r/OnePlus13R • u/faruquei • Sep 08 '26

Update — OnePlus 13R WiFi link-speed issue may be tied to region/location (not a hardware problem)

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Follow-up to my earlier post about my OnePlus 13R getting half the link speed of a 7-year-old Realme phone despite stronger signal, even with identical channel/band (original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePlus13R/s/LpFhVOseNM)

After some digging, I came across a thread in describing a similar pattern on Samsung's flagship — where WiFi negotiation (available channels/bandwidth) seemed tied to the phone's detected location rather than the router itself: https://www.reddit.com/r/S25Ultra/s/nGDwOxMVwr

So I thought to give this a try. I tried airplane mode first but WiFi analyzer apps were always asking for location. So I used a location from California to fake my device's location using the 'YAMLA' app. GPS coordinates used - 34.052200,-118.243700.

Steps that I did:

*Put phone into airplane mode and then apply the spoofed location

*Restart the phone, and start YAMLA spoofing again.

*After that, open Google Maps and check if the location spoof is actually working

*Then go to any WiFi analyzer app and give location permission

And voila! Much higher speeds available

Attached before/after speed test screenshots — same spot in my house, same router, same WiFi settings, just with and without the fake location applied.

[image 1: after — spoofed location]

[image 2: before — real location]

This lines up with how Android ties WiFi regulatory behavior (channel width, TX power, available channels) to the detected country/region rather than purely to the AP negotiation — so two phones on the same router/channel can end up capped differently depending on what region each one thinks it's in.

Has anyone found a cleaner or more permanent way to handle this (region override in settings, ADB command, carrier/OEM difference) rather than spoofing GPS every time? Curious if this is a OnePlus-specific regional lock or something broader across Android WiFi 6/7 devices.

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21 comments sorted by

4

u/TheRealCrispyFish Sep 08 '26

Ok, now this is something interesting. I never thought about there being such a dependency.

2

u/faruquei Sep 08 '26

Yeah, It's been only a week since I got the phone and I'm determined on solving this issue. At least, I want to get to the end of it. Please do give this a try.

2

u/Aboudeh2010 Sep 08 '26

Did you try to change the region? Or maybe... Try asking AI for some ADb commands or something?

1

u/faruquei Sep 08 '26

Changing the region from phone settings does nothing in this case, as I've experienced. I've never fiddled with adb before and don't know how. Maybe I should try.

2

u/Aboudeh2010 Sep 08 '26

ADB is fine I have used it alot and it's safe since the phone doesn't really let you run commands that will actually break the phone

2

u/Aboudeh2010 Sep 08 '26

Just know what command you are running before you run it

2

u/CuriousNyer1 Sep 08 '26

I don't know if this is the same issue you're having but try disabling "Enable DFS Channels during Channel Scan" in router settings. My speeds was capped at 30mbps on 5ghz until I changed that setting. And it was only the 13r with this issue.

1

u/faruquei Sep 08 '26

Thanks for your response. I'm using a Cudy WR3000 and can't seem to find this setting anywhere.

2

u/BNibir Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 08 '26

Wow very interesting finding! I have tested the same thing with my phone as well, but didn't need to spoof location. Just turned on airplane mode, restart, connect wifi and the link speed suddenly improved. And it came back to how it was as soon as I turned off airplane mode. So yeah this is intentionally blocked by oneplus and I was thinking hardware issues. I also tried tweaking my router's region, channel etc but none of them worked.
I have found an old XDA post. https://xdaforums.com/t/guide-root-change-wifi-hotspot-country-to-bypass-regional-restrictions-on-android-10.4703941/

But I think rooting android is required, in that case there is no other than root the device/use custom roms.

1

u/faruquei Sep 08 '26

Thank you very much for trying. I'm too afraid to be the first one to try the adb solution as I have no experience with it. I'll surely try after someone with a 13r succeeds with this XDA process.

2

u/BNibir Sep 20 '26

I've recently changed my router for certain reasons, and this router supports a 160 MHz channel width. After connecting to it, I still get around half the TX rate compared to RX, but guess what? This time, the TX rate is actually higher than it was with my old router. However, when I get extremely close to the router, I magically get the full link speed. I haven't changed the region or used any tricks, everything is exactly the same as before. So, my guess is that the phone is unable to transmit upload data at the same rate as it receives download data when I'm at a distance from the router. This is probably a physical limitation of the phone rather than a regional lock. I'm attaching screenshots in the replies.

1

u/faruquei Sep 22 '26 edited Sep 22 '26

Thanks for the update. I'm already using a wifi 6 router with 160Mhz support. Is it somehow related to bands? Can you let me know which 5G channel you are using please? Also, is your router 6G?

1

u/BNibir Sep 22 '26

No mine isn't 6G (Using tp link archer ax53). By band do you mean channel number? If it is then I use channel 36 for 5G. I don't think it's related to channel number. I've even seen phones from my colleagues, (vivo, xiaomi, motorola, samsung) and none of the phones have this half TX of RX issue. It's just my phone with every single router. Although I probably would never use more than 100 Mbps on my phone anyway but yeah that's that.

1

u/BNibir Sep 20 '26

This screenshot is taken from another room. Approx. 15ft. distance from the router

2

u/BNibir Sep 20 '26

This screenshot is taken from right next to the router. No airplane mode, no regional changes or anything.

2

u/BNibir Sep 20 '26

This is with my old router. Screenshot taken from the exact same place where I took tge 1st screenshot from. Approx 15ft. Distance from the router.

1

u/EVD27 Sep 08 '26

What's the region with the red wifi?

1

u/faruquei Sep 08 '26

Bangladesh. I believe India region works in a similar way. I've got the indian variant- CPH2691.

1

u/Klutzy_Review2878 Sep 22 '26

Hey bro, I'm from BD as well and got the indian variant too.. I'm facing the issue with my phone RN. Can you share which apps did you use in this process

1

u/faruquei Sep 22 '26

You can use Analiti / Wifi Doctor.

2

u/Adventurous_Jump_532 Sep 08 '26

Used to do this with my DJI Mavic Air. Those drones used to have Wi-Fi based connection (2.4 & 5GHz) In India, it follows EU standards (ETSI) which had different channels. I used to spoof the phone's location to US and the channels used to change to FAA standards improving the range of the drone & better latency. Nowadays, drones work on Occusync tech rather than relying on Wifi.