At least this Product Expert's replies, if you can translate Helldesk to English, had the clear meaning of you're totally screwed by our dumb policy, but I'm not allowed to just _tell_ you that outright, so let me try and say it passively. Who knows if that's what they really meant (the Helldesk language is nothing if not deniable), but it's interesting to note!

It's frustrating because the poster was basically asking if the Wifi of the Pixel 7 was disabled when it is in certain country, but the 'product expert' kept hiding behind the fact that it is currently in an unsupported country without answering the original question.

> I've never seen a more useless support channel

The Apple support forums are the same. Full of self-righteous fanboys and broken or irrelevant links to "documentation". I think there's only one real Apple employee that actually makes an effort to answer questions.

These are most probably not google employees just people who like to "help" and get such titles for their posts resulting in a skewed persception of support without the company paying them which is a "win-win" situation (???)

the issue in the specific thread is the lack of common sense, so I buy a device and I can't travel with it ? a mobile phone that is not a gun. These are answers that could be attributed easily to a low-mid level chatbot

You should see the Microsoft forums then.

User: Hey guys I get error 2389042 when using Windows Update.

Pradeep Chadurniyaad: I'm here to help you sir. Have you tried to format Windows?

This is extremely common with smart TVs of all sorts, and smart devices in general. Every 5ghz-capable Roku device is in the same boat, for example.

The 5ghz spectrum in the US is broken up into UNII 1, 2, 2 Extended, and 3, which all have their own separate FCC regulations and certification process. Lazy manufacturers for these types of devices don't want to go through more than one process, especially for UNII 2 and 2-Extended channels, which have stricter requirements. So they just do the lower channels.

Google Hardware as been on the market long enough. From Pixel to Chromebook that is at least 10 years since their introduction. And yet Google still dont cares about getting there products working in other market. And that is a company awash with cash. Even a small router company does better than them.

I guess some, may be a minority of people wants competition to Apple. But neither Amazon or Google seems to be serious about it.

LG OLED55C8PLA, launched in 2018. expensive, but incredible display: https://www.lg.com/uk/tvs-soundbars/smart-tvs/oled55c8pla/

can’t connect to my 5ghz wifi (80mhz/channel 149).

and the ethernet connection is only 100Mbit.

GrapheneOS would solve this issue permanently.

If a device is still pending approval by the RF spectrum regulator in a country, they're required to not use those channels by law. Software blocks mean that they can sell a device that's hardware capable before regulatory approval, and then unlock the functionality later. It allows them to ship the same hardware globally but comply with differing laws in different regions, and it's far from just google that does this. Every major wireless access point vendor, for example, will require you to identify the country in which you are operating and software lock which channels you are allowed to use, alongside other limitations like transmit power.

> It's not like there is anything country specific about connecting to wifi.

Yes there is. Each country has a lot of different laws and certifications necessary to operate radio equipment in the country.

> Why buy a pixel?

The odds of me going to Sri Lanka or pretty much any country affected by this is practically zero. Why would I base my purchase decision on something that's got like a 0.001% chance of ever affecting me instead of the myriad of other things that'll affect me every day?

They still have a fairly clean Android. Samsung's still have Bixby and the Samsung store, and their firmware I find to be aggravating, as Samsung phones will install carrier specific apps without any option to remove them.

And a used Pixel can be had rather inexpensively due steep depreciation of Android phones.

I've heard that Pixel phone have good security. With that said, there seems to be a lot of issues cropping up lately (like the 911 fiasco) which make me a bit skeptical of the value proposition.

Lawyers. Regulators. Politicians. Most countries are swamped with regulations that are inflexible, insist on not recognising testing/accreditation done in other countries by default, exist to provide a moat for an entrenched interest group, etc.

The channels to scan vary with country based on government regulation of frequencies. Normally, a full list of rules is accumulated for each implementation so it could be used globally.

A possibility is that Google thinks they will avoid pointless legal risk by not having support at all for countries they "don't need" or to prevent unauthorized exporters. This would be quite silly because travelers expect to roam with their devices.

Another possibility is that people are using other imported hardware that is not configured to the current country and selecting channels not actually allowed in the country. This is usually only 1 channel in a dozen so seemingly unlikely, though congestion algorithms prefer a channel that no one else is using..

Imo it’s because Sri Lanka has not supported 6Ghz yet. So the phone is not correctly configured to support limited bands it almost certainly needs a firmware update on the radio and some effort to ensure it works in that market… and google just don’t care about a small market possibly.

Source I’m in WiFi space