Database Develop

[Q] Does AT&T know if I'm using a custom ROM/Modem

Hi,
I decided to make my 1st post. I've been visiting XDA for some time and flashed several ROM's. I want to say thank you for everyone responsible for making XDA what it is today.
My question is regarding AT&T & Custom ROM. I currently work for AT&T and use a captivate provided by the company. I have flashed several i9000 ROM's and they're absolutely great. My concern is that AT&T can tell that I have a custom ROM/Modem on the network. I understand that they can tell on the device itself but how about the network. I'm guessing if I'm using the i9000 ROM it would be visible to the engineers.
Thank you in advance for your reply

I also work for AT&T. Without physically looking at the phone, I believe the only way they could tell would be if the software imei (*#06#) does not match the phone's imei (under battery) - since the software imei is transmitted to the network. This is why if you change sims, the network still knows what phone you are using.

Pardon me for asking the obvious, but if both of you work for AT$T, can't you get us some info on the 2.2 update? Had to ask.

LOL.. depends on where they work.
If they both work at a Retail outlet selling phones? Then uh no.

Miami_Son said:
Pardon me for asking the obvious, but if both of you work for AT$T, can't you get us some info on the 2.2 update? Had to ask.[/QUOTE
As of 2 weeks ago AT&T did not have the software ready for testing. Nothing can happen until Samsung completes it and send it to at&t's lab for testing. I can assure you at&t wants it out as much as you do to be competitive in the android market. Besides who cares about the official version with all the awesome ROM's on XDA.
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Click to collapse

avgjoegeek said:
LOL.. depends on where they work.
If they both work at a Retail outlet selling phones? Then uh no.
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Click to collapse
I do not sell the phones and do not work at a retail location. I do however support the stores in making sure all the reps know the products.

[/QUOTE
As of 2 weeks ago AT&T did not have the software ready for testing. Nothing can happen until Samsung completes it and send it to at&t's lab for testing. I can assure you at&t wants it out as much as you do to be competitive in the android market. Besides who cares about the official version with all the awesome ROM's on XDA.[/QUOTE]
Seems a bit off that the US market is so far behind plus I highly doubt ATT wants to be competitive since they are just sucking on that Apple core. Not all users want to flash or even know how to. Personally I believe the phone should have launched with Froyo but at least we aren't waiting for Eclair like the x10

alaimar said:
I do not sell the phones and do not work at a retail location. I do however support the stores in making sure all the reps know the products.
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Click to collapse
Then you would know - Thanks for the update. If AT&T would put out little updates like this one - many a user would be happy.
Go figure with twitter, facebook, myspace, email, txting, telephone, and hell even pen and paper - we still fail at one basic thing COMMUNICATION.

c0ldburn3r said:
[/QUOTE
As of 2 weeks ago AT&T did not have the software ready for testing. Nothing can happen until Samsung completes it and send it to at&t's lab for testing. I can assure you at&t wants it out as much as you do to be competitive in the android market. Besides who cares about the official version with all the awesome ROM's on XDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems a bit off that the US market is so far behind plus I highly doubt ATT wants to be competitive since they are just sucking on that Apple core. Not all users want to flash or even know how to. Personally I believe the phone should have launched with Froyo but at least we aren't waiting for Eclair like the x10[/QUOTE]
I agree with the flashing; however in regards to Apple core AT&T is looking at every possible way to stop sucking on it. As you know the exclusivity is expiring and they're doing everything possible to adjust. BB Torch and WP7 is a perfect example of that. US market is behind simply due to all the limitations every carrier wants to implement on every device and make sure that it's loaded with bloatware.

alaimar said:
Seems a bit off that the US market is so far behind plus I highly doubt ATT wants to be competitive since they are just sucking on that Apple core. Not all users want to flash or even know how to. Personally I believe the phone should have launched with Froyo but at least we aren't waiting for Eclair like the x10
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with the flashing; however in regards to Apple core AT&T is looking at every possible way to stop sucking on it. As you know the exclusivity is expiring and they're doing everything possible to adjust. BB Torch and WP7 is a perfect example of that. US market is behind simply due to all the limitations every carrier wants to implement on every device and make sure that it's loaded with bloatware.[/QUOTE]

Off topic but only slightly: why exactly does ram flashing void hardware warranties? I wouldn't void my video card's hardware warranty for using Ubuntu instead of Windows. I understand they can't support problems arrising from using the software the hardware wasn't designed for, but you'd think flashing back to stock would put you back into warranty coverage. I don't understand why custom software is so vilified.

Jofaba said:
Off topic but only slightly: why exactly does ram flashing void hardware warranties? I wouldn't void my video card's hardware warranty for using Ubuntu instead of Windows. I understand they can't support problems arrising from using the software the hardware wasn't designed for, but you'd think flashing back to stock would put you back into warranty coverage. I don't understand why custom software is so vilified.
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Wireless carriers are not fans of customization as it usaualy removes their bloatware and enables features that they like to charge for ( wireless AP). From the manufacturers perspective using custom rom's can result in hardware damage. Imagine if it didn't how many bricked phones would be going back. Manufacturer always sets the warranty policy carrier's just enforce it.

