Hey, I just got my Hermes w/ cooked WM6 (yay), but i have T-mobile, which for all intents and purposes has no internet (boo). So, I was wondering what the best network to switch over to would be. I know Verizon's fastest service is EV-DO, which the hermes doesnt suppport, while AT&T/Cingular has HSDPA, which the Hermes does. However, I live in teh suburbs outside of New York City, so I'm wondering if I will ever see these anyway. Should I lean toward the HSDPA, or just go with whoever has the better 3G reception and prices?
I use tmobile US gprs/edge internet access all the time...(CA & NV area)
No 3G yet, but tmobile is working on it...
Thing is that i do alot of streaming music, so by my understanding edge would not really be sufficient. really hoping for the 3g+
So no one has any favorites or experiences?
If you want a Hermes, it's ATT then, and you also would have to make sure they support 3G in your area.
T-Mobile DOES have internet though (and internet sharing).
Related
OK, I'm pretty sure I already know the answer, ie. "No", but I know so little about it I thought I'd ask.
is the XDAII compatable with the 3G networks beign rolled out? Here in NZ we're going 3G in the next couple of months, I assume GPRS etc. is all still supported, but I know if I buy a new device I'd like it to work with the highspeed network.
no xda2 is not a 3g phone
3g do you want a fry'd brain with that ?
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3534786
3G in Australia/NZ is the "3" network from Hutchison which is basically UMTS so not compatible with the XDA which is GSM/GPRS
I noticed some people on eBay selling XDAs saying that they are 3G compatible but the smallprint read" on the 2G network" or something similar ie their fallback GSM network.
Cheers
Steve
if we are LUCKEY!
then maybe with software upgrades the xda
could be able to use
Edge also called G2,8
because it's based on G2 (GSM)
in maybe it dont need a new transmitter
EDGE is a new transmitter
UMTS (3G) is a new system even! So, forget the software thing.
I've been reading the Universal forum for days picking out tidbits of advice on what to do with my exec here in the US. I'd like some difinitive answers if anyone has them to these questions. (I use Cingular)
1. I currently live in massachusetts and my quad band razor gets [good] service in my apartement (seems to get data too). My NGage (tmobile branded) doesn't get service inside, but outside I get 3 to 4 bars. My new exec gets 1, maybe 2 bars outside, and mostly nothing inside. Every once in a while Ill pick up the cingular signal and then it fades before I can attempt to make a call. Can anyone explain this? Im not sure its just the 850 band discrepancy since the ngage is only dual band 900 & 1900mhz.
2. WHERE can I get the Cingular MMS and GPRS settings for my phone? I've found a few sites that I've been able to peacemeal together a working gprs connection using wap.cingular as my access point, but MAN is it slow! I get faster transfer speeds on the ngage! I think that Im not using the fastest available (what the phone can support and the network provides that are compatible) settings, so if anyone has any links that are better than the junk I've found, please post them, or a tutorial if you have time. Also I read that IMATE's extended rom has a configuration app that will auto configure GPRS and the correct GSM settings for a multitude of networks, would this solve my problem as in, does it work with Cingular US?
3. No one can agree as to whether the military in the US will give up the 2100 Mhz band, and since Cingular has begun deploying umts here on 1900mhz, whats the final story on the universal and UMTS? I see an equal number of posts and articles that say a software patch can allow the 1900mhz frequency to be used instead of the stock 2100, and I see another set of posts saying its hardware locked, and the universals 3G is and forever will be useless in the US.
4. Any US users please advise as to the most successful radio rom version, the stories about what does and doesn't work are mostly european. As we speak Im upping to the new o2 1.30 rom with radio version 1.09, that seems to be consistently considered the best rom abroad. Ironically the one person who commented from the US was reinstalling tmobile radio 1.11 because 1.09 sucked for him.
Thanks to the Experts for your help.
