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Anyone using Captivate on T-Mobile USA?

I like the Captivate better than the Vibrant. Will it allow me to use 3G on the T-Mobile network?

I believe you would only get edge on at&t.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Technically it's the same type of network...

no, only EDGE. They have different 3G bands.
T-Mobile = 1700 MHz
ATT = 850 and 1900 MHz

we can use captivate in china with unicom

I have a Captivate on Tmobile.
Can confirm it's only Edge

I always snicker when I see these threads. T-Mo GSM =/= AT&T GSM. Yes there are common frequencies that all GSM phones use, but each carrier always has their own 3G frequency. None are shared.

While yes there are different GSM bands and yes T-mobile uses different GSM bands than AT&T, mostly all phones are quadband GSM nowadays and thus support but AT&T and T-mobile's GSM network. Even US triband GSM phones still has both AT&T and T-mobile's bands.
3G is where is it different. Not all phones support both T-mobiles and AT&T's 3g bands. Very few actually do. The Samsung Vibrant (another Galaxy S phone) supports T-mobile's 3G bands and can be changed in the service mode to support AT&T's 3G as well.
The Captivate is not the same. The Captivate can only support AT&T's 3G network and not T-mobile's 3G network. It will work on T-mobile's EDGE network.

amtrakcn said:
Technically it's the same type of network...
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No they have a different bands for 3g, just because they use Sim cards doesnt mean it can run 3g on both networks
opcow said:
I believe you would only get edge on at&t.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
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Your wrong, the captivate is AT&T so you can 3G with AT&T and only Edge with tmobile

I'm also using the captivate on T-Mobile but can confirm that it's only on edge.

same situation with the nexus one. cant interchange or you can only get Edge

niceties of 3G
Wrong thread. I apologise!

vette95 said:
I just bought a Motorola Cliq (MB200). In Dominican Republic there are only 2 companies with 3G service. Claro Codetel (850Mhz) and Orange Dominicana (900Mhz)
Claro Codetel sells the Motorola Cliq for 3G usage on their network, branded to them of course.
The Cliq I bought is T-Mobile branded.
Is there ANY known way to debrand and have access to the 850 band for 3G?
I ask this question because I saw how it can be done on the Motorola Defy with a service flash found here, so I believe it should also be possible with my Moto Cliq.
I would really appreciate any input on this subject.
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Shouldn't you really be looking in those forums and not one for a Galaxy S phone?

Sorry, only did it because there were talks about other makes. I didn't realise it was a "Galaxy S Only" thread.
How do I delete my post?

I can get HSPDA over here in Malaysia.
Actually, both T-Mobile and AT&T phones work here. (2100Mhz 3G band)

vette95 said:
Sorry, only did it because there were talks about other makes. I didn't realise it was a "Galaxy S Only" thread.
How do I delete my post?
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Only phone mentioned here was the Captivate. Which is what this fora is for.
Sent from my Captivate

Is EDGE service bad? the reason I ask is that I'm planning a trip from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, and going to be drive through the states. Cheaper Gas/Food/Lodging. you get the picture. I have a Captivate from Rogers which is unlocked and was thinking about getting a T-Mobile SIM card to use the Day Pass unlimited internet. However I don't understand what edge means and if this is a good thing or not. LOL
Thanks

Well at&t just bought t-mobile so maybe there will be a combining of signals?

studacris said:
Well at&t just bought t-mobile so maybe there will be a combining of signals?
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They haven't bought, they are attempting to buy.
DOJ and FCC still have to approve it.
@OP
No, the Captivate was designed to only be supported for AT&T 3G. It does have the 2100 band, which T-Mobile 3G uses, but T-Mobile uses both 1700/2100 for upload/download, so if you don't have both, it locks you into 3G.

Anyone tried to flash a Phone with 1700 enabled?

[Q] i9020A on AWS = no 3G? And is "carrier locked" possible?

Will the i9020A version of the Nexus S (which is I think the model sold by Koodo Mobile in Canada) get 3G connection on the AWS spectrum used by Mobilicity? (I believe this should be the same as TMobile)?
Also, is there such a thing as a carrier locked Nexus S? I want to buy the Koodo Mobile Nexus S for $425 off contract (cheapest I can find), but I want to use it on the Mobilicity network. Will I need to carrier unlock the device somehow? I can't seem to find any "unlock Nexus S" sources, so I assume this is unnecessary?
The more I look into this issue, the more confused I get. A lot of places say the Nexus S is quad-band GSM + AWS, so doesn't that mean I should be able to get 3G from anywhere? The FAQ on this forum states that the original Nexus S can only get 3G speeds on TMobile's AWS band--conversely, does that then mean that the new "AT&T" Nexus S phones can't get 3G speeds on AWS? i.e. Do I need to buy a phone from an AWS carrier to get 3G?