I think att will ditch the captivate all together. I kinda dont even think we will see an official froyo.
what could be holding it back?
this is just my opinion

Krooked22 said:
I think att will ditch the captivate all together. I kinda dont even think we will see an official froyo.
what could be holding it back?
this is just my opinion
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Click to collapse
AT&T has no choice when it comes to Android. Ralph's made it publicly known that he doesn't like Android at all. With market share growing fast they are definitely working on beefing up their Android lineup ASAP

alaimar said:
Wireless carriers are not fans of customization as it usaualy removes their bloatware and enables features that they like to charge for ( wireless AP). From the manufacturers perspective using custom rom's can result in hardware damage. Imagine if it didn't how many bricked phones would be going back. Manufacturer always sets the warranty policy carrier's just enforce it.
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Click to collapse
I'm not trying to be rude but I asked about the manufacturer not the carrier. I fully understand the carrier's stance. That'd be like if I called Time Warner and *****ed to them about having problems getting online and was using Ubuntu, which they didn't support or even understand.
I'm saying Samsung. Why would they care? Unless they could prove that your customization caused the problem, how can they instantly void your warranty simply by using different software?

i would guess that overclocking might be a reason. aslo, even though bricking your phone is something that they can (most likely)reflash-stock and resell refurb, because retail reps will warratny your phone not knowing what the cause was ( you know that no one walks into store admitting they are to blame for phone issue so they assume it's faulty and process warranty to keep you happy

Jofaba said:
I'm not trying to be rude but I asked about the manufacturer not the carrier. I fully understand the carrier's stance. That'd be like if I called Time Warner and *****ed to them about having problems getting online and was using Ubuntu, which they didn't support or even understand.
I'm saying Samsung. Why would they care? Unless they could prove that your customization caused the problem, how can they instantly void your warranty simply by using different software?
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Click to collapse
Well for one you didn't specify that you are referring to the manufacturer. You're comparing apple to oranges. At&t handles manufacturers warranty themselves and time Warner has nothing to do with your hardware ; -) You also answered your own question, they really have no way of proving it, therefore they created a legal document that gives them the right to screw you : -)
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

Jofaba said:
Off topic but only slightly: why exactly does ram flashing void hardware warranties? I wouldn't void my video card's hardware warranty for using Ubuntu instead of Windows. I understand they can't support problems arrising from using the software the hardware wasn't designed for, but you'd think flashing back to stock would put you back into warranty coverage. I don't understand why custom software is so vilified.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't only software in a sense, you are flashing a chip...that's why they call it ROM flashing. Now if you were to flash your BIOS chip, I'm sure your motherboard manufacturer wouldn't hand out a refund either.
Another point to tackle, custom software is not frowned upon by Google(GPL), but when a bunch of kids come in complaining why their AT&T phones won't turn on because they don't know what flashing, ROMs and how video cards INTERFACE with operating systems the carrier may have issues.
They instantly void your warranty because they are trained to troubleshoot their hardware with approved software, not with your software which can trickle down and affect everything about the phone leading to a myriad of issues.
It's not what you know, it's what you can prove and even then that's a two sided coin and left up to the manufacturer to say you aren't covered under the warranty. But if you're slick and can seep through the cracks make a backup of your "default" OS... ROM whatever and save it for that very rainy day when you need it.

Why should verizon/moto unlock our bootloaders?

It appears that there is a guy who is interning at Motorola that wants to get ahold of some bigwigs and help voice our frustration. Here is a link if you have any ideas, please share them!
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/xty65/i_am_interning_at_a_major_fortune_500_company_who/

Why wouldn't they? They'll only lose the majority of the tech-geek community to other brands

DoubleYouPee said:
Why wouldn't they? They'll only lose the majority of the tech-geek community to other brands
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Some speculate that they hold a special contract with Verizon. This contract basically says: keep your bootloaders unlocked and you will be our flagship phone company. You will be in all our ads.
I just hope someone could post a convincing argument for that intern to use to further our cause.

jesusishere said:
Some speculate that they hold a special contract with Verizon. This contract basically says: keep your bootloaders unlocked and you will be our flagship phone company. You will be in all our ads.
I just hope someone could post a convincing argument for that intern to use to further our cause.
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Click to collapse
Why would they need to have a locked bootloader to have that contract?

VZW always said it ws for the "health" of the network. That rooted devices would cause it harm.
Well, one, the Nexus is unlocked so where is the concern there? and 2. I haven't heard of any gnex causing harm to the network.
I'm guessing its because when we all found wifi tether on the OG, the network suffered. lol

Here is the reason boot loaders are locked...
...and are likely to remain locked. It's because they don't want you messing with it. Read throughout the various Android forums and you will find over and over again people talking about how they screwed up their phone and got the carrier to replace it for them. I've seen some practically bragging about how they've screwed Verizon and got them to replace the phone 3 and 4 and more times. As long as this keeps happening, they will resist allowing unlocked boot loaders.
About the only way it will ever happen is if they went to a scheme like Asus has with it's transformer series tablets. Basically they lock it. But they also provide an unlocking tool. This unlocking tool basically has warnings all over it that say that if you do it, your warranty and any claim to support are void...and we do not want to hear from you. But even then on the Transformer Prime forum on XDA you hear people complaining about problems with their unlocked device and seeking advice on how to re-lock it so they can screw the company into taking it back (Asus also made unlocking an irreversible process).
For the manufacturers and carriers there is just no incentive to unlock them. By locking them they cede the enthusiast market to a large extent but that market is a drop in the bucket compared to the market as a whole.

