Database Users

3G Networks hardware LOCKING to each carrier by HTC

Among those of you with a deap knowledge of the inner working of HTC phone for 3G networks.
Is HTC doing something to phones for each carrier to lock the phone to a specific carriers 3G network and no other.
I'm asking because I was talking with a freind of mine who was given a HD2 as a part of a promotion for use on AT&T 3G network (850/2100). He uses T-Mobile and tried to get it to work with his T-Mobile SIM with no success. He also told me he had a conversation with someone from HTC that told him that he would no beable to get his HD2 to work on T-Mobile because the hardware will not work with T-Mobiles 3G network (1700/2100).
If this is the case does anyone know if it changable, is it a Firmware issue that can be changed or is it like hard wired physically?
Then the question is if we are buying these phone, some through contracts others outright, do we want to told whos service we have to use!!
Lets have some good discussion...

there are billions of threads on this.
3g is radio/hardware dependent. he'll unfortunately be stuck on EDGE.

He will have no issues using the phone with T-mobile usa. He will not get 3G because of the bands. He will just have edge. But calls, mms, text, email, and internet will all function properly.

Clarify this please
I bought my HTC HD2 in USA (unlocked) and here in Peru, where I live, I cannot get it to work with 3G. If I lived in USA, is there a way to know with what carrier I would get 3G ?

alejo1575 said:
I bought my HTC HD2 in USA (unlocked) and here in Peru, where I live, I cannot get it to work with 3G. If I lived in USA, is there a way to know with what carrier I would get 3G ?
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Click to collapse
So you are on Claro in Peru?
For 3G you need a phone with 3G 1900 support. If it is the T-Mobile version, that would have 3G on 1700/2100 bands which would be no good. If you got an AT&T handset (850/1900) it would work for 3G for you.
You need to understand what 3G support your version of the phone has. For example mine (Telstra Australia) is 850/2100 - which would not be able to pick up 3G in your network - however it works excellent with Telstra (850) in Australia and currently working well with StarHub (2100) in Singapore.
Your phone is quad band - but that is GSM quadband not 3G - it is 3G dual band and that is what is important for your connection.
***
Edit:
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UMTS_networks for list of 3G networks...

Yeah ...bad news
tallmantim said:
So you are on Claro in Peru?
For 3G you need a phone with 3G 1900 support. If it is the T-Mobile version, that would have 3G on 1700/2100 bands which would be no good. If you got an AT&T handset (850/1900) it would work for 3G for you.
You need to understand what 3G support your version of the phone has. For example mine (Telstra Australia) is 850/2100 - which would not be able to pick up 3G in your network - however it works excellent with Telstra (850) in Australia and currently working well with StarHub (2100) in Singapore.
Your phone is quad band - but that is GSM quadband not 3G - it is 3G dual band and that is what is important for your connection.
***
Edit:
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UMTS_networks for list of 3G networks...
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Click to collapse
Hi tallmantim ....
Thanks for your response. Yeah, today I did my homework and found that my HD2 has UMTS (HSDPA) 900 - 2100 bands, a fact that is not good because Claro and Movistar in Peru operated the 850 - 1900 bands for 3G.
Question: is there a HD2 version with 850 - 1900 band ????

alejo1575 said:
Hi tallmantim ....
Thanks for your response. Yeah, today I did my homework and found that my HD2 has UMTS (HSDPA) 900 - 2100 bands, a fact that is not good because Claro and Movistar in Peru operated the 850 - 1900 bands for 3G.
Question: is there a HD2 version with 850 - 1900 band ????
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Click to collapse
No, but the Telstra HD2 will pick up the 850MHz signals where they exist. There is no HD2 with the 1900MHz UMTS band at the moment

lude219 said:
there are billions of threads on this.
3g is radio/hardware dependent. he'll unfortunately be stuck on EDGE.
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Click to collapse
Would you mind pointing me in the direction of those BILLIONS of threads.
I've done searchs on hardware dependents, radio/hardware dependents, 3G radio.
There are so many way that is topic could be listed.
I'm finding nothing but my thread now just as before.

theisdept said:
a freind of mine who was given a HD2 as a part of a promotion for use on AT&T 3G network
[...]
Then the question is if we are buying these phone, some through contracts others outright, do we want to told whos service we have to use!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Erm, so AT&T gives a phone, for promotion of their service, and at the same time they should allow you to use another network? You've got too much hope there...

