I'm still trying to get the bottom line on using a Chinese made smartphone with T-Mobile in the USA. I'm already aware there is no 4G support in those phones. I really don't need 4G.
All of the Chinese smartphones I've seen seem to carry the same spec:
Network frequency: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz WCDMA 850/2100MHz
A T-Mobile live chat person provided me this link: support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-4987
They said that the phone MUST support both 1700 and 2100MHz bands to get 3G service. That statement implies the chinese phones won't get 3G speeds.
Someone on this forum made the statement that T-Mobile was in the process of migrating their 2G and 3G service to the 850 and 1900MHz bands which would indicate that a phone with the above specs would get 3G speed. So who is correct? Is anyone using any of the Chinese brand phones with T-Mobile in the USA? What's your experience been?
anyone else trying to figure this out?
Related
I want to buy this device but it is overpriced here in the uk and t mobile in the usa have it a affordable price. I checked the bands and most uk phones have: 900, 1900 and 2100 for 3g
This one has : 1700 and 2100 for 3g
This concerns me a lot. Can I flash a radio from the original optimistic 2x or something to make it work in the uk? Do you think it will work on 3g out of the box? Some help please.
As you've noted T-Mobile uses non standard frequencies in the states. So, out of the box it's incompatible. As far as flashing an Optimus 2x radio, that appears to be a very bad idea due to file system differences.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read the answer is no.
According to this:
http://www.wireless.att.com/travelguide/coverage/coverage_details.jsp?CIDL=1305&MNC=CING
uk carriers use 2100 primarily and according to gsmarena the bands this phone supports are:
1700 and 2100 for 3g
Wouldn't it still work out of the box even if it supports 2100 band?
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Also according to this:
http://www.mobileworldlive.com/maps...ma/gb/17016/comb/&layer_id=951&lstCountry=275
Most uk networks use 2100 band as suggested by at&t . The 1700 band is used by t mo for 4g network according to engadget. Any change of opinion now?
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"Band I" is 2100 MHz, which is supported by the G2x and is used all over Europe and Asia.
and according to this http://www.phonearena.com/phones/T-Mobile-G2x_id5272
the G2X supports 2100 UMTS (3G) or am I missing something?
The G2x supports 850/900/1800/1900 MHz for 2G/GPRS only, and supports 3G/4G UMTS/HSPA+ bands I (2100) and IV (1700). The G2x does not support AT&T’s 3G bands.
G2X spec sheet
http://stadium.weblogsinc.com/engadget/files/T-Mobile_G2x_with_Google_FactSheet_FINAL.pdf
Yes it should work, I'm currently in Europe and my g2x connects to 3G, but of course there is no 4G...I'll be in the UK in a few days in fact
rashad1 said:
Yes it should work, I'm currently in Europe and my g2x connects to 3G, but of course there is no 4G...I'll be in the UK in a few days in fact
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Thanks for confirming
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Thanks to all who corrected me...I was under the impression most of Europe used the same 3G bands as AT&T do here. Stupid US centric assumption...I need to get out more....and keep my mouth shut when I'm not absolutely sure!
Anyway, sorry for my small contribution to internet misinformation...
bdkinney said:
Thanks to all who corrected me...I was under the impression most of Europe used the same 3G bands as AT&T do here. Stupid US centric assumption...I need to get out more....and keep my mouth shut when I'm not absolutely sure!
Anyway, sorry for my small contribution to internet misinformation...
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Click to collapse
Both at&t and tmobile phones would be able to get 3g signals outside of the states. I had no problem using my old iphone 3g in Hong Kong,Beijing nor my tmobile blackberry 9700 in Italy.
jdaclutch said:
Both at&t and tmobile phones would be able to get 3g signals outside of the states. I had no problem using my old iphone 3g in Hong Kong,Beijing nor my tmobile blackberry 9700 in Italy.
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Yeah...now that's not quite right. Here's the deal:
Most of the world uses 2100 MHz 3G bidirectionally (for both sending and receiving data). This includes England, China, and Hong Kong.
In the U.S. AT&T uses Both 850 & 1900 MHz (depending on the coverage area) bidirectionally. Not compatible with "world standards". The reason you could use you iphone in China is because it has tri-band 3G. Not all AT&T phones support the 2100 MHz band.
T-Mobile uses 1700 MHz for uploads and 2100 MHz for downloading. However, all their current phones have the ability to use the 2100 MHz band bidirectionally when operating overseas.
So to sum it up T-Mobile phones will do 3G overseas, some AT&T Phones will work overseas, but most phones from overseas won't do 3G here.
