my 4G died :-/ (anyone else?) -> Can you dial *228 option 2 on your Galaxy S III?

Things were great for a couple of months and then one day nothing but 3G.

Called support and things escalated to the engineers and network folks even.

Nothing anyone can do will get 4G to work again on this phone.

Twiddled all kinds of settings, battery pulls, new SIM, multiple reboots and wipes.... nothing.

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Sounds like Verizon is going to replace my phone, this just happened at a bad time. I don't have a home address to ship the phone to, so that makes sending a replacement kind of difficult right now.

Everything else is great... no complaints other than that!

Anyone else seen this? I am concerned it may happen again with the "replacement" phone as well.

Accepted answers

TaxmanX

tikibar1 wrote:

I hope we don't because if they do have a 4G LTE phone and they try calling *228 and it goes through, it will likely kill their SIM card.

Well to be fair - it does NOT kill the SIM card, it just won't let the phone go into 4G mode (regardless of the options you select in Settings).

If someone else can replicate the issue - all they need to do to FIX the problem is go get a new SIM card from local Verizon store.

I am not clear on if other folks with the same phone are being ALLOWED to call *228 or if it is being blocked for them. It would be helpful if someone who IS able to call *228 and has access to a Verizon store nearby... (or works at Verizon) test the problem. If this IS causing the SIM to be stuck in 3g mode, and others can confirm it - then Verizon CAN fix it. If it is just me - then maybe there is something messed up in my Verizon account that is ALLOWING *228 to be dialed?

So far I have spent more than a month on this issue: 3 replacement phones and 5 replacement SIM cards at this point, just asking if anyone else can confirm this.

All comments

Verizon_Support

Hello there, TaxmanX!

By now, I'm sure you have received the replacement device, and I want to check on you to see how things are going with the 4G since you have gotten it.

As long as you are in a 4G area with your 4G device, there shouldn't be a problem with 4G unless there is something going on with the phone.

It appears as though that may have been the problem since there is nothing the troubleshooting was able to help.

Tamara H.

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

TaxmanX

Well the new phone still didn't fix the problem...

After calling support again, trying things... took it back in to local folks and got a second NEW SIM-card- which DID fix the problem (so far at least). Perhaps the first phone screwed up the replacement SIM-card somehow, it did work for about 45 minutes on the original phone before it flipped back to 3G.

The new SIM-card doesn't support the ISIS stuff though... so will check back with the local Verizon folks here in Virginia. I know the replacement SIM-card, I was given in Utah DID support ISIS (even if 3G wasn't working - it was working with ISIS.

Thanks for the reply...

(Update)

Well... back to broken

Things have been 4G since the sim swap, until today. New phone and new sim are now stuck in 3G mode again.

This is ridiculous....

TaxmanX

Update:

Replaced the phone for the 3rd time, and a new SIM (that makes 4 SIMs)

Worked for about 4 hours - then back to 3G only. :-(

There was a system update (minor, didn't reboot that I could see.

I give up... :-/

Sounds like the local Verizon store is going to replace my phone with something else (which IS very nice) - problem now is... what phone do I go with? I had a Droid X before this.. so back to Moto? Maybe it will happen to ANY Android phone I select? (as in there is something wrong in my google profile causing the problem? (scary)

DG360

Hmm. It *could* be caused by one of your paid apps. Those will keep coming back due to your Google profile. Which apps have you installed?

TaxmanX

I had quite a few apps originally on my Samsung, but don't recall anything that caused it to quit working.

