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Friday, July 24, 2020

Unlocking LTE Bands on Xperia Z3 Compact (Spoiler: no luck)


What is this?

Basically on all phones there is a section in flash memory which tells the system which bands the phone supports. Some people have found Qualcomm tools to change these values. You can change UMTS/3G & LTE/4G band support. This of course is only a change in software - if your phone doesn't have the hardware support this won't help.

How to do it

Follow the general instructions here
and specific instructions for LTE / Xperia phones here

Results

For my phone, Z3 Compact (D5803), LTE bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 20 are supported of the box.

The D5833 model supports 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 28, 40.

I was hoping to add band 28 for use with my local networks but no luck. After adding band 28 the phone would no longer connect to a LTE network. I suppose it tries to connect via band 28 but then hardware does not support it so it fails.

I also tried adding band 12 when I was on another network - again no luck.

tdlr;

If your phone has hardware support for the added bands then your in luck else it's a waste of time.

The Xperia Z3 Compact D5803 DOES NOT have hardware support fro LTE Bands 12, 28 & 40.

Extras

The D5803 has a SKY77629 RF power amplifier which supports LTE bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 (and sub-bands 9, 10, 18, 19, 20, 26). There are no networks near me that use the extra bands (9, 10, 18, 19, 20, and 26). These bands may be worth a shot at enabling if there are networks around you that use them - good luck!

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