I've experimented with just about every ROM available within this community. I'm currently running Mikey's i9000 ROM. I'm pretty experienced and safely say that I've always flashed in the appropriate manner, including usage of the JG8 modem in obtaining 850mhz. Where I live (Hampton Roads, VA), we don't actually have 850mhz, but at my in-laws house (D.C. Metro Area) we do, so I wanted to have 850mhz available if needed. This is the first weekend I've actually been in the D.C. area to test out the 850mhz band. When I got here, I checked right away - 1900mhz, Band 2. I rebooted and checked again right away - 850mhz 5.
After finally looking at a damn coverage map, I see Hampton Roads doesn't have 850mhz anywhere nearby. I've also read that there is some (unscientific) evidence that 1900mhz to 850mhz hand-offs could be a partial cause of the random shut down issues. Long story short for me, at least, is that I don't think I'll need 850mhz all that often after all.
Here's where I get confused. I went back into *#2263#, went to WCDMA and chose 1900mhz only to clear the selection off 850mhz in Combi. I then went to Combi and reselected everything but the WCDMA 850mhz band. I then selected Automatic band selection to clear my selection of the WCDMA only band. Finally, I went back to COMBI and confirmed that 850mhz WCDMA was not selected. I rebooted and immediately checked *#0011#: 850mhz 5. I went back to *#2263# and COMBI bands still does not have 850mhz selected.
Perhaps I messed up somewhere, but if so, my screwup resulted in the JG8 trick doing pretty much exactly what it's supposed to. My real question is what the heck does actually changing anything in COMBI do? It clearly made no difference when I chose AUTOMATIC. I suppose AUTOMATIC, on my phone at least, really does literally use ALL bands. Across all of the ROMs and modems I have tried I've never been able to actually select COMBI as the band method. I can manipulate COMBI's entries, but I can only actually *select* AUTOMATIC, WCDMA or GSM.
Can anyone else confirm this to be the case or their experience? At the end of the day, if you want 850mhz then the JG8 dance clearly did the trick. The only way I've been able to get rid of 850mhz is to choose WCDMA 1900 ONLY.
A few final notes: I'm currently using the JPM modem, though this has been my experience for the most part with any included modems. Also, I'm not trying to vent or *****. I realize that if I don't want 850mhz I could just not flash JG8 over, and I'm ok with that. I'm trying to understand why my phone exhibited this behavior, as well as whether it matters one bit what I do in COMBI going forward.
Really? Nobody?
I'm starting to doubt my ability to provide relevant contributions to this community.
I am not sure why you would want to limit your phone to 1900 only. The reasons why the two are used depends on geography, population density and most important whether att even has licensing to 850 in an area or even some whole states for that matter. 850 is much better at penetrating structures and such so often times people can connect to one or the other depending on whether they are outside or in their house or office.
Ideally both would be available and your modem would select the strongest....thus reducing battery consumption. Where I am located, we have both and I dont see the handoff reboot issue...though I know in some setups it has occurred but not in the newer roms
Btw...love that area, used to live in chesapeake though I dont miss the whole personal property tax crap, or whatever they called it, and the fear of an inch of snow bringing out the inability of people to drive on a semi slick surface....
newter55 said:
I am not sure why you would want to limit your phone to 1900 only. The reasons why the two are used depends on geography, population density and most important whether att even has licensing to 850 in an area or even some whole states for that matter. 850 is much better at penetrating structures and such so often times people can connect to one or the other depending on whether they are outside or in their house or office.
Ideally both would be available and your modem would select the strongest....thus reducing battery consumption. Where I am located, we have both and I dont see the handoff reboot issue...though I know in some setups it has occurred but not in the newer roms
Btw...love that area, used to live in chesapeake though I dont miss the whole personal property tax crap, or whatever they called it, and the fear of an inch of snow bringing out the inability of people to drive on a semi slick surface....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, we just moved here from the D.C. area and I really, really like it.
As to why I would want to limit 850 on my handset...I had read some posts where people claimed that one potential reason for random shutdowns were 1900 to 850 handoffs. I've found that if that is correct, it wasn't the cause in my case. I've re-enabled 850 because, well...why not?