vbhokiefan said:
VZW always said it ws for the "health" of the network. That rooted devices would cause it harm.
Well, one, the Nexus is unlocked so where is the concern there? and 2. I haven't heard of any gnex causing harm to the network.
I'm guessing its because when we all found wifi tether on the OG, the network suffered. lol
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Well nowadays all data plans are being metered anyways. If I buy 2GB per month why does Verizon care if its used on my laptop instead of my phone for example. There was a recent FCC lawsuit against Verizon for separate tethering charges because it went against some agreement they had when they bought the 4G spectrum.
ratman6161 said:
...and are likely to remain locked. It's because they don't want you messing with it. Read throughout the various Android forums and you will find over and over again people talking about how they screwed up their phone and got the carrier to replace it for them. I've seen some practically bragging about how they've screwed Verizon and got them to replace the phone 3 and 4 and more times. As long as this keeps happening, they will resist allowing unlocked boot loaders.
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Click to collapse
Simple, unlocking your bootloader voids the warranty and the user would agree to this before running the factory bootloader unlock program. There would also have to be an easy way to tell if the bootloader had been unlocked on a bricked phone.

spunker88 said:
Simple, unlocking your bootloader voids the warranty and the user would agree to this before running the factory bootloader unlock program. There would also have to be an easy way to tell if the bootloader had been unlocked on a bricked phone.
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Click to collapse
From a Verizon point of view, this remains problematic. The issue is that a user with a hardware problem that lost warranty support is likely to still be angry at Verizon for not supporting the phone; even somebody with a software issue who gets no help could express anger at Verizon and decide to leave the network for another carrier (where the cycle start again, probably.) It's a matter of control - it's hard enough supporting a ton of phones, it makes it even harder when you cannot even predict what's on the phone. And from Verizon's point of view, their brand is strong enough that they feel that they can exert this control without angering enough users to matter.
(Still, the reasons I listed above are easily solved if the OEMs provide all of the tools required to bring a phone back to stock...)

doogald said:
From a Verizon point of view, this remains problematic. The issue is that a user with a hardware problem that lost warranty support is likely to still be angry at Verizon for not supporting the phone; even somebody with a software issue who gets no help could express anger at Verizon and decide to leave the network for another carrier (where the cycle start again, probably.) It's a matter of control - it's hard enough supporting a ton of phones, it makes it even harder when you cannot even predict what's on the phone. And from Verizon's point of view, their brand is strong enough that they feel that they can exert this control without angering enough users to matter.
(Still, the reasons I listed above are easily solved if the OEMs provide all of the tools required to bring a phone back to stock...)
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+1

ratman6161 said:
...and are likely to remain locked. It's because they don't want you messing with it. Read throughout the various Android forums and you will find over and over again people talking about how they screwed up their phone and got the carrier to replace it for them. I've seen some practically bragging about how they've screwed Verizon and got them to replace the phone 3 and 4 and more times. As long as this keeps happening, they will resist allowing unlocked boot loaders.
About the only way it will ever happen is if they went to a scheme like Asus has with it's transformer series tablets. Basically they lock it. But they also provide an unlocking tool. This unlocking tool basically has warnings all over it that say that if you do it, your warranty and any claim to support are void...and we do not want to hear from you. But even then on the Transformer Prime forum on XDA you hear people complaining about problems with their unlocked device and seeking advice on how to re-lock it so they can screw the company into taking it back (Asus also made unlocking an irreversible process).
For the manufacturers and carriers there is just no incentive to unlock them. By locking them they cede the enthusiast market to a large extent but that market is a drop in the bucket compared to the market as a whole.
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I don't really like this argument though, because most of those bricks are CAUSED by the locked bootloaders and other "security" put into place. These phones are just computers with radios inside. I've never bricked my (desktop or laptop) computer, and neither have most people, because computers have been designed such that the process that brings the computer up (the BIOS) is simple, reliable, and will load anything you tell it to, negating the need to mess with it.
The OG Droid was borderline software unbrickable, because you could leave the stock bootloader in place, and the stock bootloader was able to get you back home (SBF) by itself. If all phones were built like this today, and manufacturer's had a utility to restore the phone back to stock available on their website, the people returning devices due to softbricking would probably go way down, because a softbrick would be no big deal.

Is that true?

Hi, this is my next phone, however, I heard that if you open bootloder and install custom ROM it would be extremely hard to back original, and if you managed some how to get back you will lose most of Sense apps and you will be no longer supported with updates ,is that true?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda app-developers app

No? You lock you boot loader and run a ruu and your stock again
Pretty simple
Sent from my One X using Tapatalk 2

In a word.... No
well not really, there are some issues but all can be fixed easily all the infor can be found on here and google is your friend
i lost a few apps when i unlocked the bootloader but downloaded them back on to it in about 5 minutes.

Devs will get the updates and update their roms (through the RUUs)
Which is really all that matters since you would lose root if just taking the official update
As for the apps, as the guy above me pointed out, you can unlock and then download and reinstall them minutes after rooting

You guys are forgetting to mention warranty. When he said normal he may mean normal as in 100% stock with warranty intact. This may not be the case.

