Develop Bugs

[Q] Can I use Tmobile HSPA+ Network

I just noticed yesterday that T-mobile has a 4G network in my area and I was wondering if there was a way to force roam 4G on tmobiles network? So that I could pick up 4G.
If its possible how?
Oh and sprint needs to hurry up and put 4g everywhere

You said it yourself. T-Mobile is HSPA+, Sprint 4G is WiMax. So, no.

Naa dude. HSPA+ is not compatible with cdma(sprint). Matter of fact t-mobile is using 4G now because its "trendy" and everybody else is using it. Their network is closer to 3G in infrastructure. But thats up for debate.

That sucks like hell. There's 4G here I just can't have it. AHHHHHHH!!!
Well if its like 3G I guess I'm not missing much.

david279 said:
Naa dude. HSPA+ is not compatible with cdma(sprint). Matter of fact t-mobile is using 4G now because its "trendy" and everybody else is using it. Their network is closer to 3G in infrastructure. But thats up for debate.
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You are on the money. HSPA+ is no more than an upgrade to existing 3G technology. If I remember right, it only has a theoretical max of 54 Mbps down. It is not, nor will it ever be, 4G.
Granted, the current 802.16e standard of WiMax is not 4G either...just waiting for that 802.16m standard to be finalized =). Which once that is complete, infrastructure can be updated and we should be able to utilize it with a simple firmware update.

Stalte said:
That sucks like hell. There's 4G here I just can't have it. AHHHHHHH!!!
Well if its like 3G I guess I'm not missing much.
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No its way faster than your normal 3G. Faster than WIMAX too. Its nothing to pull down 7 or 8 Mb.

I bet it's better on battery than wimax is on ours.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

overthinkingme said:
I bet it's better on battery than wimax is on ours.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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It uses the same radio for voice. The EVO has a separate 4G radio thats has to be activated and scan then connect. So 2 radios running at the same time would use more battery than 1 GSM radio running. Also CDMA has a tendency to use more battery when searching for signal in low signal areas.

Having installed T-mobiles 3g upgrade here in Chicago market back in 2008, I can say definitively that HSPA is just a radio cabinet addition to the existing cellular framework. Depending on the layout of the tower/site, "Flex radios" handle the data on 1, or sometimes more antennae, while the voice travels over GSM through remaining antennae. Very similar to ATT infrastructure, but tiny radios handling big bandwidth.
Having said all that, 4G is a silly buzzword that Sprint started, and T-mobile is now exploiting.
In a way, Sprint is just using extra radios on top of their existing 3G cellular, and just integrating the enhanced data speeds of Clearwire's network into their own.
T-mobile's speeds are indeed fast both HSPA and HSPA+, but to call them 4g may be overstating it, as it is just an upgrade to their existing technology, and not a new technology.
As another poster stated, nobody officially has 4g yet, not even Sprint, and until the 802.16 commission finalizes and LTE is launched we still won't.
To re-emphasize to the OP, not a chance, and don't believe the hype.

I can see sprint(or clear) and T-mobile going to bed for some real 4G'ness.

david279 said:
I can see sprint(or clear) and T-mobile going to bed for some real 4G'ness.
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Yeah, I heard a rumor that Sprint may eventually adopt LTE.... It makes sense.
Wimax will make a great backhaul, and could stay in place, not to mention supporting cities and rural areas. But LTE will be the big daddy, and similar to WiMax, works on it's own and should be seamlessly integrated on top of cellular.
I'm not sure but I think it can work with CDMA or GSM, hooray for global WiFi!

Mitch Matrixx said:
Yeah, I heard a rumor that Sprint may eventually adopt LTE.... It makes sense.
Wimax will make a great backhaul, and could stay in place, not to mention supporting cities and rural areas. But LTE will be the big daddy, and similar to WiMax, works on it's own and should be seamlessly integrated on top of cellular.
I'm not sure but I think it can work with CDMA or GSM, hooray for global WiFi!
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I wouldn't count on LTE on Sprint just yet. Hesse denounced it last week; however, Sprint, Clearwire, Google, Time-Warner, and a couple others purchased Spectrum not only in the 2.5 GHz, but the 2.3 GHz band also. So the bandwidth is there and, in the past, Hesse has been quoted saying they can easily switch to LTE if need be.
Edit: http://gigaom.com/2010/10/29/sprint-ceo-dan-hesse-on-clearwire-lte-wimax/

topdawgn8 said:
I wouldn't count on LTE on Sprint just yet. Hesse denounced it last week; however, Sprint, Clearwire, Google, Time-Warner, and a couple others purchased Spectrum not only in the 2.5 GHz, but the 2.3 GHz band also. So the bandwidth is there and, in the past, Hesse has been quoted saying they can easily switch to LTE if need be.
Edit: http://gigaom.com/2010/10/29/sprint-ceo-dan-hesse-on-clearwire-lte-wimax/
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Thanks for the info.
I think the most important thing in the article is that LTE can happen if necessary.
Sorry for getting off topic.

