Develop Bugs

SX66, MDA III GSM Signal Strength

I have a Cingular SX66 which I'm trying to use on T-Mobile and I'm having problems due to poor signal stength. Before I start a call, I'll have 4 bars and once I start the call, the signal strength will fluctuate and I'll lose entire words of conversations (and the other person complains of the same thing).
I have tried both the SX66 and the HP6315 with similar results, although the HP6315 fairs much better with only occasional drop-outs.
As a comparision, I used the exact same SIM card in an Ericsson T610 and haven't had a single problem.
I'm returning the SX66 today and will probably sell the HP6315. . . unless anyone has some ideas.
SX66 Software Versions
-----------------------------------
ROM: 1.20.10 WWE 10/08/04
Radio: 1.02.10
Protocol: 1337.35
Extended ROM: 1.20.115 WWE

I would be curious to know why this is happening to you. I have been unhappy w/ my H6315 and just listed it on eBay in favor of getting an SX66. I've read there are a few updates for the SX66 that update the radio stack and Bluetooth. My biggest complaint about the H6315 was the lack of updates in about 6 months. Bluetooth sucks on it and the device has lots of software problems.
If the SX66 doesn't perform any better on T-mo then maybe I'll go back to the original PocketPC Phone.

Yes, I agree with the HP6315. T-Mobile is suppose to come out with a patch for "everything" according to the rep I talked to after escalating the issue with T-Mobile. I'll believe it when I see it.
As for the SX66, there is a new radio version from December, but I was unable to install it because the SX66 has a different country code, etc, so the IMate-PDA2k stuff didn't work.
The 802.11b signal strength on the SX66 was quite low. My HP6315 shows excellent strength, my laptop excellent, but the SX66 was showing poor signal strenth. It still worked, but I wonder if they sacrificed the antenna's for looks.
As for the software, speed, and looks, the SX66 is everything that I would have dreamed for and aside from the voice quality, I loved it.
I have a friend that has the original MDA with T-Mobile and doesn't have a single problem.
I may end up waiting for the next version of PDA phones... I don't see any reason why they can't get the signal strength to be the same as the Sony-Ericsson T610 which has an internal antenna as well.

I have a Cingular SX66 which I'm trying to use on T-Mobile and I'm having problems due to poor signal stength
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Click to collapse
Just curios, but what were the results on the same device on the Cingular network. Depending on the location and the dates that this happend several other things come into play. Different network (Cingular vs TMobile), Possibly different bands (some Cingular locations are still in the 850 band). Even in the locations that are in the 850 range if the old AT&T Wireless (now Cingular) band was 1900, then that would be a better comparison.

You are right, it would be a more fair comparison of Cingular if I used their network, but I do not intending to use Cingular, so I wanted to compare it to how I would be using it. In North America, the fequencies used are 850 and 1900 MHz. In Europe, they use 900 / 1800 MHz.
For people that only use AT&T / Cingular service, the phone may be acceptable on the 850 MHz band. I did not test this fequency, as I feel that it should perform well on all bands, especially since I am comparing it to 2 other phones that are tri-band / quad-band phones. I don't have Cingular service and didn't feel like paying approx. $65 to test it when I would have to pay T-Mobile $200 to break my contract due to the HP6315 fiasco.
Does anybody have test results for the SX66 on the Cingular network?
The other comparison that I wanted to make was using the identical SIM card (and hence the identical tower and parameters) on each of the phones. I then sat at my desk at home and left a message on my voicemail. I then walked to a window where I could see the tower off in the distance and placed another call to voicemail and left a message. I repeated this for each phone 3 times over 3 days inbetween looking for additional information on how to improve signal strength.
In addition, I talked about 2 hours on each phone and asked the person I called how the voice sounded. With the SX66, I received a lot of "what did you say?" and I noticed entire sentences dropped out of the conversation.
With the HP6315, I received about 1/4 as many of the "what did you say" and I had words that were garbled, but not missing entirely.
With the Sony-Ericsson T610 (also integral antenna), I received absolutely no "waht did you say" and I never had a single word garbled. I was even able to take the phone into the basement, into the garage, and even lay down in bed with the phone between my head and the pillow without a problem.
Hope that helps clarify what I was testing and how to interpret my results. From what I've seen, people in heavily populated areas don't have any problems with either the HP6315 or the SX66. Unfortunately, I live on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, and they typically place towers here at quite a distance since there isn't much to get in the way.

