Develop Bugs

[Q] Tmobile SIM in ATT Phone, EDGE only?

So I finally called ATT and got the subsidy unlock code for my Tilt2.
I popped in a Tmobile sim and it instantly works fine in every function except the connections speed. I am getting Edge only.
My question is, Can this be improved by the addition of a more recent radio? Or am I stuck with Edge due to the hardware in the ATT version of the phone?
I haven't played with this phone for almost a year except for a week in December or so when I reflashed to FireStorm 7.4 while my Captivate had crapped out. So I am kinda out of the loop on this. I was told the Captivate can't run Tmobile 3G no matter what radio I run. But I was hoping since the Tilt2 has been out so long someone might have figure out something. I see the FM radio was worked out after we thought it was impossible.
My rom and radio for the Tilt2 are in my signature. Any hope of updating it for 3G speeds?

It's by hardware. I have both phones as well due to that scenario.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

FireRaider said:
So I finally called ATT and got the subsidy unlock code for my Tilt2.
I popped in a Tmobile sim and it instantly works fine in every function except the connections speed. I am getting Edge only.
My question is, Can this be improved by the addition of a more recent radio? Or am I stuck with Edge due to the hardware in the ATT version of the phone?
I haven't played with this phone for almost a year except for a week in December or so when I reflashed to FireStorm 7.4 while my Captivate had crapped out. So I am kinda out of the loop on this. I was told the Captivate can't run Tmobile 3G no matter what radio I run. But I was hoping since the Tilt2 has been out so long someone might have figure out something. I see the FM radio was worked out after we thought it was impossible.
My rom and radio for the Tilt2 are in my signature. Any hope of updating it for 3G speeds?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tmobile offers 3G on 1700 MGHZ and ATT is on 850 or 1900. The ATT phone does not have 1700, so there is no hope of your device working on TMO 3G in the Americas.
Edge is all you will get, as TMO still has the quad band GSM capability.

Thanks guys. I guess the extra sim with data is not all that handy then.
It still seems odd that even by flashing a new radio it wont work. I have digital radio equipment (scanners, Ham Radio) that has huge bandwidth and I would think that modern cell phones would have the same capability. But obviously it doesnt work.
Do the international versiopns of the phone have the extended frequency range capability or is it still the same problem?

The manufacturers are too cheap to enable all the frequency bands.
Actually I suspect there is a setting hidden somewhere in the radio's NVRAM that can change the available frequencies, but nobody has found it. The chipset is the same across most of these models, and obviously the radio's antennas work across all the frequencies (since they already do for 2G). And as one obvious example, the Samsung Vibrant (which was T-Mobile only) can have its radio software-unlocked to work with other 3G frequencies.

highlandsun said:
The manufacturers are too cheap to enable all the frequency bands.
Actually I suspect there is a setting hidden somewhere in the radio's NVRAM that can change the available frequencies, but nobody has found it. The chipset is the same across most of these models, and obviously the radio's antennas work across all the frequencies (since they already do for 2G). And as one obvious example, the Samsung Vibrant (which was T-Mobile only) can have its radio software-unlocked to work with other 3G frequencies.
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Interesting. My other phone is a Captivate, which is pretty much the same as the Vibrant. I have been looking into a dual Sim adapter to run both my ATT and TMO sims in the same phone. I was told the Captivate cannot run on the TMO 3G frequencies. I will have to look into this further. That is very good information. Thanks.

FireRaider said:
Interesting. My other phone is a Captivate, which is pretty much the same as the Vibrant. I have been looking into a dual Sim adapter to run both my ATT and TMO sims in the same phone. I was told the Captivate cannot run on the TMO 3G frequencies. I will have to look into this further. That is very good information. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Galaxy-S Unlock http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=761045
Debug menu http://www.howardforums.com/showthr...850mhz-and-1900mhz-bands-too.-Works-on-ATT-3g.

highlandsun said:
The manufacturers are too cheap to enable all the frequency bands.
Actually I suspect there is a setting hidden somewhere in the radio's NVRAM that can change the available frequencies, but nobody has found it. The chipset is the same across most of these models, and obviously the radio's antennas work across all the frequencies (since they already do for 2G). And as one obvious example, the Samsung Vibrant (which was T-Mobile only) can have its radio software-unlocked to work with other 3G frequencies.
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Click to collapse
I know where that setting is but the limitation seems to be in hardware.
either that, or there is a lot more hacking required than just changing the NV setting.

Hey, care to share? Can this setting be toggled using e.g. AT+HTC_DM? Is it a no-op or is there any visible effect from changing it?
Sent from my MSM using Tapatalk

Could Verizon switch from cdma?

Would it ever be possible for Verizon to become a cdma provider? I know nothing about how it works honestly but if its something they could chnagr and keep existing network they could if they'd have to start over obviously not. Just curious since where I live Verizon is the only choice but GSM just beats cdma on many levels. Sorry if this is in the wrong section or if it sounds as dumb as I fear it does.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

No. They're (effectively) never going to drop CDMA. For the foreseeable future they will be using CDMA as a legacy fallback network. Eventually they'll push to VoLTE (Voice over LTE) and start to phase out sales of new CDMA devices, but that's far into the future. They still have to support millions of legacy CDMA devices.
Verizon is too large with too big of a user base to pivot to GSM. Honestly at this point even if they wanted to (they don't), it wouldn't be worth the time and effort considering they're pushing LTE as their next network technology. It'd just be a complete waste of time.

Damn. Reading about all the new nexus devices being only cdma has me hating where I live as T-Mobile or att would have no service 90% of the time.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

Verizon is switching to GSM since they are moving to lte and the lte voice. They'll never go backwards to hspa though, and they likely will keep their cdma network for more than 5 years.
Notice new Verizon phones have sim cards?

RogerPodacter said:
Verizon is switching to GSM since they are moving to lte and the lte voice. They'll never go backwards to hspa though, and they likely will keep their cdma network for more than 5 years.
Notice new Verizon phones have sim cards?
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Ya isn't lte the GSM type tech and umb or whatever its called was the cdma technology.
I was reading that vodafone (one of the biggest carriers in the world, GSM, has stock in verizon) and Verizon decided together that lte was the future instead of the cdma version.

Even with the switch to LTE, Verizon's LTE operates in the 700MHz band, which none of the GSM/LTE networks will be compatible with. The result will in all likelihood be two separate LTE networks.
With the investment that Verizon already has in their 700MHz equipment, it is highly unlikely for them to make a switch.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

cslester said:
Even with the switch to LTE, Verizon's LTE operates in the 700MHz band, which none of the GSM/LTE networks will be compatible with. The result will in all likelihood be two separate LTE networks.
With the investment that Verizon already has in their 700MHz equipment, it is highly unlikely for them to make a switch.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ATT is 700mhz as well.

Cdma keeps connection when traveling between towers much more reliably as well.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

adrynalyne said:
ATT is 700mhz as well.
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Click to collapse
But different "parts" of 700mhz.

I don't know whether or not cell phone providers actually do this, (I'm not terribly familiar with how they work) but you can fit multiple carrier signals into the same frequency by adjusting the phase and polarity.
I know satellite providers do this. The even transponders use linear polarity (modulating based on variable strength of the signal,) and the odd ones use circular polarity (modulating based on the directional vector at a given point in time.) In addition to that (and I don't think satellite providers do this yet) you can add a second linear modulation with a phase shift of 90 degrees to add yet another carrier signal.

adrynalyne said:
ATT is 700mhz as well.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, AT&T uses A & B blocks in lower 700MHz. VZW is C-Block Upper 700MHz. While you could probably make an LTE radio that combines the Lower A, B and C (lower C =! upper C), getting all four bands to play nice is going to be very difficult.

blackhand1001 said:
Cdma keeps connection when traveling between towers much more reliably as well.
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Click to collapse
So does GSM, as long as it's operating in UMTS mode (which it will, unless you're making a voice call on T-Mobile from an airboat 5 miles south of Alligator Alley (I-75) in the middle of the Florida Everglades & barely have a viable signal to begin with, in which case it will fall back to legacy TDMA-based 1G GSM).
I know satellite providers do this. The even transponders use linear polarity (modulating based on variable strength of the signal,) and the odd ones use circular polarity (modulating based on the directional vector at a given point in time.) In addition to that (and I don't think satellite providers do this yet) you can add a second linear modulation with a phase shift of 90 degrees to add yet another carrier signal.
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They could... except then your phone would only work when uplinked & downlinked through a fixed, securely-mounted antenna. Doppler shift does terrible things to phase-based modulation. Just ask anybody who's ever tried to watch an 8VSB-modulated ATSC TV transmission during a hurricane (when the transmission antenna is wobbling) or from a moving vehicle. In theory, there are exotic antenna designs that can untangle polarized signals while moving by simultaneously receiving multiple phases & using a DSP to separate them out "after the fact", but they're *way* out of the current realm of viability for mass-market consumer electronics, and WAY more demanding than a 2" metal stub embedded inside your phone.
Truth be told, spectrum isn't the problem. Tower density is. The nice thing about CDMA is that you can literally fix almost any bandwidth problem just by throwing more tower sites at it & letting the network sort itself out like magic. CDMA has very few "hard" limits. Some, like 1.25MHz or 5MHz channel pairs, are carved in stone and can't be engineered around. Once you're in the club and own the spectrum, though, it's really just a question of "what kind of tower density are you willing to pay for. Crowded mall? Give it its own cell. More-crowded mall? Spread a dozen picocells around it, especially the food court.
Verizon is unlikely to ever support legacy GSM or UMTS directly, and can really only evolve into LTE going forward. Sprint could, in theory, buy T-Mobile, and instantly consolidate GSM/UMTS into any cell site where it has deployed Network Vision (~3% of the US, so far) as long as it had the use of T-Mobile's spectrum, with little more than a site visit, software upgrade, and some software reconfiguration. Verizon can't do that, because it ALREADY upgraded its network, and has too much in sunk costs to scrap everything and redo every cell site the way Sprint is (and MUST). Truth be told, Sprint won't do it either unless it merges with T-Mo, and the feds are unlikely to allow it (it's not 100% impossible, but VERY unlikely to happen unless there were simultaneously a merger between US Cellular, MetroPCS, Sprint's "rural" partner networks, and/or Cincinnati Bell (to preserve the status quo Quadropoly).
AT&T and Cingular switched to GSM because they had no meaningful upgrade path from TDMA. In fact, AT&T was actually planning to switch to CDMA until they bought Cingular, and altered their plans only because Cingular was already deploying GSM. In theory, Sprint+Tmo (with the spectrum of both) could semi-gracefully migrate towards GSM with backwards compatibility for CDMA2000 voice and 1xRTT (like Telus did in Canada), but NOBODY could really get away with "flipping a switch" and forcing a wholesale changeover anymore. Hell, Sprint doesn't even have enough Nextel customers left to pay the electric bill for their added tower costs, and the official iDEN sunset is STILL two years away.

Unlocking bands

Hello!
New user here and well, I was wondering if there's any chance that we'll be able to unlock phone bands in this device!
I also know it's probably still unclear as the phone is still new but another user said in another topic that there might be something considering OPO had some tools to unlock bands! So if anyone knows anything about this issue it'd be great!
I'd love to have B28 available on the OP3!
Thanks!

I'd say the reason of the limited LTE band selection is no other than to reduce costs in the hardware. Every band requires it's own amplifiers so making the devices regional it's an easy way to cut corners and not affecting people much (if they don't travel)

bartolo5 said:
I'd say the reason of the limited LTE band selection is no other than to reduce costs in the hardware. Every band requires it's own amplifiers so making the devices regional it's an easy way to cut corners and not affecting people much (if they don't travel)
Click to expand...
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I can understand the reason, but it still seems meh to me.
But who knows, maybe there will be a workaround!

hey, ive been looking at buying an OP3 but did read that band 28 is missing which is used for faster and longer range 4G in australia and also common in the rest of asia & some of europe
weird, in this teardown it says the radio can do band 28 ? maybe its just disabled/unsupported?
http://www.slashgear.com/oneplus-3-teardown-part-ii-whats-inside-28446199/

Enable LTE bands in US

So I purchased this phone while in the UK because it looked like a solid item. Unfortunately, I neglected to realize that the default LTE bands were EU and the phone will not work in the US other than on 2G.
In the meantime... I've spent the entire day setting up the appropriate tools to modify the NV values in 6828/29 to enable the appropriate LTE bands (2,4,12) for my carrier here in the US. I've wrote these values successfully, however, no LTE. These are the only two NV values I've modified.
Is this possible? Or is there something I'm missing here and the phone chipset/radio is not configurable in this manner and requires either some other attention, or that I'm screwed.
Thanks for any insight.

Try *#*#4636#*#* which should show you network types available and if your lucky set the one you want

I see that LTE is an option here; but the radio picks nothing up. This phone comes from the factory stamped on the box with LTE bands 3/7/20 enabled.
Perhaps I should rephrase the question:
Does editing the NV values do anything, or is the radio hardware limited to specific frequencies? Or is there a way to flash a ROM or something that's not editable (i.e. via QXDM) to fix this problem? It seems like the chipsets are all the same from phone to phone, so something 'soft' must be limiting the band selection.
I'd hate to have to buy another phone simply for the fact I'm limited to 2G connectivity. I love how the government and cell phone manufacturers have the consumer's best interest in mind.
robin0800 said:
Try *#*#4636#*#* which should show you network types available and if your lucky set the one you want
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

rmbanas said:
I see that LTE is an option here; but the radio picks nothing up. This phone comes from the factory stamped on the box with LTE bands 3/7/20 enabled.
Perhaps I should rephrase the question:
Does editing the NV values do anything, or is the radio hardware limited to specific frequencies? Or is there a way to flash a ROM or something that's not editable (i.e. via QXDM) to fix this problem? It seems like the chipsets are all the same from phone to phone, so something 'soft' must be limiting the band selection.
I'd hate to have to buy another phone simply for the fact I'm limited to 2G connectivity. I love how the government and cell phone manufacturers have the consumer's best interest in mind.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should be hardware limitation of the chipset. LTE band support can be problematic even on high-end devices (there will be at least one band missing).
If you are in the US, why not take advantage of the Blu R1 HD deal? It's not very helpful but it's something

rmbanas said:
So I purchased this phone while in the UK because it looked like a solid item. Unfortunately, I neglected to realize that the default LTE bands were EU and the phone will not work in the US other than on 2G.
In the meantime... I've spent the entire day setting up the appropriate tools to modify the NV values in 6828/29 to enable the appropriate LTE bands (2,4,12) for my carrier here in the US. I've wrote these values successfully, however, no LTE. These are the only two NV values I've modified.
Is this possible? Or is there something I'm missing here and the phone chipset/radio is not configurable in this manner and requires either some other attention, or that I'm screwed.
Thanks for any insight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi rmbanas, how do you did it? I followed the guide from here but QPST does not recognize my device. Now Im stuck.
Im speaking from Brazil and Im trying to enable some LTE and GSM bands.
Ive unlocked the bootloader, flashed the CyanogemMod 13, released the developer settings (so as USB debbuging, etc, etc).
Certainly, it is a problem with the drivers, but Ive tried with a lot of them and still... nothing.

Question Band override?

Hi,
I've been cruising around here and various other places and still have yet to find it. However I been looking for something more in regards of managing what bands my pixel 6 pro uses. Historically I am a Sprint customer so I got put on Tmobile recently. Where I live I get stuck on Tmobile B71, it is the slowest and the change was recently made to this account. I have another Sprint device via Calyx Institute and it has no problem pulling in Sprint bands. However on some accounts they've switched it to favor Tmobile bands and famous for folks getting dumped on B71 which is lesser than the sprint bands. So I'd like to lock out B71.
There lies the problem, I know how to get into phone services and toggle the band selection there, but it is so generic, auto managed by what seems to be just the strongest signal. In terms of radio waves, strongest does not always equate to the best or fastest. Have I missed something along the way or is it true that you are pretty much out of luck here with that?