3G service is becoming a thing of the past as 4G LTE service is fully running in Nigeria. The 4G LTE providers in Nigeria has their own frequency bands. Inorder to enjoy the 4G LTE service, you need a 4G LTE enabled phone that support the 4G band of your network(s).
It's not just buying or owning a 4G LTE enabled smartphone but having the 4G smartphone that support your network 4G Band. To be frank with you guys, i was totally very disappointed that my phone doesn't support Glo 4G Band 28(700). Not just my phone but many MTK phones we have here in Nigeria.
It is very important for you to know which Bands your smartphone supports so you can know which network 4G LTE service that is compatible with your phone. This is a wonderful tutorial and it's very easy. Kindly follow me step after steps.
The major networks in Nigeria that currently have the 4G LTE service are Glo, MTN and Etisalat. (We are expecting Airtel to launch their own 4G LTE service soon). Other 4G LTE operators in Nigeria includes Swift, Ntel, Smile and Spectranet. Most of the 4G LTE enabled smartphones in Nigeria uses band 3, 4, 7, 20, 28. or 40.
Before i continue, checkout below 4G LTE Bands of the 4G operators we currently have in Nigeria.
- MTN 4G LTE supports band 20 (800MHz) and Band 7 (2600MHz)
- Glo 4G LTE supports band 28 (700MHz)
- Etisalat 4G LTE supports band 3 (1800MHz)
- NTEL 4G LTE supports band 8 (900MHz) and Band 3 (1800MHz)
- Spectranet and Swift supports band 40 (2300mhz)
- Smile supports band 20 (800mhz)
There you have it all. It is said that the lower frequencies tend to perform more better in rural areaswith good coverage while the bands with higher frequencies is said to be opposite, but there'll also be a good coverage when the areas are populated with users. I won't be diving more into the technical part of it cos that's not why i made this post. But take this, whatever frequency your desired 4G service is, you will get a good download and upload speed. Downloading a file of 1GB won't take more than 5minutes and that's the fact.
Now, to the main reason of this post, i will teach you how to easily check the Bands your smartphone supports using Mobile Uncle or MTK Engineering. But,we'll be using MobileUncle Tools.
How To Check Your 4G LTE Network Bands of Your Smartphone via Mobile Uncle ToolsThis steps is for Android MTK phones only. If your Android phone runs on MediaTek (MTK) processor, then continue along with me.
=> Download MobileUncle Tools.apk from Google playstore
=> Install and launch the app
=> Tap on
Engineer Mode =>
Engineer Mode (MTK)=> Under Telephony, tap on
BandMode=> Select Sim 2 or Sim 1. (Make sure you are able to scroll down after you select your SIM)
=> Now, scroll down to LTE Mode.
=> You will see a list of band modes
If you cannot tick the band 28 check box or if it's not ticked, then, you can't use Glo 4G LTE service.
If you cannot tick the band 3 check box or if it's not ticked, then, you can't use Etisalat 4G LTE service.
If you are not able tick band 20 or 7 check box or if it'snot ticked, then, your phone is not supported for MTN 4G LTE service.
If you use Ntel and you can’t tick band 8 or band 3 or if both bands are not ticked, then, your smartphone has no support for Ntel network.
My phone supports all the 4G networks Band except Glo 4G which is a Big F**k up. Before you buy any 4G phone, make sure you check out the specification to confirm if it supports your preferred 4G network band if not all. At least, mine is cool, it support all my favorite networks 4G Band except Glo 4G service. If you are already using a 4G enabled Android phone, you can simply check the bands your phone supports by following my tutorial above.
