I bought an Xperia X1i and get good Edge coverage in south florida. I believe there are still some 1900Mhz 3G bands around though as I randomly switch from E to G and then back to E again.. the G shows lower signal for a few seconds and then goes to E.
Is there any way to force the phone to try and use 1900Mhz 3G band? Most of the area is 850Mhz and obviously the X1i doesn't support that for 3G.
Thanks!
razorz said:
I bought an Xperia X1i and get good Edge coverage in south florida. I believe there are still some 1900Mhz 3G bands around though as I randomly switch from E to G and then back to E again.. the G shows lower signal for a few seconds and then goes to E.
Is there any way to force the phone to try and use 1900Mhz 3G band? Most of the area is 850Mhz and obviously the X1i doesn't support that for 3G.
Thanks!
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Click to collapse
No sense forcing that band if it's not even available in the area. Here in Miami I get no 1900mhz 3G on my X1i, but I get really nice 850mhz 3G on my N95-4.
Any reason why I randomly see the G icon on the top instead of E?
razorz said:
Any reason why I randomly see the G icon on the top instead of E?
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That means GPRS instead of EDGE. I guess you're going into an area that doesn't even have EDGE access... it won't matter if you have a X1a or X1i, the GSM frequencies are the same, so the GPRS and EDGE behaviors will be the same also. Although if you have a 3G signal with the X1a, then you wouldn't really care much if you're getting only GPRS on the GSM connection
razorz said:
Is there any way to force the phone to try and use 1900Mhz 3G band? Most of the area is 850Mhz and obviously the X1i doesn't support that for 3G.
Thanks!
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Click to collapse
I'm wondering the same as I am in the Toronto area and have access to only 850mhz EDGE. It would be great if it were possible to force the X1i to use 1900mhz UMTS so that we could possibly get on the 3G network. 850 seems to be prevalent in my area so the X1i always hops on that band.
On a side note, does anyone know if it would be possible to extract the radio rom from an X1a and flash it to an X1i? I know that HardSPL just had a breakthrough, and the only way I can think this would be impossible was if the hardware is different. (I know the CPU is 7200A vs 7201A, but not sure if the radio bands are designated in hardware or software).
I would be willing to donate if a solution was found to get the X1i working on UMTS 850, or even forcing it to 1900. I can only access EDGE at the moment, and I only get 30kbps on average which is quite ****e.
Anyways, hopefully we can make some progress with this, because I'm sure there are a lot of X1i users in North America who wanted the VGA recording capabilities, but also want 3G on UMTS 850. The VGA video encoding is near-impossible to hack back into the X1a, but I think we could go the other way around and get the X1a radio stack working on the X1i.
Otherwise, I could just be in dreamland...
Not to say its impossible. But from my experience with mobile baseband chips, the hardware is not there to support the 850MHz 3G band in the X1i. Hopefully someone can prove me wrong, but I don't think anyone will.
Thank you for this thread cuz I was about to make the same mistake as I did with the touch pro, ie. buying an Xperia. Ebay has some that says they support 850MHz but from what you folks are saying this isn't true. Is that correct? I guess I'll just a bit on this purchase.
An X1a will have 850, but at present only a few press versions are about.
I would wait until it is offically released in the US
Related
Over at http://www.xperiax1.net/forum, there is a report that, even though the phone setting on the Xperia shows support for 850 Band, the hardware appears to be missing from the Xperia that was shipped from Clove.
I cancelled my pre-order from Clove until this gets sorted out.
Here is the post:
"Guys,
OK after checking and checking again and despite being told that the X1 supports 850 and 1900 3G the device turned up today and guess what? It does not so I can't get Rogers 3G out here in Canada!!!!!!!
Going to the phone settings shows that the device can be switched into the correct mode but doing this seems to have no effect.
I can only guess that the device has the software to support the band but the hardware does not.
So be careful folks, while you will get great Edge coverage you will not be able to get 3G!!!!!!
You have been warned!!"
I think it's pretty well established that the X1i has UTMS bands 900/1900/2100. Europe uses 900 and 2100, and most reports say the 1900 band is working on ATT's 3G. Of course this requires you to live in an area with 1900 3G coverage, not just 850 mhz 3G. Sounds like he lives in an area where Rogers only has 850 mhz 3G available.
