cdma to gsm (and other options for USA to Australia) - Mogul, XV6800 ROM Development

im going to be in australia for the next few months, and im looking into what phone im going to use there.
Its tough, because ive grown attached to having all the toys on my verizon xv6800, and dont want to go back to a standard phone.
Is it at all possible to get my titan to work on an Australian network? if not, can anyone point me in the direction of some information about other international phone options?
if anyone on here is from australia please let me know, i'd love to get in touch and get whatever information i can about plans and other info.
im open to any suggestions or other options for what i can do about a useful phone in australia.
Thanks alot

Entirely different radio and chip structures

well, you can always use your xv6800 just not to make calls. WiFi and GPS would work, you'd have no cell signal.
So, I suggest carrying 2 devices or searching online or picking up a GSM HTC smart phone. The Tilt/Kaiser Raphael (Touch Pro GSM) and the Blackstone / Touch HD and so many more cooler new devices will work in Australlia. However, some of those things are costly and you could natively use an older HTC phone.
You could buy an unlocked phone and just put a sim in there when you arrive.
The 2 main questions are what do you want to spend on a phone and will you rely on a data connection other than wifi?

I thought there was native CDMA coverage in australia? Or is it only new zealand? I would agree an ebayed tilt unlocked and a prepaid sim would probably be the best route.

Related

Tmobile vs. ATT radio stacks ?

I just converted my Tmobile service to ATT after getting tmobile to unlock my phone for me.
I have everything working with ATT now and no problems so far. In fact the one thing I hoped would happen is I would get the better coverage at my home with ATT then I had with tmobile and I have, so I am happy.
Now, I am curious about something I have read in regards to "radio stacks", and apparently different providers may have different radio stacks?
I want to make my phone as compatible as I can with ATT and just curious if anyone knows of any specific ROM's, Radio Stacks or any other ATT based software that might be beneficial to me. You help will be greatly appreciated.
Unlike T-Mobile, ATTWS includes almost no carrier-based software on the phone. You're running a pretty generic HTC setup on ATTWS.
I switch back and forth between ATTWS and T-Mobile and I have not had any problems using one radio stack on the other.
RasnCain
My question is this, since you're now getting better coverage at my home with ATT what raio stack is your phone currently running AT&T or T-Mobile? To check go to Start, Settings, System, Device Information.

Phone upgrade suggestions?

I currently have a TMobile Pocket pc phone edition that i recently installed the WM2003 upgrade on, i love it.
Now i hear that there are XDA2 devices out, which sound like better,faster devices. I asked TMobile, and they say that as long as the phone supports GSM 1900 and can be unlocked to use any SIM card, switching phones is a piece of cake.
So i guess my question is, has anyone tried this? I would like to get a O2 XDA2 over the M1000. Has anyone gotten them to work on the TMobile network here in the USA? I'd hate to spend the money on the device and not have it work. Or would it be better if i wait for some (needed?) ROM upgrades?
Thanks a lot =)
Edit: Okay so i didnt type in the right keywords into google the first time. User review here basically answers all my questions:
O2 review at mobilefly.com

world phone? GSM+WCDMA

Hey all,
a quick question, after reading through the forum there seems to be 2 Razrs out (excluding the customs one released in China MT917 and XT928)
One is the CDMA/LTE version and the other GSM/HSDPA version.
I read this article and it says the RAZR is a world phone, containing a combined radio capable of CMDA and GSM...
So is there any roms out there thats able get the razr to work with both? or am I just reading the article wrong?
Am I dealing with a $650 paper weight?
I Live in the Phlippines. When I first started researching the specs on this phone it list CDMA/LTE and GSM with 4 bands... I assumed it would work over here. I purchased the XT912 model directly from Motorola with no plan and had it shipped directly to the Philippines. (My Bad)
Once in my hands I naturally popped in my micro-sim and turned it on. The only thing I got was that it didn't recognize the sim and my options were "Power Off" or "Emergency Dial". Not a happy camper to say the least... I now have a $650 brick!
I have since been able to get into the main menu of the phone but of course it still doesn't recognize my GSM sim. Most likely because of the fact that it has a CDMA/LTE baseband loaded which I assume has no GSM support. Hence the reason it does not recognize the sim or receive any GSM/HSDPA signal.
My question is this: How do I flash/load a new GSM/HSDPA baseband that will enable the radio and make this phone useful to me?
I'm a total noob when it comes to Android so please be patient with my ignorance... Especially if this is simply never going to work out. Should I keep the phone on the hopes that a developer will crack this nut or sell it on E-Bay and walk away... Thanks!
My apologies for adding insult to injury but it looks like you didn't research enough...
Yes, the XT912 has the hardware for GSM but it was disabled by Verizon since it only needed the LTE hardware. This was noted in the FCC docs that were leaked.
The GSM hardware can be activated in theory but there's a lot more to it than a simple flash.
So unfortunately, you have a paperweight in your hands...
pacafrat said:
I Live in the Phlippines. When I first started researching the specs on this phone it list CDMA/LTE and GSM with 4 bands... I assumed it would work over here. I purchased the XT912 model directly from Motorola with no plan and had it shipped directly to the Philippines. (My Bad)
Once in my hands I naturally popped in my micro-sim and turned it on. The only thing I got was that it didn't recognize the sim and my options were "Power Off" or "Emergency Dial". Not a happy camper to say the least... I now have a $650 brick!
I have since been able to get into the main menu of the phone but of course it still doesn't recognize my GSM sim. Most likely because of the fact that it has a CDMA/LTE baseband loaded which I assume has no GSM support. Hence the reason it does not recognize the sim or receive any GSM/HSDPA signal.
My question is this: How do I flash/load a new GSM/HSDPA baseband that will enable the radio and make this phone useful to me?
I'm a total noob when it comes to Android so please be patient with my ignorance... Especially if this is simply never going to work out. Should I keep the phone on the hopes that a developer will crack this nut or sell it on E-Bay and walk away... Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I frequently travel to Europe, and it is frustrating to learn that Verizon has crippled the phone. It is bad enough that they don't allow me to pay for a plan while I am in Europe (and those plans are generally rip-offs) but to make me have to bring an entirely different phone when the Razr is capable is borderline absurd IMO.
I realize they want to keep it carrier specific... but I used to be a Sprint customer, and had a "world phone" which was unlocked for world GSM but locked for US GSM. This was fair and worked great for when I traveled.
Son of a! Do you mean to tell me that this phone could have been a world phone, but Verizon chose to disable this feature? That's retarded. I knew that it was CDMA/LTE-only when I bought it, but this phone would be nearly perfect if all the radios were enabled.
I read the Droid 4 will be the first LTE phone with GSM capabilities on Verizon, but could the GSM portion be disabled like it is on the Razr?
Ok thanks for the feedback everyone, so it seems the Razr has the hardware to be a world phone, but its just the software that isnt capable.
So if it has an unlocked bootloader, it might be possible to flash radios that support all basebands...correct?
pacafrat, sell me your razr I am in China

[Q] International I9100 on Japan's data network

Hello, I'm going to Japan in May/June & I was wondering if the international I9100, not the Japanese SC variant, is compatible with the data networks over there. I did some Googling but didn't find any conclusive answers. I apologise if the question is "noob", or if this is not the right section to post this in.
In addition, this is my first time in Japan (specifically, Tokyo) with a smartphone so I was looking at prepaid data plans for non-Residents, and chanced upon b-mobile (http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/) which appears to offer pretty good choices. My Japanese is at around the N3 level but reading a wall of text gives me a headache so I've been referring to softbanksucks.blogspot.com for more cognitively-friendly, English translations of certain related news.
1) They've launched a new prepaid card (at least I think it's prepaid) called the Chameleon 4G which rides on DOCOMO's 4G network. My question is, since my I9100 is not LTE-capable, will I still be able to tap on the data network (if I get that card) but maxed out at a speed my phone is able to handle.
2) Since this is my first time, I would like to ask if anyone who has been to Japan has any recommendations for getting a prepaid SIM card with data (eg. Plans, things to look out for, tips, etc). I was looking at data SIMs with talktime too but they all seem to be post-paid.
Many thanks for any help rendered!
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サンソングガラクシS II からタパトクで書いた。
Docomo should work the i9100 as it uses a GSM network. From my memory, either docomo or softbank may actually deny giving you a sim card for unlocked phones. At least that was the case for my friend while he was working in tokyo.
Kaze105 said:
Docomo should work the i9100 as it uses a GSM network. From my memory, either docomo or softbank may actually deny giving you a sim card for unlocked phones. At least that was the case for my friend while he was working in tokyo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm that's strange, especially since he was working there and all. I heard both companies started selling prepaid SIM cards not too long ago, albeit at an exorbitant price. Thanks for clarifying the networks though!
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サンソングガラクシS II からタパトクで書いた。
I'm actually going in late May as well and was wondering the same thing. Fact that SGS2 will work is great news, as far as getting a sim, can't you just bs them and say a friend will give you some old phone when you meet up or whatever? If they offer and sell prepaid sims, I wouldn't imagine it being that much of a problem...
As far as networks, I gathered that majority over there is UMTS aka HSDPA these days, which most GSM phones have anyway, so that shouldn't be a problem at all.
Skv012a said:
I'm actually going in late May as well and was wondering the same thing. Fact that SGS2 will work is great news, as far as getting a sim, can't you just bs them and say a friend will give you some old phone when you meet up or whatever? If they offer and sell prepaid sims, I wouldn't imagine it being that much of a problem...
As far as networks, I gathered that majority over there is UMTS aka HSDPA these days, which most GSM phones have anyway, so that shouldn't be a problem at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure the bs will work, 'cause from what I hear, you need an actual Japanese address & some kind of Japanese identification.
It's much easier to get a data-only SIM card & maybe couple that with a Skype Premium subscription for the period of time you'll be there, for calling.
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サンソングガラクシS II からタパトクで書いた。
Or via a friend, which is what i ended up doing. IMO much easier to just connect with or make a new friend and have them hook ya up.
Sent strait from the oven
Safe travels :laugh:

will a gsm phone operate in wifi mode without a current simcard?

Hi All,
I want to put my old droidx back into service, but after knowing what I now know (thanks to this forum), I won't waste my time trying to root it (it's unrootable).
So, I want to buy a used cellphone that is already rooted. I've been watching ebay, and have come to the conclusion that Boost, AT&T and T-Mobile used phones are much cheaper than those from 'good' carriers. The T-Mobile S3 for instance, sells for about 60% the cost of an S3 previously used on Verizon or US Cellular.
So, these GSM phones are quite a bargain!
I need to know if a GSM phone that isn't under contract and does not have a current cell provider can operate in wifi only mode? In other words, my primary use for the phone is strictly wifi based, but I need to know if the lack of a simcard will inhibit the operation of the S3 that is used only with wifi?
Thanks.
A
I don't know how it is in the US, but here in Europe this is possible. I can use my phone with or without simcard. Wifi is always working, it is independant from the simcard.
I think it is the same in the USA. Or not?
Yes, it can.
Cheers,
AJ

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