I hope this helps anyone of the number of readers who were interested in a response to this. I've done a bit of esearch and concluded that:
DO NOT TRY TO USE THIS PHONE WITH CINGULAR, unless you happen to live and/or exist in one of their 1900mhz locations. T Mobile USA is the way to go. while cingilar is phasing out 1900mhz in favor of their lower freqency but stronger 850mhz band, TMobile ispredominantly 1900mhz, except in very rural areas. They promise to continue to expand their 1900mhz network and build their massive wifi hotspot network to incorporate some of their "futuristic" seamless gsm over ip technology that is supposedly dominant in Germany. Don't see the big deal in that. However, I just moved to New Orleans, Louisiana yesterday and was able to test cingular and tmo side by side via 1900mhz coverage during the drive from Massachusetts. tmo was in full coverage most of the trip at 1900mhz. there were few places where I could get steady 1900 via cingular durin the drive, but to be fair, quad band cingular coverage was flawless until alabama, and then good again after the 20 minute stretch of nothing. tmo quad wasn't checked but is safe to say that the coverage is awesome in most metro areas. as long as you don't live on a farm you can safely use tmo and the universal together. I opted to keep my cingular voice (family) plan dueto my contract, but I did get a pretty sweet steal on tmo using a little trickery.
$30 a month for unlimited data + 500 text messages. no voice.
basically I signed up for the unlimited blackberry plan and requested access to internet2.voicestream.com AP for particular business software requirements. tmo was happy to oblige.
I had cingular unlimited data; and even when I had full service the connection was amzingly flaky. I even used my razr as a bt modem for my uni for a while to take advantage of the razrs quad band reception and data apeeds. slow and flaky, frequently failing dns lookups. tmo internet is sllow gprs but 3 to 4 times as responsive as cingular gprs. data lookup takes no more than 2 seconds, an large pages load in under 8 secons, including All pics. xda developers takes approx 4 seconds per pag to render via tmo. using cingular I couldn't make a followup post because lookup and rendering time were in the minutes, when the page loaded at all. Push via mail2web works great, not a single flaw so far. snce I can keep open the data connection and I'm not constantly redialing, my battery life has doubled. mail arrives within seconds of its arrival on the server, and I've never beeen happier with a device. agile messenger works great now too, running in the background all day without any hangups, hickups, or problems. just can't send push to talks because I can't map a ptt button. if anyone has any questions, just pm, post, or email me.
First of all, allow me to apologize for posting this in the "General" area, rather than in the Universal specific area. I am, indeed, a bonehead.
I recently purchased an HTC Universal (my version: O2 XDA Exec--what can I say; I like black), and would like to configure it so that I can access Cingular's MediaNet service here in the U.S. I tried to follow the procedure for other similar phones, but as the Universal doesn't have exactly the same layout of connection options and so forth, I failed miserably.
Has anyone attempted to do this, and if so, how did you get it to work? I've gone as far as setting up the basic GPRS information, but I can't find any way to access a proxy server on the device. Any advice from anyone?
Doug
If you just change the My ISP tab, then you won't have the option to input a proxy server. Try adding a new connection and you should have the option to add a proxy
I was successfully able to set up the my XDA Exec on cingular. You need to create a new isp connection and a new dialup connection, for the dialup choose gprs,3g. Then for the access point put in wap.cingular. Thats it. Unfortunately the cingular network in the US does not support UMTS but in a few areas, and is not on teh same freqency as the UMTS in europe (2100mhz), the few test markets for cingular have it on the 850mhz band. The Universal does not support the 850mhz band at all. You'll find that the cingular gprs connection is extremely flakey. On top of that, unless you're lucky enough to live in a VERY RURAL Area (is that lucky?) Cingulars metro freqency of choice is 850mhz, so you'll get little service and tons of drops. TMobile is predominately 1900mhz, their GPRS is rock solid, (albet still as slow as gprs is) much faster than cingular and way more stable. Good luck.
Sess said:
I was successfully able to set up the my XDA Exec on cingular. You need to create a new isp connection and a new dialup connection, for the dialup choose gprs,3g. Then for the access point put in wap.cingular. Thats it. Unfortunately the cingular network in the US does not support UMTS but in a few areas, and is not on teh same freqency as the UMTS in europe (2100mhz), the few test markets for cingular have it on the 850mhz band. The Universal does not support the 850mhz band at all. You'll find that the cingular gprs connection is extremely flakey. On top of that, unless you're lucky enough to live in a VERY RURAL Area (is that lucky?) Cingulars metro freqency of choice is 850mhz, so you'll get little service and tons of drops. TMobile is predominately 1900mhz, their GPRS is rock solid, (albet still as slow as gprs is) much faster than cingular and way more stable. Good luck.
