Samsung Galaxy Note 7: Verizon & AT&T Rolling Out The Death Update, Sprint To Follow

While the tech world is still waiting for Samsung’s official report that explains the reason for the exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7, several firmware updates have been rolled out to force users into returning their devices. As part of the latest moves by Samsung, a 15 percent battery charging cap was rendered to Galaxy Note 7 units in Korea. In the U.S., death updates have been and will be deployed to the 2016 phablet.

According to a report from GSM Arena, 94 percent of the troubled Samsung Galaxy Note 7 have already been recalled globally, but Korea remains to have the lowest rate in terms of returns. To continue pushing Note 7 buyers in this Asian country to return their phablets, Samsung decided to provide another firmware update that limits the battery charging capacity.

Other countries have experienced worse when a “killing” update was rolled out last month by Samsung capping the Galaxy Note 7 batteries to zero percent. This essentially bricked Note 7 units located in Singapore, Philippines, Russia and Malaysia.

A similar death update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is now being rolled out in the United States. T-Mobile is the first of the Big Four carriers to deploy this firmware, pushing it out on December 27. Meanwhile, Verizon, after changing its initial decision of not participating in this action, has recently started to roll out a new software for its Note 7 model to permanently disable it. Verizon customers who are still holding on tight to their Galaxy Note 7 device should receive a firmware update with build number MMB29M.N930VVRS3APL2 that will prevent the device from charging and connecting it to the network.

“You can no longer charge the battery in this phone,” an update notice showing up on the Galaxy Note 7 reads, as posted on 9to5Google.

“The phone will no longer work as a mobile device once it runs out of charge.”

“Please power down your phone and immediately participate in the U.S. Note7 Refund and Exchange Program. Visit Samsung.com/us/note7recall for more information,” it added.

Also setting the death update rollout on January 5, just like Verizon, AT&T’s killing update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 should be rolling out now. As for Sprint, to honor its promise, the carrier is scheduled to release the bricking software on Sunday, January 8. For those who haven’t returned their Note 7 yet, Gotta Be Mobile noted that these major U.S. carriers “will give users a $100 credit on their bill, help transfer everything to a new device, and make the process as easy as possible.”

For those curious to know the cause of the Galaxy Note 7 defect, the tech company promised to release it “very soon.” Addressing the issue during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday, president of Samsung Electronics America, Tim Baxter, said the following.

“Some of you were directly impacted and certainly many of you saw the media coverage surrounding the Galaxy Note 7. We continue our intensive efforts internally and with third party experts to understand what happened and to make sure it does not happen again.”

Some third party investigators have already released their reports regarding the Note 7 debacle. For instance, after a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 teardown performed by its hardware engineers, Instrumental mentioned the phablet’s “aggressive design” as the cause of the explosion. As explained by iDigitalTimes,“the battery holding area was too small for the smartphone’s 3,500mAh cell” and not having any room to expand naturally inside the chassis caused the Note 7 to spontaneously combust.

Samsung continues to remain positive in spite of the problems it encountered. “This year was a challenging year for Samsung. Despite our setbacks we have not and will not stop innovating,” Baxter further noted during the CES 2017 event.

“We are recommitting to our customers in 2017,” said Baxter, who also revealed a new company motto promising that they will be “reaching higher” for its customers, as cited by Washington Post.

[Featured Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images]