Blindsight51 said:
Will the i9020A version of the Nexus S (which is I think the model sold by Koodo Mobile in Canada) get 3G connection on the AWS spectrum used by Mobilicity? (I believe this should be the same as TMobile)?
Also, is there such a thing as a carrier locked Nexus S? I want to buy the Koodo Mobile Nexus S for $425 off contract (cheapest I can find), but I want to use it on the Mobilicity network. Will I need to carrier unlock the device somehow? I can't seem to find any "unlock Nexus S" sources, so I assume this is unnecessary?
The more I look into this issue, the more confused I get. A lot of places say the Nexus S is quad-band GSM + AWS, so doesn't that mean I should be able to get 3G from anywhere? The FAQ on this forum states that the original Nexus S can only get 3G speeds on TMobile's AWS band--conversely, does that then mean that the new "AT&T" Nexus S phones can't get 3G speeds on AWS? i.e. Do I need to buy a phone from an AWS carrier to get 3G?
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Click to collapse
I am in canada, just bought NS finally, that too from Koodo, and it is an Unlocked Rogers/AT&T/Bell/Telus/Fido compatible version. Not to mention it will work with any other bands in the world except the situation Wind/Mobilicity have.
Their phone system is not backwards compatible, they came out in the market just about 2 years ago, they started off with 3G/3.5G straight where Rogers initially started with Standard, moved on to Edge/2G/2.5G and upgraded themselves to 3G and eventually 3.5G, same goes for Telus/Bell/Fido.
If you purchase any of Wind/Mobilicity phone, they will be compatible with any other careers in the world, but you will not get 3G if tried on UMTS. Their phones will only work on the AWS 3G frequency. Which in case means if you bought wind/mobilicity compatible phone, you will get 2G/Edge on Rogers.
Other way around - Koodo phone with Wind/Mobilicity SIM - will give you Wind/Mobilicity Away network only, means it is useless for you. The only phone in canadian market works with Rogers and Wind 3G frequency is Nokia N8 which is a Pentaband phone. Nexus S on the other hand is a Quadband phone, and is made specifically for the career, thats why we have 3/4 different versions, AWS, UMTS, 4G to work with Sprint in US and i guess there is one other model for India and China as well.
All the Nexus S variants come unlocked, outright or on contract, as its a Google's own baby and they don't lock it except the bootloader.
I bought mine with Koodo from Future Shop as it is listed as not an outright sale on Koodo's website, but FS and BBY do sell them outright. It is unlocked out of the box, just pop your SIM in and you are good to go assuming you are going to go with Rogers/Bell/Telus/Koodo/Fido.
My two cents, go with Wind, they offer you wind tab, pay 350 + tax and use the phone to pay the rest of the money with wind tab and you are set if you really want Wind compatible phone.
I had the same problem and dilemma like you as I had a Desire Z with Bell and wanted to use it on Wind, ended up trading it with G2 from T-Mobile and used Wind mobile 3G network and Rogers 2G/Edge network up until now(I am with Rogers and have got a better deal with them for data, so no need to carry two phones on me anymore )
Hope this helps.
CreativeDevil

Blindsight51 said:
Will the i9020A version of the Nexus S (which is I think the model sold by Koodo Mobile in Canada) get 3G connection on the AWS spectrum used by Mobilicity? (I believe this should be the same as TMobile)?
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it will not work
you need i9020T not A
AWS only comes on the i9020T

creativedevil said:
I am in canada, just bought NS finally, that too from Koodo, and it is ...
...
Hope this helps.
CreativeDevil
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Thanks so much. That explains it very clearly. I guess I'll need to shell out a bit extra and get a phone from Wind or Mobilicity.
+Thanks

Go for it bud... u wont regret...
Creativedevil
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

4g service question

Hey guys,
I am a little lost on this. I was looking on the Infuse and thought about getting it and unlocking it to use with tmobile and was wondering if i would get 4g speeds on it. Here is the bands i pulled off on AT&T's website for the phone:
GSM/EDGE:GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 3G - UMTS/HSDPAHSPA 850/1900/2100 4G*HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul
According to this, it should work. Am i mistaken?
Thanks

sisco22 said:
Hey guys,
I am a little lost on this. I was looking on the Infuse and thought about getting it and unlocking it to use with tmobile and was wondering if i would get 4g speeds on it. Here is the bands i pulled off on AT&T's website for the phone:
GSM/EDGE:GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 3G - UMTS/HSDPAHSPA 850/1900/2100 4G*HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul
According to this, it should work. Am i mistaken?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Um, why would you think it would work? Do you see UMTS1700 in there? I don't.