New update!
I went through all of my voice recordings tonight and realized that the voice quality was typically excellent for the first 30 minutes of calling and then it started to cut in a out or garble voice. The garbling consists of a single word every 2 or 3 sentences all the way to 5 seconds of garbled voice. The transmission side seems to be worse than the reception side.
So, it's actually starting to look like it might be a thermal issue. That could potentially explain why some people don't have a problem at all (they are close the tower and aren't transmitting at high power and/or they don't have long conversations).
To verify this, I called a friend tonight and talked to him for 36 minutes. I told him at the beginning that I was doing a voice-quality test so that he would report any problems. Every 5 minutes, I would ask him how the voice quality was. Everything was excellent and the signal strength was at 4 bars all the way up to about 30 minutes. At that point, the signal strength started going wild and the garbling continued.
I finished the call with him and left a voicemail and the voicemail was perfectly clear for about 30 seconds and then it was garbled as well.
I let the phone sit for 1 hour and then left another voice message that didn't have any problems.

Have others had problems with heat? Maybe you got a bad unit?
That's one problem I thought of is that if I buy this at a Cingular store for $650 w/ no plan unlocked and have a problem with it, will they be willing to exchange it or will they only do it if I'm a Cingular customer. I would hate to get stuck with another $650 paperweight.
Keep us posted on what you do with regard to getting it swapped out from either Siemens or Cingular.

I just went ahead and returned it since Cingular doesn't even have support on the device, yet... Their image is a couple of months behind I-Mate's images, too, and I was unable to burn in the I-Mate image due to the country code problems.
If I get one of these, I'll get the PDA2k instead. I'm currently thinking I'll just hold out for the XDA IV that should have both 3G UMTS and GSM as that phone should be current for quite a few years and it will have a 480x640 screen ))

Is it possible that a radio upgrade could improve reception?

As background, I use a Jasjar with Cingular service here in the US. As many of you probably know, Cingluar uses both 1900MHz and 850MHz in the US. As the Universal can't use the 850MHz band I rely on Cingular's 1900MHz coverage... I get good reception most of the places I go, but it's definitely not as good as it could be, and I get dead spots that 850MHz Cingular phones don't have. I've come to accept that and I still love my Universal.
In any case, I had been using the official JasJar firmware with radio version 1.09 and one place where I had a dead spot was my parent's house. I usually spend at least a few hours there every few weeks or so, and I've never been able to get a signal at their house since I first got my JasJar nearly a year ago.
Last night I upgraded to radio version 1.10.03 and also the beta AKU 3.2 ROM. I was at my parent's house today, and to my amazement I got a signal at their house... a reasonably decent signal too... it got all the way up to two bars.
Now, it's been several weeks since I was last there, and it's quite possible that Cingular improved their 1900MHz coverage in that area, but I would tend to doubt that. It's also possible that it's the AKU 3.2 beta ROM, but I would doubt that too.
Is it possible that the radio 1.10.03 upgrade really did help with reception here? I'm excited to try to go to some other places where I know I had no signal or a poor signal before and see if it's improved there as well.
Brett

i know this is an old post, but i am having this issue, does anybody know where i can get that rom, all i have found is .9 .12 .14 .15 and .18, i have cingular and i dont get reception in my house rather i did with the mda

How can I get internet speed 7.2Mb?