alejo1575 said:
Hi tallmantim ....
Thanks for your response. Yeah, today I did my homework and found that my HD2 has UMTS (HSDPA) 900 - 2100 bands, a fact that is not good because Claro and Movistar in Peru operated the 850 - 1900 bands for 3G.
Question: is there a HD2 version with 850 - 1900 band ????
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea my friend my phone is , and i am here with t mobile suffering from same problem like u , i bought that phone which is compatible with Asia , not here in usa
is there way to exchange??
mine is
Network HSPA/WCDMA:
900/2100 MHz
Up to 2 Mbps upload and 7.2 Mbps download speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
850/900/1800/1900 MHz
(Band frequency, HSPA availability, and data speed are
operator dependen)

egypro said:
is there way to exchange??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exchange your phone for cash
exchange that cash for a phone that supports the correct bands.

UK Legend 3G bands & T-Mobile US

I'll be moving back stateside this August and I'd love to use my sim free Legend on a gsm provider back home.
T-mobile US 3G bands are (900/AWS/2100 MHz)
The Legend is specified for use at: HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
Can anyone clarify if I'll be able to get 3G on a T-mobile US sim?
Or even knowing the bands are similar does the fact that T-mobile uses AWS and not HSPA/WCDMA mean I wont get 3g?
Any type of clarification would be helpful

3djon said:
I'll be moving back stateside this August and I'd love to use my sim free Legend on a gsm provider back home.
T-mobile US 3G bands are (900/AWS/2100 MHz)
The Legend is specified for use at: HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
Can anyone clarify if I'll be able to get 3G on a T-mobile US sim?
Or even knowing the bands are similar does the fact that T-mobile uses AWS and not HSPA/WCDMA mean I wont get 3g?
Any type of clarification would be helpful
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey man, you might have figured this out already but, as far as I can tell, you can't use the T-mobile US 3G bands on the legend. I got my legend over the interwebs and put my t-mobile SIM in there, and although there's 2g data, no 3G. I don't really mind though, it's an awesome phone and it gets plenty of second glances since there's nothing like it here in the states. I'm also around wi-fi most of the time i need it, but it would be awesome to get that 3G working.
I've looked around a little but can't find anything. Does anyone know if this is even physically possible? And if so, how? Thanks.

[Q] question for 3G frequencies in Canada

I have a tmobile vibrant phone (hardware only). According to the phone specs i SHOULD be able to get 3g signal with my fido sim card since the phone seems to support all the same frequencies as the Canadian i9000.... but i only get edge.
If you guys are getting 3G with fido or rogers sim cards, did you have to set anything special in the phone settings?
Thanks!

Vibrant T-mobile 3G runs on 1700
that is why you only get EDGE (2G)
Fido, Rogers & Bell runs on 850 & 1900 for 3G

On my way to work today this is what i saw in the network box.
inside my house - EDGE
Outside my house - 3G
back country roads to work - i saw just G or no signal (normal i loose signal with my iphone and blackberry on there)
at work - back on edge
So i DO get 3g somehow! or is it just teasing me by showing 3G?

i read somewhere that the t-mo vibrant does have 1900 as one of its 3g bands, so this is why your phone has been able to pick up 3g at times. the problem for you is that rogers/fido mainly use the 850 band. i had the nokia n97 mini that had the 1900 but no 850 and while driving around most of the gta i would get 3g, but when i went into buildings, houses, etc, it would drop to edge.

Maybe your phone supports 1900 and not 850 MHz? Or the oposite? That would explain why you would get bad UMTS coverage.
@hondaguy you were faster than me