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I got it connected. Yup, you're right; lots of drops. Since my contract is up in November, I might consider moving to TMobile. How is their nationwide coverage compared to Cingular? Better, worse, or about the same?
Thanks,
Doug
dougom said:
I got it connected. Yup, you're right; lots of drops. Since my contract is up in November, I might consider moving to TMobile. How is their nationwide coverage compared to Cingular? Better, worse, or about the same?
Thanks,
Doug
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I wish I could be of more help on this one, but I've only used the universal in 5 major cities in teh US, New Orleans LA, Boston MA, Albuquerque NM, Amherst MA, and Metairie LA. Great coverage from tmo in all those areas, a little spotty in some larger buildings on teh uni, but on my Excalibur I get great coverage almost everywhere I've been, including my long drive from LA to FLorida (Ft Lauderdale). Almost guarantee that you'll get better results with TMO if you stick with the Uni, though there are now actually phones I would consider much better.
I have the t-mobile wing... and i remember reading that tmo is going to rolling out its 3g network by this summer. can n e one tell me is the wing capable of connecting to this 3g network or with i have to get a new phone?
need a new phone t-mobile's 3g network runs on 1700mhz none of their smartphone as of the moment use that band, i know your pain, my girl has the wing and i have the shadow, neither are going to work on it
I am wondering if 3g networks require the phone to have 2 of the same bands or just one? for example, If I had a phone with 3g frequency of 1900/2100 would it still work with at&t or rogers (850/1900)?
3G would not work. Your phone needs to support whatever frequency is in the area. Lets say you are on AT&T, and AT&T uses 850 & 1900, but in your region they only use 850, then the phone must support 850 in order to properly use 3G signals.
For the most part there is no way to unlock frequencies or change frequencies on phones either.
Jason
So basically your saying that depending your location, it may or may not work?
Emulating a BTS for VoIP
@myrandex,
I wonder if it would be possible to have a USB 3G modem acting as a BTS.
I have 3cx on my ntb and, since I am roaming 95% of my time around Europe, I would like to set-up a USB modem to connect with my HTC Pro (which has the WM6VOIPFull installed) and hook-up to my 3cx via SIP and route my calls via Internet.
I can sort of do it now with WiFI, but battery drain and range really suck!
Right now I'm considering swapping pre-paid 3G SIM cards whenever I go to a new project; usually I stay 3-6 months - not enough to justify signing-up for a post paid (10.00 euros/month!!!!) and sure enough to break my bank account (*400 euros last month alone!*).
So PLEASE, I'm BLEEDING, if you know of any software that would make a USB or another htc (I have an old one around) to act as a BTS and stablish a data connection (with routing) to my hand set, that would ROCK!!!
I've been searching for 3G gateways and routers, but what they do is connect SIP-to-GSM/3G and vice-versa using the 3G network, not much help for me
So, the word is out! Let's see how many telco gurus are on xda (shhhh).
Thanks,
HZ
hzmonteiro said:
@myrandex,
I wonder if it would be possible to have a USB 3G modem acting as a BTS.
I have 3cx on my ntb and, since I am roaming 95% of my time around Europe, I would like to set-up a USB modem to connect with my HTC Pro (which has the WM6VOIPFull installed) and hook-up to my 3cx via SIP and route my calls via Internet.
I can sort of do it now with WiFI, but battery drain and range really suck!
Right now I'm considering swapping pre-paid 3G SIM cards whenever I go to a new project; usually I stay 3-6 months - not enough to justify signing-up for a post paid (10.00 euros/month!!!!) and sure enough to break my bank account (*400 euros last month alone!*).
So PLEASE, I'm BLEEDING, if you know of any software that would make a USB or another htc (I have an old one around) to act as a BTS and stablish a data connection (with routing) to my hand set, that would ROCK!!!
I've been searching for 3G gateways and routers, but what they do is connect SIP-to-GSM/3G and vice-versa using the 3G network, not much help for me
So, the word is out! Let's see how many telco gurus are on xda (shhhh).
