RedPocket SIM card doesn't work

lsitongia

I got this Note 9 Pro (Global) from Ebay. I'm in the USA. I got a GSMA SIM card from RedPocket. The phone cannot connect to the network. RedPocket support gave me the APN values to put in manually, but it didn't save them. Odd. I'll try that again. But, the APN that is in the phone already is named "agms".

RedPocket support told me that this phone will not work on T-Mobile (CSMAt). Then they told me that this Redmi phone will not work with any of their SIM cards. I assume that they mean that the phone is not supported on their network.

Is this phone carrier locked? Or, are all Global models unlocked? I'm wondering if I'm going to need to ship this back to the seller.

If carrier locking is not the problem, then is there a cheap carrier that I can get a SIM card from so that I can test this phone in the USA?

Thanks for your help.

MrT10001

@lsitongia If it cannot see the network at all it is most likely carrier locked. If you could borrow another SIM to test that theory with, it may answer that question.

lsitongia

I had tried the working AT&T SIM from my daily driver phone, last week, in this Note 9 Pro. A message came up that the phone was not allowed on their network. I assumed that meant it is not whitelisted. Could that explain what's happening on RedPocket? How do I distinguish blacklisting from carrier lock?

stanwood

@lsitongia I would doubt that a Redmi Note 9 Pro would be banned from AT&T network (?). Even Fairphone devices do work (I did travel to Canada and US with my Fairphone 4 in Augst 2023 and I could use it in Roaming mode on AT&T without any issue).

So maybe something related to a specific device configuration?

lsitongia

@stanwood Thank you for your help.

I've chatted with RedPocket again today. I found that the phone has a 14-digit IMEI and it is supposed to be 15. I found a site that generates that missing digit. I put the IMEI into a IMEI lookup site and it tells me:

Model: M2003J6B2G

Model Name: Note 9 Pro

MI Activation Lock: OFF

OFF means the security feature on your Xiaomi phone is currently disabled.
With Mi Activation Lock turned off, anyone who gets a hold of your phone, even if it's lost or stolen, can potentially factory reset it and use it normally.

The APN the phone shows as "agms". Has anyone heard of them?

This is the Global model. RedPocket says that some Xiaomi phones from China do not work on their network. A Global model should, right?

Their SIM card works normally in my Motorola Android phone. It doesn't connect on this Note 9 Pro. I can't figure out why. I'm going to contact the EBay seller next.

lsitongia

I found another IMEI check site that is specific to Xiaomi phones and it says

Purchase Country
PARAGUAY
Activation Country
Guatemala

I found a site that gives the APN for "agms" for use in the USA. agms.nl.gmm

This is getting deep and mysterious.

lsitongia

I can't find out much about "agms". There's a little bit of information on the web about AGMS Global, based in Singapore. A couple of sites give APN settings for AGMS Global.

Weird.

lsitongia

said in RedPocket SIM card doesn't work:

MI Activation Lock: OFF

Does this mean that the phone is OEM unlocked and I would not need to go through the process of waiting a week for it to be unlocked before I can install UT?

lsitongia

Another data point is that I have an old T-Mobile SIM for which the account is closed. I used to use it on my Pixel 3a. It doesn't connect, but it does fill in the T-Mobile APN correctly.

Does this mean that my N9P is NOT carrier locked? That it will work with T-Mobile if I get a new SIM card?

lsitongia

I got a Mint Mobile SIM card and it is working. I believe that it is over T-Mobile. T-Mobile APNs came in by default. It would not connect to AT&T using my AT&T SIM card (not an MVNO, but directly with AT&T).

lsitongia

Argh... voice and text work, data does not. This one is complicated. (Note, I'm still running Android on this. Haven't gotten to unlocking the boot.)

lsitongia

Yeah, this is really weird. It beeps, then works, then stops working, then switches to T-Mobile, but the APN is set to the Mint settings given in Mint's website.

lsitongia

With Mint Mobile, it doesn't really get data. Almost zero connectivity for data. MMS is unreliable. Voice and SMS okay.

My conclusion here is that this phone is not a good option for the USA. I'm going to return it.

stanwood

@lsitongia Maybe @TotalSonic would give you a feedback. If I'm right, he does use a Redmi Note Pro in the USA without any issue. Even phone calls now work with VoLTE.

uxes

@lsitongia do you have correct android version?

what is my device?
adb shell getprop ro.product.name
should print like "joyeuse_global"

adb shell getprop | grep incremental
should print

[ro.system.build.version.incremental]: [832]
[ro.build.version.incremental]: [832]
[ro.odm.build.version.incremental]: [V12.0.2.0.QJZMIXM]
[ro.vendor.build.version.incremental]: [V12.0.2.0.QJZMIXM]

lsitongia

@uxes Correct Android? I had whatever it came with. 10.something. I wasn't running UT. I was only starting the process. I couldn't get data, so I couldn't unlock the phone with Xiaomi. I wasn't close to installing UT yet.