Find Out The 4G Band Your Smartphone Supports Before Buying or Swapping 4G SIM

That your phone is 4G enabled is not a guarantee it will work on all network or with all SIM cards. Do you know that all the 4G network providers have different Bands and Frequency on which their networks work? So this is my main reason why am revealing this to you beforehand so that you won't regret later when your 4G phone fails to work with a certain network.

I would advise you to carefully check the specifications of the phone you want to buy or the your current phone to find out the 4G band it supports. Popular phone makers like Samsung, Sony, LG make different variants of the same phone. They normally look alike physically but have different features in real sense. For example, Galaxy S5 has up to five variants. These variants usually support different LTE bands across themselves. So, you need to make sure that the variant you are buying has support for the LTE band of your service provider.

Meanwhile, phone makers like Tecno, Infinix normally have a single variant, and those variant support LTE band 1, 3, 7, 20,. They are most popular bands in Asia, Middle East and Africa.

4G LTE BAND OF NTEL, MTN, SPECTRANET, SMILE, & GLO NETWORKS
✔ Ntel uses band 3 (1800mhz) and band 8 (900mhz)
✔ Spectranet and Swift both use band 40 (2300mhz)
✔ MTN uses band 7 (2600mhz) and 20 (800MHz)
✔ Smile uses band 20 (800mhz)
✔ Glo uses band 28 (700MHz)
✔ ETISALAT 4G LTE- Only supports Band 3 (1800MHz)

READ ALSO 📖
How To Activate and Subscribe To Glo 4G Data Plans

In other words, LTE bands are scattered across devices and networks. In general, 4g LTE has different network transmission bands which includes 1,2,3,7,20,21,28 etc. While some of the bands are popular among many smartphones, few of them are not really popular and available on most phones and unfortunately Glo 4G band reportedly falls on band 28 which is hard to find as over 80% of popular 4G phones in Africa and Nigeria in particular don't support band 28 including Infinix Hot S

To make matters worse, none of the Infinix or Tecno LTE devices support band 28/700mhz. Glo got this one really wrong.

Meanwhile, if you aren't sure if your device supports band 28/700mhz, send 4G to 400 in an SMS using your glo sim.


GLO just rushed their LTE , they are not really ready. What NTel did is called refirming of the 900 and 1800mhz band to roll out LTE.

READ ALSO 📖
How To Activate and Subscribe To MTN 4G LTE Data Plans
Find Out 4G Data Plans In Nigeria

WHICH NETWORK OPERATOR HAS THE BEST 4G LTE?
The only opertaor with LTE on mobile with true LTE coverage is MTN. They are the only one that bided for the 2600 band that u will find on most mobile phones. MTN LTE bands is 800 and 2600 bands and they have more than 1000 sites already.

If u really want to use LTE without hassles, i recommend MTN or Ntel if you have the service in your location.

CONCLUSION
Please make sure you check the specifications of your smartphone or the one you want to buy very well. Do a better research before buying as not all phones that supports 4G LTE will work on your SIM. Find out the 4G band support of the phone and also compare it with the 4G support of your preferred network to avoid stories that touches the heart later. Thank you.

If you have any question, feel free to ask via the comments sections below and also remember to hit the SHARE buttons below as some of your friends might need this information as well.

29 comments:

  1. Oga wizy na only phone wen get 4G fit support this 4G LTE wat abt wen day use 3G 4 me I day use Tecno C8 wat my chance of this 4G LTE pls 2rooo more lite on it Abeg..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oga wizy na only phone wen get 4G fit support this 4G LTE wat abt wen day use 3G 4 me I day use Tecno C8 wat my chance of this 4G LTE pls 2rooo more lite on it Abeg..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oga wizy na only phone wen get 4G fit support this 4G LTE wat abt wen day use 3G 4 me I day use Tecno C8 wat my chance of this 4G LTE pls 2rooo more lite on it Abeg..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oga wizy na only phone wen get 4G fit support this 4G LTE wat abt wen day use 3G 4 me I day use Tecno C8 wat my chance of this 4G LTE pls 2rooo more lite on it Abeg..

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow what a wonderful revelation. Wizy u are the best and will always remain the best. Thanks for this eye opening article

    ReplyDelete
  6. Please how can I check my phone whether it has 4G or not

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just google the specifications of your phone and check it out. It's under Networks or Technology

      Delete
  7. That a great job #wizy,thank you

    ReplyDelete
  8. So with band 3 and 40, which Sim can I use and go for

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glo 4G works only on band 28 so check your phone specs to see if the 4G bands available on it includes 28. You can do that by simply Googling the specs of your phone

      Delete
  9. Seems glo is not serious about their 4G LTE recently launched. Can you imagine, on going to the glo Office today in Abuja I was informed by their customer care unit that I'll have to pay 1.1K (1100NGN) for swapping my existing glo line to 4G compatible SIM and that my existing data would no longer be available to me after swapping the SIM card. That made me to abandon the swapping plan since I've not been able to find a phone whose manufacturer has an official presence here in Nigeria. In my opinion, Globacom are supposed to contact phone manufacturers like Infinite, Tecno and the likes who have official footings here and know the LTE frequency bands supported in their 4G compatible phones before jumping into LTE band wagon.

    ReplyDelete
  10. How long will take d cheat to come @Wizzy boss!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Pls oga wizy can XIOAMI redmi note 2 work on Glo 4g

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes and it supports these 4G bands and frequency

      4G band LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 7(2600), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500)

      Delete
    2. XAOMI redmi note 2 does not support band 28 hence Glo 4g will not work on that phone

      Delete
  12. Chinese TD-lte phones can dey work in Nigeria

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oga wizy pls wat wrng wit ma infinix note 2 2gb ram d 4g is jst dere it has neva not even for once worked

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what we are saying here bro. It's not about the phone having 4G LTE support but is the 4G band compatible with the network you are using? Also, is there 4G coverage in your location?

      Delete
  14. I called customer care and was told that it's only done in ph, abuja, and Lagos.. Was very disappointed mean the 4g lte sum swap

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't mind them bro.they are currently doing it in major cities where the 4G service is live

      Delete