Depends where you live. In the UK and possibly all of the EU (not sure) HTC cannot deny you warranty if you unlock it. They will claim they can, but ultimately they will fix the phone because they are legally required to. Just tell them that and they will give in.

rovex said:
Depends where you live. In the UK and possibly all of the EU (not sure) HTC cannot deny you warranty if you unlock it. They will claim they can, but ultimately they will fix the phone because they are legally required to. Just tell them that and they will give in.
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all EEA (EEA is EU + Norway, Iceland and Switzerland) countries have this law. HTC will void their manufacturers warranty but you also have statutory warranty from the retailer you bought the device from. It's quite broad and is defined in consumer rights legislation.
The problem is retailers (and consumers) are unaware of this law. My Galaxy S3 started malfunctioning mid December 2012. I was stupid enough to believe they will actually abide the law and did not bother to use "triangle away" app, as I was afraid of doing more damage (the phone was randomly crashing).
So it is almost April now. The retailer denied my claims, ("Samsung workshop said no warranty so we will not fix it for you") and citing legislation did not help. They want to replace the motherboard and charge me 80% of a price of a new Galaxy S3... I complained to Consumer Counsel* in late February - they do "mediation" right now, but the retailer is not cooperative. This will take one-two more months. After that If they won't bulge I can (and will) push the case to Consumer Tribunal*, which makes court-like rulings. Thankfully there is no need to go anywhere in person or pay anything, but their current backlog is 3-4 months. So my Galaxy S3 will be fixed September/November.
So yeah, I am buying a HTC One now. I plan to make the whole process as public as legally possible when it's over, to help others with the same situation as me.
* - I am living in Norway, specific consumer protection agencies may differ from country to country.

That sucks, but it is a bit better in the UK. I have had this issue before, a threat is usually enough. If they know that you know the law, they don't tend to argue because they know they will lose eventually.

rovex said:
That sucks, but it is a bit better in the UK. I have had this issue before, a threat is usually enough. If they know that you know the law, they don't tend to argue because they know they will lose eventually.
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I hope so! I am buying from Handec.co.uk now
edit: which is cheaper than the cheapest Norwegian store, even when you include shipping (FedEx priority) and handling and new charger.

And you could always run an RUU, or flash the system.img from the rom.zip of the RUU
---------- Post added at 09:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:15 AM ----------
RUUs..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2207874

[Q] Why do the carriers want phones so locked down?

It seems to me that the carriers are the one who push the phone manufacturers to lock down their phones so tightly. What is it that we can do with our phones, other than say get free WiFi tethering, that would be so bad for the carriers if they were more easily modifiable?
Is the problem with the added cost of having to have reps to deal with the myriad things that can go wrong if a device is more easily modifiable?
Or is there something dangerous to the network that you could do if you can modify the device?
Why is it so terrible to the carriers for us to be able to mod our devices?

The simplest answer I can think of is people who root their device and install custom roms and such have a bigger risk of bricking the phone. These things void the warranty, but in many cases people can get their phone to appear to have been unmodified. So now they have to pay to replace the users phone who technically voided their warranty but are able to put it back in a way where it looks like it was never voided.
Another potential reason is that carriers put things on their phone in an attempt to get you to sign up for more of their services, but with rooting you can remove or replace any of these services without them being able to "market" it to you. Think VZ Navigator. Verizon wants customers to pay them to use their navigation software, even if it is super stupid to use it considering Google maps and navigation is free. If you root you can remove VZ Navigator from the device completely. I think this specific argument is a bit dumb, but the best I can come up with at the moment.
One more, there maybe many noob users who root their devices and create big problems by doing so. Carriers do not want to have to devote technical support resources to customers who screw up their device through mistakes caused by them rooting it. If they publicly say they allow rooting, they give people the okay to contact their tech support teams for mistakes the user made. Rather than add that cost and hassle, easier to try to prevent noobs from doing it.

yes, those reasons all seem to make sense! It's all about money.

An additional reason I can think of is that many users who root their devices do so to install custom ROMs, which often extend the useful life of the device, allowing users to delay or forego the purchase of a new device from the carrier. But I really think the primary reasons are as stated above - the increased support required for modified devices, and the ability of modified devices to access paid services (i.e. tethering) without paying an additional fee every month.
The support issue is easily remedied by Motorola's approach of unlocking the boot loader via their web site - it's easy to do, but they have a record of it being done, so the warranty is void and there's no support burden for the (potentially) modified device.

Phone becomes locked to carrier with first SIM insertion

I am very annoyed. I bought a P20 Pro in Twilight from Car Phone Warehouse, in the UK; it arrived yesterday. On first boot it showed Huawei 1st and 2nd splash screens. All subsequent boots with a Three network SIM installed all show the 2nd boot screen as a pig-ugly Three logo. Shutdown is the same.
Its a bit like me buying a broadband service from British Telecom. And as soon as I connect up my router, they send a man round to repaint my front door with their logo! How can this be?
.
But there's more; my browser home-page was set to Three; why-on-Earth? Who in their right mind would want Three as a Homepage? Doh! And they also scattered a few odds and sods of applications for me to remove.
I had a look around and it seems there is a 'cust' folder at / which has stuff to decide if its EE O2 Vodafone or Three. And it crams cr-a-p in you do not want or need.
Removing the Three SIM and trying an O2 SIM did not remove the Three banding. So that means if I wanted to sell it at some point next year I would l would not get as much as if it were free of the THREE grot..
Today, I took my phone back and got a refund. But I've got a complaint running with Three and I'll take it all the way to the Ombudsman. I'll also contact the THREE CEO. I also include contact details from Companies House for their CEO for anyone else who may wish to direct their displeasure at a phone being defiled in this way.
HUTCHISON 3G UK HOLDINGS LIMITED
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03918124/officers
CEO DYSON, David Richard
Correspondence address
Star House,, 20 Grenfell Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 1EH
How do the Telecoms get away with this sh-i-t?

