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GSM LTE phones vs CDMA LTE Phones radios

I found an interesting article about radios and LTE connections. The Radio Performance Disparity of the Galaxy Nexus on GSM and CDMA - Mobile Central - Binary Outcast
I have the oppurtunity to either go with ATT or Verizon. The article makes it seems that GSM is a better bet for LTE phones especially in areas with poor reception. I am hoping people can provide insight/comments on LTE phones for GSM and CDMA carriers and the article.
The Radio Performance Disparity of the Galaxy Nexus on GSM and CDMA
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus. It's Google's flagship phone that is designed to complement the Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” operating system software. With high end specifications (for 2011) and highly optimized software, the Galaxy Nexus is supposed to show off what Android can really do without any interference from carriers and OEMs. However, that wound up not truly being the case in the United States with the CDMA/LTE variant for Verizon Wireless and Sprint.
By and large, the CDMA/LTE variant sold by Verizon Wireless and Sprint is the same as the original HSPA+ model that is now sold by Google on the Play Store (at least in terms of hardware). It has the same CPU, RAM, NFC chip, screen, cameras, etc. The only hardware difference is the cellular radio structure.
The original UMTS HSPA+ model uses an Intel XG626 baseband modem that is connected to an antenna structure that supports quad-band GSM and penta-band WCDMA for global usage. For Americans, it means that it works on the HSPA+ networks for both AT&T and T-Mobile USA.
The CDMA/LTE variant uses a VIA Telecom CBP7.1 CDMA2000 baseband modem, connected to an antenna structure that supports dual-band CDMA2000. The Sprint model adds another CDMA2000 band that is exclusive to Sprint. Both CDMA/LTE variants use a Samsung CMC221 LTE baseband modem, but the Verizon Wireless variant is set up for LTE band class 13 (Upper 700MHz C block), while the Sprint variant is set up for LTE band class 25 (U.S. Extended PCS, also known as PCS+G). The Verizon Galaxy Nexus has a user-accessible SIM card slot while the Sprint one does not.
While the Intel (formerly Infineon) baseband used to be troublesome on AT&T's network (as many iPhone users that didn't own an iPhone 4S can attest to), the latest generation of basebands work fine on both AT&T and T-Mobile. With 3GPP Release 7 support, it has a maximum downlink throughput of 21Mbps while it has a maximum uplink throughput of 5.76Mbps. In general, the Galaxy Nexus works very well on AT&T and T-Mobile.
However, it isn't the same for the CDMA variants of the Galaxy Nexus. The VIA Telecom CDMA chip is notorious for weak performance. Other notable devices that use the chip are the Samsung DROID Charge and the Samsung Stratosphere. Searching on the web about these devices turns up a lot of complaints about CDMA service quality with these devices.
Jason Perlow of ZDNet experienced more than his fair share of issues while trying to live off of the 4G LTE connection his Galaxy Nexus provided. But he was trying to live off of 4G LTE, not CDMA2000. So why was he affected? Well, the truth is, CDMA/LTE devices require both radios to be active and connected. Not to mention, network authentication and feature provisioning actually goes through the CDMA system, not the LTE one.
The bridge between CDMA2000 and LTE is rather brittle and is prone to failure, because LTE wasn't designed to be bridged with CDMA2000 like that. It was intended to be installed alongside GSM and WCDMA networks, and it handles it a lot better with those networks. So when something goes wrong in the rather terribly buggy CDMA system, the whole phone can and usually does fail. If Verizon Wireless had upgraded the CDMA2000 system to UMTS HSPA+ like most other CDMA2000 carriers across the globe, it would have avoided dealing with this problem.
Also, the CDMA/LTE Galaxy Nexus lies to you (at least, it does now). Originally, the “bars” that indicate signal strength would actually indicate the signal strength of LTE if it was connected to an LTE network. When everyone started complaining about how weak the signal was compared to the Motorola DROID RAZR and Motorola DROID Bionic, Anandtech investigated. It turned out that the signal strength was actually accurate, and that LTE signals are incredibly weak. Previous devices used the CDMA signal strength to determine how many “bars” of signal you have. The Galaxy Nexus did not. It used the LTE signal strength when it was connected to LTE, and the CDMA signal strength when it wasn't. Verizon Wireless issued an update shortly afterward that changed the behavior to match older LTE devices. Newer LTE devices do the same as well.
Combining the fact that the Galaxy Nexus has to work incredibly hard to maintain an LTE signal with the fact that the CDMA2000 radio is horrible and has a difficult time holding onto the connection will lead anyone to the conclusion that it is a recipe for disaster. Is it any wonder why Jason Perlow and many others have so many problems with the CDMA/LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus? Not really.
Of course, this is excluding all the issues with timely updates that Verizon Wireless has caused for Galaxy Nexus owners. Including this issue just makes the problem worse. There are ways to work around some of the issues, though some workarounds will result in permanent degradation of performance. However, it doesn't mean anything if it takes forever for anyone to get any updates that implement them.
In the end, I really can't solidly recommend the CDMA/LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus to anyone. Nor can I recommend any CDMA2000 device that uses a VIA Telecom CDMA baseband modem. The pitfalls just make it a bad experience for everyone.[

Will the snapdragon S4 chip from Qualcomm help with this issue?

Techno Buffalo has an article about T-Mobiles transition to LTE and a T Mobile person stated that their enhanced backload will help T Mobile's LTE. will this help AT&T's LTE Too? http://www.technobuffalo.com/news/w...backhaul-is-the-key-to-a-users-4g-experience/

Here is another article talking about the challenge CDMA has with LTE when the LTE signal is weak
http://www.phonearena.com/news/How-...-you-dont-need-it-and-save-on-battery_id32990

small error?
Hey didn't have time to read what you wrote but gsm is 2g and wcmda is 3g and 4g and LTE is also 4g so what you wrote did not make much sense GSM WCMDA and LTE are 3 different types of radios and here is a tip lo let people help you faster dont add more to what you wrote edit it instead because now it looks like 3 people already helped you
thanks if it helped :good:

For me this is highly theoretical. I recently moved from Dayton, Ohio to Kingsland, Georgia with a Verizon Galaxy Nexus (CDMA). In both places, if I allowed the LTE radio, the phone would get too hot to handle comfortably, and 3G isn't that great either. But in my neighborhood, there is no AT&T or T-Mobile data signal at all. That severely limits practical choices.

One more http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/110711-what-is-lte/7

[Q] Verizon phone on ATT network questions

I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini from Verizon (Model SCH-I435). My boss gave it to me since I needed a new phone and to my surprise, it was unlocked and I was able to get it working with ATT. My only problem so far is that the data speeds are not what I was expecting. I only get 2mbits/s when compared to my company phone (which is verizon) gets 10mbits/s. My thought was that the phone could did not support ATT's 4g/LTE network but from all my research, it looks like it should. When testing the speed or using data, it shows shows "H+" at the top of the screen.
Here is a list of supported networks from Samsung's website for the SCH-I435
Frequencies and Data Type Digital (CDMA/PCS)/1x, EVDO Rev A; Global(GPRS/EDGE/GSM(850/900/1800/1900); HSPA/UMTS(850/900/1900/2100), LTE (Band 13, Band 4)
Judging from wikipedia, Att uses band 4 and it says the phone supports band 4 so I do not get why it is not going faster. Any help would be appreciated.

You need to have LTE enabled in your AT&T account otherwise it won't let you connect with the LTE APN settings (you'll need to make sure you have the LTE APN in the phone as well).

[APP][1.6+] NV Calculator - for adding 2G/3G/4G bands to your phone

Use to calculate Qualcomm NV items for adding GSM / WCDMA / LTE bands.
Do you want to add any GSM / WCDMA / LTE bands to your phone? Then use this app to calculate all needed NV items.
This app is only useful for phone with a Qualcomm chipset.
If you don't know how to add GSM / WCDMA / LTE bands to your phone, please refer to this thread. That thread is for S5 model, but the same principle is also applicable for many other phones, e.g. Samsung, LG, Sony, HTC, Nexus...
You also need some NV editor software (e.g. QPST, QXDM, EFS Professional...) on the PC to write these NV items to your phone.
>> NV items description:
- Adding GSM / WCDMA bands:
NV 01877 - RF Band Configuration
NV 00441 - Band Class Preference
NV 00946 - Expand Band Preference 16 to 32 Bits
NV 02954 - Bits 32 to 63 of Band Preference
- Adding LTE bands:
NV 06828 - LTE BC Configuration
NV 06829 - LTE BC Configuration DIV
DOWNLOAD: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.vndnguyen.nvcalc

reserved

This app can show the calculation result in 3 formats: Decimal, Hexadecimal and Byte-swapped Hex.

Update v1.0.5:
- Fix UI issue on some devices.
- Add separate notation settings for GSM/WCDMA and LTE calculation. You should not change the default settings unless you know what you are doing.

I'm intersted in Qualcomm NV access, but not for cell band issues. There appear to be GPS issues with some Samsung phones, and there is some indication that those issues are related to a NV "privacy flag". Apparently older ROMs can turn this bit on and off, but newer ROMs don't - whatever value was left there is "stranded" there. There are people flashing back to CM10.x, setting this bit, then flashing back to CM11. I'm presuming that what is really happening is that they're tweaking this on NV location.
If we could simply read the NV location, we could compare its value to GPS functionality, and see if this is really the issue.
If the above is true, and if we could simply write this one NV location, we'd have a heck of a lot simpler GPS fix.

Thanks, vndnguyen, for your app. And it would be very nice if you add CDMA bands to your app. Thanks again.

if i am interested in enabling umts bands in somewhat old msm7227a based motorola, running gb 2.3.7, with no custom recovery, no custom roms or anything, but rooted.
should i even try?

thanks for making this, i wonder if my Snapdragon 600 on LG G Pro E988 can use this to enable China's TD WCDMA and TD LTE, since FDD is kinda different than TDD

vndnguyen said:
Use to calculate Qualcomm NV items for adding GSM / WCDMA / LTE bands.
Do you want to add any GSM / WCDMA / LTE bands to your phone? Then use this app to calculate all needed NV items.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got a question. I found a discrepancy in your calculator.... Your NV calculator values do not match the NV value of the LTE bands my phone already has. So, how can I trust the calculator to give me correct values for additional bands I wish to enable?
It's at the bottom of this post, but I am putting a lot of information about my phone first, so you know the whole situation.
I have 5.2" 1440p, 3GB RAM Moto Maxx (XT1225), which has Snapdragon 805 -- same as the (Motorola) Nexus 6. In fact it was being tested by Google to be the Nexus 6 (or a Nexus 6 variant) as late as mid-August -- but Google decided to go with the larger size variant and only the larger size variant.
Motorola re-purposed this phone as the Verizon Droid Turbo (XT1254) in the USA and as the Moto Maxx (XT1225) now being sold in a handful of Latin America countries. We already have root, TWRP recovery.
When this phone was being tested by the FCC, it had these LTE bands:
But now being sold as the Moto Maxx (SAME FCC ID number), Motorola enabled more GSM bands and changed one of the LTE bands.
They disabled LTE band 5 (a minor AT&T LTE band), and enabled LTE band 3 (which is used more in Latin America countries).
QPST confirms the 2G/3G bands Motorola now claims for this phone:
Which means the LTE bands they now claim (2, 3, 4, 7, 17) are also probably correct.
Again this phone has the SAME FCC ID NUMBER. And as it's being sold in Puerto Rico (U.S. territory), that is very important. That means there's been no hardware change since U.S. FCC certification -- only software change.
Motorola also promises it has the SAME HARDWARE (including antenna) that the Droid Turbo (XT1254) has (even though the Droid Turbo has a different FCC ID number):
This is also important. It means really, Motorola could not sell the Moto Maxx (XT1225) in Puerto Rico (U.S. territory) under that FCC ID number if any radio-specific hardware had been changed at all.
Thus, we know the additional GSM bands, change in the LTE bands by Motorola was software modem change.
With me so far?
___________________________
Now the discrepancy...
In QXDM NV browser, in Line 6828, the XT1225 phone showed a value of 65630 (for LTE bands 2, 3, 4, 7, 17).
Yet, according to your app, with THESE LTE BANDS enabled (2,3,4,7,17)...
it should be THIS value: 65614.
Now I admit that's CLOSE, but it's not the same.
Therefore, how do I trust the calculator to let me enable MORE bands if this default number does not match in your calculator?
I have edited the values of that line to theoretically enable more LTE bands, but if the beginning number from the phone does not match what your calculator number says, then what exactly have I enabled?

ChazzMatt said:
Now the discrepancy...
. . . . .
Now I admit that's CLOSE, but it's not the same.
Therefore, how do I trust the calculator to let me enable MORE bands if this default number does not match in your calculator?
I have edited the values of that line to theoretically enable more LTE bands, but if the beginning number from the phone does not match what your calculator number says, then what exactly have I enabled?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your patience for a such long post
But the problem was too simple.
Code:
If supporting LTE Bands are [COLOR="Blue"]2, 4, 5, 7, 17[/COLOR]:
NV 6828 = [COLOR="Red"]65,626[/COLOR]
If supporting LTE Bands are [COLOR="Blue"]2, 3, 4, 7, 17[/COLOR]:
NV 6828 = [COLOR="Red"]65,614[/COLOR]
If supporting LTE Bands are [COLOR="Blue"]2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 17[/COLOR]:
NV 6828 = [COLOR="Red"]65,630[/COLOR]
I don't how how many bands does your phone support. But if the value of NV 6828 in the QXDM NV browser is 65,630, that phone should support the following bands: 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 17.
There is NO discrepancy here.

vndnguyen said:
Thank you for your patience for a such long post
But the problem was too simple.
Code:
If supporting LTE Bands are [COLOR="Blue"]2, 4, 5, 7, 17[/COLOR]:
NV 6828 = [COLOR="Red"]65,626[/COLOR]
If supporting LTE Bands are [COLOR="Blue"]2, 3, 4, 7, 17[/COLOR]:
NV 6828 = [COLOR="Red"]65,614[/COLOR]
If supporting LTE Bands are [COLOR="Blue"]2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 17[/COLOR]:
NV 6828 = [COLOR="Red"]65,630[/COLOR]
I don't how how many bands does your phone support. But if the value of NV 6828 in the QXDM NV browser is 65,630, that phone should support the following bands: 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 17.
There is NO discrepancy here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, you are saying the phone supports LTE band 5 out of the box, even though Moto only lists 2,3,4,7,17 on the retail specs?
That after FCC testing they only enabled additional LTE Band 3, but did not disable LTE band 5?
If so, that's interesting.

Only to get you correct: this mod is only to extend the range of usable LTE/GSM bands for roaming, not to extend your connectivity while using your default provider in your home country (e.g. to get better coverage in areas where your default provider has a low signal strenght), right?

orville87 said:
Only to get you correct: this mod is only to extend the range of usable LTE/GSM bands for roaming, not to extend your connectivity while using your default provider in your home country (e.g. to get better coverage in areas where your default provider has a low signal strenght), right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or when changing from one carrier to another in the same country. Many carriers lock down bands the phone could receive, because they want the phone to only be used on their network.

Okay so I'm not really understanding the whole idea behind this. I have a Sony Xperia Z(C6603) and my phone already supports the LTE bands(LTE_BC1, LTE_BC3, LTE_BC5, LTE_BC7, LTE_BC8, LTE_BC20). My problem is that by default my phone and service provider should be able to have LTE working since my service provider also supports LTE band 4 and 7 on their network but upon choosing LTE network modes it has no reception at all, only 3G and HSPA. So I'm assuming I need to do additional unlocking here on my end for my phone but am not really sure why.
I'm able to access through the hidden menu of *#*#4636#*#* and change radio bands and network modes:
But I haven't changed the radio band and tested it yet because I don't know what the outcome will be and if there are any risks or hard bricking of it and don't know how to revert back to default. My service provider's network supports LTE band 4(2100MHz) and band 7(2600MHz). Would I need to go through QXDM to have these 2 frequencies enabled on my phone? Because I noticed how from the radio band list of my phone shows Euro Band which ends up to be 2600MHz but I'm not sure if that's how to enable LTE because it's Euro radio band. Am I okay as it is with my phone's default radio band and just unlock band 4 and 7 somehow through QXDM? Sorry I'm just really clueless and don't want to risk hard bricking my one and only phone.

sweetandsoursauce said:
Okay so I'm not really understanding the whole idea behind this. I have a Sony Xperia Z(C6603) and my phone already supports the LTE bands(LTE_BC1, LTE_BC3, LTE_BC5, LTE_BC7, LTE_BC8, LTE_BC20). My problem is that by default my phone and service provider should be able to have LTE working since my service provider also supports LTE band 4 and 7 on their network but upon choosing LTE network modes it has no reception at all, only 3G and HSPA. So I'm assuming I need to do additional unlocking here on my end for my phone but am not really sure why.
I'm able to access through the hidden menu of *#*#4636#*#* and change radio bands and network modes:
But I haven't changed the radio band and tested it yet because I don't know what the outcome will be and if there are any risks or hard bricking of it and don't know how to revert back to default. My service provider's network supports LTE band 4(2100MHz) and band 7(2600MHz). Would I need to go through QXDM to have these 2 frequencies enabled on my phone? Because I noticed how from the radio band list of my phone shows Euro Band which ends up to be 2600MHz but I'm not sure if that's how to enable LTE because it's Euro radio band. Am I okay as it is with my phone's default radio band and just unlock band 4 and 7 somehow through QXDM? Sorry I'm just really clueless and don't want to risk hard bricking my one and only phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your provider supports LTE bands 4 and 7. Of those two, your phone can receive LTE band 7, but you don't see it. Are you sure LTE band 7 is in your area?
My carrier supports five different LTE bands (and my phone can receive them all), but in my area I only see two of those LTE bands. The others are not used in this area by my carrier (AT&T).

ChazzMatt said:
Your provider supports 4 and 7. Your phone supports 7, but you don't see it. Are you sure 7 is in your area?
My carrier supports 5 LTE bands, but in my area I only see two. The others are not in this area.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah my carrier supports band 4 and 7 in my area, the towers are everywhere.
I checked it using this website: http://www.ertyu.org/steven_nikkel/cancellsites.html
both 2100/2600 are within all the cellular towers in my area.
edit: so if I'm able to choose LTE network mode on my phone, does that mean the LTE network mode consists of all these frequencies of LTE_BC1, LTE_BC3, LTE_BC5, LTE_BC7, LTE_BC8, LTE_BC20? So everytime I change to LTE only or LTE/GSM etc etc, automatically my phone has 2100MHz and 2600MHz included? Which means I don't need QXDM to unlock anything further? It might just be a sim card defect or something maybe. Sorry I'm just trying to understand more

Hi
I am trying to use a US note 3 (n900a) on Europe, but I frequently lose connectivity (although bars are full). The only solution I found is to fix wcdma to 2100 freq, however this also means that I lose reception when there is only GSM coverage.
This app seems to be the ultimate solution for me to calculate a custom NV for GSM+wcdma2100. Am I right?
If so, may I use a NV writer without a box, by just using my usb cable?
Thanks a lot

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

Update v1.0.6:
- Fix UI issue on some devices.
- Remove the word 'Qualcomm' in the app's title to avoid violation of the Content Policy.

mate do you have or create any nv calculator for frequency bands? Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@tatozan
Hi, in this app you can also find frequency bands
Regards.

I need assistance with LTE Radio

Hi, I have a 64gb OPO in USA on Straight Talk, using AT&T network. For some reason I'm not able to get an LTE signal in Burlington, Vermont area despite LTE service being available locally. As soon as I cross into New York, New Jersey, or other states I can and do receive LTE signal, so I know my device and Sim card are capable. Others have told me AT&T uses an unconventional LTE band in this area because they took over another carrier called Unicel. What I need help determining is what band they use locally and subsequently which radio I need to flash to get LTE on that band. Currently my battery drains fast constantly switching from hspa to hspa+, yet doesn't do so in other cities and states. Any help, and links are greatly appreciated.

The OPO hardware LTE bands are: 1, 3, 4, 7, 17, 38 and 40. ATT US uses bands: 2, 4, 5, 17. So, if your ATT LTE signal is on 2 or 5 you won't get LTE in that area on your OPO. The bands are a hardware limitation of the OPO and can't be unlocked, as some people have tried in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56577252&postcount=455.

4g+ problem

my oprator 4g+ work on band b3 & b7 but my phone just show 4g on statu bar but other phone like samsung show 4g+ on same area.my rom is 8.2.2 global stable.
is mi 5s plus suppport 4g+?

Maybe don't support
But I cannot call or receive calls only one SIM card work for call I use two operator
Irancell SIM card on slot 1 have internet and call other slot don't work internet and call then change sim card in slots HAMRAHawal can call in other slot irancell only have 4g internet and cannot call
When say problems with this phone in Miui forum manager banned me and don't help
I very very angry when saying problems and manager miui banned me why ?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The xiaomi is cheating and cheaters the people of word and don't help the rubber is better than xiaomi

Pretty sure only SIM slot 1 supports 4G, slot 2 is 3G. I didn't buy it for the dual SIM stuff so I have only tested the first SIM slot and have had no problems with 4G.
As for 4G+, that is just a branding thing. 4G+ is 4G. there is no difference. The only reason that some phones put 4G+ on their status bar is just that they modified the icons in the ROM.
see - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G
If the phone says 4G, you are gettign 4G. The important quote on that page is:
Confusion has been caused by some mobile carriers who have launched products advertised as 4G but which according to some sources are pre-4G versions, commonly referred to as '3.9G', which do not follow the ITU-R defined principles for 4G standards, but today can be called 4G according to ITU-R. Vodafone NL for example, advertised LTE as '4G', while advertising now LTE Advanced as their '4G+' service which actually is (True) 4G. A common argument for branding 3.9G systems as new-generation is that they use different frequency bands from 3G technologies ; that they are based on a new radio-interface paradigm ; and that the standards are not backwards compatible with 3G, whilst some of the standards are forwards compatible with IMT-2000 compliant versions of the same standards.
4G+ is just true 4G. So if the Mi 5S Plus says 4G, you are getting 4G (or 4G+ as they are identical).
You can verify this with any LTE bandwidth monitor apps (such as signal spy) which will tell you that you are on LTE and which band you are on and you will know then that you are on 4G.

Hi mates. I'm living in Netherlands ...have problem with 4g..
My phone doesn't support band 20 ( 800 mhz )..
Is there an option to access 4g?...
Maybe flashing a custom ROM ?...

thanks
bmg002 thanks for your help.the app like signal spy does not work on my phone because of my phone is not rooted.do you know any app that i see network aggration without root?

offhand, I do not know of any non-root tools for getting any information about what network you are on.
My next best bet would be to get some bandwidth testing tool (speedtest for example) and then check what speeds you are getting out of 4G and compare that with what your provider claims you should be getting. My provider gives me 750 Mbit/s as a peak speed, and 250 Mbit/s average. If your speeds are close to that, then that is all that really matters. If it indicates 4G or 4G+ or 4G LTE or whatever indicator it says in the top, if your speeds are slower than what you are paying for, you will want to look at rooting and opening up some of the 4G channels which will likely give you better speeds.
If you still have your old phone, do a speed comparison in speedtest (or equivalent) and see if it is faster or slower on the new phone. If it is marginally slower (or faster) that can likely be ignored. If they are drastically different, then I'd look at rooting and unlocking other channels.

cultofluna said:
Hi mates. I'm living in Netherlands ...have problem with 4g..
My phone doesn't support band 20 ( 800 mhz )..
Is there an option to access 4g?...
Maybe flashing a custom ROM ?...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you need to access 4G and your operator only supports band 20, then your only option is to use a different phone. From everything I've read on this forum, the hardware has been modified to not support band 20 due to licensing concerns. So a custom ROM or custom Kernel will not affect being able to use band 20. There is no way around it at this time that I am aware of.
Now, if your provider uses a band other than band 20 (or uses 20 and another band), then you can open up the other bands. There are several posts about doing that.

bmg002 said:
Pretty sure only SIM slot 1 supports 4G, slot 2 is 3G. I didn't buy it for the dual SIM stuff so I have only tested the first SIM slot and have had no problems with 4G.
As for 4G+, that is just a branding thing. 4G+ is 4G. there is no difference. The only reason that some phones put 4G+ on their status bar is just that they modified the icons in the ROM.
see - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G
If the phone says 4G, you are gettign 4G. The important quote on that page is:
Confusion has been caused by some mobile carriers who have launched products advertised as 4G but which according to some sources are pre-4G versions, commonly referred to as '3.9G', which do not follow the ITU-R defined principles for 4G standards, but today can be called 4G according to ITU-R. Vodafone NL for example, advertised LTE as '4G', while advertising now LTE Advanced as their '4G+' service which actually is (True) 4G. A common argument for branding 3.9G systems as new-generation is that they use different frequency bands from 3G technologies ; that they are based on a new radio-interface paradigm ; and that the standards are not backwards compatible with 3G, whilst some of the standards are forwards compatible with IMT-2000 compliant versions of the same standards.
4G+ is just true 4G. So if the Mi 5S Plus says 4G, you are getting 4G (or 4G+ as they are identical).
You can verify this with any LTE bandwidth monitor apps (such as signal spy) which will tell you that you are on LTE and which band you are on and you will know then that you are on 4G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything you say is just false.
it is really easy
4G : 150MB/s max
4G+ : (phone connected to two 4G frequencies) 300MB/s max
4G++ : (three 4G frequencies) 600MB/s max
Xiaomi MI 5s is supposed to support up to three 4G frequencies at the same time BUT, in a lot of case, like here, in france, band 3 (1800Mhz) and band 7 (2600Mhz) are the two compatible 4G freq, BUT Mi5S Plus can't connect to 2 freq simultaneously and we don't really know the reason, in china it's not FDD LTE but TDD lte and it works, maybe it just doesn't work on FDD...
This is what we are asking to dev, find a way to enable dual or triple 4G freq in FDD LTE to acces high speed 4G.
I'm sure it's somthing to do with modem or kernel modification :S
Best regards

At the risk of starting a flame war, could you cite your sources on that?
I believe the speeds you quoted are wrong. Telus up here in Canada operates on 4G LTE version 8 which supports up to 750 Mbps max, but to expect average speeds around 200 Mbps (http://www.telus.com/en/sk/mobility/network/). NOTE - 750 Mbps is 93 MB/s approximately. Mind you, independant studies show that average speeds are closer to 20 Mbps for telus ().
Now, correcting my previous post - I was incorrect about our phones supporting 4G+. I misinterpreted the wikipedia article.
Looking at GSM Arena for our phone, it only supports LTE and thus not 4G+ (http://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_5s_plus-8350.php). If you look up the galaxy S8+ for example, it supports LTE-A which would be 4G+.
We can read about LTE-A here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_Advanced
and you can see which speeds different carriers offer here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks
For example, Telus, which I am on, only recently added support for category 11 - 600 Mbps.
The 4G++ that you speak of I believe is LTE-A Pro (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_Advanced_Pro). But they are not referring to it as 4G++ but as 4.5G or 4.5G Pro.
Looking at this article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_devices_with_LTE_Advanced#Xiaomi - it appears that our phones do not support 4G LTE-A. What is a little confusing is that the 5s does support LTE-A.
I could be mistaken, but I am pretty sure it is a hardware restriction to not support LTE-A.
baptisteba said:
Everything you say is just false.
it is really easy
4G : 150MB/s max
4G+ : (phone connected to two 4G frequencies) 300MB/s max
4G++ : (three 4G frequencies) 600MB/s max
Xiaomi MI 5s is supposed to support up to three 4G frequencies at the same time BUT, in a lot of case, like here, in france, band 3 (1800Mhz) and band 7 (2600Mhz) are the two compatible 4G freq, BUT Mi5S Plus can't connect to 2 freq simultaneously and we don't really know the reason, in china it's not FDD LTE but TDD lte and it works, maybe it just doesn't work on FDD...
This is what we are asking to dev, find a way to enable dual or triple 4G freq in FDD LTE to acces high speed 4G.
I'm sure it's somthing to do with modem or kernel modification :S
Best regards
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bmg002 said:
At the risk of starting a flame war, could you cite your sources on that?
I believe the speeds you quoted are wrong. Telus up here in Canada operates on 4G LTE version 8 which supports up to 750 Mbps max, but to expect average speeds around 200 Mbps (http://www.telus.com/en/sk/mobility/network/). NOTE - 750 Mbps is 93 MB/s approximately. Mind you, independant studies show that average speeds are closer to 20 Mbps for telus ().
Now, correcting my previous post - I was incorrect about our phones supporting 4G+. I misinterpreted the wikipedia article.
Looking at GSM Arena for our phone, it only supports LTE and thus not 4G+ (http://www.gsmarena.com/xiaomi_mi_5s_plus-8350.php). If you look up the galaxy S8+ for example, it supports LTE-A which would be 4G+.
We can read about LTE-A here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_Advanced
and you can see which speeds different carriers offer here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks
For example, Telus, which I am on, only recently added support for category 11 - 600 Mbps.
The 4G++ that you speak of I believe is LTE-A Pro (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_Advanced_Pro). But they are not referring to it as 4G++ but as 4.5G or 4.5G Pro.
Looking at this article - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_devices_with_LTE_Advanced#Xiaomi - it appears that our phones do not support 4G LTE-A. What is a little confusing is that the 5s does support LTE-A.
I could be mistaken, but I am pretty sure it is a hardware restriction to not support LTE-A.
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Click to collapse
After some search, Mi5S Plus is only 4G+ intraband and not with interband 4G+

I sold mi5s plus and buy redmi 5 plus better
I don't say mi 5s plus used for 4g or4gplus
I say only my phone don't getting call
Or internet in sim1 by one operator change operator in sim1 to irancell operator only have internet cannot call or get call
The problem is from www.hamta.com must phone registered in this site in Iran for use

Hello dear u should unlock all lte band for using 4g+ in iran i tested this phone in uae and china have 4g+

How can I do it? I just installed Lineage 17 and only appear LTE. I am in Italy and with a brand new P40 Pro Huawei peak download is ~150 mbps but with mi5s plus this is the best can achive.
While Qualcom specs speak of 600mbps for the X12 modem inside the Snapdragon 821
MMyco1 said:
Hello dear u should unlock all lte band for using 4g+ in iran i tested this phone in uae and china have 4g+
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Click to collapse

Thanks to this thread https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-how-to-unlock-bands-and-5g-on-700mhz.4114679/post-84040943 and Network Signal Guru app, I know that available bands for this phone are unlocked.
Why only poor performance on this phone? How to improve them?

baptisteba said:
After some search, Mi5S Plus is only 4G+ intraband and not with interband 4G+
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really don't understand why there has been so few attention in respect of this feature so central for a modern smartphone...