7 ms·

Pixel 7 WiFi does not work in certain countries

58 points by boernard 3y ago

boernard 3y ago
I am right now in Sri Lanka and couldn't connect to a WiFi that I connected to after I still was on airplane mode. After reading that support thread I could reproduce this issue. It really seems that WiFi networks are not discoverable in Sri Lanka when your device 'recognises' via connecting to the carrier that it is in Sri Lanka
- ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
  GrapheneOS would solve this issue permanently.
  - iforgotpassword 3y ago
    Or lineageos if you want something usable and not developed by a lunatic https://youtu.be/4To-F6W1NT0 https://youtu.be/4To-F6W1NT0
    - Brian_K_White 3y ago
      Sorry for your downvotes. Your comment is constructive on both points.
    - zolbrek 3y ago
      GrapheneOS is very usable, I've been using it for the past three years or so. Regarding the lunatic part, I thought he resigned as lead dev.
    - tholdem 3y ago
      Lineageos is also less stable than GrapheneOS and of course far less secure than GOS. It’s also less secure than stock Pixel OS or any other Android OS that supports verified boot.
  - bubblethink 3y ago
    Unless you know what the rootcause is, no it won't. If it's a bug or some regulatory issue, that will likely carry over from AOSP to any derivatives unless they explicitly work around it.
silisili 3y ago
Why does Google support consist of clueless 'product experts' who offer no support at all, ever? I've never seen a more useless support channel, it's insulting. I'd honestly rather them just say they offer no support at all, as it would save a lot of time and frustration.
- gbil 3y ago
  These are most probably not google employees just people who like to "help" and get such titles for their posts resulting in a skewed persception of support without the company paying them which is a "win-win" situation (???) the issue in the specific thread is the lack of common sense, so I buy a device and I can't travel with it ? a mobile phone that is not a gun. These are answers that could be attributed easily to a low-mid level chatbot
  - iforgotpassword 3y ago
    Yes this. Like a blast from the past, the 2000s with arrogant mods on vbulletins and phpbbs who were proud of their titles and Postcount. Say what you want about Reddit, but their implementation of karma improved that situation by so much. "It's impossible to say what the issue here is" like wtf
  - bubblethink 3y ago
    >which is a "win-win" situation All these company support websites are so bad that people have been trained to ignore them in google search results, and hence they go directly to stackoverflow or reddit where real humans interact. Not seeing how anyone wins in this model. MS also has this issue. If you ever google for windows problems, the stuff on any microsoft.com domain will be utter garbage with clueless people talking over and over about things like clearing the cache or rebooting the machine with a paragraph long boilerplate that will ask for upvotes.
    - gbil 3y ago
      I put it in quotation marks exactly because it is really the opposite of a win-win situation. It provides the sense of official support while in the majority of more complicated issues it just increases entropy and frustration
supermatt 3y ago
So if you ever go on holiday, its safer not to buy a google pixel? Who comes up with these dumb ideas.
- angry_octet 3y ago
  Lawyers. Regulators. Politicians. Most countries are swamped with regulations that are inflexible, insist on not recognising testing/accreditation done in other countries by default, exist to provide a moat for an entrenched interest group, etc.
  - aaomidi 3y ago
    Somehow apple can get around this and make their phones work practically everywhere. But I guess the small startup of google has a hard time caring about some countries.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - supermatt 3y ago
    The regulations for wifi are published and well known. Google just couldn't be bothered to get certification - the end result being that legitimate pixel owners arent able to use their devices when they go to certain countries. Its just laziness on googles part, and it is the consumer of their own products who suffer.
    - angry_octet 3y ago
      I'm not sure you've dealt with regulators before. Let alone ones in countries with significant corruption.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
ajkjk 3y ago
jesus christ this is infuriating to read
r0ckarong 3y ago
Can someone explain why? Not technically but politically why this would be necessary? Sri Lankan laws? Geo restricted sale strategy?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- fatfingerd 3y ago
  The channels to scan vary with country based on government regulation of frequencies. Normally, a full list of rules is accumulated for each implementation so it could be used globally. A possibility is that Google thinks they will avoid pointless legal risk by not having support at all for countries they "don't need" or to prevent unauthorized exporters. This would be quite silly because travelers expect to roam with their devices. Another possibility is that people are using other imported hardware that is not configured to the current country and selecting channels not actually allowed in the country. This is usually only 1 channel in a dozen so seemingly unlikely, though congestion algorithms prefer a channel that no one else is using..
- gargablegar 3y ago
  Imo it’s because Sri Lanka has not supported 6Ghz yet. So the phone is not correctly configured to support limited bands it almost certainly needs a firmware update on the radio and some effort to ensure it works in that market… and google just don’t care about a small market possibly. Source I’m in WiFi space