Did you buy it as being on the 3 network with a 3 SIM? It is annoying as CPW phones are normally unlocked but it is no different than if you had bought it direct from 3 - is it?

I bought mine in CPW and so such problems, had Vodafone and EE sums in it.

Rheumatoid said:
Did you buy it as being on the 3 network with a 3 SIM? It is annoying as CPW phones are normally unlocked but it is no different than if you had bought it direct from 3 - is it?
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Click to collapse
No I bought it as a SIM free (thus unlocked) phone.

gmlogan said:
I bought mine in CPW and so such problems, had Vodafone and EE sums in it.
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Click to collapse
What region code do you have? Mine was C782.

croques said:
I am very annoyed. I bought a P20 Pro in Twilight from Car Phone Warehouse, in the UK; it arrived yesterday. On first boot it showed Huawei 1st and 2nd splash screens. All subsequent boots with a Three network SIM installed all show the 2nd boot screen as a pig-ugly Three logo. Shutdown is the same.
Its a bit like me buying a broadband service from British Telecom. And as soon as I connect up my router, they send a man round to repaint my front door with their logo! How can this be?
.
But there's more; my browser home-page was set to Three; why-on-Earth? Who in their right mind would want Three as a Homepage? Doh! And they also scattered a few odds and sods of applications for me to remove.
I had a look around and it seems there is a 'cust' folder at / which has stuff to decide if its EE O2 Vodafone or Three. And it crams cr-a-p in you do not want or need.
Removing the Three SIM and trying an O2 SIM did not remove the Three banding. So that means if I wanted to sell it at some point next year I would l would not get as much as if it were free of the THREE grot..
Today, I took my phone back and got a refund. But I've got a complaint running with Three and I'll take it all the way to the Ombudsman. I'll also contact the THREE CEO. I also include contact details from Companies House for their CEO for anyone else who may wish to direct their displeasure at a phone being defiled in this way.
HUTCHISON 3G UK HOLDINGS LIMITED
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03918124/officers
CEO DYSON, David Richard
Correspondence address
Star House,, 20 Grenfell Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 1EH
How do the Telecoms get away with this sh-i-t?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it actually sim locked to carrier or network branded to carrier. Hopefully just the latter as I've got 2 the first one once I inserted a O2 sim then restarted and downloaded a few O2 apps but no O2 splash screen. I've not tried inserting my Vodafone sim yet, really hoping its not simlocked to O2.
Sorry off topic but I made a question about shortcuts in the question and answers section. It's just a simple question, but i dont think anyone will bother to answer. Just wondering if someone could take a look and try and help me. Thread is just called shortcuts. Thanks lol.
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

And as a bit extra. I do not use Facebonk; never have; never will. And reading the news today about Suckerburg, in a while no-one will. But if you look under Apps there are three Facebonk system level apps running in addition to the one in the app drawer that I immediately removed, when setting up the phone. They are busy collecting your data no doubt. They can be disabled. But I'm starting to dislike Huawei.
They're all at it, though. I have Sony TV. I don't use Netflix; prefer to torrent; but my TV is calling Home to Netflix all the while even when 'off'!

jadaress1 said:
Is it actually sim locked to carrier or network branded to carrier. Hopefully just the latter [snip]....
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Hopefully neither!!! if you bought it as SIM free no-one has any right to defile your property with their branding!

The Phone remains unbraded, even if it looks like that. Just do a factory reset and insert a SIM from another carrier and it's going to install it's apps and customizations as a so-called "Firmware Update". The carrier customizations are installed alongside the regular OTA Updates, so you even won't have to wait for updated customizations if a FW update becomes available This is part of the deal between Huawei and the different carriers to keep phones branding-free and still be able to push apps and other carrier-specific optimizations to the phones. Like it or hate it, it's up to you.

croques said:
What region code do you have? Mine was C782.
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Click to collapse
C636, dual sim

croques said:
Hopefully neither!!! if you bought it as SIM free no-one has any right to defile your property with their branding!
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Click to collapse
I know, might just stick with my S9.. We'll see
Sent from my [device_name] using XDA-Developers Legacy app

gmlogan said:
C636, dual sim
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Well that's not a European phone but Asia/Pacific. It works .... mainly ... but in the countryside you may have problems as the long range 800 and 850 MHz bands are missing. Did you know when you bought it that it wasn't for this region?
And did you get problems signing in for Huawei ID?