What is WiMax?

I always thought WiMax = 4G but I read somewhere today it's not.
Can someone explain please?
I tried reading the article and those complicated words didn't make any sense.

Same here idk what day hell is wimax so I don't use it lol
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

arozer said:
I always thought WiMax = 4G but I read somewhere today it's not.
Can someone explain please?
I tried reading the article and those complicated words didn't make any sense.
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Wimax is the method that Sprint/Clear delivers us 4G. Verizon delivers 4g using LTE.
So yes, Wimax=4G

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiMAX
Sent from my PC36100

WiMAX is one of the three competing "4G" (which I now call FauxG) technologies being used in the United States. The other two being LTE (Long Term Evolution) and HSPA+/HSPA Advanced
All three are capable of effectively managing spectrum allocations, capacity, and delivering voice over internet protocol dependent on set up, but the main use for these technologies is for mobile internet/data.
WiMAX started first, and Sprint/Clearwire wanted a head start and went with this. LTE the more world standard technology came later, AT&T and Verizon both use this and many other companies are switching to LTE soon. LTE trial tests are being conducted on Sprint and Clearwire should either company decide to change over. HSPA+/HSPA Advanced started a little late in the game and is essentially a 3G technology that behaves like and gives application usage like a 4G network such as WiMAX or LTE. T-Mobile is the main company to use HSPA+ however AT&T is overlaying much of their network, albeit much slower than T-Mobile, with HSPA+ and calling it "4G" prior to their LTE roll out.
WiMAX unfortunately is only on 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5Ghz frequencies for the time being, meaning the signal while capable of fast speeds, does not penetrate buildings or walls easily or effectively enough for indoor use, even with closely spaced tower placement.
Sprint and Clearwire hope to change this with a network upgrade plan which would essentially recycle unused 800/850, 1900 spectrum for use with WiMAX and CDMA, as well as using the current 2.5Ghz spectrum for WiMAX and CDMA.
LTE on the other hand, was deployed at 700Mhz. While the signal travels though buildings and walls easily, the lower frequency will result in slower maximum data speeds over all and lower battery life.
HSPA+ is a 3G technology, so if you are familiar with T-Mobile or AT&T or any GSM type network you know it is the same as before, only new hardware handsets and a software upgrade at the cell site have enabled faster speeds. The only hardware from the tower that needs replacing is backhaul.

To elaborate on Williefdiaz's "FauxG" comment, there has been some controversy (among tech geeks at least) as to what's "really" 4G. ITU had defined it as a network supporting 100 Mbit/s for mobile installations and 1Gbit/s for fixed or nearly fixed installations (phones would of course be mobile). Neither WiMax nor LTE meet that yet, but they're sufficiently fast enough compared to 3G that the industry has chosen to market it as such. Even T-Mo's HSPA+ technology, which is even further from the 4G requirements in that it's not an all-IP packet switched network, is being marketed as 4G because it can provide similar speeds.
In the end, it looks like anything capable of delivering speeds of 5-10Mbit/s (or more) is going to be called 4G, regardless of the ITU's definition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G

Try This: http://tinyurl.com/5tyebn7

bkrodgers said:
To elaborate on Williefdiaz's "FauxG" comment, there has been some controversy (among tech geeks at least) as to what's "really" 4G. ITU had defined it as a network supporting 100 Mbit/s for mobile installations and 1Gbit/s for fixed or nearly fixed installations (phones would of course be mobile). Neither WiMax nor LTE meet that yet, but they're sufficiently fast enough compared to 3G that the industry has chosen to market it as such. Even T-Mo's HSPA+ technology, which is even further from the 4G requirements in that it's not an all-IP packet switched network, is being marketed as 4G because it can provide similar speeds.
In the end, it looks like anything capable of delivering speeds of 5-10Mbit/s (or more) is going to be called 4G, regardless of the ITU's definition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G
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Thank you both very much for elaborating. Igot a clear understanding now.

