[Rolling out] Canadian Samsung Galaxy S10 still waiting for updates, as US unlocked gets March OTA

NOTICE: We’ve created an archive of all major developments related to the Samsung Galaxy S10 lineup. We are continuously updating that page with latest S10e/S10/S10+ news so that you don’t need to search for information related to the device on daily basis. Head here to access that page.

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Although the competition in the US wireless carrier market remains very aggressive, the majority of the coverage domain is being controlled by the Big Four US carriers.

AT&T (GSM) and Verizon (CDMA) are the largest cellular providers in terms of the number of subscribers. T-Mobile (GSM) and Sprint (CDMA) are the next in line and they are trying hard to merge themselves, although there are some obstructions ahead.

For end users, the carriers are the top of the line controllers in the smartphone market. Some OEMs do sell unlocked models directly to the consumers, but if you really want to penetrate the market, you have to collaborate with the carriers.

Take the example of the T-Mobile-OnePlus deal. The Chinese OEM reportedly got a whopping 249 percent increment in the first 30 days sales in the US of the OnePlus 6T, compared to the OnePlus 6.

Let me stop you right there – the story is not about OnePlus, rather we want to focus on the update scenario of Samsung Galaxy S10 carrier variants.

Yesterday, we discussed about the current update rollup situation among US Galaxy S10 models. Sprint took the poll position by distributing the March update (ASC8) by combining it with a number of network fixes at the end of March.

T-Mobile and Verizon came next. The decided to roll out a slightly new build (ASD3) than Sprint. AT&T became the last one, as they started to distribute the March update since yesterday.

Compared to them, the global unlocked models not only got the day-one patch (ASBA) before, but also the March update was rolled out much earlier for them.

Besides the US, Samsung also ships Snapdragon 855 powered Galaxy S10 variants to Canada. The model numbers of the Canadian variants are as follows:

• Galaxy S10e: SM-G970W
• Galaxy S10: SM-G973W
• Galaxy S10 Plus: SM-G975W

The US models use the ‘U’/’U1’ moniker instead of ‘W’.

Similar to the United States of America, Canada’s phone users are tied with three major companies – Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility, and Telus Mobility (or one of their subsidiary brands).

It may sound horrible, but none of them has rolled out the March security update of Galaxy S10e/S10/S10+ for their customers yet.

The OS update chart doesn’t have the S10 yet on it. Can someone please provide a timetable of S10/S10+/S10e OS upgrades, especially the March one that just came out? Would be great to have visibility on it!

(Source)

Someone has received the March update? I’m on Telus but I don’t receive it yet

(Source)

We have taken a look at the official update tracking pages of the Canadian providers – only Telus and Koodo (subsidiary of Telus) mention the tentative date of update roll out as April 15.

Remaining carriers don’t even bother to mention a specific date. Readers can check the tracking pages themselves from the following list:

• Rogers: Click here
• Telus: Click here
• Bell: Click here
• Fido*: Click here
• Koodo: Click here

* Fido is a subsidiary of Rogers.

Not only that, the Canadian users have yet to receive the fingerprint scanner firmware update, which is supposedly tied up with the March update. The ‘biometric security patch’ (as mentioned by Samsung) reportedly improves the performance of the ultrasonic fingerprint scanner.

At the moment of writing this article, US unlocked models are reportedly getting the March update in the form of ASD3 build.

Notice the ‘U1’ portion in the version number, which is the indicator of the US unlocked model.

So the question remains: what is the actual reason behind delaying the updates, particularly for the Canadian Galaxy S10 models?

It is possible to pull the firmware from Samsung update servers to flash manually using tools like Frija, but the trick does not work if the updated builds are not even pushed.

To the Canadian readers having Galaxy S10, do not forget to inform us when you will get the March update prompt.

Samsung reportedly rolling the separate biometric update for fixing the fingerprint scanner on Canadian Galaxy S10 models, although the March update is still missing.

Canadian carriers finally started to rollout the March update (build ASD3).

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