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How To - Determine the MCC and MNC of the current network

Last Updated: 10 November 2008
Article Number: DB-00688

Summary

This article applies to the following:

  • BlackBerry® smartphones based on Java® technology
  • BlackBerry® Device Software 4.0 and later

Details

Mobile networks are uniquely identified by their mobile country code (MCC) and their mobile network code (MNC) and applications may need to identify the network that the BlackBerry smartphone is currently operating on.

For example, the application may require this information to determine the correct access point name (APN) for making a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection. For information on different ways to make a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or socket connection, see DB-00396. For information on specifying APN information for a direct TCP connection, see DB-00532.

The following table below shows how an application can determine the MCC or MNC of the current network.


Network code Method
MCC RadioInfo.getMCC()
MNC RadioInfo.getMNC()

Notes

  • The MNC and MCC will be returned as decimal numbers, whereas MCCs and MNCs will be listed as hexadecimal numbers. For example, a BlackBerry smartphone operating on the AT&T® mobile network will return MCC=784 (hex 310) and MNC=896 (hex 380).
  • MCCs in the United States are 3 digits in length; therefore the corresponding hexadecimal value returned by getMCC()or getMNC()may contain the letter F as padding. For example, for T-Mobile®, the MCCs can be identified as either 260 or 26F.
  • If you call RadioInfo.getNumberOfNetworks()followed by RadioInfo.getNetworkId()for each index from zero to the number of networks, you may see MCC/MNC pairs duplicated. This occurs because the network offers more than one level of network service, such as Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) and 3G (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) on the AT&T network.

Additional Information

For more information on MNC, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Network_Code.


Keywords

Network, network id, wireless network, MCC, MNC, mobile country code, mobile network code, EDGE, 3G