topic Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2? in Discussions & Feedback

OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

Incarniac — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 18:28:10 GMT

I know O2 don't stock/sell OnePlus devices anymore (including the new OP8/OP8P), but since this is the phone I'm planning on getting I'm wondering if O2's 5G will work on it? Some reports over ath OnePlus' forums indicate it isn't working - yet; if so, can we expect it to work at some point once O2 has had a chance of approving the device?

From what I can see there are no technical reasons the phone can't work on O2 5G (on the 3500MHz freqency / n78 band).

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

pgn — Sun, 19 Apr 2020 18:39:55 GMT

One for @Chris_K, @Incarniac - he often has good insight on such matters from the O2 side. Tagged him in above.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

FredBloggs — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 00:07:26 GMT

Yep, I'm interested in finding out whether O2 will support 5G on the OP8 too.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

gmarkj — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 09:24:30 GMT

o2's 5G bands are constant, so it is more a case of if the OP8 supports the correct bands.

o2 uses bands 3 and 20 for 5G (1800MHz & 800MHz).

Looking at gsmarena for the OP8, it supports both of those bands (although it shows band 20 as LTE which is 4G and not 5G).

A good place to look is https://willmyphonework.net/, but they don't have the OP8 on the list yet...

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

Incarniac — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 09:58:45 GMT

I don't think that is correct re: O2 5G bands. All info I can find says O2 is using 5G band n78 (3500MHz) for 5G currently, and they also have frequency in 5G band n40 (2300MHz) but I don't think that's active yet. n78 is supported by OP8/OP8P (but n40 isn't).

Sources:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G_NR_frequency_bands
- https://kenstechtips.com/index.php/uk-network-frequency-bands
- https://5g.co.uk/guides/5g-frequencies-in-the-uk-what-you-need-to-know/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_5G_NR_networks
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O2_(UK)#Network

Bands b3 and b20 are 4G/4G+ bands.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

FredBloggs — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 23:45:23 GMT

Ok, so someone on the OnePlus forums has just got an O2 5G SIM in a OnePlus 8 Pro and it doesn't show 5G on the network settings page, so looks like it will have to be a firmware update

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

Incarniac — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 18:09:44 GMT

Can confirm that the network automatic listing on my phone only lists "2G/3G/4G" (no 5G). I am in a non-5G area though, and I don't know if that makes a difference.

I do wonder if O2 has to whitelist the device for 5G on their network before 5G will work. I can only test that at work, but will be some time until I'm back in the office.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

Cleoriff — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 18:16:42 GMT

Official info from O2 here @Incarniac @FredBloggs

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/O2-Gurus/oneplus-8-20pro/m-p/1335405/highlight/true#M1333

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

Incarniac — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 18:24:10 GMT

Thanks, good to know.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

Incarniac — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 19:52:14 GMT

I got a reply from OnePlus support that they're aware and working on an update to enable 5G working on O2, apparently. Obviously they are not committing to a timeline but say they'll announce on social media channels when available.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

FredBloggs — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 22:10:53 GMT

Just got a reply from OnePlus Customer Support which is not that positive...

"At this point in time, our devices will not work with O2 5G network. Our team is working on it and we will announce it on our social media channels once there is an update. However, I cannot promise you that an update will be rolled out as our team is still working towards the best possible approach on this topic. Please stay tuned to our social media channels for updates.

I am sure our team will work towards offering more options for our users in the UK with respect to 5G networks. We certainly want our users to be able to use the network provider of their choice.

We will certainly work towards this and keep you updated via social media."

So there you have it.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

Chris82 — Mon, 18 May 2020 18:01:27 GMT

Test

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

jonsie — Mon, 18 May 2020 18:02:50 GMT

passed

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

Chris82 — Mon, 18 May 2020 18:05:46 GMT

I got my OP 8 Pro last week and was disappointed that 5G didn't work with O2.

I've spoken with OP who state that technically it should work on the O2 bands & the issue was with O2 blocking it (which I know isn't true).

If you look in the carrier settings on the device, you can see that OP have specific lines of code which state O2 5G block.

You can manually update these and get 5G to work, but any carrier updates will wipe your manual settings.

When querying this with OP along with evidence, they backed down and referred me for escalation. I'm awaiting a call back from them to discuss.

TLDR

You can get O2 5G working on the OP8 Pro, but it requires a manual update of the phone carrier settings. This is a limitation purposely added by OnePlus.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

Chris82 — Mon, 18 May 2020 18:06:31 GMT

Ha, sorry. It wouldn't let me log in, so signed up for a new account.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

FredBloggs — Mon, 18 May 2020 21:38:43 GMT

It's all here...

https://forums.oneplus.com/threads/oneplus-8-8-pro-o2-5g.1213292/

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

pgn — Tue, 19 May 2020 09:45:46 GMT

Seems that, back at the end of April 2020, OnePlus did a bit of restructuring in their European staffing levels. The spiel in this article indicates that OnePlus and 3 are partners for the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro handsets in the UK this time around, to the exclusion of EE and O2:

https://uk.pcmag.com/smartphones/126694/report-oneplus-layoffs-strike-europe-based-teams

Not sure what way this'll shake out for those moving to 5G, but if the OnePlus8 or 8 Pro features, it looks like a move to 3 is going to be the only surefire way to go.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

HellDiverUK — Sat, 13 Jun 2020 12:34:43 GMT

I've just installed Android 11 Developer Beta 2 on my OnePlus 8 Pro.

Good news: 5G appears and is working!

Bad news: the beta is terribly bugged. Not at all usable for a 'daily driver' - Settings won't even run for more than a few seconds. VoWiFi and VoLTE don't appear to work, but then Settings won't run long enough to check if it's even turned on.

So, perhaps the next update will get 5G working on the 8 Pro.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

pgn — Sat, 13 Jun 2020 13:19:59 GMT

Moving in the right direction, at least! Thanks for the update, @HellDiverUK.

Re: OnePlus 8/8 Pro and 5G on O2?

BOSSGOGG — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 21:06:48 GMT

As usual, can we request O2 enable wifi calling / volte on current or future OnePlus devices?

Thinking of an OP8pro or upcoming 8TPro for my wife with O2. Require wifi calling to work though and O2 are always so limiting in this.