With recent replaced phones I kept the apps to a minimum (because they were a pain to replace all the time)

The current apps I have on the latest phone to fail:

Slices : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onelouder.tweetvision

Swiftkey 3 : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.touchtype.swiftkey

Dropbox : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dropbox.android

Friendcaster : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.senab.blueNotifyFree

Google Voice :https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googlevoice

Flixster : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.flixster.android

Smart Tools : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kr.aboy.tools

1Weather : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.handmark.expressweather

Paperland Pro (downloaded but not active) : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joko.paperlandpro

Nothing too fancy - just some of the core apps I enjoy using. Tonight I will check to see if the dealer will allocate another SIM to see if I leave things STOCK if the problem happens though. The problem MAY be happening after a PRL runs (update roaming capability by dialing *228,,,2).

tikibar1

TaxmanX wrote:
The problem MAY be happening after a PRL runs (update roaming capability by dialing *228,,,2).

You don't dial *228, option 2 on 4G LTE phones; that's handled by the SIM card.

DG360

I haven't dialed *228 on my Note 2, but my prior HTC phones all would pop up a window saying "A Verizon wireless SIM card automatically updates your roaming capabilities" or something similar indicating *228 wasn't necessary. *228 is associated with 3G. Did this phone actually go through with the call? If that's the root of the problem, please post back

Looking at your apps list, nothing stands out as something that could cause trouble.

unknown

<Comments deleted as harassment and off-topic per the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service.>

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

TaxmanX

DG360 wrote:
*228 is associated with 3G. Did this phone actually go through with the call? If that's the root of the problem, please post back

Looking at your apps list, nothing stands out as something that could cause trouble.

Indeed - my Samsung Galaxy S III dials *228 without ANY blocking or errors, as does my wife's Samsung Droid "Charge". That is why I thought that I still needed to update the PRL (used to having to do that on my other/prior phones). Having just moved between states... it was even more on my mind (because my home address is set to the other state).

When I choose option 1 it fails, option #2 DOES process... and that may very well be killing my SIM card. Does ANY other Galaxy III owner get an error dialing *228.... and if not... what happens when YOU hit option 2?

I got a new SIM last night, was working in 4G (as per normal after getting a NEW SIM). I am currently not in a 4G area right now (at a pretty isolated site at work) but I will check it out again when I get home to see if 4G is holding today.

If for some reason I am able to dial *228 but others cant... not sure what would cause that - other than my prior phone was a 3G (Droid X) so maybe that is in my profile or something (so it is allowing my *228 call to go through). If other folks with A Galaxy III CAN dial *228... option 2.... DOES it kill their 4G/SIM as well?

I hope we can get someone else to try it and respond here...

Thanks DG360 / tikibar1

tikibar1

TaxmanX wrote:

I hope we can get someone else to try it and respond here...

I hope we don't because if they do have a 4G LTE phone and they try calling *228 and it goes through, it will likely kill their SIM card.

Again, PRL updates on 4G LTE phones are handled automatically by the SIM card. If you travel frequently or, as you say, if you move, you may want to periodically turn off the phone, remove the SIM card, wait a few minutes, then reinstall the SIM card and turn the phone back on. That will force the SIM card to update to the network.

TaxmanX

tikibar1 wrote:

I hope we don't because if they do have a 4G LTE phone and they try calling *228 and it goes through, it will likely kill their SIM card.

Well to be fair - it does NOT kill the SIM card, it just won't let the phone go into 4G mode (regardless of the options you select in Settings).

If someone else can replicate the issue - all they need to do to FIX the problem is go get a new SIM card from local Verizon store.

So far I have spent more than a month on this issue: 3 replacement phones and 5 replacement SIM cards at this point, just asking if anyone else can confirm this.

Ben582

I recently got the Galaxy 4s. I had *228 setup as a contact on my old 3G phone, and copied it over with my other contacts the the galaxy. Today I called *228 using the contact, then option #2 and it went through....now I'm not getting 4G anymore, just 3G. After reading this thread I tried calling it again. If I dial *228 the phone catches it and displays a message "A Verizon Wireless SIM card has activated your service and updated your phone's roaming capabilities."
It appears I can't call *228 from the dial pad, but *228 connects just fine if it is called using the saved contact.

demmo86rt

The PRL programming is done through the SIM card, calling *228 does absolutely nothing on a 4G phone.