Is there any rom or program can make the internet speed on HTC DIMOND 7.2mb instead of 3.6mb?
Thanks very much.

you need a service provider that will provide 7.2mbps in your area (not many provide that atm in UK, but i know orange are expanding it up to 7.2 over the next year) either vodaphone uk or t-mobile uk do it, google it as it depends on your areas coverage.

JanDaMan said:
you need a service provider that will provide 7.2mbps in your area (not many provide that atm in UK, but i know orange are expanding it up to 7.2 over the next year) either vodaphone uk or t-mobile uk do it, google it as it depends on your areas coverage.
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Click to collapse
vodafone is already 7.2mbps and three are gonna do it before christmas if they cant they are definattely gonna do it on the first quarter of 2009

Unfortunately, saying that the diamond(or any device using the 3G network) is capable of 7.2mbps is not really correct. Sure, the device itself is very much capable of receiving data at these speeds but the latency in the network itself will never provide that speed, unless perhaps you're sitting three feet from a transmitter...
Basically, even though you're paying for "7.2mbps" you'll never see those speeds in real life...
Oh, and I don't really think that this question belongs in the "Diamond ROM development" section.

7.2 long long way away dude. i have tried vodafone 7.2 from many different locations and using a 7.2 mbps modem the best i have achived is maybe 3mbps but not a solid speed, avrage speed is about 1-2mbps, so 7.2bmps true speed will be achived when, the networks advertise 48Mbps lol.
anyway you dont need that speed on the phone, 1mb is enough mos of the times,
unless you want to stream HD media..

Guys...7.2 is obviously a "dream" for me...considering I'm still with the "E" = Edge under my local ISP DIGI MALAYSIA! Argh!!
and sometimes i can't get 90% of the EDGE speed too

Can i just add to this... MOST servers do not upload more than 1mb/sec.. so how do you expect to download @7.2mb... Not possible, until servers start to upload at those speed you are not going to be able to download @7.2......do you believe mobiles would be fast than a fixed line... Yrs from that happening I'm afraid...!

fyew-jit-tiv said:
Can i just add to this... MOST servers do not upload more than 1mb/sec.. so how do you expect to download @7.2mb... Not possible, until servers start to upload at those speed you are not going to be able to download @7.2......do you believe mobiles would be fast than a fixed line... Yrs from that happening I'm afraid...!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mine is comparable with my broadband actually. obviously the rendering on my firefox is faster but the phone is not that far behind on less demanding web pages

I here provide the Tips & free software site http://www.vclcomponents.com/s/0__/need_for_speed_undercover_htc_diamond for increase the Internet speed of the HTC..Then check the speed of the Internet using the site http://www.ip-details.com/internet-speed-test/ in the Mobile Browser.

The only way you'll ever get 7.2mps is by sitting on the mast, at 3am with no one trying to use a mobile in the surrounding 25 mile radius.
Oh, and 3 are not going to have 7.2 before christmas. We've had them in at work today and they're having to talk nicely with T-Mobile so they can improve their network coverage. They have 3.6mps, quote 2.8mps as an average but they want to get away from "HSDPA" as they know it'll never work properly on their network.
... They did however quote by 2010, they should have 14.4mbps
... Now thats a pipe dream...

Alasio said:
The only way you'll ever get 7.2mps is by sitting on the mast, at 3am with no one trying to use a mobile in the surrounding 25 mile radius.
Oh, and 3 are not going to have 7.2 before christmas. We've had them in at work today and they're having to talk nicely with T-Mobile so they can improve their network coverage. They have 3.6mps, quote 2.8mps as an average but they want to get away from "HSDPA" as they know it'll never work properly on their network.
... They did however quote by 2010, they should have 14.4mbps
... Now thats a pipe dream...
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Click to collapse
hi,
In Denmark, they already started with the 16 Mbit on 3 network, but as we all know, it is not practical. it is just teoritical.