I thought it used 2100? I don't know much about the bands. Just started reading on who supported what.

tmobile uses mainly the 1700 band for 3g/4g. they also own the 700 band but i dont believe they use it. att is mostly on the 850 and 1900 bands. european and asian bands are typically 900 and 2100 so they dont really use those bands to keep unlocked phones off the network. the infuse does not work for 3g and 4g on tmobiles network, sorry.

ahh ok. that makes sense now. I've mainly stuck with tmobile phones, except tried an iphone a couple of times. but att has some cooler phones that i thougth i might want to try, but guess that won't happen now . I use the net on my phone alot, so it would be an issue.

Actually AT&T's weird bands have nothing to do with keeping unlocked phones off their network, just the fact that 2100 MHz wasn't available in the US for any carrier.
UMTS2100 is for international roaming, as it's the standard UMTS band in almost every other country.

T-Mobile uses 1700 and 2100, and you NEED both for 3G/4G to work.

i though the att bands were the same as rogers, bell, and telus use in canada? and the same as used in some other countries in the americas and in places like new zealand. i wouldnt exactly say att has the weird bands in this case.
maybe in a year or two att will merge networks with t-mo and you will have a huge selection of compatable phones.

its the same as rogers in canada, and telstra in australia. i belive bell and telus are cdma.

The Jack of Clubs said:
its the same as rogers in canada, and telstra in australia. i belive bell and telus are cdma.
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the bell vibrant is an i9000 and the telus fascinate is a t-mo vibrant, the modems all work on the captivate. trust me they are all gsm networks and fully compatable with att phones.

[Q] ATT nexus s needs to work with tmobile

I currently have a nexus s its the factory unlocked that has att 3g band ( i didn't even know it existed when i bought it) i need to try to get some t mobile 3g/4g speeds out of it is this possible and if so what rom and how i have heard it can be done but no definite answer some one please help

Not possible. Best you'll get is EDGE. Same goes for us with Tmo to get on AT&T

nickmv said:
Not possible. Best you'll get is EDGE. Same goes for us with Tmo to get on AT&T
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This, it will not work.
That model does not support the UMTS/HSPA bands used by T-Mobile (1700/2100). It supports 850/1900 (used by AT&T and several Canadian carriers).
Changing your ROM will not fix this. Flashing a T-Mobile radio will not fix this either - it's a hardware issue.
As it is quad band GSM you will get 2G service.

I9020A
I9020T
Bicycle vs. skateboard.
Not going to work as others said. Best is to sell, re-buy and cut your losses. Sorry.

That's actually what I thought I guess ill just sell and buy something else, thanks for the clarification guys.

try press menu button and press select radio band in phone information after dial *#*#4636#*#*
change to automatic or other country and wait

haneyville10 said:
I currently have a nexus s its the factory unlocked that has att 3g band ( i didn't even know it existed when i bought it) i need to try to get some t mobile 3g/4g speeds out of it is this possible and if so what rom and how i have heard it can be done but no definite answer some one please help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that will never happen
you are better off returning it, and buying the proper model for AWS band (1700/2100)

No LTE?

I am using the phone on a T-Mobile network. For the APN I have the IPv6 setting, for some reason the icon next to the signal bars is only H+ not LTE. Was wondering if that was just me? If is just me is there a way to get LTE? I know that this phone support LTE.
Thanks.

which model is it? (D68xx..) might not support the LTE bands that T-mobile has
which area are you located in? perhaps your area doesn't have/weak LTE signal

paperWastage said:
which model is it? (D68xx..) might not support the LTE bands that T-mobile has
which area are you located in? perhaps your area doesn't have/weak LTE signal
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Click to collapse
oh... damn just checked and tmo lte band is 1700 my phone supports 1800/2100.
Well that will be something I remember the next time I buy an unlocked device.

b1969 said:
oh... damn just checked and tmo lte band is 1700 my phone supports 1800/2100.
Well that will be something I remember the next time I buy an unlocked device.
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Click to collapse
Indeed. Also of note, Tmo LTE only works on a more recent SIM. I tried a cut down 5 year old SIM and no LTE.

Thanks for the info!

I'll admit that I didn't do proper research prior to buying the unlocked device. After reading more into T-Mobile bands, they said that by the end of this year they will be releasing band 2 which is the 700mhz. Since this model supports that I'm guessing I can get lte?
Please clarify this for me. Thanks.