tayo42 3y ago
If that's real, that is insane. Why buy a pixel? You have to go out of your way to develop this feature too? It's not like there is anything country specific about connecting to wifi. People had a meetings discussing this and thought it was a good idea and some developer actually coded this.
- somerandomqaguy 3y ago
  They still have a fairly clean Android. Samsung's still have Bixby and the Samsung store, and their firmware I find to be aggravating, as Samsung phones will install carrier specific apps without any option to remove them. And a used Pixel can be had rather inexpensively due steep depreciation of Android phones.
  - opan 3y ago
    I've had good luck with used OnePlus devices running LineageOS. Affordable with good specs and unlockable bootloader.
- Reubend 3y ago
  I've heard that Pixel phone have good security. With that said, there seems to be a lot of issues cropping up lately (like the 911 fiasco) which make me a bit skeptical of the value proposition.
  - aaomidi 3y ago
    iPhones now have the option of ADP, which allows for end to end encrypted iCloud storage. They also have lockdown mode to prevent even more vectors of attack. Not sure good security is really a winning argument here.
- vel0city 3y ago
  > It's not like there is anything country specific about connecting to wifi. Yes there is. Each country has a lot of different laws and certifications necessary to operate radio equipment in the country. > Why buy a pixel? The odds of me going to Sri Lanka or pretty much any country affected by this is practically zero. Why would I base my purchase decision on something that's got like a 0.001% chance of ever affecting me instead of the myriad of other things that'll affect me every day?
fphhotchips 3y ago
1. Man I hope that's not an employee or they (should be) about to have a terrible Monday. 2. "Do you travel? Potentially to places where it will be hard to get roaming data? Fuck you!" -- Google
CommanderData 3y ago
Google TV 4K only supports 5Ghz WiFi on channels 36, 40, 44 or 48. Their well aware of the issue and haven't done anything to fix it since its release 2 years ago. Discovered while helping a friend set his up. Most consumers don't know how to channel peg WiFi. Seems like a massive flaw, adjusting WiFi to suit one device? Really does not inspire confidence spending money on any Google product. https://old.reddit.com/r/Chromecast/comments/jdvmh5/chromecast_for_google_tv_cant_see_ac_5ghz_wifi/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Chromecast/comments/jdvmh5/chromeca...
- baybal2 3y ago
  [dead]
- ksec 3y ago
  Google Hardware as been on the market long enough. From Pixel to Chromebook that is at least 10 years since their introduction. And yet Google still dont cares about getting there products working in other market. And that is a company awash with cash. Even a small router company does better than them. I guess some, may be a minority of people wants competition to Apple. But neither Amazon or Google seems to be serious about it.
- ispotato 3y ago
  This is extremely common with smart TVs of all sorts, and smart devices in general. Every 5ghz-capable Roku device is in the same boat, for example. The 5ghz spectrum in the US is broken up into UNII 1, 2, 2 Extended, and 3, which all have their own separate FCC regulations and certification process. Lazy manufacturers for these types of devices don't want to go through more than one process, especially for UNII 2 and 2-Extended channels, which have stricter requirements. So they just do the lower channels.
- kmlx 3y ago
  LG OLED55C8PLA, launched in 2018. expensive, but incredible display: https://www.lg.com/uk/tvs-soundbars/smart-tvs/oled55c8pla/ https://www.lg.com/uk/tvs-soundbars/smart-tvs/oled55c8pla/ can’t connect to my 5ghz wifi (80mhz/channel 149). and the ethernet connection is only 100Mbit.
hepinhei 3y ago
Until recently pixel did not allowed 5G in several Europeans countries, it was sw disabled. Meanwhile they activated it some weeks ago because they are launching the phone officially there . This kind of things is just stupidity, no one in the world does that why would they do? To provide a bad experience? It seems that they have a product team full of lawyers. Instead of putting sw engineers working on these blocks they could put them fixing the 911 issue
- ispotato 3y ago
  If a device is still pending approval by the RF spectrum regulator in a country, they're required to not use those channels by law. Software blocks mean that they can sell a device that's hardware capable before regulatory approval, and then unlock the functionality later. It allows them to ship the same hardware globally but comply with differing laws in different regions, and it's far from just google that does this. Every major wireless access point vendor, for example, will require you to identify the country in which you are operating and software lock which channels you are allowed to use, alongside other limitations like transmit power.
compsciphd 3y ago
Pixel's also only allow you to record conversations in a white listed list of areas, even if the areas you are in allows one party recording. It's not a list they put much effort into keeping up to date. So as you move around, functionality will appear and disappear.
Havoc 3y ago
Oh no. I just ordered a pixel 8 for someone in a different country. Wasn’t aware of this geo lock BS
gargablegar 3y ago
Almost certain this is because 6Ghz is not supported in Sri Lanka and you need to keep your WiFi radio firmware up to date and ensure the correct country limits apply to it in the correct way. Poor form from google though. Obviously that country is not high on the bug list.