But I'm still left curious about the COMBI band thing. Just on principle...if I've deselected 850 in COMBI, chosen AUTOMATIC and rebooted...why is my phone still connecting on 850?
It is a mystery just as why you can not just enable 850 using those settings. Why jg8 performs this voodoo magic I dont know...what I do know is I tried everything a while ago when trying to run i9000 roms when I noticed this phenomenon and passed it along to boomerod who tested and confirmed. At the time there was not a lot of discussion about it but I had to have 850 working as I barely see 1900 at home but 850 is awesome strength....now it is standard protocol for installing i9000 but we still have not heard an explanation from any expert
Obviously changing those settings really does nothingand I cannot tell you why
Related
Hello,
I'm curious to know is the 3G HSPA 2100/1700 frequency hardware based or software?
For example can one change the frequency to point say at 850MHz?
I'm currently with Rogers, and their 3G network is not on the same band.
Thanks
Nah, its a hardware restriction. Tmobile did this because 2100-1700 are dedicated 3G pipelines. They device does not have 850 or 1900 wcdma only 21-1700
http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=1763
this is so it can not be used on at&t 3g.
if i remember correctly 1700 is for d/l and 2100 is for u/l
i dont know much about phones....or the various cellphone network types.
But isn't a frequency a frequency? Wouldn't it be the softwares job to interpret the data on the various frequencies?
jrgong420 said:
i dont know much about phones....or the various cellphone network types.
But isn't a frequency a frequency? Wouldn't it be the softwares job to interpret the data on the various frequencies?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, software could interprete the singnal, it just wouldn't be as efficient.
The easiest comparison I could make would be video enconding on a PC. You can have your PC encode a video in h.264 it will just take a while. Meanwhile your HD-DVR is doing the same thing in real time. The difference is the dedicated chip in the HD-DVR that only does h.264 encoding.
I have no idea if there's a way to get the raw signal from one of the other radios, let alone if there's enough power in the G1 to interpret it without the chip. I'd guess not on both cases.
benmyers2941 said:
The easiest comparison I could make would be video enconding on a PC. You can have your PC encode a video in h.264 it will just take a while. Meanwhile your HD-DVR is doing the same thing in real time. The difference is the dedicated chip in the HD-DVR that only does h.264 encoding.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice comparison... but I think it is more like a wireless router. A 802.11b router can't use 802.11g... why not they run on the same frequency? Because it isn't just the frequency you have to look at. G takes a different amount of power than B. Same with the different bands. 2100 take a different amount than 850.
If you really want to see a comparison wiki radio frequencies and you will see why cb radios and those little walkie talkies don't work on all frequencies too. There is a lot more to it than just telling the radio to go up or down a couple numbers.
Nope
Qualcomm 7201 Chipset and Baseband is fully Compatible with 850 / 1700 / 2100 / 1900 Bands
You just have to have additional Component on the Board to have additional Support
Please see the motherboard Diagram its Self Sufficient i think.
hetaldp said:
Nope
Qualcomm 7201 Chipset and Baseband is fully Compatible with 850 / 1700 / 2100 / 1900 Bands
You just have to have additional Component on the Board to have additional Support
Please see the motherboard Diagram its Self Sufficient i think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought it was GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900 WCDMA 1700 / WCDMA 2100
Is GSM 850 the same as WCDMA 850?
But it looks like you answered two questions with that post... someone else was looking for pics of the phones insides. Good job finding those.
Its all hardware based and will not work on at&t 3G. The phone does not have the hardware to pick up 850/1900mhz frequency. Tmobile did this not to screw people over but because they have no need to. The phone was made for T-mobile there is no reason to support at&t bands.
Just like everyone said, it is a hardware thing. As far as I know, since T-Mobile got the short straw and got the 1700MHz band, there really isn't a "universal" phone now that can operate on all GSM and all 3G frequencies worldwide yet. Manufacturers would have to have like 9 total bands supported and with the trend towards smaller and smaller phones, it's something that gets cut early. So the short of it is this: expecting the G1 to work on AT&T's 3G band is a lot like expecting an FM-only radio to pick up AM signals.....or exactly like expecting an American FM radio to pick up all the FM stations in Japan (which uses a wider FM band.)
