what hardware component makes a phone have certain bands? be it 3g or for voice. what makes a phone have at&t bands of 850/900/1800/1900 MHz or at&t 3g bands instead of tmobiles 3g bands? Is it true that there are currently no phones that FULLY work on 2(or more) different networks, including overseas? I know you can get the iphone on tmobile but its not fully capable because you dont have 3g. how far are we from being able to pick our phone then the carrier instead of picking a carrier and then choosing one of their phones?
Also, it seems that at&t's 3g bands are listed as "tri band global" as apposed to tmobiles that only have 2 and are not listed as "global". does that mean that at&t's bands are more capable and may work in areas over seas? wouldnt that mean that at&t has the most advanced cell technology(or at least the most capable) in the country?
no one knows???????????????????????
the crystals inside the cpu often made by qualcomm decide the band supported
Rudegar said:
the crystals inside the cpu often made by qualcomm decide the band supported
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that sucks. so its all up to qualcomm(or the maker of the cpu) and the politics if we ever get a fully supported device?
a big whoop for the UK all our carriers use the same bands
I am finding so much conflicting info about LTE phones... I know in the US, they support LTE 700. In Germany, Telekom uses LTE 800. What I can't find are good technical specs on any phones. Obviously a US manual is going to state LTE 700. But I can't find techniucal details on the actual chip. Maybe the freq coverage is such that the phone will support both LTE 700 and LTE 800?
Can an expert please advise me if the Skyrocket (or any other really good LTE phone) will work in Germany?
I know there is now a Europe version of this phone (GT-I9210) but I want to save $ and buy in US if possible, if the US version will work.
thanks,
Brian
No, the Skyrocket doesn't support the LTE bands used in the EU.
LTE frequencies used in Germany are 800Mhz and1800Mhz LTE bands and 2600Mhz TDD LTE band.
Thanks. Do you know of any phones that are LTE capable in both the US and Germany?
regards,
Brian
As far as I know, there is no smartphone working in the US and in Germany atm
I have both the T-Mobile and the international unlocked version. I have the latter because, in my excitement, I didn't take care to find out if it will work on T-Mobile's 3G speeds. To my dismay, it doesn't, and I have an extra phone.
I'm wondering if it will work on any other carrier's 3G/4G data speeds. Searching forums and support threads haven't gotten me any answers. Any help at all would be appreciated.
I bought mine in Britain and am using it quite happily here in Japan. T-Mobile USA has a relatively rare frequency band internationally; I think as long as you have 2100MHz and 900MHz bands, which this phone has, there should be an operator in almost every country that the phone will work on. In fact, it should work on most operators in most countries.
The phone has 850/900/2100 MHz bands for 3G; T-Mobile runs "4G" (actually 3G) on 1700/2100 aka AWS - this requires BOTH bands to be present in the phone, which is why the One S doesn't work. T-Mo USA also has 1900MHz, again not present in the One S. Can you get EDGE 2G data, which should be possible on 850MHz?
In the USA, it should work on AT&T, as they use 850MHz for 3G. Maybe you can find someone who will lend you a SIM to check it.
In Europe & Asia, it should generally work no problem.
Dear All,
I recently got this device in Hong Kong and is hapi with its performance!
But I am still wondering if this device could actually use the LTE available in HK?
I knw the msm8960 claimed to be capable of utilizing all frequency of radio,
so is it possible that there is some soft lock in the baseband?
Could i flash the baseband or replace the modem driver from other device to access other frequency?
any idea is appreciated!
Thanks!
Vasco
I think it has to modifiy the ROm and the hardware
I tried to figure out, if our Photon Q is supporting more LTE bands than 1900 MHz (#2 or/and #25).
-> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-UTRA#Frequency_bands_and_channel_bandwidths
On some sites there are reports for having another band. (Have to search again, I think it was 850 MHz, #26 or 700 MHz, #12/#17/#29.)
I have also searched for supported frequencies for MSM8960.
I found some BlackBerry devices based on that SoC and 2 different versions of supported LTE bands.
One version (UK) supported 4 in europe used bands und the other version (US) supported 4 in US/Canada used bands.
I think that the Photon Q is like the BlackBerry US version and supports 4 LTE bands in US/Canada.
If you need a few sites, I will search again and show it to you.
The strange thing is, if I set to LTE only (via 4636) I can see all 4 carrier (germany).
We have 3 bands with LTE on it, but I can only get signal to max 2 of them.
Band 3, 7 and 20 (1800, 2600, 800 MHz).
The weird thing is, that on band #20 (800 MHz) only 3 carrier are active, so it has to be band #3 or #7.
Maybe I'm missinterpreting things and thats just a sideeffect of crossing bands of LTE US and UMTS Germany.
On stock ROM there was another "secret phone code" to see what the phone-part is doing. (From qualcomm I believe.)
I think I will test it some other day, to see which band is active.
At last, I was never been able to "login" or "register" into my carriers network within LTE.
Please discuss about that possibility, I really want to find out, which frequencies are supported by our phone on LTE.
Loader009 said:
I tried to figure out, if our Photon Q is supporting more LTE bands than 1900 MHz (#2 or/and #25).
-> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-UTRA#Frequency_bands_and_channel_bandwidths
On some sites there are reports for having another band. (Have to search again, I think it was 850 MHz, #26 or 700 MHz, #12/#17/#29.)
I have also searched for supported frequencies for MSM8960.
I found some BlackBerry devices based on that SoC and 2 different versions of supported LTE bands.
One version (UK) supported 4 in europe used bands und the other version (US) supported 4 in US/Canada used bands.
I think that the Photon Q is like the BlackBerry US version and supports 4 LTE bands in US/Canada.
If you need a few sites, I will search again and show it to you.
The strange thing is, if I set to LTE only (via 4636) I can see all 4 carrier (germany).
We have 3 bands with LTE on it, but I can only get signal to max 2 of them.
Band 3, 7 and 20 (1800, 2600, 800 MHz).
The weird thing is, that on band #20 (800 MHz) only 3 carrier are active, so it has to be band #3 or #7.
Maybe I'm missinterpreting things and thats just a sideeffect of crossing bands of LTE US and UMTS Germany.
On stock ROM there was another "secret phone code" to see what the phone-part is doing. (From qualcomm I believe.)
I think I will test it some other day, to see which band is active.
At last, I was never been able to "login" or "register" into my carriers network within LTE.
Please discuss about that possibility, I really want to find out, which frequencies are supported by our phone on LTE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear Loader009,
Thanks for your information! I'm really impressed that you could actually search the carrier in 'LTE only from Germany!
Could you please share the version of ROM you are using?
And if possible, any screenshot? I really want it can be used in HK with LTE(1800, 2100 & 2600Mhz)
Also do you have more information about the secret phone code? I think it would be interesting
Actually, I noted that xt925 and xt905 are using the same chip MSM8960 with LTE usable in HK.
Is there anyone can locate the radio/baseband of their rom and port it for XT897?
I am willing to try it with my machine.
If this work, I think we could use this photon q all over the world!
Any idea?
Regards,
Vasco
disablewong said:
Dear Loader009,
Thanks for your information! I'm really impressed that you could actually search the carrier in 'LTE only from Germany!
Could you please share the version of ROM you are using?
And if possible, any screenshot? I really want it can be used in HK with LTE(1800, 2100 & 2600Mhz)
Also do you have more information about the secret phone code? I think it would be interesting
Actually, I noted that xt925 and xt905 are using the same chip MSM8960 with LTE usable in HK.
Is there anyone can locate the radio/baseband of their rom and port it for XT897?
I am willing to try it with my machine.
If this work, I think we could use this photon q all over the world!
Any idea?
Regards,
Vasco
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course, I was just blind guessing the hardware for xt926 and xt907 are using the same hardware.
If not, there should be one chip controlling the modem channel of the device to be replaced.
But WHICH ONE???
Any expert in this area can solve this question? I am a dummy for radio stuffs
This seems like it's getting pretty interesting.
Sent from my XT897 using Tapatalk 2
Dear all,
I'm also very interested in this topic since I imported a Photon Q to Germany and was wondering if it's possible to use the local LTE 800/1800/2600 bands.
I think the first thing we have to find out is whether the hardware is capable of using other bands than the 1900 band listed on the Motorola website. As Loader009 states he could see LTE carriers which are known to use different bands I assume the hardware can do it. Otherwise the carriers wouldn't have been listed, right? Maybe someone from another country with different frequency bands can check and confirm that he can see those carriers as well?
Thus, the limitation to the 1900 band should be software-made and could be modified by a developer. I hope someone can participate at that point as I don't know much about coding...
I'm using CM10.1.
I can't remember the secret phone code, I have to do research again.
This secret phone code only works on Stock ROM. (I stupidly deleted it, when it wasn't working on CM10 anymore.)
The one secret phone code I used to force "LTE only" was *#*#4636#*#*.
Please DON'T change the baseband (don't even tap on it).
This can do problems to you. (I had to use QPST to recover the supported frequencies.)
Also, developers (afaik) can't modify the modem firmware.
We also don't even know, which LTE bands the Photon Q is capable of. (Except 1900 MHz)
I've got my 32GB SDCard back and will test it in the next few days out.
I hope I'll find that secret phone code, I'll also make a few screenshots.
Got the code!
##33284# <- ##DEBUG#
It only works on stock afair!
I'll test tomorrow, it's about 3am now >.<
disablewong said:
Dear All,
I recently got this device in Hong Kong and is hapi with its performance!
But I am still wondering if this device could actually use the LTE available in HK?
I knw the msm8960 claimed to be capable of utilizing all frequency of radio,
so is it possible that there is some soft lock in the baseband?
Could i flash the baseband or replace the modem driver from other device to access other frequency?
any idea is appreciated!
Thanks!
Vasco
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have read the "QU_SnapdragonS4_White_Paper_FNL_Rev6.pdf" and found there following entry:
-----------------------------------------------------------
• Industry’s first fully integrated 3G/4G world/multimode LTE Modem: <<<Supports all of the world’s leading 2G, 3G and 4G LTE standards>>>.