Thanks,
HZ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think it's possible to do what you're mentioning right now, but perhaps someone could create a hack if they really worked at it. To be honest that may not be worth the effort, the labor spent on creating such a system would probably outweigh the costs of getting the device with the correct bands
And, to answer the OP's questions, there are definitely plenty of users with devices that only support one of the 3G bands their carrier uses.
For example, a lot of people import the Telstra HD2 for use on AT&T's 850 band, even though it doesn't have 1900 support.
There are some cities where AT&T doesn't have 850 support, but a lot of recent 3G expansion/upgrades have resulted in additional 850 band usage, especially in markets like NYC.
You should check to see if AT&T uses 1900 in your general area, and any other place you intend on using the phone. Worst comes to worst, you'll still have EDGE...Some areas support both 850/1900 and devices toggle between them depending on which is less congested, etc. 850 tends to have better in-building reception, so if your device only supports 1900, and the network is spaced out for 850, you might not have as good 3G coverage in some areas, even if 1900 is technically supported.
All that in mind, if you're going to go with a "half-band" 3G solution, 850-only is probably better, as it correlates with AT&T's most recent 3G expansion/upgrades, and yields better indoor coverage when available.
Just a combination of my two cents and observations above. As always, YMMV.
@gsvnet
Nice reply to mkeras2, complements the one from myrandex very well.
Now to the BTS subject,
Actually, the idea of using a usb dongle doesn't seem so bad, these things have two way radio as any cell phone, it's just a matter of setting one as the end-point (broadcasting/polling) and the other (hand set) as client. I wouldn't mind having a tweak in the registry to set the radio to "allways connected" to a fixed "FakeNetID" and bypass PAP/CHAP authentication with the BCS (after all there would be no access to the GSM network, just to my PC/Internet/SIP Server) and I would only need data traffic, no messing around with CoDecs and the "hooking" of voice channels. A simple app could easily set/reset the registry, but I wonder if the radios would complete handshake and establish a connection.
I'm not sure about range with these radios without any high gain antennas and amplifiers, but I just need a few hundred meeters of access, pretty much as a good WiFi Router. And it would probably be perfectly legal as well (the devices are anyway).
After that it would be just routing.
BTW, I would love to get my hands on one of those new microcells. That's exactly what these things do, but with multiplexing and all the heavy security to authenticate and register to the GSM network.
They are being tested in the UK (I believe the first in Europe so far).
I live in Holland, but am currently in Luxembourg and have been recently working for 3+ months in Switzerland, LUX, NL and hoping around in Germany, Belgium, UK and Spain (vacations!!! ahhhh)...
So I'm curious to know what kind of plan Telcos will make available with the microcell.
If I am able to take it with me and plug it in whatever IP access point I have around, this would solve my roaming problem.
I don't mind paying to have access, don't get me wrong, but my NL plan gives me unlimited data access (national) for e10.00/month and I just went looking for a plan that WAS available from Vodafone UK (I use Vodafone NL), which allowed 5GB of data roaming in the EU for circa 50pounds/month, but it seems they no longer offer this plan.
During the last 2 months I was charged 300 and now almost 400 euros for roaming. As I said, I have a 60.00euro plan + 10.00 for unlimited national data.
I also know that in other EU countries you can get unlimited data plans for fair money as well, the problem is that I never know for how long I will stay in any given assignment/country. By the end of the year I would have some 5 or 6 annual subscriptions (still cheaper than roaming!) but I must have proof of residence in all those countries, bank account, etc, etc, etc... I don't LIVE in these places, I just work there for rather longer periods... and BTW, I'm a micro entrepreneur, so no way to push this onto "The Boss"... Thats me!
So I believe the charges imposed by Telcos for roaming are just not fair... Outrageous, actually.
I don't even mind paying for the Telco's CapEx (buying the microcell and using MY Internet connection), but at least I would have a sense of control and partnership/sponsorship.
And my mother told me to be a doctor... Decided to go into IT... Yeah!
Any info on these microcells and any ideas and buzz on Telcos' plans are very appreciated.
Cheers,
HZ