Hi everyone,
I apologize in advance for the possibly n00b question. I am in Italy now with a T-Mobile USA G2 that I unlocked with GFree 0.5/adb/everything yesterday. I put in my TIM (Telecom Italia) SIM card and it finds the TIM network and connects me to normal phone service, but simply does not connect to 3G. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm assuming the G2 is capable of overseas data connectivity because T-Mobile advertised it as a "quad-band" phone -- am I wrong? Do I need to install a custom ROM to have international 3G?
Yeah, I think you are screwed. According to the t-mobile site here your quad band phone has the following freq specs:
850 MHz;900 MHz;1800 MHz;1900 MHz;UMTS: Band IV (1700/2100)
The band IV is the t-mobile 3G band in the states that uses 1700Mhz uplink and 2100 downlink (also known as AWS). Unfortunately for you Italy uses the typical European freqs of 1900Mhz uplink and 2100 downlink. And no you can't just use the downlink!
On the bright side, EDGE should work.
Thank you very much. I think you are correct: it's shameful and pathetic that T-Mobile advertises the G2 as an "international" phone and then provides a phone with support only for a single UMTS data band (unlike the iPhone 4, for example, which has support for 900 MHz UMTS/HSDPA).
As per the suggestion that EDGE should work, that does not appear either. All that appears is the "cellular" network icon -- a.k.a., the one immediately to the right of the battery. There is no "E" data connection either as there would be in the U.S. when I am out of 3G range. Is that normal? Is EDGE simply the normal cellular network?
I feel your pain, having traveled internationally a lot
No, when you are connected to GPRS you should get a "G" symbol near the signal bars and when you are connected to EDGE there should be an "E." If you are not getting that then a couple of suggestions:
1) You have switched on the data connectivity on your phone, right!!? (duhh)
2) Did you buy this SIM card new? There are older SIM cards where I had a problem getting the data connectivity, though that should not be a real problem.
3) Did your phone get the right APN settings from the SIM? In most cases for TIM I think you want ibox.tim.it and you *might* have to set in manually
4) Is this a prepaid SIM and do you have a balance? The network will probably reject the connection if you have 0 balance
5) If you don't have a plan (even prepaid), your balance will go down VERY quickly. In fact, your phone may have actually connected when you were not looking, and run your balance to 0 just by syncing.
The best deal for TIM data packages are listed here. I use them all the time, however if you are in the big cities WIND is pretty good and MUCH cheaper.
Hope that helps
Related
Hi, Just purchased the hd2 T Mobile from USA. Which carriers can I use in Canada to activate this Phone? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
any of them(well, except any cdma only ones) but you will need an unlock code from online or from t mobile, and you won't get 3g
Thanks for the help samsamuel. I took it to one carrier and they told me it wouldn't work. The phone is unlocked.Why wouldn't I get the 3G.I want the plan that gives me internet mobile browsing. PS it was fido I took it to.
because fido uses 1900 for 3g, from what i've read, and the tmous uses 1700/2100 for 3g., and i think rogers uses 850/1900 and maybe 1900/2100 (just skimming google for this infofact is, though, that without the 1700 aws band,, no high speed data.
you will be able to get gprs and edge for browsing, but no 3g/hsdpa.
as to them saying it won't work, they're probably either making it up or meaning 3g
most canadian users fork out the extra for the telstra model if they want 3g.
Thanks. I guess this phone is useless to me, as I wanted to be able to access the internet without using the wifi.
Redder1 said:
as I wanted to be able to access the internet
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you can, but only with gprs / edge speeds.
I had been considering buying an HD2 and trying to unlock it for use with an AT&T sim card for my current account. I knew that their networks were compatible, but I didn't realize that hsdpa was on different frequencies. I googled around a bit and it looks like AT&T uses 1900 mhz and Tmo uses 1700/2100. I can't verify if this info is correct ,but this could sure put a dent in my plans. Does anyone know for sure if an HD2 can be used on AT&T's 3g network?
there are several threads about how you can't. go read in the tmous specific section. plenty of confirmation that it doesn't.
