So the Hero's from England won't work on USA 3G bands correct? Does anyone know when a Hero will come out that is capable?
yes that is correct, 3g in the usa will not work on the hero. the hero will come out on october 11th for United States, many indications are hinting that the carrier will be sprint
does this lie in the hardware?
Sorry to bump this thread, but as I asked earlier. Does the 3G settings lie in the hardware, or is it customizable/changeable somehow?
No, there is nothing to "unlock" a non 1700 frequency phone to make it capable of accepting 3G speeds on T-mobile
I've no idea whether the radio in the Hero is capable of supporting T-Mobiles 3G 1700Mhz band, but I do personally find it hard to believe that HTC would manufacture 2 different GSM Heros (as opposed to a GSM and CDMA one) which differ only by the bands they support since the additional cost involved in having 2 separate production lines is probably far greater than the incremental cost of using a more capable radio in all GSM Heros.
My G1 is a US T-Mobile G1, and it works fine with the 3G bands here in Europe. In addition, if you look up the specs of the Magic on HTCs website, it does not mention the 1700MHz band, but the MyTouch 3G does support and it is essentially a Magic.
This would lead me to believe that it is likely to be a firmware rather than hardware restriction - only time will tell!
Regards,
Dave
Hero coming to T-Mobile USA
By the looks of things at http://www.tmonews.com and with a bit of url manipulation I was able to navigate to this pretty convicing and helpful page.
Anyone have any better resources?
foxmeister said:
...My G1 is a US T-Mobile G1, and it works fine with the 3G bands here in Europe. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, but the G1 was designed specifically for t-mobile and so the G1 itself was built to support the bands for all t-mobile networks in one device.
And as the european ones nearly all use 2100mhz, that is a slightly different case.
and as for the URL manipulation, that doesn;t always mean anything.. with the right manipulation, you can get it to show updates for one device on a page titled for a totally different model. however, it would be good if you are right!!
G1 = 1700 and 2100 MHz
Hero = 900 and 2100 MHz
So both work fine in europe (2100) but only the G1 will work with T-mo US (1700). Considering that there is no reasonable prepaid 3g data in the US anywhere, not many European travellers will miss the 1700MHz capability of their cell phone.
The choice of the 900MHz band is a bit odd, seems like the only reasonably-sized market for that would be Australia. At least it'll work when you are down-under ;-)
at the moment yeah, but many European networks are pushing to get access to the 900mhz frequency and use it for 3G once 2G gets turned off.
apparently it has better penetration into buildings or something...don't quite understand the reasons why it should be better for that, but the UK networks certainly want a bit of that action....
rhedgehog said:
at the moment yeah, but many European networks are pushing to get access to the 900mhz frequency and use it for 3G once 2G gets turned off. apparently it has better penetration into buildings or something...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a rule of thumb, the lower the frequency (longer wavelength) the deeper it is going to penetrate. Thats why you can listen to the radio inside whereas you can't see the sun (visible light=much higher frequency).
cool.
I understand now. i suppose it kinda makes sense as well, lower wavelengths tend to have more power anyway,so i shoulda figured that out....
According to the Carphone Warehouse website, one of the features for the GalaxyS2 is quoted as HSDPA+. Is this an oversite on carphone warehouses part or will HSDPA+ actually be available to us in the uk?
http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/news/coming-soon/samsung_galaxy_s_2
The Samsung Galaxy S 2 is coming soon to The Carphone Warehouse! Just 8.49mm at its thinnest point, Galaxy S 2 is officially the World's slimmest smartphone. It comes with the latest version of Android and a brilliant NEW Super Amoled + display.