58 points by boernard 3y ago

I am right now in Sri Lanka and couldn't connect to a WiFi that I connected to after I still was on airplane mode. After reading that support thread I could reproduce this issue. It really seems that WiFi networks are not discoverable in Sri Lanka when your device 'recognises' via connecting to the carrier that it is in Sri Lanka

ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
GrapheneOS would solve this issue permanently.
- iforgotpassword 3y ago
  Or lineageos if you want something usable and not developed by a lunatic https://youtu.be/4To-F6W1NT0 https://youtu.be/4To-F6W1NT0
  - Brian_K_White 3y ago
    Sorry for your downvotes. Your comment is constructive on both points.
  - zolbrek 3y ago
    GrapheneOS is very usable, I've been using it for the past three years or so. Regarding the lunatic part, I thought he resigned as lead dev.
  - tholdem 3y ago
    Lineageos is also less stable than GrapheneOS and of course far less secure than GOS. It’s also less secure than stock Pixel OS or any other Android OS that supports verified boot.
- bubblethink 3y ago
  Unless you know what the rootcause is, no it won't. If it's a bug or some regulatory issue, that will likely carry over from AOSP to any derivatives unless they explicitly work around it.

silisili 3y ago

Why does Google support consist of clueless 'product experts' who offer no support at all, ever? I've never seen a more useless support channel, it's insulting. I'd honestly rather them just say they offer no support at all, as it would save a lot of time and frustration.

gbil 3y ago
These are most probably not google employees just people who like to "help" and get such titles for their posts resulting in a skewed persception of support without the company paying them which is a "win-win" situation (???) the issue in the specific thread is the lack of common sense, so I buy a device and I can't travel with it ? a mobile phone that is not a gun. These are answers that could be attributed easily to a low-mid level chatbot
- iforgotpassword 3y ago
  Yes this. Like a blast from the past, the 2000s with arrogant mods on vbulletins and phpbbs who were proud of their titles and Postcount. Say what you want about Reddit, but their implementation of karma improved that situation by so much. "It's impossible to say what the issue here is" like wtf
- bubblethink 3y ago
  >which is a "win-win" situation All these company support websites are so bad that people have been trained to ignore them in google search results, and hence they go directly to stackoverflow or reddit where real humans interact. Not seeing how anyone wins in this model. MS also has this issue. If you ever google for windows problems, the stuff on any microsoft.com domain will be utter garbage with clueless people talking over and over about things like clearing the cache or rebooting the machine with a paragraph long boilerplate that will ask for upvotes.
  - gbil 3y ago
    I put it in quotation marks exactly because it is really the opposite of a win-win situation. It provides the sense of official support while in the majority of more complicated issues it just increases entropy and frustration

supermatt 3y ago

So if you ever go on holiday, its safer not to buy a google pixel? Who comes up with these dumb ideas.

angry_octet 3y ago
Lawyers. Regulators. Politicians. Most countries are swamped with regulations that are inflexible, insist on not recognising testing/accreditation done in other countries by default, exist to provide a moat for an entrenched interest group, etc.
- aaomidi 3y ago
  Somehow apple can get around this and make their phones work practically everywhere. But I guess the small startup of google has a hard time caring about some countries.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- supermatt 3y ago
  The regulations for wifi are published and well known. Google just couldn't be bothered to get certification - the end result being that legitimate pixel owners arent able to use their devices when they go to certain countries. Its just laziness on googles part, and it is the consumer of their own products who suffer.
  - angry_octet 3y ago
    I'm not sure you've dealt with regulators before. Let alone ones in countries with significant corruption.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]

ajkjk 3y ago

jesus christ this is infuriating to read

r0ckarong 3y ago

Can someone explain why? Not technically but politically why this would be necessary? Sri Lankan laws? Geo restricted sale strategy?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
fatfingerd 3y ago
The channels to scan vary with country based on government regulation of frequencies. Normally, a full list of rules is accumulated for each implementation so it could be used globally. A possibility is that Google thinks they will avoid pointless legal risk by not having support at all for countries they "don't need" or to prevent unauthorized exporters. This would be quite silly because travelers expect to roam with their devices. Another possibility is that people are using other imported hardware that is not configured to the current country and selecting channels not actually allowed in the country. This is usually only 1 channel in a dozen so seemingly unlikely, though congestion algorithms prefer a channel that no one else is using..
gargablegar 3y ago
Imo it’s because Sri Lanka has not supported 6Ghz yet. So the phone is not correctly configured to support limited bands it almost certainly needs a firmware update on the radio and some effort to ensure it works in that market… and google just don’t care about a small market possibly. Source I’m in WiFi space

tayo42 3y ago

If that's real, that is insane. Why buy a pixel? You have to go out of your way to develop this feature too? It's not like there is anything country specific about connecting to wifi. People had a meetings discussing this and thought it was a good idea and some developer actually coded this.