3G Frequencies
Hi there!
I was wondering if there is a way to change those settings?? I have a T-Mo HD2, and maybe there is a way to make the phone work with the 3G technology in other frequencies besides the 1700 and 2100 MHz (I live in latin america, so it would have to use the 850Mhz frequency) Anyone please help me with this issue.
As one who unlocked a TMoUS HD2 to AT&T I can assure you that you will not get 3G anywhere in the US or Canada that I can find. On a bright note, it's a phone... With everyone else using 3G networks I find the Edge network to be utterly "unclogged" and find the speeds to be just fine for everything including streaming video.
PS: The phone was free but without a SIM card and I was an AT&T user - not to mention T-Mobile's network leaves a lot to be desired..
There is 3g service in Canada if you happen to be in an area where Wind Mobile is available. search Wind mobile coverage area.
We (family)have several cell phones I use the HD 2 on Edge and it doesn't bother me that its a little slower, actually when I did a quick check with my daughter on her 3g I hardly could tell the difference. I' m sure some will point out where I'm wrong. But I'm satisfied with edge because I enjoy the HD2.
Wind Mobile uses 1700/2100.
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.
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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
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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.
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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).
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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
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---------- 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
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I just received a new Android phone from China that was advertised as having support for GSM 850/900/1800/1900 & WCDMA 850/2100 with GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA data capabilities. However I'm only connecting to AT&T on 2G GPRS data at around max 50 kbps. Occasionally I will see an EDGE "E" for a few seconds only to have it disappear. I have tried the phone in several locations where I know there is both good EDGE coverage as well as 850 MHz 3G/HSPA towers but the phone isn't seeing anything. I've tried every setting change as well as a new SIM to no avail.
Does anyone know if there is an app or potentially a dial command, terminal command line utility or external program that can query an android phone to see which GSM/WCDMA bands are supported in the chipset/baseband?
Thanks, Kav
Kavik said:
I just received a new Android phone from China that was advertised as having support for GSM 850/900/1800/1900 & WCDMA 850/2100 with GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA data capabilities. However I'm only connecting to AT&T on 2G GPRS data at around max 50 kbps. Occasionally I will see an EDGE "E" for a few seconds only to have it disappear. I have tried the phone in several locations where I know there is both good EDGE coverage as well as 850 MHz 3G/HSPA towers but the phone isn't seeing anything. I've tried every setting change as well as a new SIM to no avail.
Does anyone know if there is an app or potentially a dial command, terminal command line utility or external program that can query an android phone to see which GSM/WCDMA bands are supported in the chipset/baseband?
Thanks, Kav
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either misadvertised or you misunderstood the ad. If you do some research on those china knock off phones you'd know that they basically don't support any 3G or higher spectrum except the weird ass **** they use in china. I was tempted to buy one of those phones until I discovered that. If you don't like it I suggest returning it asap.
So I love my HTC ONE.... Fantastic phone.. No question about it.
As I posted else where I have the UK model and I am on AT&T in the USA. It's working, but the HSDPA and 3G is bouncing around quite a bit and it jumps to E really quickly. And it loses the signal quickly in low signal areas. More than any other phone. If I switch the network to GSM, I have full signal almost everywhere.... But no data bandwidth.
It was suggested that I might need to look at my setup.
So here is what I have.
I have a STD LTE data plan
I have a STD sim that work on all my other LTE enabled phones
My APN is Called Phone and has the same setting as I find on the forum for a 4G setup...ie it is NOT the wap and cingular setup.
I have selected WCDMA and GSM networks (I know the phone is not compatible with AT&T LTE bands), but it acted the same way even when it was on the default GSM WCDMA and LTE Auto setting.
Does anyone know else I should check or change?
PS. I will likely buy the developer model, or the AT&T model as soon as it is available... this phone is that good!!!
Thanks for your help.
Nick
PS. I will be in Korea next week, so I am curious how the LTE will function there.... I will let you know. I think they have the 2600 band on one provider and that overlaps with the UK bands
Hi all,
I'm in the UK and on the EE network using their 4G, and the Speed 7 downloads stuff really fast when I'm out and about. 4G when it works is really amazing... sitting on a train watching read time HD video streaming without caching is definitely miles better than 3G and to me is a strong selling point of this phone.
However, EE in the UK do charge a lot for data so I have been experimenting with other providers. I now have Three, O2, and Vodaphone PAYG SIMs. None of them have any credit on them but that should be enough to check signal... and where I am at the moment, it is not too impressive, I'm not getting 4G reception from any of them except EE - the rest are giving me 3G. I do realise that with this phone, only your chosen data SIM will get 4G, and the one in the other SIM slot will only do GSM, so I did make sure that data was turned on in the right SIM if I was using two and turned on mobile data etc.
In theory, the speed seven should be perfect for the UK, it has Band 20, Band 7 and Band 3 which should cover all of these providers. Although there are radio utilities out there that are good on signal strength, I haven't found one that tells me what Band I am actually using on 4G. (so if you know...)
So, no matter where you are in the world, I'm interested to know what you're connecting to... what 4G provider do you use, and more importantly, what bands are they on? This would be for the 'International' version of this phone which has the B20/B7/B3 radio. My phone actually reports it is enabled for 4G B1, B2, B3, B4, B7, B17 and B20 but I think that may reflect the different radio modules that can be installed, not the real hardware situation.
thanks in advance!!
Hello,
I am waiting my speed 7, it will be deliver in the next days. But if you want to know what frequency you use, try to disable 2 of 3 bands in engineer setting.
I am from France, we have also the 3 bands Band 20, Band 7 and Band 3 used by french operator, with the 2600 mhz.
I hope, I will give you a feedback at the end of the week.
Kind regards.
Salut! The problem is half the providers in the UK sell 4G as a 'premium' service, so it appears unless I activate some of the SIMs (for a pile of money) then I won't be able to validate the specific 4G service they communicate in 3G first and then switch only for selected customers... who have paid.
I recently loaded up the 'Three' SIM with some credit(Hutchinson telecom - maybe it would be under that brand in France) and their 4G service seems to be fine as well. Maybe not as good as EE for coverage or speed, but certainly not too bad. 'Three' use Band 20 and Band 3 and EE use Band 7 as well, so that's not very conclusive... yet! I have also been running the phone in dual SIM mode, using both at once, and it works perfectly. You have to choose which SIM to use for each service, and it will (as any Chinese phone) be unable to run 4G at once on both, so you have to choose one of them for calls, one for data, and one for texts. That does not stop you getting incoming calls,texts etc on both lines etc (just sets the default for outgoing) It is a real novelty having that... and two signal strength meters!
I like your idea of turning off the bands in engineer mode, it is not obvious to me where to do that, so if you can point me in the right direction that would be great... I'm using the engineering mode tool...
PS I hope you like the phone! Now that the software is mostly fixed, I like it a lot, you need the latest OTA update to make it usable, so do run the wireless update wizard! Maybe not top quality hardware, but much cheaper, and has a good screen, good speed, big battery and 3Gb memory ... and of course the dual SIM! (Camera, GPS are a bit suspect)...
This might help:
http://www.att.com/travelguide/coverage/coverage_details.jsp?CIDL=1308&MNC=CING
http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/GB/Great_Britain/O2/lte_23410#|coverage
Thanks... Bit out of date. The thing I am interested in knowing is how much truth is there in what the phone claims to do versus what it actually does
Sent from my ZP952 using XDA Free mobile app
Hello,
just a late feedback, but i have reached with speed test 65mb dl, 25 ul, in 4G , at frequency 2600 mhz , very well indeed.