boravr6 said:
I have a tmobile vibrant phone (hardware only). According to the phone specs i SHOULD be able to get 3g signal with my fido sim card since the phone seems to support all the same frequencies as the Canadian i9000.... but i only get edge.
If you guys are getting 3G with fido or rogers sim cards, did you have to set anything special in the phone settings?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To my knowledge the T-Mobile Vibrant does not support the major Canadian 3g bands. It is quad band 2g, which is why you are able to get edge but it is only 2 band 3g, at least according to this spec sheet:
http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=2439&c=samsung_sgh-t959_galaxy_s_vibrant
T-mobile uses the 1700 and 2100 UMTS bands for 3g, Bell/Rogers/Telus/Virgin/Fido use 850/1900 UMTS bands for 3g. Therefore the 3g radio on the Vibrant is not compatible with these networks.
However, WIND mobile uses the 1700/2100 UMTS bands for 3g and you can use unlocked T-Mobile phones to their full ability on Wind's network. Wind is only in major urban centres though so this may not help you if you're not in the city. Hopefully you are as Wind has a pretty sweet unlimited data plan!
http://shop.windmobile.ca/
On the other hand according this this article from Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/22/confirmed-galaxy-s-unlock-codes-are-stored-in-your-phone-vibra/
If they're right that the Vibrant is somehow capable of AT&T 3g, it would mean the phone has to be tri-band UMTS: 850, 1700, 2100 (or 1700,1900,2100) as AT&T uses the 850/1900 bands like Rogers/Bell/Telus.
This doesn't make sense to me why T-Mobile would do this. The 850/1900 bands are really only used in North America on competing carriers, so it doesn't give the phone "world" capabilities, the 2100 band does that. Why they would add a feature who's only purpose is to make the phone work on competitors' networks is a mystery to me but Engadget seems to have a picture that confirms it. If this is true than an unlocked Vibrant should technically be able to work on Rogers/Bell/Telus/Fido/Virgin 3g, but only if it is unlocked. I'm pretty sure that T-Mobile sells their phones SIM locked to their network, have you unlocked yours?
~Edit if it does have 1900 as the third band the above posters are correct in that you will get minimal 3g coverage as 850 is the primary in Canada.

yeah i wanted to switch to Wind Mobile for the $35 true unlimited data plan, until i found out they don't work with normal 850/1900/2100 phones
only 1700 / 2100

US T-Mobile's 3G freq vs the rest of the world?

Anyone getting the T-Mobile version tomorrow? With CDMA not SIM capable, and AT&T version still up in the air, I think I'm probably going to get one tomorrow!
I've got question regarding T-Mobile's werid 3G band tho. I think Samsung listed T-Mobile's version as AWS 1700/2100. I know 1700 is weird, but is that AWS 2100 same as the 2100 band that the rest of the world use? Sorry it's my first 3G T-mobile device, and looking on wiki or google is just kinda vague

2100MHz is the band used all across Europe as well as large parts of Asia.
So, yes, the T-Mobile one should give you 3G capability in other parts of the world, though if it's locked that may open up other issues.

Step666 said:
2100MHz is the band used all across Europe as well as large parts of Asia.
So, yes, the T-Mobile one should give you 3G capability in other parts of the world, though if it's locked that may open up other issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a TMo US G1, and it worked fine on 3G when I returned to the UK. The converse was not true of my TMo UK G2 (HTC Hero), which would only get Edge in the US because it did not support both bands of AWS (1700/2100).
So, I see no reason why a TMo US shouldn't work pretty much everywhere else in the world where 2100 3G is ubiquitous.
Regards,
Dave

Cool thanks, i guess that AWS threw me off. I thought there were a regular 2100, and then T-Mobile's AWS 2100

Step666 said:
2100MHz is the band used all across Europe as well as large parts of Asia.
So, yes, the T-Mobile one should give you 3G capability in other parts of the world, though if it's locked that may open up other issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually you're a bit off. Tmo's 3G runs on AWS 1700/2100 band which is not the same 2100 *frequency* as the rest of the world. Tmo uses 1700 for downloads and 2100 for uploads, so both bands (aws/band IV) are needed.
Now Europe (and rest of GSM world) use straight 2100 band for 3G but the exact frequency is not the same as Tmo's.
Basically a Tmo Galaxy Tab will only get you EDGE outside of the US. An ATT Galaxy Tab will get you 3G in the US and the rest of the world (as long as it's sim unlocked, ofcourse).

LordLugard said:
Basically a Tmo Galaxy Tab will only get you EDGE outside of the US. An ATT Galaxy Tab will get you 3G in the US and the rest of the world (as long as it's sim unlocked, ofcourse).
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Click to collapse
No, the T-mobile phones give you also 3G in Europe. All AWS chipsets do both Band I (2100) and Band IV (AWS 1700/2100).

I thought the galaxy tab is quad band, so you can simply swap your sim card with another european carrier and it should work on thier frequency
Am I wrong?

ahbvrh said:
I thought the galaxy tab is quad band, so you can simply swap your sim card with another european carrier and it should work on thier frequency
Am I wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right for 2G, not for 3G

So getting the unlock code for tmobile device and putting AT&T sim card will not give me 3g connectivity (using AT&T network)?

ahbvrh said:
So getting the unlock code for tmobile device and putting AT&T sim card will not give me 3g connectivity (using AT&T network)?
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Click to collapse
No, because it doesn't support the 850 or 1900 MHz bands.

Volker1 said:
No, the T-mobile phones give you also 3G in Europe. All AWS chipsets do both Band I (2100) and Band IV (AWS 1700/2100).
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Click to collapse
It will not. Pls do some more reading on the subject. There's a very good writeup on it in these forum. Someone explained it better than I've probably done. If I find it I'll link to it.

LordLugard said:
It will not. Pls do some more reading on the subject.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One could say the same to you.
This is a link to T-Mobile US's support forum, in which someone has had it confirmed from T-Mobile themselves that all devices designed for their network have to be fully compatible with the 2100MHz band, meaning they will give you 3G capabilities in Europe.
Your previous post in which you claim that the 2100MHz band that T-Mobile use is not the same as the 2100MHz band the rest of the world uses is nothing short of ridiculous.
If the band T-Mobile used was different to the one used in the rest of the world, it would not be described as 2100MHz.

LordLugard said:
It will not. Pls do some more reading on the subject. There's a very good writeup on it in these forum. Someone explained it better than I've probably done. If I find it I'll link to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but as I already said earlier in this thread, my T-Mobile US G1, which is an AWS device, worked perfectly well in the UK with full 3G. Similarly, I know of people who bought TMo Nexus Ones in the US, and these all worked fine in the UK.
That's not to say there isn't some subtle difference which not all chipsets can cater for, but it is certainly true that many TMo US handsets will give 3G capabilities in Europe.
Regards,
Dave

The normal UMTS 2100 is called "Band I" and t-mobile's AWS is called "Band IV":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands
The AWS 3G module has already 2100MHz support, so there is no additional hardware necessary to support Band I as well. Theoretically it could be disabled, of course, but then T-mobile wouldn't be able to charge you an arm and a leg if you were to roam outside of the US

[Q] Terrible speed on T Mobile

Hey guys, I picked up this phone to test out a winphone a while ago and like it, but I'm having a huge issue.
I cannot get any network other than Edge to show up, and my speedtests are incredibly slow! On my Galaxy Nexus on Tmo's network I had to have the IMEI number updated somehow when I started my account, but it appears Tmo is closed today. Is there a way of doing this, or something else I need to do to get my Quantum to speed up, or is it hopeless?
It originally was an ATT phone that I unlocked to run on Tmo.

TheRandom1 said:
Hey guys, I picked up this phone to test out a winphone a while ago and like it, but I'm having a huge issue.
I cannot get any network other than Edge to show up, and my speedtests are incredibly slow! On my Galaxy Nexus on Tmo's network I had to have the IMEI number updated somehow when I started my account, but it appears Tmo is closed today. Is there a way of doing this, or something else I need to do to get my Quantum to speed up, or is it hopeless?
It originally was an ATT phone that I unlocked to run on Tmo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because AT&T and T-Mobile use different bands. AT&T phones are only compatible with T-Mobile 2G. If you're lucky, T-Mobile will be refarming spectrum in your area, so you can get 3G, but apparently this isn't the case for you.
Source: I have a Quantum on T-Mobile

Are you positive about that? I have a Galaxy Nexus that worked just fine once they updated the IMEI number, and now I have full use of Tmo's network on it. It was an ATT phone initially...

TheRandom1 said:
Are you positive about that? I have a Galaxy Nexus that worked just fine once they updated the IMEI number, and now I have full use of Tmo's network on it. It was an ATT phone initially...
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Click to collapse
Galaxy Nexus: Supported Bands
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
LG Quantum: Supported Bands
UMTS/HSDPA Tri-band (850/1900/2100 MHz)
T-Mobile:
850 MHz/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA 2G
1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G
1700 MHz UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+ 3G/4G
1900 MHz UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+ 3G/4G
1700 MHz LTE
The Quantum supports the italicized bands.
The Nexus supports the bolded bands.
As you can see, the Quantum's supported bands are used for 2G.

That is unfortunate... so everyone else using this phone is using it on ATT's network, not Tmo's?
Also incredibly disappointing since I was told that the networks were the same and that a phone that worked properly on one would work on another...

TheRandom1 said:
That is unfortunate... so everyone else using this phone is using it on ATT's network, not Tmo's?
Also incredibly disappointing since I was told that the networks were the same and that a phone that worked properly on one would work on another...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, most users are on AT&T. And as to your second point, I've never heard anybody say that...

I'll go ahead and bump this with one more question. With the announced merger between MetroPCS and T Mobile, is it safe to assume that MetroPCS' frequency spectrum will work with T Mobile phones? I believe I saw at least one band that the Quantum would be able to use.

I get Tmobile 3g on my Quantum, I'm in an area where they have 1900MHz coverage though.