I looked at the 1900 and 850 3G Band coverage in the US on ATT. 1900 Band actually covers more area than the 850 Band. Is there any disadvantage to only having 1900 Band in the US on the Xperia?
GermanGuy said:
I looked at the 1900 and 850 3G Band coverage in the US on ATT. 1900 Band actually covers more area than the 850 Band. Is there any disadvantage to only having 1900 Band in the US on the Xperia?
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850mhz is good for getting a signal indoors, since lower frequencies can travel through obstacles better. So no 850mhz support means you might get a weak 3G signal indoors, or no 3G signal at all.
Then again, you might just be living near a 1900mhz cellsite/tower that gives you a strong signal indoors, so YMMV.
Thank you. So do phones with both 850 and 1900 Band support use both Bands at the same time? Or, if not, how does the phone decide which band to use. Is the 3G speed the same on either Band, provided you get a good signal?
One issue that sways me more towards the X1i is the better video frame rate - 30 fps vs 24 fps on the X1a (because of the stupid Qualcomm patent issue here in the US)
GermanGuy said:
Thank you. So do phones with both 850 and 1900 Band support use both Bands at the same time? Or, if not, how does the phone decide which band to use. Is the 3G speed the same on either Band, provided you get a good signal?
One issue that sways me more towards the X1i is the better video frame rate - 30 fps vs 24 fps on the X1a (because of the stupid Qualcomm patent issue here in the US)
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Phones with both 850 and 1900 only use one at a time, but they can switch transparently from one to the other in areas with coverage from only one band. Exactly how it chooses which band I'm not sure (it could be network load, signal strength, etc).
Technically speaking, 1900 can offer more speed because the faster frequency allows for higher data rates. But since it's all just one 3G network, there should be no significant difference in 3G speed between 850 and 1900.
The Qualcomm patent is a tough reality for people that want the X1 for the US, and unfortunately there's just no way around it. If you happen to travel internationally frequently, the X1i will obviously be the prudent choice (you still get AT&T 1900 coverage, but also 2100/900 for virtually every other UMTS network in the world).
I found a new article with someone claiming to be receiving ATT 3g in an 850 only area. He states that none of the 1900 only devices he's tested receives a signal. He also said that SE reps he contacted claimed X1i support for 850 3g bands as well (yeah, I know not that credible).
http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=6165
Not getting my hopes up, but can anyone with an X1i confirm any of this?
jhoffa said:
I found a new article with someone claiming to be receiving ATT 3g in an 850 only area. He states that none of the 1900 only devices he's tested receives a signal. He also said that SE reps he contacted claimed X1i support for 850 3g bands as well (yeah, I know not that credible).
http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=6165
Not getting my hopes up, but can anyone with an X1i confirm any of this?
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Click to collapse
Read on: http://discuss.pocketnow.com/showthread.php?p=78559
He's trying to verify if it's actually 850Mhz now. Still not 100% sure.
Hi Everyone,
I got my X1i on Tuesday. It's obviously a UK import, but so was my TyTN II and it worked great. When I got everything set up, I couldn't get more than 200kbps on dslreports. I put the sim card back in my TyTN II and retested, and got 1.2Mbps.
If I turn off HSDPA/HSUPA the data rate drops to 30kbps. I've played with every combination of data and voice bands and can't get the same performance as the TyTN. I do notice that my X1 never shows the H icon in the status bar like my other phone to indicate high speed (HSDPA).
The bands are exactly the same with a minor addition.
GSM: 900+1800 UMTS: 2100 + 800
GSM: 1900 + 850 UMTS: 1900 + 850
UMTS: 2100 + 800
AT&T seems to run on the middle one.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what could be holding my back? Same SIM, same data plan, etc.
Thanks very much in advance!!!
Hi,
Where do you live? Could be you only have UMTS 850 coverage... But, could also be something else..
dbond45 said:
Hi,
Where do you live? Could be you only have UMTS 850 coverage... But, could also be something else..