But keep in mind that the 1700/2100 numbers don't refer to a specific frequency, but a band of frequencies at or around the number. If you've ever used a shortwave radio, you know that they use terms like "the 11-meter band," which is a range of frequencies with a wavelength of around 11m. Luckily, the range of the 2100MHz band that T-Mobile USA uses overlaps the European band enough to make the phone work over there.
Doesn't the tilt do 1700?
neoobs said:
Doesn't the tilt do 1700?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I'm not mistaken, the Tilt was released before the 1700MHz band was a reality.
beartard said:
If I'm not mistaken, the Tilt was released before the 1700MHz band was a reality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct... I remember reading on AT&T thou that it was 1700... but then again we all know how well the cell phone companies advertise specs LOL
Something Interesting...
I found something that might be of interest... If you install "Any Cut" and create a link for "Phone Info" (Long press on you desktop, then > Shortcut > Any Cut > Activity> Phone Info). Once created, you will have a shortcut on your desktop for "Phone Info". Click the "Phone Info" Shortcut and press the menu key. Then click the menu option "Select radio b..." From here you will have the option to change your radio band:
Set GSM/UMTS band:
Automatic
EURO Band
USA Band
Japan Band
AUS Band
AUS2 Band
This would suggest to me that the radio can be controlled via software. What do the experts think? Do you think we could get 3G working on AT&T's Network?
mistadman said:
I found something that might be of interest... If you install "Any Cut" and create a link for "Phone Info" (Long press on you desktop, then > Shortcut > Any Cut > Activity> Phone Info). Once created, you will have a shortcut on your desktop for "Phone Info". Click the "Phone Info" Shortcut and press the menu key. Then click the menu option "Select radio b..." From here you will have the option to change your radio band:
Set GSM/UMTS band:
Automatic
EURO Band
USA Band
Japan Band
AUS Band
AUS2 Band
This would suggest to me that the radio can be controlled via software. What do the experts think? Do you think we could get 3G working on AT&T's Network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You try it and tell us if any of them work LOL... I think it all depends on the hardware first... Remember the android is built to be on many phones
:-(
neoobs said:
You try it and tell us if any of them work LOL... I think it all depends on the hardware first... Remember the android is built to be on many phones
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone is locked. I can't use my AT&T SIM. Sorry. But when I switch to different bands, I do loose my signal until I switch back.
I have a friend who builds small electronic devices. If I had a damaged tilt would it be possible to remove the 3G antenna and a few resistors and replace the ones in the G1 to make it work on the ATT 3G bands?
Does anyone know enough about the board construction to know what would need to be replaced?
I did use that activity to change the band to get it to work with my provider here in the United Arab Emirates. The thing is I honestly don't know what they are using, publishing reliable info is not a strong point of the operators around here. I grabbed that of a web-site:
The Middle East operators are using the primary 2.1 GHz band for the UMTS/HSDPA operation. Not too precise eh.
I used the Japan labeled band.(?)
sim unlock GI via 611
I was on the horn with CS anyway and figured it would be worth a try to ask for an unlock code request for my G1, they dont have the magic keygens at the Tmob secret base, they have to request it from the OEM, back in the day they gave them out but after many public keygens they got a bit pickier about who get the keys to the liquor cabnet.
when mine comes Ill get an at&T prepay bump sim and mess about a bit just to prove it wont work, and to everybody else ...CALL 611!! ask them for the unlock code tell um you go back and forth to Europe or Iraq or Pagopago, I may not be necessarry but I always have a bit of fun with the story, it used to be a email system send imei to "[email protected]" and get your code in a few days, the good ole dayz
bhang
mistadman said:
I found something that might be of interest... If you install "Any Cut" and create a link for "Phone Info" (Long press on you desktop, then > Shortcut > Any Cut > Activity> Phone Info). Once created, you will have a shortcut on your desktop for "Phone Info". Click the "Phone Info" Shortcut and press the menu key. Then click the menu option "Select radio b..." From here you will have the option to change your radio band:
Set GSM/UMTS band:
Automatic
EURO Band
USA Band
Japan Band
AUS Band
AUS2 Band
This would suggest to me that the radio can be controlled via software. What do the experts think? Do you think we could get 3G working on AT&T's Network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Menu is shown as the Chipset Qualcomm 7201 actually supports These Bands, But it Require Radio RF/TS Unit to Actually Push Radio Frequcny via Internal antenna. Seeing the Board Picture it only have 1700 and 2100 RF Units. So even is Chipset is compatible it can not Push the Signal or Received Signal other then it is made for. I think in Future then can alter some Hardware and make it more compatible.
