Technical Questions - Networking

1. Why does CDMA 3g max out around 2.2 Mb/s while GSM 3g can be so much more?
4.4 Mb/s on VZW's strong CDMA network would be the greatest thing since sliced bread.
I have a Dinc2 that has an unlocked SIM. I can only get Edge/2G while in Canada using a local SIM card. I have set up the APNs.
2. Is this limitation in my phone, or do they have some sort of agreement with VZW to throttle my speeds in North America?
3. What is the max GSM data speeds a VZW world phone can achieve while using the GSM capabilities? I have droped a T-mob sim in here before, but have been limited again to EDGE/2g.
Thank you!

Most GSM bands worldwide are 850/1900 (like AT&T). It's possible that you were on a Canadian provider that utilized AWS bands (1700/2100 like T-Mobile). I doubt your phone is pentaband, which would enable you to use it on any GSM network and get 3G. I highly doubt Verizon would try to throttle you outside their network while on a foreign SIM.
As for speeds, CDMA doesn't have the speed that UMTS/HSDPA does. I'm not entirely sure why. I can get up to 5Mbps on an UMTS network. I'm not as familiar with Verizon's CDMA network. I've only experienced their LTE (which is smoking fast )
Wasn't me!! I didn't do it!

Related

Touch Dual on Sprint in the US?

I have been using the Touch Dual here in the US for a few months, and love it. I need to switch carriers. Will the Touch Dual work on the Sprint network in the US? What other carriers will work?
Thanks.
GSM networks only, so your only option is AT&T.
acwyau said:
GSM networks only, so your only option is AT&T.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-Mobile and AT&T are the only GSM carriers in the US. I don't know if Boost Mobile is or not.
I just picked a phone up unlocked on ebay and am using it on the AT&T network, only issue i've learnt of just now is AT&T uses a different band for the 3g than the touch dual does so i only recieve edge no 3g since its a different band, from what i've been told tmobile is offering it on the same band.
erandhawa said:
I just picked a phone up unlocked on ebay and am using it on the AT&T network, only issue i've learnt of just now is AT&T uses a different band for the 3g than the touch dual does so i only recieve edge no 3g since its a different band, from what i've been told tmobile is offering it on the same band.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ATT operates on both 850 and 1900 bands. I had my niki working on it until I recently switched to TMobile. You're SOL if the ATT signal in your area is 850 because the Niki doesn't support it. TMobile doesn't us the 850 band so you would be better switching to them. I get a much stronger signal with them.
eyecrispy said:
ATT operates on both 850 and 1900 bands. I had my niki working on it until I recently switched to TMobile. You're SOL if the ATT signal in your area is 850 because the Niki doesn't support it. TMobile doesn't us the 850 band so you would be better switching to them. I get a much stronger signal with them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Niki doesn't support 1900 for 3g either though, how were you getting 3g if you don't mind me asking, maybe you have one of the Australia Versions? Probably gonna have to take your advice on switching, just on such a good rate plan only paying 24.99 for unlimited internet, hopefully a radio patch can help us soon or maybe AT&T and T-Mobile will share towers i know its been discussed between the companies in the past to help increase coverage (usually leads to merger though so i doubt it'll happen with such large corporations)

HD2 on Verizon?

I'm just curious if there's anyone out there with an HD2 on Verizon? If not, is it possible to do it? The HD2 is a quad band device, so doesn't it have the hardware capable to be on a CDMA network? I was thinking that if I bought an unlocked HD2, I would be able to put it on my account with Verizon. I guess I would have to be running a different radio in order to do that though.
Anyone have any thoughts, comments, suggestions? I really want one of these phones, but I can't switch from Verizon because no other provider gives me 3g in my area. Plus, my Touch Pro 2 is getting dated compared to that 1gz Snapdragon!
HD2 is a GSM phone. Pretty sure it can't be made to work on a CDMA network.
Technology
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
WCDMA/HSPA: 1700 MHz (AWS) / 2100 MHz
Taken from the HD2 tech specs on HTC's website.
If it has a CDMA radio, why couldn't it work if it were unlocked?
Does Verizon have a sim card to put in the phone? If not, how can they make it work on their network.
Verizon does have sim cards, they use them in the Blackberry Storm, which is both GSM/CDMA ...
But It may be like the storm if it is activated via the IMEI that it may not require a sim card ...
rly? i never thought verizon would use sim cards...can we bring non verizon phones them from lets say ATT to their network?
Verizon has SIM cards for their GSM/CDMA world phones. Sprint also has world edition blackberries with a SIM card. The SIM card is there so the phone is able to roam onto a GSM network outside of the USA. As far as I know this SIM card will not allow it to roam onto a USA GSM network, since there are no roaming agreements in place between VZ and ATT/TMO
The WCDMA on the HD2 is not the same as CDMA that VZ/Sprint use.
WCDMA is the 3G standard that GSM providers use. CDMA is well as far as i know the same old CDMA network that VZ/Sprint have used for ages with whatever "bolt on" enables 3G on their network. I dont follow the CDMA standard so i dont know all the specifics about the tech.
Edit:
I just did a small amount of wikipedia research. What Verizon/Sprint use is CDMA2000/EV-DO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDMA2000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution-Data_Optimized
This is not compatible with WCDMA,
Even though they both use "CDMA" family of technology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_division_multiple_access
WCDMA is a wideband version http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCDMA
Thanks for the replies guys. This is a bummer though. I was really hoping to be able to get an HD2 to use with Verizon. Oh well, guess I'll wait for the Droid X to release, even though I'd like to stick with WiMo.

[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

[Q] Which Network ????

Hi All
I am visiting the USA in September for holiday and am doing a bit of travelling while i am out there. I was going to buy a prepaid sim to use with my SGS II which is sim unlocked. I am visiting Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vegas what network would you guys recommend for coverage and costs ?? it would have to be a GSM network.
Thanks
I would say T-mobile because they have a awesome pay as you go plan
I would say T-Mobile
T-Mobile and AT&T are the only ones compatible with your SIM. However the SGS2 is only going to get EDGE on T-Mobile if you're wanting data. It's compatible with the HSPA for AT&T however. From what I understand there really isn't a difference in price between the two for prepaid. Nothing to make a difference when you're taking an international trip anyway.
Hydroshock said:
T-Mobile and AT&T are the only ones compatible with your SIM. However the SGS2 is only going to get EDGE on T-Mobile if you're wanting data. It's compatible with the HSPA for AT&T however. From what I understand there really isn't a difference in price between the two for prepaid. Nothing to make a difference when you're taking an international trip anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
European 3G bands are different than US ones. In Europe the UMTS band is operating on 2100MHz. AT&T operates it's 3G service on 850 and 1900 MHz.
cajunflavoredbob said:
European 3G bands are different than US ones. In Europe the UMTS band is operating on 2100MHz. AT&T operates it's 3G service on 850 and 1900 MHz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but the SGS2 has the 1900MHz band in it, so it would work on AT&T's 3G network, but only on T-Mobile's EDGE.
Longcat14 said:
Yeah but the SGS2 has the 1900MHz band in it, so it would work on AT&T's 3G network, but only on T-Mobile's EDGE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need both bands for AT&T 3G. 850 provides downlink. 1900 provides uplink. In Europe, 2110 is downlink and 2150 is uplink. It is normally just included in one spec of 2100MHz. The 850MHz band in this device would only provide 2G speeds.
AT&T is your best bet.

What does "Global Ready" mean for the Verizon Note 3?

I am a little confused about some information I found on Verizon's Note 3 Page. It says that the Note 3 will be a CDMA phone but then lists the following bands:
CDMA Data – 1x and EVDO Rev0/RevA
LTE: B13 (700MHz)
Global Ready (GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900; HSPA/UMTS: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz)
(original link: http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/...t&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=7194)
Does it mean that if sim-unlocked, it can be used internationally, and how, if it doesn't take a sim card? If it can be used internationally, I would much rather buy a Verizon (for the US) instead of AT&T. I use AT&T only because it's a GSM carrier.
I don't have the answer but I can recommend you to contact Samsung wireless. They certainly have much more credibility.
Good luck
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
All Verizon 4G LTE devices take SIM cards. They have to, since LTE is based on GSM. Also, historically, Verizon doesn't carrier-lock the LTE/HSPA/GSM part of their 4G LTE phones, so SIM cards from other carriers will work in a Verizon LTE phone out of the box.
incisivekeith said:
I am a little confused about some information I found on Verizon's Note 3 Page. It says that the Note 3 will be a CDMA phone but then lists the following bands:
CDMA Data – 1x and EVDO Rev0/RevA
LTE: B13 (700MHz)
Global Ready (GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900; HSPA/UMTS: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz)
(original link: http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/...t&action=viewPhoneDetail&selectedPhoneId=7194)
Does it mean that if sim-unlocked, it can be used internationally, and how, if it doesn't take a sim card? If it can be used internationally, I would much rather buy a Verizon (for the US) instead of AT&T. I use AT&T only because it's a GSM carrier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found the answer here, by the Answerer #2. The 4G/Data part of a global ready phone is GSM compatible, and only that part can be locked for data internationally; the calling part will still depend on CDMA in other countries. If that information is accurate, I will stick to an AT&T Note 3.
darkkterror said:
All Verizon 4G LTE devices take SIM cards. They have to, since LTE is based on GSM. Also, historically, Verizon doesn't carrier-lock the LTE/HSPA/GSM part of their 4G LTE phones, so SIM cards from other carriers will work in a Verizon LTE phone out of the box.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Truth be told. LTE has more in command with CDMA in terms of radio/air interfaces. It covered within 3GPP standards (GSM then EDGE, the UMTS, HSDPA, etc). Rather than 3GPP2 for CDMA1x and EVDO. That's why Alcatel Lucent had a leg up on LTE since its deployment is more akin (specterally) to CDMA. But they dropped the ball, and except for the US and Some Asian markets, the rest of the world has 3GPP based networks deployed.
the Simple version, is LTE is not directly compatible with any 2G/3G technology, but since its covered in 3GPP, the standards evolved quicker to ensure GSM/EDGE/HSDPA interworking.
And beyond that.. what most people dont know, that interworking doesnt really work that widespread yet. In the US most mobile handsets operate on dual frequencies (especially all VzW models, ATT models are catching up) so they effectively talk CDMA1x and LTE at the same time. iPhones do not support that capability, but GSM has work arounds to allow talk+data.
i'll go back to me hole now
(btw.. anyone with iOS7 and ATT.. what out you've got problems you dont know about when going back forth from 3G to 4G.. I know since at work we talked about how to fix it..
I believe a rumor was that it has the same LTE baseband chip as the iphone 5s so that you could potentially use the Verizon version on AT&T and T-mobile...any truth to that?
incisivekeith said:
I found the answer here, by the Answerer #2. The 4G/Data part of a global ready phone is GSM compatible, and only that part can be locked for data internationally; the calling part will still depend on CDMA in other countries. If that information is accurate, I will stick to an AT&T Note 3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true, I put a T-Mobile SIM in my Verizon Note 2 and made calls, sent texts, and used data on GPRS, EDGE, and HSPA+.
geoff5093 said:
Not true, I put a T-Mobile SIM in my Verizon Note 2 and made calls, sent texts, and used data on GPRS, EDGE, and HSPA+.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have also done it with an ATT sim on my Verizon note 2.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 4
geoff5093 said:
Not true, I put a T-Mobile SIM in my Verizon Note 2 and made calls, sent texts, and used data on GPRS, EDGE, and HSPA+.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mchlwvr614 said:
I have also done it with an ATT sim on my Verizon note 2.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 4
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice! Was this native to the stock Rom or is a custom one needed that has this ability "unlocked"?
bigwavedave25 said:
Nice! Was this native to the stock Rom or is a custom one needed that has this ability "unlocked"?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock rom, rooted to allow apn editing.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk 4
Global-ready is basically verizon's way of saying that it has a GSM 3G radio as well as a CDMA radio. That allows the phone to operate in Europe where there is no CDMA service. You can purchase international service from Verizon, or purchase a SIM from a European carrier while overseas. All verizon 4G phones have a GSM 4G radio anyway, because LTE is GSM.
(This means that with an LTE carrier in Europe, any 4G Verizon phone can get data in Europe even if they can't place voice calls (VoIP still possible)).
If I am not wrong with what I am saying, Verizon LTE phones only support LTE BAND: 13, which means that IF you are willing to use 4G with different carrier, they have to support LTE band 13. I have tried to use my Verizon Galaxy Note 2 in South Korea, I was only able to use 3G network via WCDMA, I wasn't able to get LTE service at all. Correct me if I am wrong.
HecAtic said:
If I am not wrong with what I am saying, Verizon LTE phones only support LTE BAND: 13, which means that IF you are willing to use 4G with different carrier, they have to support LTE band 13. I have tried to use my Verizon Galaxy Note 2 in South Korea, I was only able to use 3G network via WCDMA, I wasn't able to get LTE service at all. Correct me if I am wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the different N3 variants due in fact support different LTE bands, so you are correct. Minor point not worth nitpicking from earlier post, GSM is not LTE. they both evolved from the same 3GPP standards body, but portions spread spectrum nature of LTE is more similar to CDMA than GSM.
I went to Korea last October, and they wouldn't allow prepaid 4g LTE. They would only allow 3G for prepaid service.
I had a note 2 rooted and custom rom when I went. I'm a US citizen and you have to wait about 2-3 days before you are allowed to sign up for any plan on what they told me.

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