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I live near Reno, NV. The wierd thing is I literally power down, move the sim to my TyTN II and bingo! I get incredible speeds. Short of getting into the registry I have gone through and confirmed all the GPRS and HSDPA settings are exactly the same.
I think what dbond45 was saying is that you might be in an area that uses 850 band which isn't actually on the x1i. The tytn II on the other hand has the 850 band from what i understand so that might be why ur getting great speeds with ur tytn II.
Bxsteez said:
I think what dbond45 was saying is that you might be in an area that uses 850 band which isn't actually on the x1i. The tytn II on the other hand has the 850 band from what i understand so that might be why ur getting great speeds with ur tytn II.
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Click to collapse
Ah, so you're thinking that even though it says it supports 1900+850 in the control panel, the 850 band may be disabled in the radio? I'm pretty technical, but would have no idea how to test that. Any ideas?
By the way, thanks for talking this through with me. I hope it's benefitting others too.
Yes from what i've read all over the place that the 850 radio is disabled. I know that even though the software says u can enable those bands it doesn't actually mean u can. I have the touch pro and it has all of the different bands in the settings and we all know no one can get 3G in the US. So it looks like that is what ur running into. I've read on howard forums at some point a way to test to see if u are working on the 850 band but i don't remember how they did it.
Bxsteez,
The program is fieldtest.exe, and you can find it under windows in your file explorer on the X1, once in WIndows, scroll down to fieldtest.exe and run, although I'm not sure what all the values me..
There is a dispute as to whether the X1i has UMTS 850 (see pocketnow.com post, but, IMHO, I don't think it does, although I wished it did)
Lemme do some research and see if I can find what band Reno is running on. It's very likely it's 850 3G since a) it's a newer market, and b) it's a rural area compared to large cities which use 1900 mhz UMTS...
From what i was reading on howard forums Canada only uses UMTS 850 and the people who have the x1i are reporting only edge speeds.
Indeed you all were right about the discussions on Howard Forums. Read through a lot of them. Thanks for the pointer to fieldtest.exe. I'm digging through it now. I'm hopeful that S/E just threw a software switch in their stack for 850Mhz so the X1i wouldn't carp any of Cingular's sales on the upcoming X1a. Hopeful and maybe a little naive.
X1 on AT&T
I had a similar instance yesterday, sent the X1 back. The same 3 choices for UMTS in WM Phone settings, I selected the 850/1900 bands. I got the H but it was slow. Moved my SIM back to the BlackJack II and worked just fine.
I think the ROM or WM6.1 Stamp they are using is incorrect.
The Xperia Box, on the white label shows UMTS EU1 US3 EU4 I believe which to me would mean 900/1900/2100 I am not positive about the last EU being 3 or 4 since I have mailed the phone already. There are a lot of listings on ebay which show UMTS 850/1900/2100 which I truly believe is incorrect and are being used from a Feb 08 page on gsm arena. Expansys USA told me they had both flavors, then the next day all you see on the US site is the 900/1900/2100.
The US ver is not released ( X1a) from what I read here and everywhere else.
dbond45 said:
Bxsteez,
There is a dispute as to whether the X1i has UMTS 850 (see pocketnow.com post, but, IMHO, I don't think it does, although I wished it did)
Lemme do some research and see if I can find what band Reno is running on. It's very likely it's 850 3G since a) it's a newer market, and b) it's a rural area compared to large cities which use 1900 mhz UMTS...
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Click to collapse
1. There is no dispute. Only dumb people. the X1i DOES NOT have 850mhz UMTS band, the hardware isn't even in the phone. It falsely displayed 850+1900MHZ because it does 1900MHZ and WM assumes that if it has 1900 it must have 850. It doesn't..
2. Reno does in fact run a predominately 850mhz 3G networking using At&t (not cingular, its been over a year since they got bought out) Your speed is likely because of this. Oddly if your phone is set to auto negotiate networks it should pick up EDGE service and show a "G" does it display a G rather than an H? You said the H doesn't display when you force 850+1900 UMTS right? The question is what does come up? Signal strength etc.?