So, I'm wondering if I had a broken tilt with the 850 transmit antenna chip in it if I could have that antenna module removed and put in the G1 would that be all that is needed to work on the ATT 3G network?
Anybody, know if that might work since the chipset seems to support the frequency?
I can't afford to pay more than $175 for my phone. I'm a long time ATT customer and can't/won't change carriers. So, I'm trying to get one off of Craigslist or Ebay for about $250.00 or $275.00.
If anyone knows where I can get one for that price please let me know. If I can get one I'll try the antenna replacement idea.
My office has an 850 abnd ATT mini cell installed in our server room. The tower was installed because we were getting bad blackberry coverage which are all Edge models. I happen to sit directly outside of the server room and am about 15 feet from the mini cell tower. My Fuze is insistent on using the 850 2G connection instead of getting a 3G signal. I am in downtown Chicago which has fairly decent 3G coverage. I am on the 50th floor of the ATT building but I can't get ATT 3G service! I can go down to lower floors and I have no problem getting 3G. I can only assume my phone is being told "hey, I have a killer 2G signal, lets use that!"
I am able to disable 3G by using com manager. Does something similar exist for disabling 2G? Is there something I can do when I am at work to not use the 850 band? Unfortunately, moving is not an option.
You can enable the 'band select' part of the phone options, and lock it to WCDMA
As I recall, the registry entry to do so is:
Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\OEM\PhoneSetting]
"ShowUMTSBandPage"=dword:00000001
Att uses cdma?
I do believe Da_G just had a bad mental picture of the screen he's talking about.. The page in question is not page you'd tend to visit frequently
Top drop down: Auto, GSM, WCDMA
Bottom drop down: Band selection
I don't The exact options for whats in "Band selection" but it lets you force the phone to use only certain frequencies... The only problem I see is, I do believe AT&T uses the same frequencies for 2g and 3g... or at least depending on what area you're in, 3G might be on 850, or it might be on 1900.. so you travel a bit and your 'force 3g' doesn't work anymore... i'm too tired right now to figure out if your phone would still work in such a situation... I think so >.>
I already had the band select reg key applied. I changed the phone options from auto to WCDMA.
I am seeing an H instead of E but I am not seeing HSPDA speeds. It "feels" like I am on a 2G connection. One speed tst did show 483kbut/sec but I am use to seeing 1200-1500 when I have true 3G.
I know ATT uses different bands in Chicago for 2G and 3G. If they start using 850 for 3G like BG reported then my problem will dgo away.
I just want to stream Cubs games from my MEdiaCenter while im at work... is that so much to ask? Need at least 768 to get a decent picture.
Sounds like you need to enable the Advanced Network tool, and turn on HSUPA
freekquency said:
Att uses cdma?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your typical "GSM" carrier uses Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) technology for 3G.
The correct answer is NO att does not use cdma. lol
What kind of answer was that anyway? "typical?" hahahha
(ok work time! this 5e isnt gonna install itself
hi
just used bandswitch and change to UMTS then do a solf reset
and u will have 3g. it work for me.
this is the link i have for u.
sry my english is no to good but i try
u need to run without the touch flow
so u can see the program
http://rapidshare.com/files/226975669/BandSwitch.rar
So it looks like TMO is using 1700/2100 for 3G while AT&T is using 850/1900 MHz. So basically the Dash3G is useless on AT&T for 3G.
