Tethering on Umdigi Phones

[will13am]

I have been having problems tethering the Public Mobile service on the Umidigi A5 Pro.  I have encountered tethering issues with certain hardware/service combinations where dun has to be added to the APN type field to enable tethering.  When I add dun to the APN type field for the Public Mobile APN on the A5 Pro, I get the error "Carrier does not allow adding APNs of type dun".  This morning I asked a friend how to deal with this problem.  He did some tethering tests and some online searching and found the solution.  The solution is to add DUN to the APN type field.  Apparently, the APN data is case sensitive.  This works for the A5 Pro and probably will work for any Umidigi product that needs DUN added to the APN type field for tethering.  What is also interesting is that I am able to tether a competing brand on the A5 Pro without using dun.

If anyone is geeky and want to investigate this further, look to carrier config manager.  Some carriers are control freaks and want to police tethering.  Public Mobile doesn't care.  They seemed to have accidentally put into the we care bin.  That's why adding dun is not allowed.  DUN is not the same as dun but does the same thing in the APN settings.  

[Leelee70]

I freaking love this community. Thats now 3 for 3 getting the solutions I needed to get my new Umidigi G3 Max running flawlessly on the Public Mobile network. I was pulling my hair out trying everything to my Umidigi WIFI HotSpot to connect with my Samsung Tablet S7+....this simple APN setting solved it!!!! Peace and love

[morandi1963]

I was typing my "problem solved" message and did not see your message (proposing exactly what ended up working) before posting it 🙂 You were right...

Thanks again!

[morandi1963]

Problem solved!

I used the two ideas that you proposed simultaneously *in combination*:

(1) I inserted the PM SIM card in SIM slot 2 (but doing only this keeps the APN entries grey and not editable)

and

(2) Inserted the US roaming card on SIM slot 1.

After the US card was inserted in slot 1, the Public Mobile APN fields of slot 2 became editable too!

I added DUN to the APN type (it did NOT accept to save "dun" in lower case), and now tethering with PM works!!

thanks a lot for proposing the 2 ideas that (together) worked 🙂

Stay safe!

[gblackma]

The Freedom SIM doesn't have to be active @morandi1963 have you tried it with the US roaming SIM I slot 1 and the PM SIM in slot 2 and if it allows you to change it to this one below? 

APN settings:
Name: Mobile Internet
APN: sp.mb.com
Proxy: Not set
Port: Not set
Username: Not set
Password: Not set
Server: Not set
MMSC: http://aliasredirect.net/proxy/mb/mmsc
MMS proxy: 74.49.0.18
MMS port: 80
MCC: 302
MNC: 220
Authentication type: Not set
APN type: default,mms,supl,dun

APN protocol: IPv4
APN roaming protocol: IPv4
APN enable/disable: APN enabled
Bearer: Unspecified
MVNO type: Not set
MVNO value: Not set

[morandi1963]

Thanks for your quick reply!

I tried putting a US roaming SIM card (I don't have an active Freedom SIM at the moment with me). When I inserted this US SIM card, it replaced the Public Mobile APNs with a list of T-Mobile APNs.

I can edit the entries of any T-Mobile APN even change its name to Public Mobile, and change its other entries to match the needed PM entries as well,  and I can save the edited APN.

But when I insert the Public Mobile SIM back, the APN that I edited and saved with the US roaming SIM disappears and is replaced with the original Public Mobile APN again with all the entries greyed out...

===

I also tried to insert the PM sim card in the SIM slot 2, but the APN entries remain grey with no option to edit them.

I may have to live with no tethering, which is not so good in case of an emergency...

Thanks for your help.

[gblackma]

@morandi1963 if you insert a freedom SIM it would allow you to do it. Another user said that if you placed your PM so  into slot 2 as the data only option. That it allowed you to change the APN settings. Stay safe. 

[morandi1963]

Hi,

I have the dreaded "no tethering" problem on my Umidi a5 Pro (data works but not tethering).

I would like to add "dun", or DUN", to the  APN type (currently it is "default,supl,mms") as suggested by the solution here, but all the APN settings are greyed out and I don't see any edit option.

Is there anyway to edit the APN settings on the Umidigi A5 Pro?

Thanks for your help!

[will13am · Accepted solution]

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@computergeek541 wrote:

@will13am That is interesting. When I look at Android phones, I've always seen the APN type in lower case letters.

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Well apparently it is not case sensitive.  See this reddit post.  The carrier config manager prevents adding dun to the APN type field but it allows adding DUN.  

https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/77c1dj/android_tethering_and_apn_carrier_config/

[Solution marked to aid searches ....... Luddite]

[computergeek541]

@will13am That is interesting. When I look at Android phones, I've always seen the APN type in lower case letters.

[will13am]

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@Alk wrote:

Thanks @will13am , it worked for me.

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That carrier config manager file is a bag fully of shackles that limit phone functionality depending on carrier requests.  It was unfortunate the Public Mobile was incorrectly included in the restriction on tethering when there really is none.  The alternate solution was to edit that xml file.  It would probably require constant editing with each update.  Editing the APN is much more eloquent.  Funny how there is a simple solution to every tough problem if only you can find it.  

[Alk]

Thanks @will13am , it worked for me.