If you import a phone from the UK you need to be prepared to be disappointed with speeds, simple fact, most UK phones don't even support 1900mhz, its there for roaming purposes on the X1. Same reason the X1a will have 850/1900/2100 UMTS. 1900mhz band is the weaker of the 2 used by At&t... 1900mhz was the first frequency they used, they used it so save costs and setup a marginally OK 3G network on a larger area. 1900mhz being a higher frequency means it can travel further than 850, this results in slower speeds and poor reception depending on your location from the nearest tower. 850 is lower frequency and there for more dense, this translates into faster speeds and better reception. Most new areas of at&ts 3G network are spread around with 850mhz. Older markets are a combination of 850mhz/1900mhz and some just 1900mhz.
The point is, if you are blissfully unaware of all this then your best bet is to send the phone back and wait for the US release.
mlinz said:
...
1900mhz band is the weaker of the 2 used by At&t... 1900mhz was the first frequency they used, they used it so save costs and setup a marginally OK 3G network on a larger area. 1900mhz being a higher frequency means it can travel further than 850, this results in slower speeds and poor reception depending on your location from the nearest tower. 850 is lower frequency and there for more dense, this translates into faster speeds and better reception. Most new areas of at&ts 3G network are spread around with 850mhz. Older markets are a combination of 850mhz/1900mhz and some just 1900mhz.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI: The data transmission speed doesn't depend on frequency. Both 850 and 1900 bands are capable to provide the same speed.
mlinz said:
1. There is no dispute. Only dumb people. the X1i DOES NOT have 850mhz UMTS band, the hardware isn't even in the phone. It falsely displayed 850+1900MHZ because it does 1900MHZ and WM assumes that if it has 1900 it must have 850. It doesn't..QUOTE]
Actually, I along with many others are fully aware the X1i does not have 850 UMTS listed on the box, in the specs, etc. I even made a post about it. HOWEVER, there is a VERY SLIGHT chance it does, and SE never mentioned it in the specs for some unknown reason. If you go to pocketnow.com, Brandon CONFIRMS he spoke to 3 SE reps from the X1 support line who said the X1i had 850 UMTS support. Only 1 said it only had 900/1900/2100 UMTS as listed on the box. 3/4 reps saying it has 850 UMTS, along with the fact he supposedly only gets 850 UMTS where he lives, and is getting HSDPA on the X1i leaves a glimmer of hope for everyone out there, even if it is dismally small.
As far as the "false display" 850/1900 mhz option it is not so much a false display as a software option on most HTC phones, including the euro touch pro...
Anyways, I'm getting decent HSDPA coverage in Chicago...
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joedoe said:
FYI: The data transmission speed doesn't depend on frequency. Both 850 and 1900 bands are capable to provide the same speed.
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They may output the same speed initially, but 1900 you usually get less bars depending on your location to the tower and less bars means slower speeds.
mlinz said:
...
1900mhz being a higher frequency means it can travel further than 850
...
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You got this backwards. Think AM and FM. AM can be picked up much farther away.
veloaudio said:
You got this backwards. Think AM and FM. AM can be picked up much farther away.
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My bad, I do that a lot
I hope someone can answer me this question, please. I want to hopefully understand something before I purchase a Blackstone. My phone carrier is AT&T, and I live in an area that has 3G coverage. Supposedly this area also has HSDPA. I understand already that the HD will not work on AT&T's 3G, but will it work on the HSDPA? I *think* that HSDPA would be fast enough, yes? I tried to look this up, but I am not 100 percent sure of what I am reading... please all, forgive that I didn't understand enough to figure this out myself. Is there someone out there who also has this carrier and can verify that I will be able to surf faster than EDGE? I want to eventually use the secondary camera of the device to make video calls - I have Deaf family members who can be contacted by videophones and I want to do that some day with the HD!! Any and all help is apprecated.
u prolly have your answer by now, but i can fill in here...
HSDPA will work... i have an experia that won't say3G, but does say H and i'm getting speeds of 1100kbps which is 3G speeds... so you are good to go on that part...