Does anyone know if flashing the radio part on the Maple with one that has the correct frequencies will enable 3G on AT&T's network? Or are the radio frequencies a hardware thing? I know the SNAP S522 is the true USA version with the correct bands I just have no way of getting my hands on the radio partition.
I want 3G on my Dash"3G".
Firstly - thanks very much for all the ROM's and your hard work!
I'm a long time browser of these forums, but don't post much. Also a long time user and "flasher"!!! All the way back to the old MPX200 days. Always liked WM Standard, so it's realy good to see all this interest!!!
HTC seems to have been real cagey in their frequency descriptions when it comes to the Dash 3G series of phones. I read somewhere that there are software driven transcievers in some obscure phones out there......and I wonder if HTC actualy did this with their latest and greatest....
Just thinking out loud, per your question. When you look at the spec sheets, they seem to be "non-commital with regards to wcdma specs.
Hmm.
Also, it'd be good to have a set of radio only ROM's, as and when we see T-Mob USA fixes.. there needs to be some improvements made with regards to switching between edge and wcdma - in my opinion. I'm in the DFW area and get dropped calls, the phone drops to edge way too often, especially after a call.
On my Captivate, I could customize the radio to remove and add bands. Is there a way to do this on the Inspire? I live in an area where we have so many towers that even though I'm considered in the "best" coverage zone, my phone rapidly hops towers. Setting my Captivate to use the 1900 band only eliminated this issue entirely.
I may have to return the phone if I can't do this because I constantly drop calls and data. The worst is when I am on a phone call - it will go from HSPA to EDGE and then the data connection icon disappears entirely until I get off the phone and/or the call drops - my Captivate did this as well until I set it as 1900 only.
I think one of the custom roms had this option, just can't remember which one. I know one of the desire based roms had a selection setting to force it to one or the other or to set it to automatic.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App
stryfe2010 said:
I think one of the custom roms had this option, just can't remember which one. I know one of the desire based roms had a selection setting to force it to one or the other or to set it to automatic.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would be extremely interested in this. I am considering making a post in development about it because seriously, I am sick of trying to make a call and it fails because there is no signal, then I wait 30 seconds and I have full signal, get on the call, and it drops out.
This would be sweet to have, my phone is constantly doing the dame thing.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App
Jake06 said:
This would be sweet to have, my phone is constantly doing the dame thing.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly, its a trade off - on my Captivate, I have to lock it as WCDMA 1900 - which means that when I drive somewhere that DOESN'T have 1900 (pretty rare in Colorado) AND HSDPA or 3G, I can't make a call but switching the band takes all of 5 seconds. I can tell you that 1900 here at home though locks and doesn't let go whereas 850 does. My SIM is currently in my Captivate because I'm going to call them and try to make a case for a microcell again.
On your phone, dial *#*#4636#*#* ...then select "Phone Information"
In this menu, you can change and set several things, including which band you use. This is on EVERY android phone, regardless of the ROM. You change these settings at your own risk.
EtherealRemnant said:
I would be extremely interested in this. I am considering making a post in development about it because seriously, I am sick of trying to make a call and it fails because there is no signal, then I wait 30 seconds and I have full signal, get on the call, and it drops out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't return it cause of that..! I've already got the 1900/850(wcdma/gsm) toggle in my sense rom, I just haven't included it yet cause I'm working on a 3g/edge toggle as well, and wanted to have both together, but since people want that wcdma/gsm toggle now ill finish it up 100% this weekend hopefully, update my rom with it and post just that by itself so people on other roms can use it as well.
850MHz has WCDMA as well... Setting it to WCDMA/GSM is irrelevant, as you can be on 850 and still on WCDMA.
You have to be able to specify the 1900MHz or 850MHz bands themselves if that is all you want; rather than the auto-switching the phones are supposed to do.
id10terrordfw said:
850MHz has WCDMA as well... Setting it to WCDMA/GSM is irrelevant, as you can be on 850 and still on WCDMA.
You have to be able to specify the 1900MHz or 850MHz bands themselves if that is all you want; rather than the auto-switching the phones are supposed to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is exactly what I want. I want to force the 1900 band only. On my Captivate, the only way to do this was to force WCDMA 1900 OR GSM 1900, there was no way to have GSM AND WCDMA 1900 because of how Samsung set up the frequency manager.