somerandomqaguy 3y ago
They still have a fairly clean Android. Samsung's still have Bixby and the Samsung store, and their firmware I find to be aggravating, as Samsung phones will install carrier specific apps without any option to remove them. And a used Pixel can be had rather inexpensively due steep depreciation of Android phones.
- opan 3y ago
  I've had good luck with used OnePlus devices running LineageOS. Affordable with good specs and unlockable bootloader.
Reubend 3y ago
I've heard that Pixel phone have good security. With that said, there seems to be a lot of issues cropping up lately (like the 911 fiasco) which make me a bit skeptical of the value proposition.
- aaomidi 3y ago
  iPhones now have the option of ADP, which allows for end to end encrypted iCloud storage. They also have lockdown mode to prevent even more vectors of attack. Not sure good security is really a winning argument here.
vel0city 3y ago
> It's not like there is anything country specific about connecting to wifi. Yes there is. Each country has a lot of different laws and certifications necessary to operate radio equipment in the country. > Why buy a pixel? The odds of me going to Sri Lanka or pretty much any country affected by this is practically zero. Why would I base my purchase decision on something that's got like a 0.001% chance of ever affecting me instead of the myriad of other things that'll affect me every day?

fphhotchips 3y ago

1. Man I hope that's not an employee or they (should be) about to have a terrible Monday. 2. "Do you travel? Potentially to places where it will be hard to get roaming data? Fuck you!" -- Google

CommanderData 3y ago

Google TV 4K only supports 5Ghz WiFi on channels 36, 40, 44 or 48. Their well aware of the issue and haven't done anything to fix it since its release 2 years ago. Discovered while helping a friend set his up. Most consumers don't know how to channel peg WiFi. Seems like a massive flaw, adjusting WiFi to suit one device? Really does not inspire confidence spending money on any Google product. https://old.reddit.com/r/Chromecast/comments/jdvmh5/chromecast_for_google_tv_cant_see_ac_5ghz_wifi/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Chromecast/comments/jdvmh5/chromeca...

baybal2 3y ago
[dead]
ksec 3y ago
Google Hardware as been on the market long enough. From Pixel to Chromebook that is at least 10 years since their introduction. And yet Google still dont cares about getting there products working in other market. And that is a company awash with cash. Even a small router company does better than them. I guess some, may be a minority of people wants competition to Apple. But neither Amazon or Google seems to be serious about it.
ispotato 3y ago
This is extremely common with smart TVs of all sorts, and smart devices in general. Every 5ghz-capable Roku device is in the same boat, for example. The 5ghz spectrum in the US is broken up into UNII 1, 2, 2 Extended, and 3, which all have their own separate FCC regulations and certification process. Lazy manufacturers for these types of devices don't want to go through more than one process, especially for UNII 2 and 2-Extended channels, which have stricter requirements. So they just do the lower channels.
kmlx 3y ago
LG OLED55C8PLA, launched in 2018. expensive, but incredible display: https://www.lg.com/uk/tvs-soundbars/smart-tvs/oled55c8pla/ https://www.lg.com/uk/tvs-soundbars/smart-tvs/oled55c8pla/ can’t connect to my 5ghz wifi (80mhz/channel 149). and the ethernet connection is only 100Mbit.

hepinhei 3y ago

Until recently pixel did not allowed 5G in several Europeans countries, it was sw disabled. Meanwhile they activated it some weeks ago because they are launching the phone officially there . This kind of things is just stupidity, no one in the world does that why would they do? To provide a bad experience? It seems that they have a product team full of lawyers. Instead of putting sw engineers working on these blocks they could put them fixing the 911 issue

ispotato 3y ago
If a device is still pending approval by the RF spectrum regulator in a country, they're required to not use those channels by law. Software blocks mean that they can sell a device that's hardware capable before regulatory approval, and then unlock the functionality later. It allows them to ship the same hardware globally but comply with differing laws in different regions, and it's far from just google that does this. Every major wireless access point vendor, for example, will require you to identify the country in which you are operating and software lock which channels you are allowed to use, alongside other limitations like transmit power.

compsciphd 3y ago

Pixel's also only allow you to record conversations in a white listed list of areas, even if the areas you are in allows one party recording. It's not a list they put much effort into keeping up to date. So as you move around, functionality will appear and disappear.

Havoc 3y ago

Oh no. I just ordered a pixel 8 for someone in a different country. Wasn’t aware of this geo lock BS

gargablegar 3y ago

Almost certain this is because 6Ghz is not supported in Sri Lanka and you need to keep your WiFi radio firmware up to date and ensure the correct country limits apply to it in the correct way. Poor form from google though. Obviously that country is not high on the bug list.