[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] verucalise:
Enabling 3G on Verizon Galaxy S3 i535

Edited: I am not deleting this, but GPRS is not 3g. I stand corrected, it is a version of 2g I guess. I got so excited to finally see my "G" going that I never checked my facts. When Mr. Hunter said EVDO is 3g, I started searching things up as I remember Edge being 2g. Turns out, the GPRS system is as well. This does not enable 3g. My bad.

I am going to be completely honest and tell you that I do not know exactly WHAT caused the 3G to start working. What step I did that enabled it while playing around, but I will post what I did and hope everyone can do the same. It works great now.

I am not a professional, do this at your own peril. You were warned. ​

I updated the firmware while using SynergyROM, which caused my camera to stop working. I attempted to change ROM's, and unfortunately, soft bricked my phone. So a forewarning:

SynergyRom does not support the updated VRBMF1 firmware. Do not flash it, or else you will have no camera.

First, I restored my I535 to factory condition, as seen here: (thanks to XDA for the directions!) (LOOK AT MY NOTE BELOW BEFORE STARTING PROCESS) http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s3-i535-unbrick-soft-brick-125413/

*NOTE: The directions on this site are pretty solid, but forget a step: each time you close out odin, also remove your USB from your phone. Reopen odin, then reconnect it. Be patient on step #8, as others have stated, it takes a while for the PASS to show up. Step #17, the phone will reboot and be on the verizon splash screen before PASS shows up. Just be ready to pull the battery then*​

My Net10 SIM card never left the phone if that makes a difference. When your phone reboots, it will want to activate service. You need to bypass this. At the language selection screen, I held my volume up button and then tapped the lower left corner of my screen, then lower right, then left again, then right again. It should bypass it, but if you have problems, let me know. Of course, after restoring, Verizon's program wouldn't recognize the sim- it kept giving a "roaming" notice, and of course the dreaded "Non-Verizon SIM" crap. We needed to fix this. I used the directions from here, under the "ON YOUR PHONE" area. Here are the directions for rooting and unlocking the bootloader from XDA:

ON YOUR PHONE: Navigate to https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1aksh2bikfsne43/wmpWRj7Und

Download the following from the APKs folder:

- ez_unlock.apk (Also found on Google Play store, free)

- rom_manager.apk (Also found on Google Play store, free)

- Normally when downloading them right to your phone it will immediately prompt you to install them, choose install in both instances

- Open your app drawer and open EZ-Unlock

- Accept/Grant the app SuperUser permissions, select Unlock, you should hear "That was easy" and the word "Unlocked" should show in green at the top of the screen

BEFORE CONTINUING: it is recommended that you are connected to a stable WiFi network to ensure a successful flash!

- Open your app drawer again and open ROM Manager

- Select "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery"

- Find and select "Samsung Galaxy S3 (Verizon)"

- You'll see the blue bar at the top indicating progress, when it nears the end you'll need to Accept/Grant the app SuperUser permissions

- You may receive a message that Touch recovery is available, install if you'd like (I have read some posts a week or two ago about Touch recovery not always working flawlessly though, just FYI)

You are now rooted and your bootloader unlocked. (credit goes to: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1875914)

Then you have to enable your GSM service over the CDMA. Go to your phone icon, Press *#22745927. The "Enable/Disable Hidden Menu" comes up Select "Enable" on the popup, Press *#2263# and select GSM Band Preference- select (if I remember it correctly) ALL GSM.

If you can't get the "roaming" error to go away, shut down the phone, removed your sim, restarted, shut down again, reinsert sim and it should disappear. I had cell service now, and the phone recognized my SIM. Not internet though.

Verizon's crappy rom will not allow you to create an APN. From here, I downloaded Titanium Backup and APN Manager Pro off of Google Play (Maybe $8 total) I converted APN Manager Pro into a system file (open Titanium Backup, make sure you have root access, click backup/restore on top, scroll down and find APN Manager Pro, long hold the app and a menu will come up. Click "Special Features" and on the bottom it says "Convert to System App". Do that. Now run APN manager pro. I deleted ALL of Verizon's APN's, and then created an APN for my service, Net10. I now had internet, only the dreaded EVDO of course. From here, I transferred SynergyRom via USB to the internal SD, which I had been previously using and already downloaded. Here is the link for the download:

http://www.androidfilehost.com/?fid=22909751817930554

Download it to your computer, then transfer it via USB to your I535- make sure you do not put it into a folder.

Then, I booted into ClockWork Mod (shut down phone, press volume up, home button, and power all at the same time until you seem the Samsung logo flash, then release) Use your volume down button to go to install zip, use your power button to select an option, then install zip from SD card. You will see Synergy there, and select it. Install the rom. The screen will come up for installation, and I did a typical install. After it's done, reboot.

There was about a day in between this I did nothing. I have no cell reception at my house, so when I left my house I noticed I had no internet again. My APN manager pro disappeared...? So I had to go back in and manually put in my APN. I didn't need APN manager pro anyway, as Synergy opens up the APN option that Verizon doesn't. (go to Settings-More Settings-Mobile Networks-Access Point Names-click your menu button on the left and select "New APN") insert your information. Then click the menu button and make sure you save it!

Once that was done, I had 3G. So like I said, I have NO CLUE what I did to enable the 3G, but it is now enabled, and these are the steps I did to get it there. Screen shots to prove it, and if I didn't provide enough proof, let me know what screen you are looking for me to take a picture of and I will gladly do so. I am hoping now that 3G is working, that other roms can be used without disabling it but I cannot be for sure. Maybe the pro's on here will know exactly what triggered the 3G to work, and they can simplify the process although from start to finish it should only take about 15 minutes to do all of this. I'm guaranteeing you much of what I wrote probably has no bearing on the process, but I wanted to be thorough. Please let me know if you had any issues, I will be happy to clarify.

Happy Flashing! Good luck!

EDITED TO ADD: Another member brought to my attention that you would want a speed test screen shot. I cannot do it right now, I have no service at my house. I will update later with a screenshot when I run to town.