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Using phones not officially carried by Telus - whitelist question

Step_6
Just Moved In
Hi, thanks for taking time to read my question.

For a number of reasons related to my work and phone use, I have figured out that Sony Xperia is the only contemporary model that works for me, but unfortunately it is not carried in Canada.

It is one of the last remaining phones with an off screen finger print scanner, while still having competent video and camera capability, and even having micro SD storage, which is important for people who use their phone for media creation.

I'm surprised more people don't have this problem, but for what ever reason, on-screen finger print scanners don't work for me, especially not when using a screen cover. It's very frustrating, especially given that facial recognition is awful for people with glasses. I need to use a screen cover because I have small business refurbishing furniture, and deal with chemical strippers and dust, but I also need a good camera for filming content for promo and social media.

I currently use a Samsung S21 and it's just too frustrating having to manually unlock my phone everytime I need to use it.

Does anyone know of a way to unlock 5G capability on phones not officially carried by Telus or other Canadian carriers? I am planning to pick up an Xperia 1 iii in Taiwan and use it in Canada, but I've heard that coverage is very hit and miss now that everything has moved to 5G
1 REPLY 1

Nighthawk
Community Power User
Community Power User

When importing a phone, you'll need to make sure it'll first work with the frequencies that Telus uses. For LTE, it should work fine in most urban areas. It will not get LTE in some rural areas.

 

The Xperia 1 iii coming from Asia will not work in Canada on 5G. It does not support both of the 5G frequencies in use here. 5G on band n78 might work but that frequency band isn't that common to find yet. The Asian version of the Xperia 1 iii doesn't support 5G band n66, which is by far the most common frequency used in Canada. There is no unlock to fix the supported frequencies. Only option would be to order the US model of the Xperia 1 iii instead since their network frequencies and Canada's are mostly the same.

 

A lot of imported phones also don't seem to get VoLTE or wifi calling working even if the phone supports it.


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