I'll try the *#*#4636#*#* mentioned earlier.
The phone doesn't respond to anything I set in *#*#4636#*#* - it automatically reverts back to HSDPA.
I also figured out my problem. Using OpenSignal, I did a tower map. As I thought, I have too many towers. There is one tower that is literally at the top of my block that gives me the worst signal and there are two other towers it connects to - one of them is about 4 blocks away from the other tower and gives me an okay signal and the other one is about a mile away and that gives me the best signal but it doesn't stay locked to any specific tower. Even sitting in the exact same spot, it keeps jumping around.
Oh and you can only select "USA bands", not individual bands from that menu as well
I can only use edge(gsm) 850 band in my office, rest of them don't work.
I used to select it very easily on my captivate using the *#2263#, but there is no such thing on Inspire 4G. Is there anyway to do the same on Inspire 4g??
ravishahuja said:
I can only use edge(gsm) 850 band in my office, rest of them don't work.
I used to select it very easily on my captivate using the *#2263#, but there is no such thing on Inspire 4G. Is there anyway to do the same on Inspire 4g??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean this?
*#*#4636#*#*
Sent from my calculator
on Captivate i could *#2263# and toggle between bands. GSM/3G or 850/1900.
kirk123 said:
You mean this?
*#*#4636#*#*
Sent from my calculator
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
on Captivate i could *#2263# and toggle between bands. GSM/3G or 850/1900.
On inspire *#2263# doesn't work. I tried *#*#4636#*#* as well. If i try to change bands it again defaults back to WCDMA. I can never switch to GSM bands.
If you live in a major area then its not uncommon to have up to 12 monitored cell sites capable of serving your phone.
I have both bands as well, and here is some info that may be of interest:
In areas that have both, there is a rather seemingly obscure pecking order:
Havoc is caused due to this:
Phone has every band available to it. Great! or, not really.
Here is the election process:
Tower sends out its info on the 850 wcdma carrier announcing as primary.
Tower sends out its SAME info on the 1900 wcdma carrier as secondary.
GSM primary is 1900 for association, 850 for data / voice with roll back to 1900.
The phone sends a limited amount of data to the towers when it hooks up, and in this data is the list of "Ranked" cell site ID's. (WCDMA ONLY, forget GSM for now)
The tower then is aware of what other sites can serve you should it become to busy. Using this and various factors, it will decide to either keep you on sector X primary, bump you to secondary carrier, or dump you completely. If it dumps you completely it is a forced hand off and not a graceful one, and you drop signal completely momentarily and then gain it back, but connect to a different cell id. However, that NEW cell ID only hears you at -104, useable but weak, and has 300 other phones it hears at -80 or better.. It has to pick some one to drop, and it picks you. Start the cycle all over again.
Disabling the 850 band stops this, because 1900 goes far shorter of a range and has far less people using it typically.. therefore the stronger site doesnt drop you because your phone reports no where to go. It also (in the case of the captivate) does not respond to requests to switch to GSM, as it will report no gsm availability when in forced wcdma mode.
Fundamentally, this is a misconfiguration on AT&T's part, since this little scenario shouldnt happen with proper sector alignment and tilting.
You did mention that you are in colorado, and AT&T has absolutely NO idea how to deal with radio towers and mountains. They seem to forget that not the entire world is flat.
If it is an option, I'd recommend a switch to Verizon, as it is unlikely this particular problem will ever go away.
Also, as to a Micro-Cell, know going in that those little buggers get the lowest possible priority.. meaning that if your phone can hear a real tower, its going to use that first. You'll have to fight it to get it on the m-cell.
Also, all Micro-Cell's are WCDMA 850 only, with no GSM or WCDMA 1900.
They also do not use HSPA, but instead use older UMTS technology (Who really cares at this point, if you are in range of a M-Cell you can use wifi.)
Other option: Disable 3G for the area you would use the M-Cell.
GSM shouldnt give the same problem WCDMA gives. The entire election process is completely different, and frankly works better than the WCDMA deployment AT&T used.