Dual core processor, for superb performance
Super fast web browsing with NEW HSDPA+ technology
Full 1080p HD video recording and onscreen playback
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Optimised for entertainment:
Internet
NEW HSDPA+ technology makes your 3G mobile network connection faster, so you can download more content, load online videos more easily and enjoy the web more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the phone has HSPDA+ (4G)
the question is if your phone company supports 4G or not
even if 4G is not an option for your cell company, you can still get 3G with the phone
yeh the question is whether uk phone companies will support hspa+ as it is an extension of 3g really?
because if not they shouldnt be advertising a feature that is disabled.
or due to the recently announced 4g spectrum auction, they are just meaning it will be compatible once the 4g network is set up.
its just hsdpa+ enabled and thats that... what carrier the consumer will be using and if the carrier supports it, is none of their business. they sell internationally just because uk carriers dont support this yet doesnt mean that they arent supposed to describe exactly what they are selling...
no, you guys aren't understanding me. it is a uk website, not an international website of samsung, it is a uk seller selling to the uk, we have tranding standards laws so products arent missold.
do any uk people know if this is possible in this country?
I'm not quite sure you actually know what HSPA+ is - the phone does support this wireless standard, but for it to be useful to you your cell provider needs to have HSPA+ capable stations in your area. They are selling you a capable phone, not cell phone service - and the maximum speed this phone can attain is higher than other phones maximum speed.
And, of course, UK providers do support this standard. You are most likely to get a HSPA+ signal in metropolitan regions. If you absolutely have to know if your area is covered, you need to research further - but this will change over time, as more and more regions are upgraded.
But even if no cell phone provider in your area had capable stations it wouldn't be mislabeling as the seller is only describing the capabilities of the phone - you could be buying it for use outside the UK.
You really need to research before asking pointless questions.
walk.away said:
no, you guys aren't understanding me. it is a uk website, not an international website of samsung, it is a uk seller selling to the uk, we have tranding standards laws so products arent missold.
do any uk people know if this is possible in this country?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
carphone warehouse ships INTERNATIONALLY this means its shipping to countries that do have hsdpa+ carriers...
why make a big deal out of this? even if the uk doesnt have it right now they will in a few months. if they have it already, great...
Carphone Warehouse is an international company, does not mean Carphone warehouse UK ships internationally.
http://selfhelp.carphonewarehouse.com/SelfHelp/request.do?view()=c{a37ba1a0-bc8e-11de-e56d-000000000000}
I am sorry if I wasn't clear with the question, I was wanting an answer/debate as to whether the UK will or already has HSPA+. I was unaware it does as we haven't sold off the old analogue wireless spectrum yet. When this is sold off (sometime mid next year at the earliest) then the networks have to implement it, so more delay.
Having worked previously for many years in electrical retail, if I told someone that their new HD tv made everything HD, that would be misselling, and breaking the law. Same logic applies to the website
NEW HSDPA+ technology makes your 3G mobile network connection faster, so you can download more content, load online videos more easily and enjoy the web more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this then true that HSPA+ is compatible with the existing 3G networks? There is no need for upgrading the wireless transmitters? I know that Vodafone has done trials but I do not know how these would be done.
Also I don't really think this is a pointless question as for UK users the SGS2 seems to be the first HSPA+ phone available. Again I know that Vodafone has done trials but no phones that have HSPA+ that are available internationally have been sold in the UK with this technology.
Also PartyMango, they are selling you a "cell phone" service as they are a 3rd party seller of Orange/T-Mobile/3/Vodafone services, CW take responsibility for the contract. CW do not sell phones this expensive unlocked or payg.
But thankyou for telling me that there is HSPA+ service already in the UK, as my phone doesn't support it I would never know and having tried to research it I couldn't find anything so asked here, and tried to let potential UK buyers know that a "4G" phone is coming soon fully capable.
Edit: Btw, I don't think locked phones on UK contracts would have cheap rates for being able to use HSPA+ data abroad.
walk.away said:
Is this then true that HSPA+ is compatible with the existing 3G networks? There is no need for upgrading the wireless transmitters? I know that Vodafone has done trials but I do not know how these would be done
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HSPA+ is the next revision of current 3g technology. Providers do need to upgrade their transmitters, but that doesn't necessarily mean replacing the hardware. Almost all recent transmitter hardware sold by equipment manufacturers to cell providers is firmware-upgradeable. Most equipment installed now is even prepared to carry LTE signals at a later time.
walk.away said:
Is this then true that HSPA+ is compatible with the existing 3G networks? There is no need for upgrading the wireless transmitters? I know that Vodafone has done trials but I do not know how these would be done.
Also I don't really think this is a pointless question as for UK users the SGS2 seems to be the first HSPA+ phone available. Again I know that Vodafone has done trials but no phones that have HSPA+ that are available internationally have been sold in the UK with this technology.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure about HSDPA+ but I've had HSDPA on my HTC Hero for the past 18 months with T-Mobile UK, and I know Three UK have HSDPA capability too.
According to GSMArena:
The Hero has HSDPA 900 / 2100
The original SGS has HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100 (And when I played with a SGS in a Three store it had a H, so it definitely worked with Three's HSDPA network)
SGSII has HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
So I think it's just similar but with more frequencies? Not sure, but hope it helps somewhat!
EDIT: I looked it up on Wikipedia and HSPA+ is a much faster connection, I'm sure we don't have that in the UK yet, perhaps it's just a misprint on the website?
Ayrlupine said:
EDIT: I looked it up on Wikipedia and HSPA+ is a much faster connection, I'm sure we don't have that in the UK yet, perhaps it's just a misprint on the website?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HSPA+ does feature different speed levels, on the phone side as well as on the network side - many cell providers all around the world do have it, UK providers too. It would be very odd for the UK networks not to feature this technology, as opposed to most domestic european cell networks. But rural areas most often won't have HSPA+ coverage.
And it is no misprint as the website is advertising the phones capabilities, not a specific cell providers network features.
4G like 3G they are all shared bandwidth
so don't expect to see full speed in heavily populated area
if 200 people happened to be connected to the same cell phone tower pumping out 4G, then all 200 people are sharing the same 21 Mbps bandwidth
that means each one will probably be getting in reality 2.1 Mbps at best
of course that's like a worse case scenario, and only if all 200 people are actually downloading heavy content off the network
Sorry about the double post T.T
Three UK are supposedly rolling out HSPA+ this year, they've just announced a HSPA+ capable mobile broadband dongle. (I have no source, I'm lazy, just google HSPA+ UK or HSPA+ Three.)
So that's pretty neat, I'm thinking of getting SGSII with Three, hopefully I'll be able to hop on the HSPA+ when it rolls out!
AllGamer said:
if 200 people happened to be connected to the same cell phone tower pumping out 4G, then all 200 people are sharing the same 21 Mbps bandwidth
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Number of frequencies that can be used simultaneously on a cell tower has gradually increased from 1 upto 4 today and maybe more later.
So upto 4 frequencies can be used in the same area and each frequency can handle 21 Mbps.
Later there will be phones that can handle several frequencies simultaneously
to get higher speed.
so with this being a hsdpa+ device is it safe to assume that if I were to buy a British sim free version that I can pop in my tmobile sim card would only have 3G speeds?
the fact that is says hsdpa+ and not hspa+ kinda makes me worried that the s2 cant achieve "4G" speeds. (at least the british version)
someone correct me if im wrong but hsdpa+ is the technical term for what tmobile calls 3g and hspa+ is supposed 4G.
Your phone will be able to achieve the highest speed its standards and the implemented network standard allow - the Galaxy S II supports 21 Mbps down (HSPA+) and 5,76 Mbps up (HSUPA). These are the maximum supported speeds/standard, of course the phone can utilize older standards like HSDPA, UMTS, EDGE or even GPRS as well if the local network won't support anything better. If this were a HSDPA+ phone, the maximum achievable speed would be 14,4 Mbps.
4G is nothing more than a marketing term, used by different cell providers for different standards. At this point, it has lost its meaning. (But, yes, by your definition, the Galaxy S2 is going to be a "4g device")
PartyMango said:
Your phone will be able to achieve the highest speed its standards and the implemented network standard allow - the Galaxy S II supports 21 Mbps down (HSPA+) and 5,76 Mbps up (HSUPA). These are the maximum supported speeds/standard, of course the phone can utilize older standards like HSDPA, UMTS, EDGE or even GPRS as well if the local network won't support anything better. If this were a HSDPA+ phone, the maximum achievable speed would be 14,4 Mbps.
4G is nothing more than a marketing term, used by different cell providers for different standards. At this point, it has lost its meaning. (But, yes, by your definition, the Galaxy S2 is going to be a "4g device")
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right I could care less about the 4g wars because none of these network technologies are true 4g. BUT with that being said there is a big difference is real world speed levels between the 2. The GS4G is advertised as a hspa+ and hsdpa+ capable device that is capable of 21mbps. Of course I've never seen anything over 10 but the SGS2 is only being advertised as hsdpa+. So with that being said I guess its safe to say that the SGS2 does not have a hspa+ radio in it. Only an hsdpa+ radio. Correct? None of the docs I've seen show that it is a hspa+ capable device
Sent from my DAMN Galaxy 4G¡!
walk.away said:
no, you guys aren't understanding me. it is a uk website, not an international website of samsung, it is a uk seller selling to the uk, we have tranding standards laws so products arent missold.
do any uk people know if this is possible in this country?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am from the UK and can't see how this breaks any trading standard laws. Listing what features the phone actually has does not break TS if the carrier you use it with does not support it. It's no different to listing the phone has quad band even though some of those frequencies are not used in UK. It is fine for Carphone warehouse to list features they know are not supported in UK because:
1. They may be supported in UK in future.
2. Some customers may go overseas and roam to other carriers that do support those features.
But, to answer your direct question. I have not heard about any UK carriers who support HSPA+. This wiki lists worldwide carriers that do support it but UK is not listed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSPA%2B.
I'm in New Zealand and i use telecom XT network (umts 850mhz) so obviously the at&t version will work fine. I also perhaps have the opportunity of buying the umts quadband version (850,900,1900,2100) which would probably not have the same restrictions as the at&t 4G.
However, from lurking here i can see that there seems to be more dev happening on the 4G, is this correct or would i be better off with the vanilla quadband 3g version? (im not 100% sure where the local stores source these vanilla phones from)
One day i might change to another provider in which case i would need 900 umts but if there is more chance of getting more bang for my buck with the 4g i will go that way.
Yeah it would be easier just to buy a galaxy 2 but its big and cheap feeling and i just dont trust samsung build quality or gps as much as the Moto.
thanks in advance.
the 4G is a marketing term from AT&T. its just 14mb HSPDA+
Whether a local version vs AT&T version is worth it, that is up to you
tjjensen23 said:
the 4G is a marketing term from AT&T. its just 14mb HSPDA+
Whether a local version vs AT&T version is worth it, that is up to you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep i understand that the 4g is just a marketing buzzword. What i'm asking is to me it looks like the vanilla phone appears to be identical hardware just with an extra 3g band? Also which model is likely to have the better dev support and moto support if they do decide to unlock the bootloader for certain ops?
Is the atrix 4g only sold on AT&T or are other operators also selling htis elsewhere in the world?
I'm just wanting to make sure i buy the model with the best support moving forward as it has to be a keeper for a while. I've flashed the absolute hell out of my milestone and sadly realise that due to the ram its never going to amount to much more.
I just want to know how different the development will be for the international version compared to either the Canadian/US version (which presumably will be the same with S4 & 2GB RAM). People are posting that Samsung will give the international version updates earlier but is it that much sooner than other variants (or do the NA variants not get updates at all)?
I'm not sure which to order since I'm from the US (I have no use for LTE but price and ease of warranty are factors).
This is my problem too, which to get?. I'd love to have more development options, but at the same time I want faster speeds.
At a glance it appears that the internation one is going to be HSPA+ 21Mbit/s connections. But the LTE North American models will have LTE support and if LTE isn't avalible in your area then it defaults down to DC-HSPA 42Mbit/s not to mention the 2GBs of ram.
This is a hard choice :/
Both will have great development. Look at the intl note and the north america note for example
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
I also don't know which version to choose... Less pricy 2gb dual core with LTE or international with more support quadcore better GPU but less ram and no LTE...
I wanna know which one is better for multitasking, also if the battery life is better on the dual core or not and if 2gb vs 1gb really matters...
Id choose the usa version but i just hate that awful carrier logo on the front of the phone, it ruins all the beauty!
Totòòò said:
Id choose the usa version but i just hate that awful carrier logo on the front of the phone, it ruins all the beauty!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thankfully my carrier doesn't brand there model number on the phone itself. I think they do this because they sell there phones in an unbranded/unlock versions to other non-major tel companys in Canada (don't know if this holds true for the SGS3 when it comes out though)
I've made my decision I want more ram and faster connection speeds through LTE and DC-HSPA. So now I'm just waiting for the thing to release lol. Also waiting to hear back from them if i can get it cheaper as an upgrade, otherwise their full price will be $599
Sent from my GT-I9100M using XDA
Don't mean to drag this back up, but I was going to create a new post until I found this one.
I am in the same predicament. I'm wondering if I should get the Intl or US model.
I'm on T-Mobile, and they will be refarming their PCS band for HSPA+. I wonder if it's a safe bet to get the Intl model and rely only on a single 1900 MHz band for data, or go with the carrier's model and enjoy the potential of 2 HSPA+ bands (1700/1900)...
Plus, there's the development support issue as well. I've enjoyed my Intl SGS2 when I was on AT&T because of all the developer support - love the mods and the ROMs. Then I moved to a GNex when I went to TMobile.
My ideal ROM situation: CM9 ROM, stock Android Experience ROM, and modified Samsung ROM (themed to look/feel like ICS so I can keep the camera app while enjoying the stability and the highly optimized framework). I love using Titanium Backup and ROM Manager to basically change ROMs without loosing much data whenever I'm in a different mood.
I'd like to eventually have 1 SGS3, 1 iPhone (the next model, esp when TMobile's PCS band gets refarmed), and I'll keep my GNex for shiz and giggles.
Just not sure which to get - both seem to have their pros and cons.
Hi, im looking for a phone which would work with both verizon and T-mobile. Why both? well im in an odd situation, where im halfway through my contract with verizon, but want to switch to T-mobile. But my phone right now barely even works at the moment, so i need a new one, which I can bring over with me when i switch to T-mobile
I need a phone which works on both carriers or else I will end up buying to phones at full price, and I wouldnt want to do that!. Any help wpuld be extremely appreciated, there has to be some kind of smartphone out there thats capable of this
robotnikman said:
Hi, im looking for a phone which would work with both verizon and T-mobile. Why both? well im in an odd situation, where im halfway through my contract with verizon, but want to switch to T-mobile. But my phone right now barely even works at the moment, so i need a new one, which I can bring over with me when i switch to T-mobile
I need a phone which works on both carriers or else I will end up buying to phones at full price, and I wouldnt want to do that!. Any help wpuld be extremely appreciated, there has to be some kind of smartphone out there thats capable of this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lot of phones these days are tri/quad-band. This means they operate on 3 or 4 frequencies ranges.
I'm not from the US so I'm not 100% sure but I believe Verizon is a CDMA based network while T-Mobile uses GSM (or WCDMA).
This would mean that most phones cannot be taken from one to the other. However many newer phones are released in carrier specific versions but don't have any hardware differences. Its often very hard to test/confirm this without having the specific device in your hand.
Google suggests that the iPhone 5, 5C & 5S from Verizon is unlocked and works on T-Mobiles 3G & 4G networks. So this could be an option.
As far as android handsets go, most of the phones I can find dont have a good overlap of frequencies for both networks.
Using the LG G2 as an example, the T-Mobile versions of most handsets use 850/1700/1900/2100 for 3G and LTE Bands 2, 4, 17. Verizon uses 850/900/1900/2100 for 3G and LTE Bands 4, 13. There is a little overlap there, 3G @ 850, 900 & 2100, but the LTE coverage is limited to Band 4 which could result in some negative experiences coverage wise on T-Mobile.