Three phones are supplied unlocked, so it hasn't been simlocked.
Factory reset should remove branding.
Sent from my CLT-L29 using Tapatalk

orangecroc said:
Three phones are supplied unlocked, so it hasn't been simlocked.
Factory reset should remove branding.
Sent from my CLT-L29 using Tapatalk
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Firstly it wasn't a Three phone! I bought it SIM free from CPW - an independent retailer of phones as far as I am aware.
And secondly, no, when it was factory reset it retained the Three branding. In the CPW shop the assistant put an O2 SIM in the phone and it still remained Three on the splash screen.
Aavion posted earlier
aavion said:
it's going to install it's apps and customizations as a so-called "Firmware Update". The carrier customizations are installed alongside the regular OTA Updates, so you even won't have to wait for updated customizations if a FW update becomes available
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if I understand Aavion he's saying the branding will disappear after a while. But that only happens for the big four Telecoms. If you've a Virgin or GiffGaff or Tesco SIM in what happens then? I bet your life the phone will remain on the last brand recognized.
So we know the C782 is branded. We know that some bums are selling C636s seemingly VAT free from Hong-Kong and Ireland. And they remain unbranded but compromised; they do not have either 800 or 850 Mhz radio bands - the longer wavelengths that penetrate buildings and give a better reception, and very necessary in the UK.
Here is a short video of a C636 failing to work with Android Auto:-
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OYpgqqlnOLXn3aPam8_4tIltvm82xeCl
Anyone with information about the branding on C432?

croques said:
Firstly it wasn't a Three phone! I bought it SIM free from CPW - an independent retailer of phones as far as I am aware.
And secondly, no, when it was factory reset it retained the Three branding. In the CPW shop the assistant put an O2 SIM in the phone and it still remained Three on the splash screen.
Aavion posted earlier
if I understand Aavion he's saying the branding will disappear after a while. But that only happens for the big four Telecoms. If you've a Virgin or GiffGaff or Tesco SIM in what happens then? I bet your life the phone will remain on the last brand recognized.
So we know the C782 is branded. We know that some bums are selling C636s seemingly VAT free from Hong-Kong and Ireland. And they remain unbranded but compromised; they do not have either 800 or 850 Mhz radio bands - the longer wavelengths that penetrate buildings and give a better reception, and very necessary in the UK.
Here is a short video of a C636 failing to work with Android Auto:-
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OYpgqqlnOLXn3aPam8_4tIltvm82xeCl
Anyone with information about the branding on C432?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My c782 is not carrier branded. It's sim locked to three ireland as I bought from then. After 140 euro of top ups, I can get sim unlock code for free.
Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk

Mine was purchased through O2 directly online, it has no branding, and it currently using an EE sim card.
I would place the blame with either 3 or carphone not Huawei.

My C782, was bought online for an O2 contract but branded itself 3 when I put my other contract's 3 sim in.
The branding is in the Cust folder in root. It has folders for EE, 3, O2, Virgin & Vodafone, although the 3 folder is the only one with a custom bootanimation in it. I don't know if this is because the others were deleted when the branding took place or if 3 is the only network that changes the bootanimation, you'd have to unpack a C782 rom to see.
Unlocking the bootloader appeared to produce a full reset, including clearing internal memory (at least it did on mine), so one would imagine that relocking, unlocking (& maybe flashing new update) would return the phone to unbranded. Unfortunately I unlocked the bootloader before putting the 3 sim in, so I don't know

