Finding my frequency on my Samsung phone

29 Nov 2016

This article will explain the easiest steps you can take  to see what frequency your phone connects to your network on. This is useful information to have, especially if you are looking to purchase a mobile repeater. Knowing your frequency will allow you to select the best suited booster for the job.

Your phone will use one of these 5 frequencies

• 800Mhz (Band 20)
• 900Mhz (Band 8)
• 1800Mhz (Band 3)
• 2100Mhz (Band 1)
• 2600Mhz (Band 7)

(Band numbers are just easy to read lables )

Lets find out which one it is!

Here is how the networks and frequencies relate to each other:

• 4G (aka lte) is either at 800, 1800 or 2600Mhz
• 3G (aka wcdma) is either at 900 or 2100Mhz
• GSM is always at 900Mhz

FIELD TESTING ON SAMSUNG GALAXY

1. Ensure mobile data is switched on:
2. Ensure WIFI is switched off

2) Type in *#0011# into the area that you would normally use to punch in a telephone number.

You are now in ServiceMode:

Here you should be able to see the Band number directly. It’s that easy!

• BAND 1 =  2100Mhz.
• BAND 3  = 1800Mhz.
• BAND 8 = 900Mhz.
• BAND 7 = 2600Mhz
• BAND 20 = 800Mhz

However, sometimes on older phones, the Band is NOT shown and instead, it will  just say GSM900 or WCDMA(900) or WCDMA(2100). This is still easy to read.

• GSM900 = 900Mhz
• WCDMA(900) = 900Mhz 
• WCDMA(2100) = 2100Mhz

(WCDMA is just 3G)

Below are 2 examples. The first phone is in an area where there is 4G, and the second where there is only 3G.

In the first image, you can see the  phone is connected to Band 20. This is 800Mhz, so that’s 4G is at 800Mhz 

In the second image, we are connected to  (WCDMA(900)). The (900) means 900Mhz. The WCDMA means 3G. So that’s 3G at 900Mhz.

Some phones may only show UARFCN numbers, so in both these images I have also highlighted the UARFCN number (in this case, 6300 and 3088 respectively)

If your phone only shows UARFCN  values, you can put these numbers into the UARFCN-to-frequency converter above.

Conclusion

Now that you know the frequency / band that your phone connects to outside your house, you can select the best signal booster for you.

If you see no symbol or the ‘E’ or ‘G’ symbol , we suggest the stellahome900 booster. This one is easy!

If you see the 3G,  H, H+ symbol then you must find out by the method above whether you are at 900Mhz or 2100Mhz.

Finally if you see the ‘4G‘ or ‘LTE’ symbol,  then you must use the method above to find out are you connected to 800 , 1800 or 2600Mhz, and then select the appropriate booster for the list.