As for video calling... you won't get it... i'm not gettin it at all even tho i have modified my phone for it to work... its an AT&T thing... apparently they maybe supporting it in the next few months (so i've read)... knock on wood cuz that would be ground breaking for the USA
HSDPA will not work. HSDPA is a form of 3g (HSDPA/HSPA/UMTS). The HD does not support At&T or any other US carrier 3g frequencies. You will have EDGE
Svegetto said:
HSDPA will not work. HSDPA is a form of 3g (HSDPA/HSPA/UMTS). The HD does not support At&T or any other US carrier 3g frequencies. You will have EDGE
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technically, neither does the x1i i have... but in the discription it does say 850/900/1800/1900 for both phones...
and my phone does not say E... it says H... the hardware are almost identical between the 2 phones...
there were alot of naysayers about the x1i and 3g speeds... but when i got it, popped in the sim card... my internet was BLAZING....
Connectivity: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
WCDMA / HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
as you can see, the HD supports 3g on 900/2100 (which US networks do not operate 3g on). Although 850 is a 3g frequency for at&t, the HD does not search for HSDPA on that frequency and only for EDGE and, therefore, you'll only get EDGE
Svegetto is correct. I have the HD and I am on AT&T. All I get is the big E. It is faster than it used to be, but it is still Edge.
Hi all just got my X1i today and when i turn on with my att sim card in there it shows "H" and i think that means "HSDPA" but isn't the X1i only have 900/1900/2100 Mhz? why did i got "H"??
vannessfuc said:
Hi all just got my X1i today and when i turn on with my att sim card in there it shows "H" and i think that means "HSDPA" but isn't the X1i only have 900/1900/2100 Mhz? why did i got "H"??
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Of course, the X1i can have HSDPA -why not?
That has been one of the most important things to me because I have much data transfer.
what i mean was i live in US so there should be no 3G or H signal that X1i should pick up since it only has 900/1900/2100 3G bands
vannessfuc said:
what i mean was i live in US so there should be no 3G or H signal that X1i should pick up since it only has 900/1900/2100 3G bands
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Hmmm...this I cannot say because I don't know the networks in US. Isn't there another version for America -the X1a? I think I heard something like that.
Just can say, HSDPA works fine in Austria/Europe
ok as i know, US 3G should be 850 and 1900 bands and most of the Att 3G are 850 last time i had a diamond and it never went on to H or 3G at the same location, but this time it has H.
vannessfuc said:
Hi all just got my X1i today and when i turn on with my att sim card in there it shows "H" and i think that means "HSDPA" but isn't the X1i only have 900/1900/2100 Mhz? why did i got "H"??
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Click to collapse
You say you have an X1i ?
What does Settings>System>About>Device ID say, please ?
Also, are you living in/near a city or in a regional area ?
ATT mostly uses 1900 for 3g. Also the H means you have HSDPA and HSUPA. If you only had HSDPA it would just say 3G.
yeah att use 1900 which 3g phones from outside usa can also use but
tmobile use 2100 or something
this is also the reason why people from europe can use american iphone 3g's
Does anyone know what's the HSDPA for AT&T in US? Is it 850/1900?
I know that At&t is not 850 as people from the rest of the world who buy iphones 3g in usa can use them on 3g in their countries and only america use 3g on 850
HSDPA is 850/1900 for AT&T. Look at the specs for some of the 3G phones on their website, they should all say 850/1900 UMTS
This is what it looks like to various HTC mfg phones....in Ca.
on my ATT 8525(att wm6.0 rom)= 3G:850, HSDPA:1900
No matter which network is being used 3G is what is displayed
On my X1i only HSDPA: 1900 this connects only in the major metropolitan area! in Ca. I live in a small commuter community so, HSDPA is about 15 mile out of range north or south of me....But we do have 3G: 850(what att uses in their fringe areas) so no joy for my X1i
scl_electronics said:
This is what it looks like to various HTC mfg phones....in Ca.
on my ATT 8525(att wm6.0 rom)= 3G:850, HSDPA:1900
No matter which network is being used 3G is what is displayed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download Advanced Configuration Tool (search) and you can turn on HSPDA and the icon. I've read some people had trouble with the setting sticking; however I've had good luck with the stock ATT Rom and latest 1.12.25.19 (I think) radio. Didn't do any speed tests to actually see if it made a difference other than anecdotal evidence.