I live in southern africa where its still going to be some time before the G1 is launched.
It would be possible for me to order the US G1 from ebay but I am concerned about the network band because firstly I want to know that the phone will at least work on the regular 2G network (1800 in my country) for the usual phone calls and then of course I want to be able use 3G for Internet access. I don't know the 3G frequency in my country but the service has been available for over a year already.
Is it a software restriction which can be resolved by updating the firmware at a later stage or is there actually different hardware for the model being released in the US and those being released in other countries like the UK?
Thanks!
Take a look here to find the UMTS frequency that your carrier uses (of course, call to double check):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deployed_UMTS_networks
It hasn't exactly been confirmed yet, but the G1 is supposed to support both 1700+2100 (UMTS IV) and 2100 (UMTS I) networks. Since African carriers are all using 2100, you should have no problems getting a 3G signal without having to worry about hardware/software compatability. You should also confirm that your carrier will provide the approrpiate connection settings in case you need to set it up manually.
The G1 also comes with quad-band GSM/EDGE, so you will certainly be able to receive 2G signals.
However, keep in mind that the first batch of G1s will be locked to T-mobile. You will need to make sure that you get a carrier-unlocked device in order to use your carrier's SIM.
fhsieh said:
Take a look here to find the UMTS frequency that your carrier uses (of course, call to double check):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Deployed_UMTS_networks
It hasn't exactly been confirmed yet, but the G1 is supposed to support both 1700+2100 (UMTS IV) and 2100 (UMTS I) networks. Since African carriers are all using 2100, you should have no problems getting a 3G signal without having to worry about hardware/software compatability. You should also confirm that your carrier will provide the approrpiate connection settings in case you need to set it up manually.
The G1 also comes with quad-band GSM/EDGE, so you will certainly be able to receive 2G signals.
However, keep in mind that the first batch of G1s will be locked to T-mobile. You will need to make sure that you get a carrier-unlocked device in order to use your carrier's SIM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, that makes me feel more comfortable with ordering a G1 from the US.
I was just concerned because I read somewhere that the US version does not work in AUS so there obviously are problems in some countries with the bands. The UK version will apparently work in Aus.
Again, I want to emphasize that you need to make sure you have an unlocked version. When you first turn on the phone, you are required to log into gmail (or create a new account) over a 2G/3G network. If you are unable to login (because the phone has not been unlocked to work on your carrier's 2G/3G), you will not be able to use the G1 for anything other than emergency calls. You won't even be able to enable WiFi to handle the login.
http://androidcentral.com/g1-wont-work-without-a-data-plan-period/
If at all possible, I would advise waiting at least until some other folks have tried bringing the G1 to other networks so that you know what exactly you will have to do to get one working on your carrier.
Thanks again, I will definitely ensure that I do not purchase a network locked G1.
Related
hello:
i know that this topic has been addressed, but it's not clear what the answer is:
i have a friend that bought the "b" model xda (900/1900) in the united states, and took it to brasil. he ran XDAunlock, and the sim is unlocked.
with bootloader, he told the phone to operate at 900/1800. the program
"bandswitcher" or something that's included in the xda developer's rom
indicates that the phone is at 900/1800.
but it gets no signal using sim cards in sao paolo, brasil.
many posters have indicated that they do get some connectivity,
not quite what a native 900/1800 would get, but much better than nothing.
other posters have said that it is not possible to get any signal, since there is a hardware difference that can't be compensated for with software.
who is right? is there anyone from brazil that has gotten a 900/1900 phone to work that could tell me how they did it, what city they're in, and what provider they use?
if it's true there is a hardware difference, is there a user-friendly way to swap out some internal part to make the bandwidth change?
any firm answers appreciated; if you are only guessing (like assuming that since wallaby bootloader mentions switching bandwidth, it's therefore possible), then please say so. i'd really like to know for sure what the story is.
thanks guys!
The 900/1900 gsm phone was never intended to work at 1800, some people manage to get signal but there are many factors involved such as proximity to mast, the fact is you are trying to use it off tune, try listening to a radio station 100mhz away from the advertised frequency and see how it sounds, if you were right next to the transmitter you would probably hear it because it would break through on to adjacent bands, but go further away and the discrepancy would become more obvious. If you need to work on 1800 get another phone or sell it and get the correct model.
hi,
let ur friend ask the operator there if they have 900 MHz signal. if yes, then all he has to do is to select this band on both GSM menu at the bootloader and in the phone settings.
good luck
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.
Hi all,
Sorry if this sounds daft, but I have just been given the tech assult by a Telstra Australia guy.
Telstra uses a "Next G" network that used 850MHz and will state that ONLY phones bought through them will be able to fully utilise the network. Is this a firmware thing (IE, can I flash the radio rom) or a hardware thing? If I bought a device from anywhere else would I be able to utilise the speed of the "Next G" network? If not, what features would we be missing?
Cheers
Al
Frequncies is a hardware thing
some phones support that band as it's also used in usa you can check the wiki for the phone in question
if you have a quad band phone with 850 MHz, it should work ontelestra, the only features that might not work on it are features that have been cooked into the rom. Phone and generic features will work as the are standard to all hardware types.
If your phone is 3g capable, yes you will be able to use their updated 3g as the attachment to allow their network to work on your phone will be on a telstra sim card.
All. I have an 8525 unlocked and working on T-mobil in USA. Edge Data is working via T-zones. Is there any hack to get this device to use the new T-mobil 3G net? Please Advise Pogo...
I had to turn off 3G in order to get my MMS to work.
as far as i know tmobile in usa
use different 3g frequencies then the
rest of the world
and not software hack can change
what frequencies htc devices support
nor different radio-stack
it's a hardware thing
Rudegar said:
as far as i know tmobile in usa
use different 3g frequencies then the
rest of the world
and not software hack can change
what frequencies htc devices support
nor different radio-stack
it's a hardware thing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is partially false. T-Mobile USA uses BOTH AWSIII (1700) and 2100 frequencies in the US.
As for the OP, I am in the same position, and am unable to get 3g working. I know for a fact that it exists in my area (I randomly was on it once for about 10 minutes) but I can't get it to truly work. Unsure if it has to do with provisioning (I think it does) or not.
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