[General Questions and Answers] GalaxyA325G:
Thanks for your input, but whether or not you think it's pointless, the Android technical operation question is still valid on how best to accomplish setting the tower that YOU want to connect to.

And then writing a tutorial guide so everyone can do it following in my footsteps (which, as you know, is how I handle these tough assignments).

You don't yet show you understand the purpose, nor the situation, which is then clearly my fault for not explaining it well to you (and to anyone reading this thread).

I apologize for not explaining the situation well enough yet.​

You "think" the network is optimized "for you"; but it's not "for you".

It's optimized "for them" (which, I'm fully aware, is 'supposed' to be result in an optimization "for you" as a result of them knowing all the cellphone connections that you don't know). And specifically, the situation is completely different for a static setup (which is stated in the original post as the main goal) - as a moving situation is vastly more complex than the situation while you're sitting at home in your PJs.

Clearly, I understand that.
​

But what I didn't make clear was the ADVANTAGE TO YOU of choosing the tower (e.g., to work around tower limitations).

Again, I apologize for not being clear yet.​

Rest assured, I searched before posting, and I found two types of responses:

a. It's pointless (these are all from people who don't understand the goal)

b. It's possible (these are from people who do understand the desired outcome)

Note that I found "some" articles on XDA that "might" help solve this issue...

But there has never been the specific question asked on XDA that I'm asking (AFAIK).

So it's worthwhile asking the question... and writing the solution up when it's solved.

That way, everyone can select their own tower whenever "they" feel the need to.

For sure, there's a bit of underlying basic generic knowledge that I need to dig through to write up a tutorial that shows the easiest way to select the fastest tower for your purposes, or to overcome per tower congestion limitations, such as what might be in these threads.

<https://xdaforums.com/t/quick-guide-how-to-enable-and-use-servicemode.3109579/>

<https://xdaforums.com/t/tricktips-mtk-phones-dial-secret-codes.2313812/>

<https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-enter...oid-phones-samsung-lg-htc-sony-e-t-c.3276504/>

<https://www.xda-developers.com/android-secret-codes/>

<https://xdaforums.com/t/secret-codes-unlocked-network-selection-solved.2328199/>

<https://xdaforums.com/t/engineer-mode-code-for-samsung-android.4614917/>

<https://convergeddevices.net/how-to-enter-engineering-mode-in-samsung/>

<https://www.wikihow.com/Put-Your-Android-in-Service-Mode>

<https://teamandroid.com/samsung-secret-codes/>

<https://technastic.com/samsung-secret-codes/>

<https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-M/Engineer-mode/td-p/10079401>

<https://www.wikihow.com/Put-Your-Android-in-Service-Mode>

<https://stackoverflow.com/questions...ing-cell-information-from-servicemode-samsung>

<https://convergeddevices.net/how-to-enter-engineering-mode-in-samsung/>

<https://github.com/CellularPrivacy/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector/issues/145>

<https://www.rantcell.com/documents/Band_lock_and_cell_lock_procedure_for_Android_versions.pdf>

<Band lock samsungs - which is only a possible preliminary step to the solution>

etc.

All of the above is basic non-specific knowledge that I need to absorb to START to perform the task of locking to a given static tower - while all of the below is specific knowledge I need to cull through in order to be successful with Android Engineering Mode (aka Samsung Service Mode) on my specific T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy A32-5G.

<https://www.violetgem.com/blog/lte-...n-a-specific-cell-tower-on-samsung-galaxy-s6/>

<https://android.gadgethacks.com/how...nt-lte-band-any-samsung-galaxy-phone-0322063/>

<https://xdaforums.com/t/switching-cell-tower.4191443/>

<https://www.androidpolice.com/force-phone-lte-5g-tutorial/>

<How to connect and lock to another cell tower using your android phone>

<LTE PCI Cell Locking on Samsung S5 running AZQ Android>

<https://www.howardforums.com/showth...-Lock-(Set-PCI-Lock)-to-improve-VZW-LTE-speed>

etc.

Having said that, with all due respect... it's clearly possible since there are 3 completely different published ways to do it (see the links in the original post); secondly it's clearly not pointless since there are benefits that you didn't show any appreciation of (which is fine - but I'm just explaining to you what you don't understand yet - because I must not have made the benefits clear).

1. Band Selection Mode (it works - but it's sub optimal - see images below)

2. Engineering/Service Mode (this has the greatest potential for bang for the buck)

3. Android automation (e.g., Automate, which works, but it's complex)

For example, two rather obvious and easily understood benefits would be:

a. You get to choose a tower which gives faster speeds (see reference cited)

b. You get to overcome per tower per month per line data limitations

Anyway, the only reason I'm responding to you on this is that you claimed it's pointless, which means you don't understand yet those two benefits (and yes, I know cell towers optimize based on what "they" see) but this is a personal optimization based on what "you" can do.

I humbly ask that you please simply acknowledge (either in the DM or here) that you at least U-N-D-E-R-S-T-A-N-D those two potential benefits cited above (as I don't expect you to know the answer to the question asked).

I wouldn't have asked the question in the first place if I thought it had an easy answer.

At the moment, the "easiest" potential answer seems to be to do the following:

1. You survey the local towers to see all possible neighboring cells​

2. You set your phone bands to the bands of specific cells​

The main question here isn't whether or not you can do it, nor is it whether or not there are advantages to doing it (as there clearly are), but HOW to do it easiest.