I hope that makes things a bit more clear; and I apologize again for confusing T-mobile with AT&T in my earlier post.
I work for Tmous retail sales and we have never really been taught anything about bands. Ive been pretty curious myself since some customers come into the store with AT&t phones asking about tmo service. I have been instructed (by a fellow retail associate) to tell them that no At&t phone will ever have 3G on tmo ( I assume thats just the safe answer though).
real question!
in terms of 3G/4G (hspa+) what bands does tmous use?
same question for AT&t.
To tie that together. ex: If a phone from At&t hypothetically has capabilities to use the same bands as tmous and is unlocked, can it get 3G/4G service on tmous?
i did search around and didnt find a very clear answer so i figured i'd start a thread, im sure other noobs have the same question.
T-Mobile uses 1700 2100 MHz bands for 3G/"4G"
AT&T uses 850 and 1900 MHz bands for 3G/"4G"
Yes if a phone has all those bands for 3G, and it's SIM unlocked you can get 3G on other cell company.
The T-Mobile Vibrant actually has those AT&T bands too, if you SIM unlock the Vibrant, you can get 3G on AT&T.
http://www.androidguys.com/2010/08/22/samsung-galaxy-unlockable-tmobile-vibrant-supports-att-3g/
It's very rare to see a phone that supports both T-Mobile and AT&T 3G bands.
nxt said:
T-Mobile uses 1700 2100 MHz bands for 3G/"4G"
AT&T uses 850 and 1900 MHz bands for 3G/"4G"
Yes if a phone has all those bands for 3G, and it's SIM unlocked you can get 3G on other cell company.
It's very rare to see a phone that supports both T-Mobile and AT&T 3G bands.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the clarification. In hopes that im not being a further nuisance, I was wondering, what about a phone that has 1 of the matching bands?
T-Mobile USA is using the 1700/2100 Mhz bands for 3G (UMTS)
T-Mobile Germany uses 1900/2100 Mhz for 3G (UMTS)
If you couldnt tell, im considering buying an iPhone (to develop on for fun). Will a phone that uses 2100 Mhz only be usable on USA towers (for 3G service)?
DrewMullen said:
Will a phone that uses 2100 Mhz only be usable on USA towers (for 3G service)?
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Click to collapse
No it will not get 3G
Hi
I was told this would be a better forum for this question.
I have a huawei ideos (older non X6 version) and supposedly it is unlocked. It works with 2g/edge. It does not work with t-mobile 3g. I have looked for APN information and the info downloaded to the phone when I connected to t-mobile network is identical to what is listed on the net.
ie. I added
MMSC: http<colon><twoslash>mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc
xxx added because I can not post urls.
Things which are odd. When choosing access network, it does not say T-mobile 3G. It only says T-mobile 2g, Att 2g and Att 3g. According to the net this phone supports the frequencies for tmobile.
gsm link for u8150 not allowed.
shows HSDPA 900 / 2100 / AWS
HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 / 1700
And the wikipedia entry for tmobile
shows
1700 MHz/2100 MHz UMTS (W-CDMA)/HSPA 4G (formerly 3G[31]) 2006 2008 (3G), 2010 (Marketed as 4G) First carrier in the U.S. to deploy services on AWS frequencies. Markets HSPA+ as "4G". UMTS band IV
Not sure if HSPDA spec is same as HSPA though.
I did the trick where you enter #*#*4636*#*#* and checked phone settings. I changed the setting from CDMA to GSM auto (PRL). I also tried to hit menu and select radio band, but it pulls up an empty "Set GSM/UMTS Band" dialog. There is nothing to select.
I guess my question is, does this phone support 3G for t-mobile and if so, what setting am I missing?
thanks in advance.
John
I got an email from Huawei support
Hi,
Just as another data point. I got an email regarding this issue from Huawei support. They said an unlocked phone from one provider may not fully support 3g on T-Mobile. I asked them what he meant by not fully support.
Here is an excerpt from the Huawei email:
This phone is capable to be used in 3G that is correct, however if the phone is unlocked from the original provider it may not be fully compatible on 3G on the different providers network.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions Thanks
Moving to Q&A
three more datapoints
Hi
I got another note from Huawei. They said they don't support unlocked phones.
I talked to t-mobile support. They said the u8150 uses PPP and not RMNET. I have never heard of RMNET, and that the phone would only support 3G if it was rooted.
This seem like BS all around to me. T-mobile and Huawei.
I did test my phone with a friends tmobile sim and the phone behaved the same. ie. edge only.
