, and ask them to sync the phone on your line to the network. "Sync the phone to Network"

2. Once the Verizon rep let's you know this has been done, they will most likely ask you to restart your device. If the restart does not automatically give you 5G, they should ask you to go into Settings, Mobile Networks, Network Mode, and manually change the setting from GLOBAL to LTE/CDMA.

3. As long as the Verizon rep has done the "network sync" to your device, the manual changing of the network mode on your end resets your phones connection to the network itself, and the 5G icon will appear!

4. The rep will most likely tell you to leave your network mode on LTE/CDMA, but I switched mine back to GLOBAL and still have 5G.

In short, they have to sync your phone to the Network (something they only can do on their end), and then you have to restart your device and change network mode AFTER they have done their part! I wasn't confident it would work because I've done all those steps myself, BUT, it was in conjunction with the Verizon rep and a network syncing of my device.

GIVE IT A TRY!

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AaronGarciA · ‎11-09-2020

get a walkie talkie from Pokemon it works better 95 ⁷ can get a boost from the newton store :hourglass_not_done:

Cliveren13 · ‎11-09-2020

tell them to provision your device as CDMA less device

dflo6 · ‎11-09-2020

Cliveren13,

Have you done this to get the 5G service enabled on the phone?

Others have said that 5G is not yet supported on unlocked S20 phones on Verizon but will be supported in the next phone firmware update.

usersLLbSqSc1Y · ‎12-20-2020

I kind of read something similar on reddit from a Verizon network employee telli.g me that by the end of the year every phone cdma or not will get verizon service and 5g as well.

FBOL · ‎11-10-2020

Samsung and Verizon will have to push firmware updates to enable VZW nationwide 5G on your unlocked phone.

ThatGuyDan513 · ‎11-10-2020

Samsung I know will push new firmware updates to this phone eventually. Verizon on the other hand I think will only update their own Verizon branded phones that you buy from them, not the unlocked models like mine.

ThatGuyDan513 · ‎11-10-2020

Currently the only network modes available on this unlocked Galaxy S20 FE 5G for mobile data are...

-GLOBAL (current setting)
-LTE / CDMA
-LTE / GSM / UMTS

I don't understand why there isn't a 5G option with this being a 5G model phone, unless 5G is a part of the GLOBAL setting.

userMCpEYVBFgN · ‎11-23-2020

I had the UW version and could use the low band 5G but I traded it for the unlocked version as they dropped the price by $250 1 day after purchase. I do not care about UW on this device but would be happier to get low band 5g on it to do a few things faster here and there. I hope a firmware update brings it soon.

sethr · ‎01-18-2021

Did you ever figure this issue out? I had the same issue exactly and just tonight resolved it with a Verizon tech rep. I now have 5G low band on my unlocked S20 FE 5G!

Original topic:

Unlocked S20 FE 5G on Verizon 5G

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