lomo2002 said:
hi,
In Denmark, they already started with the 16 Mbit on 3 network, but as we all know, it is not practical. it is just teoritical.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You guys on the continent get the best... Higher speed home bband connections, the UK average being <8mps, there's more money pumped into the development of the mobile networks including city-wide WiFi and we just get screwed.
3 claimed today in their presentation to have 14.4mps under testing inside certain cells in the UK, but didn't seemingly know where. That coupled with the Virgin Media testing of their 200mps connection, well... Will wait to see...
The only "decent" connection in the UK (personal experience) is T-Mobile as their parent company have pumped the most money into cell development but still its completely lacking. Look at the current Orange & T-Mobile merger that's on / off... 3 in the UK have so little 3G coverage they have had to make a deal with T-Mobile so they can use their backbone and masts for transmitting their signal, else they're never going to get anywhere with signal coverage.
But either way, the lack of cells in the UK coupled with a poor backbone simply means that speeds are too unstable in the UK to ever get the full 7.2mps stable.

Actually the all the tier one UK networks (Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile) support 7.2 in various locations around the country - the issue we will always have is contention.
The certainly won't admit it but only the first 6 or 7 connections to a mast have any chance of reaching 7.2 - after that it drops off dramatically. When you get up to 30 then your down to GPRS speeds. As someone pointed out, the only way to reach anywhere close to the potential 7.2 is to sit under a mast a 3AM and hope that no one else in the vicinity is online too.
T-Mobile, Orange and 3 will always win out when it comes to contention as they run on an 1800 MHZ network as they came late to the game in the UK. 1800 has a shorter range and therefore T-Mobile put up many more masts to compensate - 3 for every one mast that Vodafone put up on the older 900MHZ network. The Vodafone network will punch out much further from the mast which works better in more isolated areas but in urban or densely populated areas, T-Mobile's 3 masts to Vodafone or O2's 1 mast will always give a better experience.
At the end of the day its swings and roundabouts and experiences are so localised that its not worth swapping networks to improve speed unless you intend to stay always in the same location and never go out the front door.
I've been using mobile data on all four networks all over the UK over the last few years and the only thing I can guarantee is that Orange (which has stupidly been my sole personal network provider for over 15 years) will always be the worst of the lot!!!
Their data network is honestly shocking and with all the outages I've experienced this year I would say that the network is really struggling - actually I think most of them are going that way - and it will be a relief if they do actually join forces with T-Mobile.
Anyway this rant has been building up for some time - anyone else experienced the networks performance getting worse this year particularly?
I blame all the new iPhone users myself!!! LOL

Alasio said:
... 3 in the UK have so little 3G coverage they have had to make a deal with T-Mobile so they can use their backbone and masts for transmitting their signal, else they're never going to get anywhere with signal coverage.
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Click to collapse
Actually it was announced recently that 3 have the most comprehensive data coverage in the UK at the moment!

Yeah sorry, you'll probably never see 7.2Mb, just like you never get full internet speed it's always 'up to xxMb'
If you live near a mast then yeah signal should be good but probably 5-6Mb at most you would get. (If)

You can follow the tips in the site tips to speed up 7.2mb interent for increasing the speed of the Internet then you can check the Speed in the site http://www.ip-details.com/internet-speed-test/Internet Speed Testyou will know the Difference.

Your tips are useful...

Using data while roaming on Three

Not really a Desire specific question, but I'm on the cusp of switching from T-Mobile to Three because of the former's incredibly poor 3G coverage. I've got a Three PAYG sim and have been trying it in various areas over the last few days and have noticed that it sometimes roams to another network.
My searching suggests it does this when there's no 3G reception as Three don't have any 2G hardware of their own, which is fine, but I can't seem to find any answers as to whether it's safe to continue using data while roaming?
Will I be charged if I continue to use the data connection or is that all covered under Three's roaming agreements and will just come out of data allowance as normal?