Still angry - draft to CEO of Three
David Richard Dyson
Chief Executive
Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Limited
Star House,
20 Grenfell Road,
Maidenhead,
Berkshire,
SL6 1EH
Dear Dave,
I wouldn’t normally have the temerity to address a Chief Executive by his given name; I see you post it around the Three website though, so I trust it will be acceptable to you; accept my apologies if not, Dave.
I write about my experience with Three over the past 9 months and recently. Forgive my long-windedness, my style and any poor erudition you may discern. I wish to appraise you of all circumstances fully. I would imagine any CEO with his/her finger on the pulse of their business would gladly accept raw customer feedback.
I will start, out of sequence, with recent happenings. This is going to be very raw – I’m very still angry. My prose may betray me.
On Tuesday of this week I ordered an Huawei P20 Pro phone from Car Phone Warehouse. I bought it SIM free and paid nigh on £800 for its bright-shiny newness. It was a wondrous thing to behold and I began to like it immediately. I placed my Three, monthly contract, SIM in and switched on. During set-up I was a little concerned to find an application open; one of yours which required me to accept something or other. I did not wish anything of Three on my phone but could find no way of going forward in the set-up process. So I shut the phone down and restarted. I don’t suppose you can imagine my consternation, my growing anger, my rage even, when I saw a Three logo on the second splash screen of boot-up.
When I was able to look closely at MY phone if was littered with your, (well, Three’s; I’m using ‘your’ and ‘you’ for the Three body corporate; I’ll leave you to interpret), dross…. My phone was littered with your dross. My browser had been redirected to always start on Three! There was a Wuntu app and I guess a Candy-Crush wannabe also littering my phone for which I had no need. You’ll no doubt say customers like this. No Dave, we don’t!
I do have to ask the questions. Why? When did I give Three permission to do this? Why can’t I remove all it? Apps and the home screen setting went easily enough. The splash screen was written in to place with system wide permissions and only apps signed with an Huawei key can do this, as you know. So that means you conspired with Huawei to do this to me! You had meetings about it; you thought it would be a - ‘good idea’. For whom? Who in their right mind would ever imagine, even in the wildest depths of stupor that phone users would like to have a crass, badly drawn figure 3, looking as if it has dragon scales, to adorn their phone. All displayed on the brightest eye-screwingly bright-whiteness. I really cannot fathom the stupidity; the arrogance, the paternalism you must exhibit to allow you to make these assumptions for me, Simply crass, Dave, on your part in 2018. And be in no doubt, ‘you’ and ‘your’ here refers to the personal you.
To be be clear, Dave, I bought a phone from an independent retailer, I purposely avoided Three stores and, excuse me, I don’t normally revert to the vernacular but it seems the only way to express my rage, I find your **** all over my phone! How can this be? By what right do you do this?
Imagine for moment you have changed broadband supplier at home. (I mean ‘you’ the person here. I’m sure you get it.) The new router arrives and you connect up, you enter the password and start web-surfing. A moment or two later a van pulls up outside and workmen start to repaint the front door of your house in the colours of the broadband provider’s logo. But more, the workmen enter your house, unasked, and reset your computer to always start at the broadband providers home page in the style of the now defunct AOL and Compuserve. But, still more, the workmen then proceeded to place scatter cushions with cartoon prints around the sitting room.
I imagine you would be outraged at the defiling of your home in this way.
I am outraged that Three has defiled my phone. I am so outraged that the phone was returned to CPW for a refund yesterday.
What can you take away from this, Dave? Well, I note you are one of those policy-on-paper guys. It’s so easy isn’t it. You have an 11 o’clock with a few other execs – they’re only a bit younger than me I see and likely over-the-hill too. You all throw something together that you think will impress the punters; you put it out there and go to lunch. But you’ve forgotten it all since haven’t you, Dave?
What is your policy now? What is it that your mission statement says?
Let me show you part of it:-
Our commitment to #makeitright is reflected through the way we do business.
We’re dedicated to running our business responsibly.
From respecting human rights and upholding ethical standards to using innovation to make things better for our people, customers and communities.
We recognise the positive impact that we can have when we make the most of our skills and resources to address some of the most pressing social and environmental issues. Especially when we engage our people, customers and supply partners to achieve more together.
How does any of that fit what you have done to my phone, bought entirely independently and now defiled.? A factory reset and a non Three SIM inserted did not remove your splash logo on start-up and shutdown. So straight our away the phone has it’s second-hand sale value reduced significantly. Your decision did that; responsible; ethical, you think? Respecting human rights; do you? My right is to have a phone as I bought it; all I buy from you is airtime and the carriage of my data packets, that’s all; nothing more. Do that and you might begin to be ethical and make things better for people, but at the moment you are just dishing out grief.
To #makeitright I suggest you ask one of your developers to write an app to remove your pernicious dreadful defiling dross. Get the app written; release it into the wild and apologise. Go on #makeitright!
And while I’m talking about #makeitright, why is it that the data rate for a text message or multimedia messages per megabyte costs tens or hundreds of times the cost of a IP data per megabyte. I’ve never understood why you do that; ethical, responsible? No, I don’t think so; and I bet you don’t too. Go on Dave, #makeitright!
To continue about making things better; who on earth designed your logo? Was it even designed professionally? There are no two ways about it, Dave, it is ugly and to me, meaningless. I hope you didn’t pay much for it! The blooming thing is a lighthouse consuming God-knows-what number of milli-Watts before the phone’s brightness control comes on stream. It blasts the screen with full power to every red, green and blue light emitting diode. (Yes, I had an OLED screen.) That’s really clever of Three isn’t- help deplete the battery for no good reason; (that’s irony there, Dave). Save battery! Invert the colours! Save lives! Invert the colours! (Wasn’t there a French hostage recently too afraid to turn her phone on, fearing the screen light would be spotted by her captor?) But you haven’t thought around this have you? You’ve been there long enough in Maidenhead though. Shame on you. Perhaps you’ve risen to peak incompetence – I don’t want to be be rude but people in Human Systems sometimes do get to a level and coast along in a fuddle. Is that you now, Dave?
So – where did we get to. We decided you are a policy-on-paper sort of guy, rather than actually putting policy into action. I don’t suppose anything I say will get you to change. People don’t generally. But optimism drives me to give it a go!
