Ok, so I use Google Fi (formerly known as Project Fi) as my phone provider. I have a Pixel 2 and haven’t felt the need to upgrade. Recently I’ve noticed issues with my service. Specifically, my Pixel 2 will connect to an H+ network or an Edge network in an area I know has reliable 4G LTE. So, what gives?
First a quick and dirty explanation of the Google Fi network based on my limited understanding ?. Google Fi utilizes the TMobile (which I believe includes Sprint now) and US Cellular networks as well as WI-Fi to provide cellular service to their customers. Phones on the Google Fi network smartly switch to whatever provider has the best signal. At least that’s the idea.
Knowing that Fi uses multiple cell networks to provide service I wondered what network my phone was using. Using SignalCheck Lite I was able to determine that my phone was connecting to the TMobile network by default. In my area US Cellular beats TMobile coverage hands down. There is no competition. So what is the deal with my phone auto connecting to Edge and H+ networks?
Honestly, I don’t know yet. I strongly suspect a recent update to the Google Fi app or services set my phone to prefer TMobile regardless of network speed. Whether this was an intentional change or a bug in the auto-connect code, I don’t know. I’ve been able to temporarily fix this issue by forcing a connection to US Cellular using Google Fi dialer code: *#*#34872#*#*
Google Fi Dialer Codes
I pulled these codes come from this post on ArkieNet. I’m including them here just in case the post poofs from the internet in the future.
Note this paragraph from the original article:
The following options are only available for “Designed for Fi” phones. They will not work on the iPhone or “Compatible with Fi” phones because they are T-Mobile only. See which class of phone you have here.
ArkieNet
| ALPHA CODE | DIALER CODE | DESCRIPTION |
| FI AUTO | *#*#342886#*#* | Set carrier selection to automatic. |
| FI NEXT | *#*#346398#*#* | Select Next Carrier |
| FI SPR | *#*#34777#*#* | Select Sprint for 2 hours |
| FI TMO | *#*#34866#*#* | Select T-Mobile 2 hours |
| FI USC | *#*#34872#*#* | Select US Cellular 2 hours |
| FI SIMON | *#*#3474666#*#* | Select Three (UK only) |
| ALPHA CODE | DIALER CODE | DESCRIPTION |
| FIXME | *#*#34963#*#* | Force reactivation |
| FI INFO | *#*#344636#*#* | Get information about the current network. |
| INFO | *#*#4636#*#* | Get general phone information. |
| DEBUG | *#*#33284#*#* | Phone Debug Options |
| PRL | *#*#775#*#* | Force download of Preferred Roaming List (Sprint) |
| PRL | *228 | Force download of Preferred Roaming List (US Cellular) |
| FI ROAM | *#*#347626#*#* | Turn on International Roaming |
| SWITCH SIM | *#*#794824746#*#* | Switch to / from eSim. |
The US cellular thing you mentioned SAVED ME. I was manually choosing them as my network on my S21 up until it randomly stopped letting me do that I was so upset by the loss of reception. This saved me seriously! Google needs to fix this issue seriously.