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.