EDIT:
Wow sorry I didnt read the dates else I would have known this thread was a corpse. Found it looking for a WCDMA 1900 inspire lock option.
Greetings All,
I am seeking some assistance in deciding on a new unlocked GSM phone for my international travels. I will be deployed into Afghanistan soon and need foremost a phone that will work there with a local SIM. I have tried to do some research on various phones and unless I am misreading things getting a phone to work for all voice channels is easy, it seems on the data side however no one phone seems to cover all the base frequencies, tough perhaps they do not need to.
Even though I will spend most of my time in the Middle East, I will vacation to other international locations. Also, while it does not need to work well in the USA (I have a CDMA phone for that) it would be nice as a backup, or to be usable if I never head back home for long periods.
Here is a list of things I would like in a phone, if they can all be met, great, if not or there is a compelling reason not to, feel free to chime in as well.
1. Android
2. Dual-Core Processor
3. Minimum 768MB Ram (Would prefer 1GB)
4. Hackable
5. Good battery life (At least reasonable)
6. Works in as many places as possible for both voice and data.
So far I have been looking at the Motorola Atrix and the HTC Sensation. It would seem that perhaps there are different versions of these phone supporting different data frequencies, but again, I am just not an expert on this topic.
I just am not on my game when it comes to GSM technology.
Any help, suggestions, recommendations, etc the great and knowledgeable people on this forum would be willing to make would be greatly appreciated.
--PortableTech
Today, most telephones support multiple bands as used in different countries to facilitate roaming. These are typically referred to as multi-band phones. Dual-band phones can cover GSM networks in pairs such as 900 and 1800 MHz frequencies (Europe, Asia, Australia and Brazil) or 850 and 1900 (North America and Brazil).
European tri-band phones typically cover the 900, 1800 and 1900 bands giving good coverage in Europe and allowing limited use in North America, while North American tri-band phones utilize 850, 1800 and 1900 for widespread North American service but limited worldwide use. A "new" addition has been the quad-band phone, also known as a world phone, supporting all four major GSM bands, allowing for global use (excluding non-GSM countries such as Japan).
The Sensation has Quad-band, and supports:
HSPA/WCDMA:
- Europe/Asia/T-Mobile US: 900/AWS/2100 MHz
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
- 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
The Atrix supports:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE and quad-band HSDPA, whereas the global version of the Atrix offers only tri-band HSDPA, both capable of speeds up to 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 HSUPA.
Conclusion:
You can use both Sensation and the Atrix in the Middle East as long as you can get a signal. But don't count on getting full speed when you're surfing the web.
Have a nice trip and be safe!
BazookaAce said:
Today, most telephones support multiple bands as used in different countries to facilitate roaming. These are typically referred to as multi-band phones. Dual-band phones can cover GSM networks in pairs such as 900 and 1800 MHz frequencies (Europe, Asia, Australia and Brazil) or 850 and 1900 (North America and Brazil).
European tri-band phones typically cover the 900, 1800 and 1900 bands giving good coverage in Europe and allowing limited use in North America, while North American tri-band phones utilize 850, 1800 and 1900 for widespread North American service but limited worldwide use. A "new" addition has been the quad-band phone, also known as a world phone, supporting all four major GSM bands, allowing for global use (excluding non-GSM countries such as Japan).
The Sensation has Quad-band, and supports:
HSPA/WCDMA:
- Europe/Asia/T-Mobile US: 900/AWS/2100 MHz
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
- 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
The Atrix supports:
GSM/GPRS/EDGE and quad-band HSDPA, whereas the global version of the Atrix offers only tri-band HSDPA, both capable of speeds up to 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 HSUPA.
Conclusion:
You can use both Sensation and the Atrix in the Middle East as long as you can get a signal. But don't count on getting full speed when you're surfing the web.
Have a nice trip and be safe!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the response, it is appreciated. Are you saying that the Sensation has a little better coverage given it is WCDMA? I still only see 3 frequencies, unless the AWS represents more than one in the list for that section.
If choosing between these two would you prefer one over the other? Also, are there better choices I should perhaps be looking at that I have not considered?
