I have a brand new unlocked Streak with an AT&T sim card in it, from my old lg vu. All I have is just the calling plan. I want to get a no contract unlimited plan to get online, etc., since I now have this beautiful new phone. Which carriers can I use and which are the cheapest? AT&T's data plan seems too pricy. Thanx, in advance, for the help...
Your only alternative to AT&T is T-Mobile, and if your phone was bought direct from Dell, it will be a very painful alternative in terms of speed. Streaks purchased direct from Dell cannot see all of T-Mobile's frequencies, and thus data will be limited to EDGE (2G) speeds.
Bite the bullet and get an AT&T smartphone plan. Even though T-Mobile has an unlimited everything plan, the penalty you pay in speed offsets any savings you might gain from changing carriers.
Carrier, Network
I bought my Streak off of Ebay from someone in Canada. It was brand new from Rogers. I unlocked it through Dell. Does this make a difference? I have seen unlimited plans from Boost Mobile and Straight Talk and was curious if my Streak would work on their networks. I read on another site that the unlocked Streak would work on any network. Just looking for other info... Thanx.
Unlocked GSM type phones will generally work on any GSM type network.
Boost mobile is a CDMA type network and straight talk is by tracfone? Straight talk might work depending on the donor phone (or if you can get a bare sim card)
Rogers is basically the At&t of the north in the way they handle the streak, and more importantly in compability between phones.
They're both 3g 850/1900
Tmobile is 1700.
The US streak is 850/1900/2100 (which is the one offered by the dell website/rogers/at&t)
straight talk uses verizon/at&t/tmobile as it's base network(?)
You'll get call/2g off either tmo's or at&t's networks and straight talk if it uses their network for coverage.
You wont get 3g except on the at&t 3g available portions of the network.
You cant use boost mobile at all if it's only CDMA, only if they offer GSM service on top of CDMA
TheManii... Thanx for the reply and the help. At least now I have a starting point. I am really new to all this and any help and advice is really welcomed and appreciated. Keep the info coming... Thanx again.
Unlocked Tmobile phone, ST sim
Hello, noob here... This is the closest thread I've found to my problem after extensive searching, and not being "senior" enough to post on more experienced threads. My issue: I have an unlocked Tmobile branded Moto Defy. Put the sim from my Straight Talk E71 in there, and, as many have said before, I only get edge speeds. I've read other forums of people claiming to pick up the HSPDA 850 band, but would have to travel hundreds of miles from SC to actually prove that. My real question here is, why can't my truly quad band Defy pick up the same exact HSPDA 850 / 1900 bands that my Straight talk Nokia E71 was picking up? Do I have to root it? Can you explain why exactly it doesn't pick up the AT&T 1900 band? Themanii, you seem knowledgeable here. Any info is much appreciated. Thanx.
Here's the info for the two phones:
Defy: 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100 HSDPA 1700 / 2100 or HSDPA 850 / 1900
E71: 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100 HSDPA 850 / 1900 - American version
info derived from gsmarena.com
Firstly dont bump old threads, to granted this one isnt THAT old.
Which carrier are you on exactly?
If you're on Tmo USA your e71 doesnt support AWS(1700)
If you're using At&t with your AWS defy it doesnt support 1900
Defy = 900/1700/2100 OR 850/1900
E71 = 900/2100 OR 850/1900
Ok guys I have an atrix 4g running on t-mobile. My question is why cant I get 4g/3g on this phone ? T-mobile runs on the 2100 band and the phone does support that band so why no 4g or 3g? common sense would tell me that if t-mo runs 4g on 2100 and the phone is capable of running on 2100 that it would work. have searched for a total of about 4 hours or so over the past couple days and cant find a straight answer only thing i can find is that att doesnt run on 2100 band yet the phone does. thanks in advance to anybody that can answer and taking the time to read.
are you getting H+ or H? (This is "3.5g") The Atrix 4g is not a true 4g phone.
Because the 2100 spectrum that you're using the phone on now is part of the quad-band gsm which is edge/2g. The difference lies in the bands used for 3g/4g, in which case AT&T only uses 850/1900 and tmobile only uses 1700/2100.
There is also a bunch of things that include HSPA, AWS, WCDMA, and so on and so on but I don't know enough about that to comment.
EDIT: Also, the only phones I know that can be used on both AT&T and Tmobile 3g/4g are "penta-band" phones like some European Nokia phones and the unlocked Galaxy Nexus that needs to be imported as well.
shattar01 said:
Ok guys I have an atrix 4g running on t-mobile. My question is why cant I get 4g/3g on this phone ? T-mobile runs on the 2100 band and the phone does support that band so why no 4g or 3g? common sense would tell me that if t-mo runs 4g on 2100 and the phone is capable of running on 2100 that it would work. have searched for a total of about 4 hours or so over the past couple days and cant find a straight answer only thing i can find is that att doesnt run on 2100 band yet the phone does. thanks in advance to anybody that can answer and taking the time to read.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wcdma=utms=3g
Yes, WCDMA and AWS(1700), as far as I know, are both from UMTS and the differences in regards to 3G between AT&T and Tmobile lie in the spectrum use (850&1900 vs 1700&2100). And both AT&T and Tmobile use HSPA(+) based off their respected UMTS frequencies.
I just don't understand the "leap" in GSM technology that breaks the quad-band compatibility, that's all.
matthew5025 said:
Wcdma=utms=3g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also I've read 850 is att's main spectrum for large areas and 900 for T-Mobile. All higher spectrums are for smaller, rural areas.
If your looking for 3g maybe find a town or, buy a dual band amplifier? That's IF they have 2100 MHz band working where you are located.
Lower bands ie 850/900 are the download streams. 1700/1900/2100 are upload streams. If I'm not mistaken
Also a T-Mobile vibrant supports att, it also has our main band, 850mhz. Again which is the main large areas, like T-Mobile 900mhz. 1700-2100mhz for att/T-Mobile range is only as good as the towns that still has that band currently operating for hspa/3g data. I've seen alot of T-Mobile phones that have 850/1900/2100, and work on att. If they were 1600/1900/2100 did not for me.
You need that lower frequencies to ensure it to work. Then....
Also for regional based frequencies...
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System
That link will let you know what that all really means.
I think you are mixing up gsm and umts.
GSM = 2G/Edge
UMTS (HSPA, HSPA+, HSDPA/HSUPA, WCDMA, AWS) = 3G
Have a look here. You will see they label "3G" as "UMTS" which is HSPA/WCDMA. A little more down you can see they label their data as "HSDPA", which is download, and "HSUPA" which is upload. Further delineating the speeds they label either one as UMTS for down and Edge as up, which to me tells me they use gsm for the upload and only use UMTS for download. Either way, there is not a T-mobile phone available that can be unlocked and used on AT&T's 3G, just 2G and vice versa. As I have previously mentioned, you will need a penta-band phone for that.
Ciloteille said:
Also I've read 850 is att's main spectrum for large areas and 900 for T-Mobile. All higher spectrums are for smaller, rural areas.
If your looking for 3g maybe find a town or, buy a dual band amplifier? That's IF they have 2100 MHz band working where you are located.
Lower bands ie 850/900 are the download streams. 1700/1900/2100 are upload streams. If I'm not mistaken
Also a T-Mobile vibrant supports att, it also has our main band, 850mhz. Again which is the main large areas, like T-Mobile 900mhz. 1700-2100mhz for att/T-Mobile range is only as good as the towns that still has that band currently operating for hspa/3g data. I've seen alot of T-Mobile phones that have 850/1900/2100, and work on att. If they were 1600/1900/2100 did not for me.
You need that lower frequencies to ensure it to work. Then....
Also for regional based frequencies...
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Mobile_Telecommunications_System
That link will let you know what that all really means.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to give anyone a hard time but it's misinformation to tell anyone that a T-mobile phone can work on AT&T 3G.
And I'll say it again, I'm not an expert so if anyone can better explain then I'm all ears (eyes).
live4nyy said:
I think you are mixing up gsm and umts.
GSM = 2G/Edge
UMTS (HSPA, HSPA+, HSDPA/HSUPA, WCDMA, AWS) = 3G
Have a look here. You will see they label "3G" as "UMTS" which is HSPA/WCDMA. A little more down you can see they label their data as "HSDPA", which is download, and "HSUPA" which is upload. Further delineating the speeds they label either one as UMTS for down and Edge as up, which to me tells me they use gsm for the upload and only use UMTS for download. Either way, there is not a T-mobile phone available that can be unlocked and used on AT&T's 3G, just 2G and vice versa. As I have previously mentioned, you will need a penta-band phone for that.
And don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to give anyone a hard time but it's misinformation to tell anyone that a T-mobile phone can work on AT&T 3G.
And I'll say it again, I'm not an expert so if anyone can better explain then I'm all ears (eyes).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am just merely stating that I have a motorola defy on ATT, and it worked great for a long time with great speeds before I got a motorola atrix and infuse.
Im not saying that every tmobile phone will have working talk/text, or data for that matter. I have just posted an idea, or atleast what to look for when you are cruising for phones not labeled for your carrier.
I was getting my motorola defy with the att "grand fathered internet" for 10 dollars a month and it was about 160-420KB/s down, and 80-190KB/s up. but some phones are capable of this, others arent. I have a general idea, and have played with several different carrier cellphones and used them with att and att's 3g data.
Rogers HTC Dream (x2 of them)
Telus Milestone
Tmobile Defy
Rogers Atrix
ATT Atrix (x2 of them)
ATT Infuse
Rogers and Telus actually use the same 3G bands as AT&T so as long as those are unlocked they will work. And I'm not saying an unlocked T-mobile can't work on AT&T, because they can (they both use quad-band gsm) but you can not use an unlocked T-mobile phone an AT&T 3G. That's all I'm saying.
Now, they did make an European version of the Defy that uses the 850 3G band but not the T-mobile "branded" one.
I'm going to stick to my guns on this one because I don't want to give anyone the wrong idea about interchanging AT&T and T-mobile phones and expecting 3G service. I'm fairly certain about this and unless someone can prove otherwise that's how I will think.
Ciloteille said:
I am just merely stating that I have a motorola defy on ATT, and it worked great for a long time with great speeds before I got a motorola atrix and infuse.
Im not saying that every tmobile phone will have working talk/text, or data for that matter. I have just posted an idea, or atleast what to look for when you are cruising for phones not labeled for your carrier.
I was getting my motorola defy with the att "grand fathered internet" for 10 dollars a month and it was about 160-420KB/s down, and 80-190KB/s up. but some phones are capable of this, others arent. I have a general idea, and have played with several different carrier cellphones and used them with att and att's 3g data.
Rogers HTC Dream (x2 of them)
Telus Milestone
Tmobile Defy
Rogers Atrix
ATT Atrix (x2 of them)
ATT Infuse
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---------- Post added at 08:47 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:36 AM ----------
Upon further research, I have found this article, where under certain circumstances, you can use an unlocked AT&T iPhone with T-mobile 3G:
http://www.gsmarena.com/tmobile_usa_running_1900mhz_3g_in_some_areas_iphones_invited-news-3537.php
Now, this shows that an AT&T phone can maybe use T-mobile 3G but not the other way around. Again, I'm always up for learning something new but I need references/proof.
Well I do get att 3g on the defy and vibrant. I am currently getting about 300ish KB/s on them and 600+KB/s on my attic, I'm just going with the facts. Those facts are that certain T-Mobile phones will work with Att, provided they have 850mhz band. That allows you in most towns (near me) to get 3g
False.
300KB/s is Edge speed, which is only 2G.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G
http://www.phonescoop.com/glossary/term.php?gid=107
That's why you get faster speeds on the Atrix because it actually uses 3G.
Again, both AT&T and T-mobile use quad-band GSM. Which is why you can unlock a T-mobile phone and use it on AT&T, and vice versa, but it is only 2G/Edge and NOT 3G.
http://www.phonescoop.com/glossary/term.php?gid=139
http://www.phonescoop.com/glossary/term.php?gid=3
Furthermore, here are the wiki pages for AT&T and T-mobile which both inlcude frequency charts outlining the technology (2G or 3G) each one uses:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT&T_Wireless
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-Mobile_USA
Here are the charts:
AT&T:
Frequency Protocol Class
Frequencies used on the AT&T Network
850 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G
1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G
850 MHz UMTS/HSPA 3G
1900 MHz UMTS/HSPA 3G
700 MHz LTE 4G
T-mobile:
Frequency Band Protocol
850 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G
1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G
1700 MHz UMTS (W-CDMA)/HSPA/HSPA+ 4G (formerly 3G[34])
1900 MHz UMTS (W-CDMA)/HSPA/HSPA+ 4G
I check for facts and references, I'm only saying what I find in research.
Again, when unlocked, a T-mobile phone can use AT&T 2G/Edge, not 3G
Ciloteille said:
Well I do get att 3g on the defy and vibrant. I am currently getting about 300ish KB/s on them and 600+KB/s on my attic, I'm just going with the facts. Those facts are that certain T-Mobile phones will work with Att, provided they have 850mhz band. That allows you in most towns (near me) to get 3g
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have looked for days now across multiple forums to get some insight on this issue:
I want to use my Thunderbolt in Thailand. Haven't found any threads that speak of success, only conjecture that it won't work.
Homework I've done (unless i understand it incorrectly):
- Verizon 3G operates on the 850 / 1900 mhz cdma band. Radio Frequency Summary
" The following is a list of known frequencies which Verizon employs in the United States:
Frequencies used on the Verizon Network
Frequency Protocol Class
850 MHz 1xRTT/EV-DO/eHRPD 3G
1900 MHz 1xRTT/EV-DO/eHRPD 3G
700 MHz LTE 4G
1700/2100 MHz(AWS) LTE 4G"
- Truemove, a popular mobile company in Thailand has early links to Verizon and their 3G service operates on the 850mhz wcdma band
"What should I do if I want to use TrueMove 3G service but I don’t have a 3G 850 MHz mobile phone?
Basically, it’s not that all mobile phones work on any band. Each 3G compatible mobile phone supports different bands. For example, if you have a 3G 2.1 GHz or 900 MHz or 2G mobile phone, you will not be able to use TrueMove 3G service because TrueMove offers 3G service on 850 MHz band.
If you want to enjoy TrueMove 3G service, it is recommended that you buy a 3G WCDMA 850 MHz mobile phone or visit any True Shops and ask for a 3G compatible mobile phone. True Shops also sell different smartphones that support different mobile platforms e.g. iPhone 3G/3GS, BlackBerry Bold 900/Bold 9700 and Motorola Milestone."
- I spoke with verizon after reading other forums about 'unlocking' thunderbolts and was told that the thunderbolt comes unlocked, so unlocking wouldn't be necessary anyway.
- Lastly, it seems that many people have successfully put a 3G SIM into a 4G SIM slot on there phone and received 3G service.
....So what am I missing? What would prevent me from being able to use my Thunderbolt in Thailand for simple 3G service if the carrier (Truemove) works on cdma based bands? What extra might I have to do to get it to work?
PS: Sorry I can't insert the links directly in the post. Not allowed since this is my first post.
Thanks for any help
Hi guys,
I have an international S3 i9300 unlocked. Ill be moving to NYC for training for 4 months, would this be okay on AT&T network (will use AT&T sim and not my local simcard then roaming)?
im guessing this phone is quad band as well... LTE is not that important for me as i just download files sent to me thru email and im sure there will be WIFI in the office. My concern would generally be mobile signal and if it would be easy for me to get it
search for the frequencies AT&T uses, and compare to the supported frequencies of the i9300
Should be fine up to 3G:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT&T_Mobility#Radio_frequency_summary
Although, they have 2 freq's for 3G so it depends how they split that....
Because see our bands for 3G:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i9300_galaxy_s_iii-4238.php
We only support 1900 MHz where as AT&T does 850MHz and 1900MHz. You may need advise from an AT&T user as to what that split actually means.
If it's geographical for example, you may be in an 850 area, meaning teh best you every get is EDGE
Hi there,
I've got a Verizon HTC One Max. I rooted and put CM12 on my device, and it seems that some of the network bands aren't compatible with this device. After doing a bit of research, I noticed that the LTE Bands supported by this device are the ones used on my Canadian cellular carrier; However, when I select those types of networks to be used on the device, I get no signal picked up. I'm currently using "WCDMA only" as my selected network band for the device, as none of the GSM, LTE, or CDMA options work. It seems that it only picks up the 3G and 4G bands, but no LTE or GSM.
Now I don't know if this is because of the type of device I purchased (like I said, I found a way to get service to the phone through WCDMA), but I was hoping that maybe I could utilize the LTE network in the area instead of using the awful 3G and 4G speeds.
I'm on Virgin Mobile's network, which is a partner network of Bell Mobility Canada. Their supported network bands are:
"Although both are different and independent from one another, both the CDMA and HSPA+ networks use the 850 and 1900 MHz frequencies. Bell's LTE network uses Band 4 Advanced Wireless Services (AWS 1700/2100 MHz) in most coverage areas and Band 7 (2600 MHz) in a few areas."
The Verizon HTC One Max is compatible with the following:
Verizon: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 14.4 Mbps and LTE: 700 MHz
So looking at this, I might be an idiot - it looks like on second observation, maybe they're not compatible. I figured I'd post this just to double check anyway for good measure. Anyway, if you've got anything to provide, that'd be great.
Thanks.