Guys on xda-developers.com tell me that only Three in the UK customize the Huawei splash screens with their logo. I wonder why the others were so constrained? What do they know that you don’t,, Dave? Perhaps they are more policy-in-practice people – do you think that might be it? Perhaps they listen to their customers, Dave. Could that be it?
Now I started my rambling whinge, for this is what it is, saying that all the dross you’ve been putting my way started 9 months ago. I was in New Zealand visiting my grandchildren when my phone rang in the middle of the night (New Zealand is 13 hours ahead, remember). Next morning a web-search revealed it was your lot; making a sales call I suppose. And it kept on happening.
My sister, back in the UK, was quite ill at the time and I needed to check who was calling because the call could be important. But Three kept ringing me nightly – 2 or 3 am. Each time I duly refused the call. Eventually I downloaded a call blocker. But that did little good because you’ve got many conjugations of number endings for your call-centre. So I might block 0333 338 1021 but next time the last two-digits would be something else. So all that repeated calling you do when calls are declined, ‘ethical’ is it, Dave, in your book?
Repeated calling in the middle of the night; ‘using innovation to make things better for our people, customers and communities’. Could Three not detect I was roaming, Dave? Did no-one there ever think that calls might be a nuisance in different time zones, Dave? (Dave, know this: I, and many other people, always find them intrusive, I’m a pro-active consumer, Dave. I tell you what I want. I don’t want you telling me; ever.) Whenever I sign-up anywhere I always refuse marketing. Its academic now, the GDPR will close your abuse-of-process down. From today your customers can set the dogs on you; and about time too.
But you are a policy-on-paper guy. You don’t have to worry about all this do you? The web page looks lovely; that’ll get the punters in! You’ve got to have come from a PR/Marketing background haven’t you? You are not like normal people. I met a woman once who was a rep for a pet food company. She really believed her products were superior to those of her company’s competitors. Is that it, Dave? Do you think Three is superior? Let reality bite, mate. Take a user-trip around Three as any customer might. You’ve never done that, have you?
I walked into a Three shop today and discovered that because I’m SIM only I don’t get access to your 800MHz band; ‘4G Voice’ I think he called it. Why, Dave? My money not good enough? Why am I on a second-class tier with less signal strength in buildings and in the wilds than those Three users who bought a Three phone? That cannot be right, Dave, can it? You are not really ‘respecting human rights’ by discriminating against me, are you. (I agree, a bit of a stretch this one but I could probably make a good case if I gave it some thought.)
Ah! I just had a thought. The FCC in the USA, most likely on the payroll of the corporates, are trying to get a two-speed internet; pay more and go faster; is that what you are planning Dave? Some businesses in the USA want it; the thinking populace at large doesn’t and they cynically know they will get no benefit, just increased prices and slower routing. They will be screwed!
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I know things didn’t go too well with your OFCOM appeal, Dave, and you only have a tiny bit of 800MHz spectrum you got from EE. Shame! Are you trying to make a feature of the mess you are in and the tiny bit of bandwidth you have? “Let’s call it ‘4G Voice’ and no one will know what it is and we can use it for sales pitches to the undecided. ‘If you buy our phone, Madam, we’ll give you free 4G Voice!’”
Voice-over-WiFi that kicks in when the phone signal is weak was a discovery on the Huawei too. You’ve been with-holding that from me as well. And that is not justifiable either Dave. Ethical, responsible? No; not Three.
I engaged your complaints procedure two days ago. I found myself interacting with Resolver.com. Well, OK, you’ve farmed complaints out; saves getting down and dirty doesn’t it? I made a complaint about unwanted Three branding defiling my property. The quite-serious complaint I’ve already explained to you was sent off. I received a message back the following day asking for name, address and phone number. All that information I gave the day before and was on the form that Resolver returned, printed plainly as part of the message. Clearly the handler decided to bat the case away for someone else to deal with. It happens. On my watch they would be helped to find employment suitable for their aptitude. Also, though, I was asked for my Date of Birth. I refused to give it. All the stuff I was being asked is exactly the kind of information hackers use to take over an identity. And I know nothing of Resolver.com and their bona fides. Now with GDPR you might think a bit more about the stuff you ask for. I would be identifiable to Three well enough from my name and telephone number; the last four digits of my bank account, the account which you debit monthly, would prove it was I. A small system change made by Three now and a future data leak at Resolver.com becomes less concerning. Got anyone in IT thinking about this? They probably do and already have. You look a fun guy though, I guess the golf course beckons quite often so you don’t get to hear wise counsel all that much. You’ve written your policy – and – well - the place runs itself doesn’t it?
And finally, today I contacted Three for a PAC code. Annie, bless her, was in an Indian call centre. She couldn’t understand me and I couldn’t understand her. Oh!! What a time we had, Annie and I! If communications engineering is your thing, then you’ll know preventing extraneous signal noise is vital. The noise on the channel this time though was not about signal processing, but simply human variation and accents, plus age-related hearing loss, all conspiring to make verbal communication difficult and stressful. When eventually she accepted I really was wanting to be away from Three I got passed to Rama; with slightly better English pronunciation and clarity of speech. But she too thought I might want to stay. Reading all the foregoing you might understand when I ask ‘why, in their right mind, would anyone want to’?
What do I take away from this? Huawei and the big four UK Telcoms are doing deals with each other that impinge on my rights and resale value of my phone; Huawei and the big four are to be avoided. The others of the ‘big four’ are not nearly so evil as Three. I judge people and businesses by what they do not what they say they do. More vernacular coming; I’m still raging.
I was only paying you 15 quid a month so I’m of no consequence. Enjoy your 9 holes of golf and lunch but kindly know you’ll **** on me no longer. But, for heaven’s sake, put your company policy into action and think a little bit, would you, Dave!
Yours sincerely but still very angry,
ps. The resolver.com is still running; I have heard nothing meaningful today from anyone at Three; I guess it will drift towards the Ombudsman and OFCOM sooner or later.

Wow, that's quite the opus! Looking forward to seeing what sort of response you get. I bought directly from Three but still unhappy about having the branding and the crappy apps foisted on me, not really much room to complain though.

shadowgolf said:
.... still unhappy about having the branding and the crappy apps foisted on me, not really much room to complain though.
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You have every right to complain!! Why should you have a defiled phone?
Dave's address is above write to him and tell him he's a scumbag!