I don't believe you will be charged for data roaming onto Orange.
That being said, 3 and T-Mobile are in the process of merging their 3G networks (note, *only* 3G) and Orange and T-Mobile are in the process of merging companies. Therefore, whichever way you go, you'll likely find you coverage is the same in the long term.
Regards,
Dave

3 UK
You don't get charged extra for data while roaming within the UK on 3. We have used several 3 sims for 18 months in Hero, HD and a Desire. I've also been using a T-Mo one in the Desire for the past 3 weeks and T-Mo is much better signal coverage than 3 on both 2 and 3 G.
Often on 3 downloads and updates over data just fail. Calls drop out a lot compared with T-Mo. I ended up setting the phone to use 2G only with the 3 sim just to stop calls dropping every time I got near to a 3G mast (as it tries to switch between 2 and 3 G). Also the battery life is much better with the T-Mo sim, presumably due to it not spending so much time and resource trying to find the native 3 signals.
I'm moving to T-Mo for all our phones, usefully they seem to have the best deals at the moment as well!

Thanks for the replies.
I do know that T-Mob and Orange are merging, and right now I'm on a very attractive £5/month deal that was one of their "don't leave us" deals. The thing is when I called to get my PAC code (and was offered the deal) my main reason for leaving was their crappy 3G. The woman on the other end assured me that on the 1st of April the networks would be merged and it would be as simple as the engineers flipping a switch. Being in the tech industry myself I was very sceptical at this claim but the £5/month offer was too good to pass up and I made sure there was no contract term.
Needless to say, the 1st of April came and went and the network didn't improve so I'm off. I'm only going to PAYG so I can return the moment they do finally sort their sh*t out. It won't be for £5/month but I can live with that.
Edit: No sooner than I post the above, this comes along: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/11/orange_tmobile_combined/
The first benefit customers will notice will come later this year when they will be able to roam on each other's networks at no extra cost.
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Of course "later this year" could well mean December. So do I hang on for this or jump ship and return later? Decisions, decisions.

Resurrecting the thread because I thought people might be interested...
I do a lot of Geocaching, which is why a good 3G network is important to me; so on Saturday I took my Desire with a PAYG Three SIM and my Touch HD with a T-Mobile SIM and went caching.
We went to two places where I knew the T-Mobile signal was patchy, and in both places I continued to get 3G on Three. The signal was weak, but it was enough to quickly load caches, whereas T-Mobile struggled along on 2G barely pulling any data at all. The final place we went to had full signal for both networks.
Of course that really doesn't make any sense considering Three and T-Mobile's 3G mast sharing agreement, but there it was. With the evidence in hand I've got my PAC code and am switching full-time to Three. I may return when they finally merge networks with Orange, but we'll see.

[Q] Hardware, roms, and 3G frequencies...

Hi - I'm looking for some good answers - I think I know the basics...
After much shopping, I bought 2 of these...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170623785892&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
(HTC Touch Pro 2 s - the wife likes for our phones to match so I can teach, set up, etc...)
I think they are called T7373 SEA's South East Asia Versions, and I flashed to 2.07.707/4.49.25.91 radio just fine to get current at WM6.5. (I like factory ROM's - the books work, etc - despite my appreciation for the effort to cook.)
Now - I'm currently ATT, and when they go to Data Plan me, I'm going to T-Mobile prepaid.
So - I get to looking at 3g frequencies - of course!
The book for the device says 900/2100 HSPA/WCDMA.
The sellers' ad says
3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100
HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 or HSDPA 1700 / 2100
(It's not really clear what the 'or' means)
Now, I'm not *****ing at the seller, I want to really understand, and they knew I was US and they asked ATT or Tmobile.
Would they like have reached into one of three bins, to sell me one of three truly different hardware phones - OR - picked a phone up and flashed it (Radio or full ROM) to my provider, or did they just configure the existing system so it picked Tmobile and its freqs for instance? (When the phone boots, it asks T-Mobile or 2 other Asian-sounding systems) How else could the phones do as advertised? (9/21, 8.5/19, or 17/21)
If the frequencies are not a settings, but a ROM/Radio issue, can I load the 'other US guys' flash and have it work?
If not, does anyone know what really is changed in the hardwares (I imagine the antennas' length might vary by X%, but then here that's % of mms.)
Thanks - great answers and experience really appreciated!!