It also includes integrated support for multiple satellite position networks (GPS and GLONASS) as well as short range radios via Bluetooth,
WiFi, FM and NFC.
• Designed for speed, compatibility and power savings:
Snapdragon S4 Processor MSM8960 chipset includes the industry’s only complete platform that integrates all of the world’s leading 2G, 3G and 4G mobile broadband modem technologies on a single chip. This new integrated multimode modem is based on an advanced, programmable architecture that is performance, size and power optimized for the fastest combination of modems available for:
- LTE FDD/TDD (Cat3)
- 3G (DC-HSPA+ Cat 24)
- EV-DO Rev. B
- 1x Advanced
- TD-SCDMA
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE NFC.
Multimode/Multiband Means Worldwide Coverage.
• Support for multiple radio frequencies: Mobile broadband technologies are growing increasingly complex in their implementation. LTE is currently being implemented in over 40 diff erent radio frequency bands throughout the world. To complement its wide range of modem standards supported, Qualcomm has designed the Snapdragon S4 Processor MSM8960 CHIPSET platform to <<< address all commonly-used frequencies (from 700–2600 MHz) and bandwidths up to 20 MHz>>>, allowing its customers to address any mobile network opportunity whether the simplest single frequency implementation to the most extensive multi-frequency global mode, whether 4G, 3G or 2G.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Based on the document the chip can handle all LTE Standards, but it depends on his "advanced, programmable architecture"....as written there and how Motorola / Sprint implemented this, maybe they reduced LTE only to one Standard.
I don't have LTE in my area and so I cannot test this.
That's possibly right.
Something else:
If I remember correctly, somewhere in this forum have been said that for CDMA the internal Sprint "ID"(?) is used.
Maybe that's also the reason why I cannot connect to LTE in my area.
The phone is trying to "login" with the Sprint ID and this of course won't work.
The ##DEBUG# menu wasn't helpfull. It shows frequencies for american standards and not for GSM/WCDMA.
Also the LTE menu is also not very helpfull, it doesn't show frequencies at all.
Any News on this topic?
Maybe one of the developers can give a statement?
Yesterday I tested a LTE compatible SIM card.
My Bro has a Samsung Galaxy S4 with 4G/LTE in my area.
So I've put his SIM-Card into my Photon Q and set LTE only.
I had no luck, the Phone couldn't register into the network for this SIM.
I guess either it has the wrong frequencies or LTE is for inbuilt "SIM" (Sprint SIM?) only.
The latter. LTE is configured only for 1900 MHz which Sprint uses.
LTE is configured only for Sprint's frequencies, however, it supports the United States frequencies of PCS blocks A-G. The G Block is Sprint's current LTE channel, and they may deploy it later on Blocks A through F, depending on if they own the spectrum in a given market. The reason you see EU networks when the phone is in LTE Only Mode is most likely because the Phone still sees GSM signals, but will only connect to LTE ones from those GSM signals. Likewise, in the US, if you force LTE Only and then search for networks, AT&T and T-Mobile US will come up as the GSM carriers the Photon Q sees, rather than the LTE signals it sees.
Setting the Photon to LTE Only will not do anything for LTE in the EU. I suspect that if another carrier in the EU uses the 1900 MHz for LTE, the Photon Q will have no issues connecting to LTE in Europe. But until that time, be happy with HSPA.
Skrilax_CZ said:
LTE is configured only for 1900 MHz which Sprint uses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can this configuration theoretically be changed / other frequencies be added?
Only if you break BP security.
Skrilax_CZ said:
Only if you break BP security.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, what's that?
IIRC The only place with 850mhz LTE available is the Chicago market and currently no phones at all support it. :crying:
Not only does your phone need to support it, your PRL and cell-site does too...
Hey everyone,
My friend is currently in the US and wants to purchase a phone that can be used both in the US and in Europe (more specifically in Hungary) as he's probably going to be travelling between the two continents. If he were to buy the phone through Moto Maker in the US, would everything (phone calls, 2g, 3g, 4g) work as it should? Or 4g wouldn't work? I'm confused by these band-related things.
Thanks in advance for the answers!
Pipusz said:
Hey everyone,
My friend is currently in the US and wants to purchase a phone that can be used both in the US and in Europe (more specifically in Hungary) as he's probably going to be travelling between the two continents. If he were to buy the phone through Moto Maker in the US, would everything (phone calls, 2g, 3g, 4g) work as it should? Or 4g wouldn't work? I'm confused by these band-related things.
Thanks in advance for the answers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2G and 3G would work... 4G/LTE is a different matter entirely.
The "LTE Bands" refer to specific frequency space in the wireless spectrum licensed to carriers in various parts of the world. Your device must have support for the LTE band(s) used by your carrier in order to connect to their LTE service.
US Version supports LTE Bands 2, 4, 5, 7, and 17, these are commonly used LTE Bands in North America... In the European version LTE Bands 1, 3, 7, 8, and 20 are supported and are the most commonly used across the EU. Only 7 overlaps (note that 7 is not in widespread deployment in Europe, only certain carriers in specific areas use it), whether this is good enough would depend on the carrier that would be used in Europe.
You can check what carrier uses what bands here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks