GSM to GSM device direct communication - MDA, XDA, 1010 General

Hi everyone, love the site
Due to fortunate (and cheap) circumstances I am now the owner of two XDA/Wallaby/Qtek 1010 devices.
After much playing, I got to wondering if it was possible to modify these devices so they communicate directly with each other rather than using the existing (vodafone NZ) GSM network. I assume it would at least require modification of the radio stack ROM, if it is even possible. I guess the existing functions provided by the radio stack to the OS would be restricted to specific network related operations.
Does anyone have any further information about this, or modification of the radio stack? Also what are the risks? I understand that the wallaby is pretty resilient to permanant breakage through dodgy flash writes etc.
BTW if this sort of modification is illegal due to frequency licencing etc, then I am asking about this in a purely hypothetical sense

as far as i know it's supported by all of gsm pda's
when one setup a connection
one pick cellline rather then grps
ppl who have an isp which dont use grps
use it that way
of cause for 2 devices it would require software to work
where one acted server and the other client
like the good old seriel cable connection between 2 pc's

whoops, I mean without any celluar network involvement at all, just device to device communication over the cell phone radio of the devices. Pretty strange idea I know, but would it be possible?

if they used the 900/1800/1900 Frequiencys it would be illegal as it would interupt other devices in the area from being able to reach their gsm antennas

hmm damn there goes that idea. Such potential for long range comms too!

Related

store a sim-card and use it "offline"?

I had a idea but couldnt figure it out with a google search..
The sim-card is as i understand it merely a storage card for a bunch of identity-data.
Couldnt it, at least in theory, be possible to make the phone scan and save the sim-card info?
That would make it possible to leave the card at home with a fully functional unit.
I mean, in some level its bound to be a simple identifier handshake with the network that distinguishes a unique sim-card on the cell network.
the phone itself starts fine without a simcard, so a software based simcard solution feels plausible.
And since we´re already using a handheld computer to make phone-calls, the processing power is there
it could be nice to have a few sim-cards active at once, to recieve office calls after hours while using the private number to call mom
It would be disastrous when it comes to security.
All carriers are regulated and something that you imagined will never happen but we all know that even highest security have been torn apart.
this is not possible, if you want to know exactly why read on gsm security and how sim cards work.
for short: the sim card is kind of a smartcard, if does active calculations. also the part where the "unciphered" data is transfered (somewhere between simcard and radio part of the phone) is absolutley closed source and secured against attacks or sniffing in several ways (soft AND hardware). these parts are the best protected secrets of the operators, as they would get into serious trouble if it was easily possible to clone sim cards. also there would occur technical difficulties if more than one subscriber tries to login with the same IMSI. there were rumors about a specific nokia (iirc 1100) produced in now-closed factory in bochum, germany, that were said to be able to log on to the network with a different phone number. this should have enabled criminals to sniff sms' with TAN numbers for bank account transactions, the rumor led to ebay-prices of several 10.000$ for the specific device. afaik (though it was never really admitted) this was a big hoax, as the potential attacker still needed access to the original sim card of the victim, rendering the whole security bug useless (if you have the original sim you can just use this to receive sms...). the said bug actually existed, and was in the former mentioned security module between sim and radio, making it possible to clone sim cards at all.
this is roughly my understanding, i am not really an expert on that subject, but i work in that field.

Tethering-Function

Does anyone know how to do that?
Yes, people know how.
Sent from the XDA App on my FroYoed Sprint Hero...so forgive possible typos
OK now I'm the same distance as before
the function no longer exists in WM7
I have just read that the function must be enabled
has anyone tried?
THX
it seems there is a way to unlock tethering on the samsung phones after dialing some access numbers..
No one has found out the access num for the HTC handsets till now..
hope it would also come out soon
code of Samsung and LG, I also found
I do not understand why Microsoft is such a "reactionary" makes
if you used the old functions in ZUNE
- Outlook sync (contacts etc)
- Tethering
in addition, the Live ID, etc
then it would have been perfect.
pity
There's an issue with carriers I believe. It would strain networks and possibly cause them to charge for the service (the Samsung workaround charges to MODEM usage, not data)
Spot on
Lumic said:
There's an issue with carriers I believe. It would strain networks and possibly cause them to charge for the service (the Samsung workaround charges to MODEM usage, not data)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think Lumic is correct. The carriers maybe the ones that don't want this function. Not sure about the straining networks or charging part.. eg: Telstra is all "NextG" so what difference would it make if you hit the network to download email or web browse using your phone or thru your phone. You would still be hitting the same network for data and you have already paid for the data allowance.
I have used it previously on all my Win Phones as it saved me carrying another device.
I'm guessing the carriers want to force you to buy a 3G dongle/plan for data from them. Now that is something we could all understand
Still early days yet and all this may change.
Until then, fingers crossed someone finds the access to the maintenance menues on the Mozart and we can enable it ourselves.
I really cant imagine T$ making people pay for teathering. they want you to be able to bundle everything onto your device. It is a big feature for them to say why have 2 devices. You still pay a premium for their data.
Free Tethering on Telstra?
I have no doubt Mozart can tether. But as Microsoft WP7 is trying to get OS share on smartphones, Microsoft will try and do whatever it can to attract carriers. My old HTC TP2 -running WM6.5 - tethered with no more setup than attaching a usb cable to laptop (vista). This technology is nearly 3 years old. It was in my HTC phone back then. (Even my old Sony Ericcson P900 had it on Symbian)
T$ do want you to buy 2 devices, and charge you for both. When I first got my HTC TP2 , they wanted 2cents/kb as modem. Then you had different sim for modem and phone (and 2 different rates of pay for the same service effectively).
I hope market demand makes T$ want to offer features - especiall ones that are already on the phone. But instead - they lock these features, and put usless apps and self promoting links of no real use. They know that most users would remove this rubbish so the lock them in the menus.
To promote the Mozart, you now can get 1GBdata for $10. (previously 20MB for $10). Wouldn't it be great to tether Mozart and actually USE the 1GB! Nodoubt there are some that like the small screen, lots of video streaming and music downloads to the Mozart. But I'd rather do that on my laptop.
Please Telstra, turn on the modem!

[Q] UMA (WiFi Calling) myths and legends

Hi All.
I've had an X10 mini pro on T-Mobile UK for nearly a year, and love it, but I am faced with a problem:
At work, I get absoluteley no signal. However, there are Wifi networks everywhere that are freeley available. It seemed logical to me that I aught to be able to get my phone to use those wifi networks to obtain a signal, so I did some research and found this generally to be reffered to as UMA (Unliceneced Mobile Access?)
For anyone who's coming across this technology for the first time, this is a facility which allows your mobile phone to use wifi connections as a backup for service signal, and switch seemlessley between them for use on calls (through your regular phone number [NOT VOIP!]) and texts.
I've read a lot of conflicting oppinions and statements on this, and wanted to ask here (In a place of expert knowledge and understanding) what the real truth is behind all this.
1: Is UMA a hardware or software based tool?
-I've heared numerous statements on this, including:
a) "Your phone can not do this if you don't have the correct hardware"
b) "The standard hardware (provided you have wifi access) is all you need, only the software needs to allow support"
C) "You need sufficient wifi technology AND the correct software to enable this"
Which is true?
2: "Service Providers are holding back on UMA support as it removes their justification for charging the user for calls"
- I've seen this in a few places, but it doesn't make sense to me. Sureley, despite the fact that the call is connected by a wifi signal, it still needs to find its way through a telephone exchange. Telephone exchanges cost money to maintain and manage, so that can't be right? can it?
- If anything, sureley this would give service providers a competative advantage as they can guarentee better signal coverage. It would seem more logical to me that the issue is less with the hand set, but with the providers managing the incoming and outgoing call data via the wifi network?
3: "UMA is/isn't supportend on android version X.X"?
- Again, I've seen conflicting info on this. What's the score?
Thought this was the right place to discuss all this and find the real truth behind UMA. My final question of course being:
4: Is there a UMA app or method by which I can use wifi as a signal backup? If not, is anyone looking into it and how soon may users see the benefits?
Appreciate any light that can be shead on this to dispurse the smoke and mirrors that seenm to surround it.
Thanks,
Oliver
hmmm
Supprised noone's responded to this... did I miss something?
In the USA, T-mobile has an app that does this. T-mobile USA uses the term wi-fi calling.
Is there such a thing in the UK? I know that the Optimus T (essentially the same as Optimus One) has this ability. I found this list of phones that work with this feature on T-mobile USA.
Phones that can make use of this new feature:
Blackberry 8520
Blackberry Bold 9780
Samsung Vibrant (SGH-T959)
Samsung Vibrant II (Galaxy S 4G)
LG Optimus T
myTouch 3G Slide
myTouch 4G
Motorola Defy
Motorola Cliq 2
Motorola Cliq XT
Sidekick 4G
G2
G2X
Nokia Astound (C7-00)
Nokia Mode (E73)
Samsung t339
Some other older android phones can work as long as the app has been ported for the device. Very YMMV
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not think your phone is available through T-mobile USA, so it is not on the list. Someone figured out how to bring wi-fi calling to non-tmobile Roms for the Optimus T/Optimus One phone. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1116268 However, I am fairly certain that this type of app needs the cooperation of your carrier to work.
Action_Man_1 said:
Hi All.
I've had an X10 mini pro on T-Mobile UK for nearly a year, and love it, but I am faced with a problem:
At work, I get absoluteley no signal. However, there are Wifi networks everywhere that are freeley available. It seemed logical to me that I aught to be able to get my phone to use those wifi networks to obtain a signal, so I did some research and found this generally to be reffered to as UMA (Unliceneced Mobile Access?)
For anyone who's coming across this technology for the first time, this is a facility which allows your mobile phone to use wifi connections as a backup for service signal, and switch seemlessley between them for use on calls (through your regular phone number [NOT VOIP!]) and texts.
I've read a lot of conflicting oppinions and statements on this, and wanted to ask here (In a place of expert knowledge and understanding) what the real truth is behind all this.
1: Is UMA a hardware or software based tool?
-I've heared numerous statements on this, including:
a) "Your phone can not do this if you don't have the correct hardware"
b) "The standard hardware (provided you have wifi access) is all you need, only the software needs to allow support"
C) "You need sufficient wifi technology AND the correct software to enable this"
Which is true?
2: "Service Providers are holding back on UMA support as it removes their justification for charging the user for calls"
- I've seen this in a few places, but it doesn't make sense to me. Sureley, despite the fact that the call is connected by a wifi signal, it still needs to find its way through a telephone exchange. Telephone exchanges cost money to maintain and manage, so that can't be right? can it?
- If anything, sureley this would give service providers a competative advantage as they can guarentee better signal coverage. It would seem more logical to me that the issue is less with the hand set, but with the providers managing the incoming and outgoing call data via the wifi network?
3: "UMA is/isn't supportend on android version X.X"?
- Again, I've seen conflicting info on this. What's the score?
Thought this was the right place to discuss all this and find the real truth behind UMA. My final question of course being:
4: Is there a UMA app or method by which I can use wifi as a signal backup? If not, is anyone looking into it and how soon may users see the benefits?
Appreciate any light that can be shead on this to dispurse the smoke and mirrors that seenm to surround it.
Thanks,
Oliver
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this solution, T-Mobile and Orange have done a deal where they can use eachothers signals, go back to netwoork settings and you should find " T-Mobile-Orange 3G"... Connect to that and it may work.
It seems that T-Mobile and Orange both have very bad coverage compared to other competators.

[Q] Direct Hardware Communication In The Kernel

I'm currently developing a device driver in Linux and I was hoping to be able to obtain the current signal strength at my program's leisure. I was hoping to obtain this directly from the hardware, itself, however I don't know the actual chip used for 3G communication. Up until recently I've been using a similar phone to the S II, the docomo LTE version not released in North America which had Qualcomm's MDM9200 on it. Although this was through a proprietary protocol (QMI), I wasn't sure if this were at all possible on the AT&T Galaxy S II since it may or may not have a different 3G chip in it.
I know this is possible in user-space -- in fact I've been going through code snippets of methods for establishing communication with Qualcomm's (somewhat old but still supported) DM port, however not only is this not fast enough for my purposes but not in the android kernel, either.
-Loveyoulongtime <3

Can physically changing chips result in different carrier for a phone?

Hello,
Random thought here but a good one. I am an electronic technician and I'm a little into Android but super into it like I used to be due to time constraints these days.
What I am asking is, is it possible, and I don't mean physically, I can do that already. I mean software wise to change the chip used to pick up certain signal bands with another one that picks up different signal bands and use a phone with a different carrier? Or is there some sort of programming specific to each phone that is tailored to use those specific bands for communication? Or does Android just handle data and texting the same across all phones?
Thank you for answering.
@BlueForce64
SIM cards allow your phone to work on a specific carrier's network, such as Verizon or AT&T. Hence technically seen it's the carrier who owns the phone. And: It 's the carrier who decides which band is used, it's NOT Android.
In order to use a SIM card from a carrier that's different than your current one, your phone must be carrier unlocked.
No, that's not what I mean. I mean on the circuit board, if I changed the Qualcomm band chip that your phone uses to pick up those specific bands, can you use the phone with a different carrier if I removed the one for let's say, Verizon, and swapped it with a Qualcomm chip that can pick up the t mobile bands.
As I said, I am an electronic technician. I work on military, space, medical and other electronics on a component level. I have access to a wide range of professional soldering/desoldering equipment. I change 144 pin FPGA's, ball grid array chips, surface mount components on a daily basis.
What I am referring to is the components on this link. Specifically steps 8 and 9 where it highlights which components are which.
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+S9+Teardown/104322
I have the ability to change any of these chips with my profession and wondering that if I were to change them, can I bring any phone to any carrier if I know which version of which Qualcomm communication chips are used for which carrier.

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