The device in the picture of the ad is a European unbranded model (RHOD100). It's 3G frequencies are on the 2100MHz band. If they sent you the one pictures, you will not get 3G with any US provider. AT&T uses 850MHz and 1900MHz for their 3G service, while T-Mobile uses 1700/2100MHz. 3G radios are hardware dependent, not software dependent. This means that you must purchase the device that contains the radio for the 3G service you wish to use. They will work on 2G networks anywhere in the world. 3G is really the only difference between carriers.
The AT&T device is the RHOD300 model, also known as the Tilt 2. The T-Mobile version is the RHOD210.
The short answer is that if they send you the exact device in the picture from the ad, you will only be able to get 3G in some parts of Asia and Europe.

The description on the eBay listing is just cut and paste from somewhere (like HTC's website), so that is why it says "or" for the 3G bands. One is for the Euro model, the other is for the Asia model. Either way, neither have the correct bands to give you 3G on AT&T or T-Mobile. And as cajun mentioned, bands are hardware dependent, and there is no way to change it.
If you want 3G on AT&T, you need to buy the AT&T branded Tilt2. But since they will be able to read the IMEI number of the phone (since its ATT branded), they will probably add a smartphone data plan very quickly. So its probably not even worth getting a Tilt2, if you don't want a smartphone data plan. If you want 3G on T-Mobile, you need to buy a T-Mobile branded TP2.
Bottom line, if the phones you bought are unbranded, then they don't have the correct hardware to get 3G on either AT&T or T-Mob.

THX
Hey guys(?) thanks, I think I understand.
So - basically the ad HAS to be a lie, at least for 3G.
So I'm still wondering... What does HTC actually change in the phones - a crystal (I doubt this in modern times), a chip, a pack, an antenna length? There is a small area in the phone that looks 'potted' we used to call it.
They are way too pretty, and way too functional 'as is' to mess with (so I'm not gonna go module or whatever shopping), and we are pretty much 'emergency only' web people (for maps, pizza places, etc) and 2G will be fast enough. The value of a keyboard for texting, the Windows interoperability, and no damn contract is good enough.
We are deciding which ROM level we want before we try ATT to see if they know the numbers... T-Mobile prepaid is the backup plan.
THX

tshephard said:
Hey guys(?) thanks, I think I understand.
So - basically the ad HAS to be a lie, at least for 3G.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lie in that it looks like a lazy cut and paste, with either no proof-reading to catch the error, or a seller that does not fully understand what he is selling. They are a high volume seller, and also just used stock photos (not photos of the actual item), so its just a rushed auction posting. I don't think it was an intentional lie meant to mislead you. But if you want to dispute the sale, I think you have very good grounds, since the information in the auction is incorrect, and its actually impossible to tell what exact model (Euro or Asian) they are selling from the description.
AT&T most likely won't be able to correlate the IMEI with the right phone brand/model. But I've seen cases where they think its a smartphone, but the wrong one, and try to add a smartphone plan. I read a post where a guy was using a Nexus One, and their system was reading it as a Blackberry. I think he just told them it was an unlocked dumbphone, and they removed the smartphone plan.

Please Correct me if I'm wrong...
presently I'm using Sprint Touch Pro 2, and I have read on the internet that it is possible to work with AT&T or T-Mobile (which uses different technology other than Sprint's CDMA) after proper unlocking. Is it possible?
Regards.

chris8989 said:
presently I'm using Sprint Touch Pro 2, and I have read on the internet that it is possible to work with AT&T or T-Mobile (which uses different technology other than Sprint's CDMA) after proper unlocking. Is it possible?
Regards.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but you will not be able to use any other network's 3G service. The best you will get is EDGE on another network.