Again, thanks for the help
PortableTech said:
Greetings All,
I am seeking some assistance in deciding on a new unlocked GSM phone for my international travels. I will be deployed into Afghanistan soon and need foremost a phone that will work there with a local SIM. I have tried to do some research on various phones and unless I am misreading things getting a phone to work for all voice channels is easy, it seems on the data side however no one phone seems to cover all the base frequencies, tough perhaps they do not need to.
Even though I will spend most of my time in the Middle East, I will vacation to other international locations. Also, while it does not need to work well in the USA (I have a CDMA phone for that) it would be nice as a backup, or to be usable if I never head back home for long periods.
Here is a list of things I would like in a phone, if they can all be met, great, if not or there is a compelling reason not to, feel free to chime in as well.
1. Android
2. Dual-Core Processor
3. Minimum 768MB Ram (Would prefer 1GB)
4. Hackable
5. Good battery life (At least reasonable)
6. Works in as many places as possible for both voice and data.
So far I have been looking at the Motorola Atrix and the HTC Sensation. It would seem that perhaps there are different versions of these phone supporting different data frequencies, but again, I am just not an expert on this topic.
I just am not on my game when it comes to GSM technology.
Any help, suggestions, recommendations, etc the great and knowledgeable people on this forum would be willing to make would be greatly appreciated.
--PortableTech
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd suggest a cheap unlocked quad band phone like Huawei 8180(110$) or LG GT540 Optimus(130$).
When travelling, depending on the place you are going to,
1) There is a risk of loosing or theft.
2) There is a risk of damage due to natural causes. (Some places are prone to lightning, power surges etc...)
Factors to consider when picking the phone,
1) you should pick resistive touch screen if you intend to travel to a very cool place where you will have to wear gloves or a place with high humidity(rain forests) where capacitive touch phones may malfunction.
2) Make sure it's a quad band phone. Quad-band phones could virtually be used anywhere. Tri-band WCDMA would be advantageous but WCDMA on the frequency commonly used in the country you are travelling to would be better.
In some countries with bad network penetration, you'd be better off picking a satellite telephony. They very low-end specs but they can keep you connected anywhere.
People would be able to make more relevant suggestions if you mention the country you are travelling to.
PortableTech said:
Thank you for the response, it is appreciated. Are you saying that the Sensation has a little better coverage given it is WCDMA? I still only see 3 frequencies, unless the AWS represents more than one in the list for that section.
If choosing between these two would you prefer one over the other? Also, are there better choices I should perhaps be looking at that I have not considered?
Again, thanks for the help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The bands you need to worry about is 850/900/1800/1900 MHz.
I don't have time to check myself, but check out google and see which frequencies are the most used in Afghanistan.
But every GSM device should work fine there.
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using xda premium
nibras_reeza said:
I'd suggest a cheap unlocked quad band phone like Huawei 8180(110$) or LG GT540 Optimus(130$).
When travelling, depending on the place you are going to,
1) There is a risk of loosing or theft.
2) There is a risk of damage due to natural causes. (Some places are prone to lightning, power surges etc...)
Factors to consider when picking the phone,
1) you should pick resistive touch screen if you intend to travel to a very cool place where you will have to wear gloves or a place with high humidity(rain forests) where capacitive touch phones may malfunction.
2) Make sure it's a quad band phone. Quad-band phones could virtually be used anywhere. Tri-band WCDMA would be advantageous but WCDMA on the frequency commonly used in the country you are travelling to would be better.
In some countries with bad network penetration, you'd be better off picking a satellite telephony. They very low-end specs but they can keep you connected anywhere.
People would be able to make more relevant suggestions if you mention the country you are travelling to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read again He's going to Afghanistan.
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using xda premium
PortableTech said:
Greetings All,
I will be deployed into Afghanistan soon and need foremost a phone that will work there with a local SIM.
Even though I will spend most of my time in the Middle East, I will vacation to other international locations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bazooka. Read that again. =D
BazookaAce said:
Read again He's going to Afghanistan.
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Sensation seems cool. Dual-core processors, and that screen!
Photon maybe? Dk the bands but a idea
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium