Database Users

3G O2 Exec while visiting USA- which/how network to choose?!

Chaps,
My other half uses her O2 xda Exec with a work supplied 3G vodafone SIM. It works fine in the UK and she did a good job getting it set up with the right 3G UK vodafone settings etc- well done her!
Question is...
She's now working in the USA for a few days. The xda has found a network and can use it - great stuff but no 3G....
How can she determine what network its using over there - is this selectable somewhere (I couldn't find the option)?
Based on the network what would the settings be to allow her to use 3G!? Anyone help?
Thanks

USA doesn't have 3G. It's also why the universal isnt popular in USA. I feel sorry for em. :lol:

RyanZA said:
USA doesn't have 3G. It's also why the universal isnt popular in USA. I feel sorry for em. :lol:
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Oh bugger! You mean we're ahead of America on something!?
I can't believe silicon valley doesn't have 3G, I guess they have wireless hotspot all over....

T-Mobile US have mumbled something about enabling UMTS "in 2006" but I rather want to see it than hear about it.
The rest of the US carriers use fancy 1xRTT data protocols over CDMA networks - not compatible with GSM. People in the US still wonder what the "G" stands for ;-)

Blame it on our military. Those bands are owned by the US Gov. Just recently I have heard news of businesses getting access to those bands. And there was much rejoicing...

who ever said the us doesn't have 3G?
i live in houston and when i got the universal i did some reaserch:
i found that verison wireless has 3G on their devices, but they dont use sim cards, so they wont help...
but i now have cingular wireless, and it works great, but it is a bit pricy...
i believe about $45 per month...
so if you were just going to visit the us, then i would sugest to you that you go with t-mobile using the GPRS,
yes i know it is slow, but if you are only going to be using it for a little bit i think it would be fine. I believe the GPRS is $19.99.
so it really depends if you really think you need the 3G service...
if you dont think so then get GPRS, the exec can use it, and its not all that bad

It is true that the US does not have 3G but your Tri-Band GSM device will work perfectly fine. With the proper settings you can even surfe the WEB at 32k just no high speed for things like video calls.
I use my Exec quite often in various places in the US without any problems.

Tmobile MDA versus Sidekick2/Sidekick3 versus Cingular 8125

Brand new to forum, so I apologize in advance....
I have Tmo for last 4 years, and a Sidekick device for 2 years (SK1, then upgraded to SK2). Now the SK3 is available, but it won't allow me to connect my laptop to GPRS/G3/EDGE, etc...
So now I am considering switching devices to either a Tmobile MDA or Cingular 8125 Pocket PC in order to connect my laptop to these wireless networks via a CF Bluetooth Wireless Card http://www.socketcom.com/product/BL4539-642.asp.
Cingular has a decent plan at $70/month unlimited, and Tmobile is around $100/month. I just wonder which device performs better for this function, the Cingular 8125 Pocket PC or the Tmobile MDA. I'm told that the Sidekick3 is bluetooth compatible, but the data plan is different than for the other devices because the SK3 uses the manufacturer server connections rather than Tmobile's own network. (This would explain why the SK2/SK3 data plan is unlimited versus the PC notebook datacard plans that Tmobile offers at a higher cost.) I really like the Cingular $70 unlimited plan, and the 8125 Pocket PC, but I am partial to the Sidekick device since it's familiar. In addition, I have Bluetooth stereo headphones (by IoGear) that utilize A2DP, but the reviews of the Cingular 8125 Pocket PC all indicate that it doesn't connect with A2DP. Is there a fix for this?
So back to my original question: Who suggests which device over the other for connecting a laptop to the wireless networks (such as EDGE/G3/GPRS, but not WiFi), and what kind of connection speed would I expect to obtain?
Any feedback and advice appreciated.

First of all the Cingular 8125 and T-Mobile MDA are almost the same device sans the casing.
As far as I have known T-Mobile is trailing Cingular when it comes to the Data Server. While Cingular is getting ready for full 3G connectivity, T-Mobile just launched their EDGE server a couple of months ago.
There is actually a huge difference using a device like a Sidekick and a Pocket PC ... while the Sidekick is fun and really popular here in the US, the Pocket PC is slowly starting to be recognized here ... The Pocket PC is a more versatile device compared to a SideKick aka Danger Hiptop or Blackberry ... While all of them are similar functionality, each device is geared toward a different market. BlackBerry is obviously for the business / corporate crowd while the SideKick is for the student / young mobile users. The pocket pc is on both extremities ... it can be for fun and a serious workhorse ...
I would honestly hold off from getting the 8125 or the MDA (or the rest of the world knows is as the MDA Vario) since there is an upgraded model of these devices called HTC Hermes / TyTn / Qtek 9600 / XDA Trion which offers full 3G capability not like the 8125 and the (US) MDA which only uses EDGE.
From experience, either just bring your mobile device (i.e. pocket pc) and use to surf the net ...(that's how i use my XDA Exec / HTC Universal) or just get a separate data card for your laptop ... then if you want to have internet connectivity on your laptop just move your SIM card to your data card and you won't any bluetooth issues!
with bluetooth headset issues, the original ROM which was shipping with obth MDA and 8125 weren't ready for that but there are updates for these ROMs which make them compatible ...
enjoy!

difensore said:
I would honestly hold off from getting the 8125 or the MDA (or the rest of the world knows is as the MDA Vario) since there is an upgraded model of these devices called HTC Hermes / TyTn / Qtek 9600 / XDA Trion which offers full 3G capability not like the 8125 and the (US) MDA which only uses EDGE.
enjoy!
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Great information!!! I am going to get the 8125 and unlock it to use with my T-Mobile service in a couple of weeks... Do you think I should also hold out for the HTC Hermes??? When is it comming out??? I wont be using EDGE at all, I will be using Wifi. So do you think it would be worth it for me to wait???
Rjp20

is both those odd very locked sidekicks and blackbarry
mainly a american thing ?
never seen much of them other places
apart from ppl wanting pda's to do push stuff like bbarry can

Hey RJP20,
well, it depends if you are just waiting for Cingular / T-Mobile to release them in the US ..... if you are then you'll wait a LOOOOOOOOONG time ... while if your willing to buy the device without a plan the upgraded version will be available in the next month or so ...
if you are just using the WiFi capability, well it would depend on you, but the upgrade isn't just on 3G but also the processor speed as well. Look into getting a HTC Universal if you want it for surfing the 'net through WiFi ... it has the largest screen ...
i don't really see the point of getting a Cingular 8125 / T-Mobile MDA (Vario) and not using the EDGE/3G capability and just using the WiFi component ... i would rather get the Sony VAIO UX series palm sized PC... well that's my 2 cents worth ...
Hey Rudegar,
Yup you are totally correct. The US market is quite odd when it comes to mobile devices. Actually Sidekicks are just for T-Mobile in the US while Blackberries are locked to a phone carrier which is very odd since the hardware is all the same. Essentially you can unlock all of these phones and uses on either network but a vast majority of users here do not know what is the technology behind the wireless devices.
It's a little more complex here in the US since the rest of the world basically uses GSM/GPRS/EDGE technology, here in the US, 50% of the users are using CDMA devices which is basically a standard which should've been laid to rest because you are limited to whatever devices the carrier sells or if you could find an "unlocked" CDMA phone ...
There is an aggressive marketing plan here in the US to keep the competition between GSM and CDMA at a very high level.... proof? ... well the largest CDMA based carried is Verizon and who owns Verizon? it's one of the biggest GSM carriers in the world - Vodafone ... The only way Vodafone would be able to get into the US Market was to use CDMA technology and not GSM according to the government.

Just out of curiosity, why do think there will be such a long wait for Cingular/T-Mobile to release Hermes in the U.S. associated with plans?

difensore said:
Hey RJP20,
There is an aggressive marketing plan here in the US to keep the competition between GSM and CDMA at a very high level.... proof? ... well the largest CDMA based carried is Verizon and who owns Verizon? it's one of the biggest GSM carriers in the world - Vodafone ... The only way Vodafone would be able to get into the US Market was to use CDMA technology and not GSM according to the government.
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not to come on strong but if you really knew where verizon came from you wouldnt be saying that. verizon is one part of the former AT&T or as it is referred to as MA BELL. if that isnt enough infrmation then i suggest google. cingular was also born out of this.

difensore said:
Hey RJP20,
There is an aggressive marketing plan here in the US to keep the competition between GSM and CDMA at a very high level.... proof? ... well the largest CDMA based carried is Verizon and who owns Verizon? it's one of the biggest GSM carriers in the world - Vodafone ... The only way Vodafone would be able to get into the US Market was to use CDMA technology and not GSM according to the government.
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not to come on strong but if you really knew where verizon came from you wouldnt be saying that. verizon is one part of the former AT&T or as it is referred to as MA BELL. if that isnt enough infrmation then i suggest google. cingular was also born out of this.

To all USA users!

whats up all
I dont want to sound like an MDA flamer/hater, but i just wanted to suggest you guys something...
I had an MDA for more than a month, using it on cingular's network. Seeing all this ev-do, 3G expansion going around here in the states, i was just LUSTING at all this great speeds people were getting with ev-do.
So i thought: Man, im a gadget junkie, and i have a top cell phone using OLD 2G SERVICE?
Are you using a LOT of data? If your answer is yes, man, you dont know what you are missing here.
It's been a week i've got a new PPC-6700 from sprint! Its basically an MDA on steroids. And of course it's got 3G! If you use wifi on your MDA you know what to expect. except that with 3G THE WHOLE CITY IS THE HOTSPOT 8) !
let me tell you once you TOUCH this device you will never want to go back.
Yes i know cingular is rolling out 3G but it is doing so very slowly (only 16 markets compared to sprint's 150+) and by the time cingular finishes its rollout sprint will have 3.5G(ev-do rev A) started on most markets!
I got my 6700 for... ZERO DOLLARS AND NO CENTS, all instant rebates, no mail in whatsoever :shock:
Theres one guy on ebay very reputable called "sprintnetwork" that overnights you one if you have good to excellent credit and signs a contract for a new line of service to sprint. All i had to do was call and get approved and the next day i had the phone.
I don't know but this was such an awesome deal... If any of you guys want to surf a broadband speeds, reliably watch orb, use logmein, even skype, all without wifi.... I don't think there is one better way than to do this now. All that without even spending more than $200.
So bye, im a stranger here now, now im a member of the HTC apache forum! hehe :twisted:
Ps.: i said $200 because i had to pay $175 early termination :?

6700 with Sprint PCS..is it true 3G?
Looks like this 6700 is 3G. But if its running on Sprint..its not GSM
and Sprint PCS is very very OLD technology now.
I cannot use it in EU/Asia so stick with the MDA
Thanks
E

ditto what the pp said... being US only is too restrictive for my needs... I'm now looking for a quad band + 3G (not a tri-band + 3G = quad band) phone from Asia. I hear I can then use it in Japan also...

ikkoku said:
ditto what the pp said... being US only is too restrictive for my needs... I'm now looking for a quad band + 3G (not a tri-band + 3G = quad band) phone from Asia. I hear I can then use it in Japan also...
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To my best knowledge, the biggest Japanese wireless providers uses a proprietary service... not sure though

yeah....
well, i got t-mobile so i have EDGE witch is a G3 service. Plus, i get to keep my MDA vario so i dotn have that REDICULOUS looking antenna on my phone. Im happy with my mda, so ha

yeah....
well, i got t-mobile so i have EDGE witch is a G3 service. Plus, i get to keep my MDA vario so i dotn have that REDICULOUS looking antenna on my phone. Im happy with my mda, so ha

Lucky me!! 2 for 1!!!!!

Well, after the dispair at losing my spv m600, my insurance company well and truly sorted me out! they couldn't get an m600 or similar, so the sent me a tytn! but what's more, while i was in the middle of setting it up, there was a knock at the door, and would you believe it, another one was handed over!! couldn't believe my luck!!!
anyway, enough of the showing off! I have a bit of a query. i live in a g3 area, but it doesn't seem to pick up the signal. is there something i need to set up, or should it just change according to the signal? i sometimes get the "U" icon appear, but no g3? this is the case on both devices. as a point, i was on the phone to orange and got all the gprs/g3 settings, so that's all sorted.
any suggestions?

I think some devices display 3G and some U (for UMTS) dependent upon the ROM. I'm using a Vario II with an HTC ROM and mine displays U when in areas of 3G coverage.
It means exactly the same thing, so I wouldn't worry either way.

daves correct, its down to the icon used in the firmware, I had Vodafones firmware initially which showed 3G, I now have HTC's which shows U.

cool! thanks alot for that guys!
i guess it being intermittent is down to the fact i live in the sticks and teetering on the edge of the catchment are!

ok guys. i'm in central london now which is g3 covered, but I get nothing. orange weren't keen on helping me out, this not being an orange device. can anyone help me out with the settings? thanks in advance!

Do you actually have a 3g-enabled SIM card, a so-called USIM?
Most networks require such new SIM cards, since other authentication and encryption methods are used on UMTS networks.
Even if you have a USIM, make sure it's an actual one, because the first generation of USIMs is buggy.
By the way 3G stands for "third generation", which includes several radio standards (FOMA, UMTS, CDMA2000, CDMA2001, TD-CDMA / TD-SCDMA, UWC-136), that are incompatible among each other.
What we have in Europe is UMTS. Together with Japanese FOMA UMTS belongs to the WCDMA-family, but Japanese FOMA is about to be migrated to UMTS, too.
Regarding the erroneously sent second TyTN consider to return it - at least here in Germany upholding such an error by silence is still a criminal fraud.

lucky bastard! haha, same thing happened to me when I sent my xbox 360 out for replacement, I got 2 back!
anyways in the upgrading forum theres a cab that changes the U to 3G if u like it that way.

Regarding the erroneously sent second TyTN consider to return it - at least here in Germany upholding such an error by silence is still a criminal fraud.[/QUOTE said:
i'm gonna keep it for 30 days. in the uk, if a delivery is made by mistake, after that time, it becomes mine.
anyway, regarding the the g3 connection, i didn't get anything in london. have i made a mistake with my settings?
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fone_fanatic said:
lucky bastard! haha, same thing happened to me when I sent my xbox 360 out for replacement, I got 2 back!
anyways in the upgrading forum theres a cab that changes the U to 3G if u like it that way.
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thanks for that!
but actually, i want the connection speed, not the icon! but i never got the g3 speed in london, so i figure i got something wrong in my settings!
well done on the xbox! wanna swap it for a brand new tytn? lol?

T-Mobile to have 3G by Summer

Well, according to Boy Genius Report T-mobile will be rolling out their 3G network by summer 2008 which is long overdue. What I'm curious about is how this will affect current users and rates. Will I have to buy a new phone or will my wing be able to use the new 3G network? Will the data rates go up or change from unlimited? Anybody heard any information on this?

Their 3G system is still GSM compatible, so having a wing is still ok. But that means they will have to release their 3G phone (a.k.a. Kaiser from what my sources tell me.)
As far as rates go: I dunno.
I'll just be glad when they stop messing around with the towers and service here.

will this affect the sucky EDGE??...
will they finish before AT&T?!
will it mean more stability in the connections??
will living near an airport mean you'll still get knocked off when a plane flies overhead??
who knows!.. but we will definitely find out sooner or later, right?

ivanmmj said:
Their 3G system is still GSM compatible, so having a wing is still ok. But that means they will have to release their 3G phone (a.k.a. Kaiser from what my sources tell me.)
As far as rates go: I dunno.
I'll just be glad when they stop messing around with the towers and service here.
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Awesome! Hopefully I'll be able to stream some decent videos and data on my wing once 3G comes around! Edge sucks when it comes to that. Appriciate the info!

But I thought the Wing is not 3G capable.

it would only make sense that the 2g network and equipment will still work until everyone has slowly migrated over to the new 3g network and the first phones would work on both networks.

ivanmmj said:
.... But that means they will have to release their 3G phone (a.k.a. Kaiser from what my sources tell me.)....
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I wanted the Tilt so damn bad I was almost willing to switch providers, but when I found out I could get a Wing for 79 bucks I stuck with T-Mo, thinking I'd wait ANOTHER year for them to roll out 3g. I would just have to buy a Kaiser if they came out with one that wasn't hobbled. (Can't someone put a 624mhz processor, and a decent amount of RAM in one of these? Is that too much to ask?)
Ya' know, maybe I should rethink that. I used a Psion 5 for years before switching to an iPAQ 2215, then a 2755-- all the while thinking: "Man, if I could get a keyboard, phone and Pocket PC rolled into one, that would be the best!"
I've had a Wing for a couple of months and I don't honestly recall one time that I've used the keyboard. Of course, it's keyboard is a piece of junk compared to the Psion 5's, but using the iPAQ's for so long conditioned me into a stylus typist.
I really have high hopes for Firefox portable on 3g though. This summer?--- well, I guess we've all heard that before!

I have heard different things, i surfed the net and these forums and i still get different things. all i wanna know is, is the wing compatible with the new 3G network coming out this summer?

No.
it will connect to the available compatible frequency. The expected 3/3.5G network will operate at a different frequency that the wing's radio doesn't connect to.
unless the newer radio roms somehow added that connection to that frequency... then no.

mv3 said:
No.
it will connect to the available compatible frequency. The expected 3/3.5G network will operate at a different frequency that the wing's radio doesn't connect to.
unless the newer radio roms somehow added that connection to that frequency... then no.
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haha.. F*** it then.. Bye Bye Wing.. and Hello Kaiser.. Well i hope Tmobile gets the TyTn 2.. ill be set with that..

cangri87 said:
haha.. F*** it then.. Bye Bye Wing.. and Hello Kaiser.. Well i hope Tmobile gets the TyTn 2.. ill be set with that..
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By the time T-mobile has their 3/3.5G..3.5+??.. network up and running smoothly.. HTC might well have a better and much sexier phone than the TyTn II....and from what I could tell the MDA Vario III is higher model of it than the original :O..unlike the Tilt which is a lower model but has this 1 advantage over it's big brother.. hope T-Mobile doesnt water down the Vario III before it gets over here, or should I say if?...and a maybe $300-$500 price tag for Vario III(via upgrade or contract and if they wait long enough it might be running a stock full, stable WinMobile 6.1 rather than buggy leaked one)versus $800+ for Kaiser? not to mention the still unsolved video drivers travesty with it :'(... new Touch Cruise and the P6500(Sedna) are pretty freaking sweet even compared to HTC's flagship TyTn II.
I actually love my phone enough that I might wait till next year for a phone with stock WinMobile 7 and all the freaky powers, motion sensor technology, and processors that phones running it are going to need. Those r going to make my Wing look like Razr! :'( I'll miss you Wing...btw, the TyTn II/Kaiser won't be able to run a lot of the previewed Windows Mobile 7 features either.

T-Mobiles 3G is slated to be substantially faster than AT&T's.
No one knows for sure if current 3G phones will work, but I have a Hermes and I'm being locked out of my internet in South Florida due to 3G testing, so i'm assuming it will work when it's released since I'm hitting a firewall right now.
A t-mobile rep on that board said they are going to have new pricing, so it's most likely going to be more expensive.

Questions...
I wonder if the prices for the unlimited data plans will change for people who are already in contracts. I'm paying an extra $19.99/month for the Total Internet add-on right now. Guess I'll just have to wait and see...

The Wing has 3G just not the one that we think is compatible to the new network right?

vr24 said:
No one knows for sure if current 3G phones will work
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Ummm, isnt Tmo's 3G supposed to be on the 1700 MHz band? That means the tilt etc wont work........

I'm hearing mixed things from everyone. I hope the wing will work but no one knows for sure.

Wing To Shift
im gonna change to the shift soon and hopefully i dont have problems with service

A T-Mobile wing is not a 3G phone so drop it and get a 3G phone