To follow up...
ATT stuck me on $25 Smartphone within 24 hours. (We went to $15 later, and they dropped us to a $10 cheaper talk plan.) For this particular set of phones, apparently the first 8 or so digits of the IMEI is phone type (which they clearly knew from Tilt 2's) and the rest is item serial number. Couldn't argue there...
Speeds, freqs... I don't get a clear definition of G's anywhere, but I show a H before I long on, and another H with bars as I use data. I have used cellular data at up to 1.1mbs per speed sites - I don't know if that's over E, or G, or H but it seems pretty fast to me. All that's on ATT, when I went to the T-Mobile store and tried their card, the best I got was 200kbs on about 5 tries.
Love the phones, added HTC task manager pulldown, and 1.6 VC from here - THX

tshephard said:
To follow up...
ATT stuck me on $25 Smartphone within 24 hours. (We went to $15 later, and they dropped us to a $10 cheaper talk plan.) For this particular set of phones, apparently the first 8 or so digits of the IMEI is phone type (which they clearly knew from Tilt 2's) and the rest is item serial number. Couldn't argue there...
Speeds, freqs... I don't get a clear definition of G's anywhere, but I show a H before I long on, and another H with bars as I use data. I have used cellular data at up to 1.1mbs per speed sites - I don't know if that's over E, or G, or H but it seems pretty fast to me. All that's on ATT, when I went to the T-Mobile store and tried their card, the best I got was 200kbs on about 5 tries.
Love the phones, added HTC task manager pulldown, and 1.6 VC from here - THX
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
G stands for GPRS, and it is a 2G service. It stands for General Packet Radio Service. It is the slowest data service you can get with speeds normally under 50Kbps. It is occasionally known as 2.5G service.
E stands for EDGE. It stands for Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution. It was a revision to the 2G service implementation and features speeds from about 100Kbps to 250Kbps depending on location, service provider, and signal. It is occasionally referred to as a pre-3G technology. It fits in the ITU's definition of 3G, but few people refer to it as such. It is normally marketed as 2.9G.
UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) was a revision to the voice service, and did not address much data-wise. This was the first widespread usage of the term and use of 3G. It is normally the service that your device is using when it shows the 3G icon. 3G speeds are normally 350Kbps - 500Kbps.
H stands for HSPA. It stands for High Speed Packet Access. It is one step higher than what is commonly known as 3G.It is also known as 3.5G. It features speeds closer to 1.5Mbps. HSPA is normally grouped in with 3G service when it is being discussed.
As for your test with T-Mobile, that wasn't really a fair comparison since you can't get 3G speeds on a Tilt2 on T-Mobile's network. You can only ever get EDGE service. Therefore, you were comparing AT&T's 3G service to T-Mobile's EDGE service. This is like trying to race a Mustang with a Moped. If you get the Rhod210 model, you will get the faster connection with T-Mobile. There isn't much to compare between AT&T and T-Mobile. AT&T 3G speeds are slower than T-Mobile. The services are also much cheaper on T-Mobile.

THX for reply, I generally understood all the abbreviations, but like you said - the marketing hype really seems to very from the technology.
If I saw, regularly, over 1 mbs and the H bars to the right of the H block, do ya' think I was H/HSPA over 8.5/9/19/21 freqs?

tshephard said:
THX for reply, I generally understood all the abbreviations, but like you said - the marketing hype really seems to very from the technology.
If I saw, regularly, over 1 mbs and the H bars to the right of the H block, do ya' think I was H/HSPA over 8.5/9/19/21 freqs?
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On AT&T it would be HSPA on the 850MHz and/or 1900MHz frequencies. T-Mobile uses 1700MHz for HSDPA and 2100MHz for HSUPA. The frequencies for 2G services are all the same for everyone. This is why you will get up to EDGE service with any GSM carrier, but never 3G service unless you buy a device that explicitly supports that carrier's 3G service.