Some more datapoints
Hi
This phone is available in two different frequency capabilities. Considering mine can see the ATT 3G network, it must be using the second set of frequencies. This second set is listed as usable by T-Mobile as well. Here is the info:
From the huawei spec sheet.
At the top it shows
UMTS 900/AWS/2100MHz or
UMTS 850/1700/1900/2100MHz;
EDGE/GSM/GPRS: 850/900/1800/1900MHz
According to Wikipedia
ATT
850 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G
1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G
850 MHz UMTS/HSPA 3G
1900 MHz UMTS/HSPA 3G
700 MHz LTE 4G
T-Mobile
850 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G
1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G
1700 MHz/2100 MHz UMTS (W-CDMA)/HSPA 4G (formerly 3G[31])
When I connect to wireless networks, I see three choices:
T-Mobile 2G
AT&T 2G
AT&T 3G
So I am guessing my u8150 is using the second UMTS set of frequencies:
1. 850 (since it sees two edge networks and that is only available in the second set.)
2. 850 and 1900 (since it see's AT&T 3G and it is also in the second set)
This second set of frequencies is also used by T-Mobile so I don't understand why this phone can not connect to T-Mobile 3G using my simcard or my pals.
It's all about the supported 3/4g bands. Most carrier Androids only support their networks spectrum's. Check gsmarena to ensure compatibility.
Hi,
Thanks for the info. Maybe I don't understand, but I thought gsmarena showed this phone as using both the Att and Tmobile bands. I remember when I had nexus ones was that one version was for ATT 3G and one was for TMobile 3G. I'm guessing that the 8150 is similar with the exception that huawei has not published accurate docs. ie. their docs say both frequences for all phones when in reality its two different model phones with only one label.
netskink said:
Hi
I got another note from Huawei. They said they don't support unlocked phones.
I talked to t-mobile support. They said the u8150 uses PPP and not RMNET. I have never heard of RMNET, and that the phone would only support 3G if it was rooted.
This seem like BS all around to me. T-mobile and Huawei.
I did test my phone with a friends tmobile sim and the phone behaved the same. ie. edge only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I apologize for not reading all of your posts
This isn't BS. It's the same issue facing Cricket phones attempting to connect on Verizon. I'm not fully up to speed but it looks like RMNET needs to be added via the kernel (edit sources and compile).
The below thread isn't specific to Tmo but it should give you some insight.
[04JAN][TMOUS]CMYLXGO's Stripped & Squashed Stock Desire HD[KERNEL:gauner1986][RMNET]
This is what Huawei meant by "may not be supported". However, if the phone connected to Tmo with SIM then it's already carrier unlocked. You now face the above issue plus prl, etc.
You face a long road ahead. My suggestion, sell the Huawei and buy a used Tmo Android.
Hi,
I am a telstra customer from Australia. Telstra is rolling out its first handset on their new LTE network next week, the HTC Velocity (aka HTC Holiday or Vivid, i think).
The Telstra LTE network currently only runs on the 1800mhz frequency. Telstras 3G network runs on 850mhz australia wide and 2100 i think in built-up areas.
Short of ending my contract early or buying a Velocity outright (which you cant for another few months, according to telstra), I began a search for a mobile device that supports both 3G 850mhz UMTS and 4G 1800mhz LTE. This is a very hard combo to find.
Has anyone else had any luck finding a decent/flagship android phone from HTC or Samsung that supports both these frequencies? I do not care about 2G quadband compatability.
So far all I have come up with is the Samsung Galaxy S 2 LTE, but i cannot confirm this in fact has 850mhz UMTS.
Hi all
I just bought new unlocked Samsung Galaxy S 4G (SGH-T959V) on the internet and before to talking to possible providers I got confused about its 3G bands. I've got two specs with different bands:
one says it has 1700/1900/2100 (e.g. see pdadb.net)
another says it has only 1700/2100.
How do I check which 3G bands my phone really has? Is there any way to check it using the phone itself? Like test software or something?
Thank you
From http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s_4g-3719.php
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 1700 / 2100
Perhaps that is some of the confusion about bands; 1900 is also a GSM band.
T-Mobile, for better or worse, uses the AWS bands, which results in its handsets having a different set of requirements than other carriers.
I've used an AT&T SIM in my SGS4g and was able to get 3G, so I'm fairly positive the phone also has the 1900 HSPA band.
Wikipedia says T-Mobile has 1900 in both GSM and 3G
I dont know what bands they use but I use simple mobile unlimited 3g for $40 or unlimited 4g for $60....$20 sim with free activation. SimpleMobile uses tmobile network
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