Clearing something up..

There are a lot of people wondering if Sprint's Network Vision and the fact that they will start broadcasting on the 800mhz band will help their Epic 4g Touch's signal.
The answer is yes. Immensely. And it's a simple reason, because the coverage boost is for all phones that support CDMA2000 and our phone is indeed included in this.
Just throwing this out there.
(iPhone is the only smartphone that won't benefit from this. lolololololol)

Is this something we'll notice soon/immediately or with the roll out of NV?
It burns when I Tapatalk...

Considering it's supposed to be a nationwide launch, yes. But carriers like to be dishonest when it comes to anything coverage related.

http://www.phonearena.com/phones/Samsung-Epic-4G-Touch_id5537
Check frequency bands under CDMA in top right chart.

newalker91 said:
The re-purposing of the 800mhz spectrum is among the last things to do in Network Vision rollout. You won't be seeing these benefits until late 2013.
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And by that, you mean 2018..

Salty! said:
And by that, you mean 2018..
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Lulz.......
---Jay--- From the CM9 powered E4GT

The Root said:
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/Samsung-Epic-4G-Touch_id5537
Check frequency bands under CDMA in top right chart.
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Frequency bands are only half the story.
The chipset still needs to support 1x Advanced. Having a voice in a foreign country does you no good if you don't speak the language.
E4GT has the QSC6085 chipset, which does not support 1x Advanced. The new QSC6195 supports it.
1x Advanced can be backward compatible, IF Sprint configures it that way. Likely not, since they lose the 4x user capacity (it appears they're migrating to a strategy of 800Mhz voice, and 1900Mhz purely LTE).

It really is a moot point as no one would have an et4g when that happens. Besides, you would miss out on lte as well.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

no 4G?

hi
i recently got a nexus from google.
it woks like a charm but i notice i have never gotten 4G on my phone.
i know there is cus my friend has 4G on his GS2.
so any one knows why is my phone not connecting to 4G network?
any help will be appreciated
PS: the APN i have is epc.tmo.com

HSPA+ (the H icon) is the same thing as T-Mobile's "4G."
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

its weird, i get a 3G icon then it changes to an H. but when i go to settings i dont have the network mode option to choose from.
C0dy said:
HSPA+ (the H icon) is the same thing as T-Mobile's "4G."
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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It wasn't built to display HSPA+ as 4G for T-Mobile.
Google and rest of Europe considered it plain old 3G.
HSPA+ is not true 4G. It's considered 4G because it's almost as fast as 4G but it's not and people don't mind being tricked by that. They want to feel good about their phone. So they simply accept it.
I would just to brag about it. =p
Look at the AT&T 4S, it has HSPA+ but they don't advertise it as 4G. They just say it's faster then normal 3G.
That's why all my friends on AT&T with a 4S and jailbroken just get winter board and change the 3G to 4G and say they got 4G.
It's as fast so they say, "WTH!!! Let's make people feel like they got 4G and see a symbol that says so, even though they know they don't."
That is why you dont see 4G.

Ahh ok. Im asking cus someone told me i needed a new sim card. But thanks
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

Yeah I understand why you would be confused. U assume it's 4G since it's as fast. =p
I'd do the same unless I'm told. And since I found out when the 4S came out (I was confused at first), I learned it's just simple 3G on steroids.

Actually one of the firmware updates to the 4S revised the indicator so now it *does* say 4G on AT&T. Which is frustrating because non-technical types now say things like "Well my son didn't get 4G on his Verizon 4G phone in our area, but I get 4G on my AT&T iPhone, so I guess AT&T has better 4G."

I know.
Advertising something that is not true. They can trick people into thinking that the AT&T 4S is better and make people think they have more 4G coverage.
Technically it does since it's considered just as fast. But technically isn't good enough.

DLD511 said:
I know.
Advertising something that is not true. They can trick people into thinking that the AT&T 4S is better and make people think they have more 4G coverage.
Technically it does since it's considered just as fast. But technically isn't good enough.
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The iPhone 4S utilizes HSPA+ just like the Galaxy Nexus. The only difference is that the 4S has an HSPA+ radio that is limited to 14.4Mbps, just like early T-Mobile HSPA+ devices like the G2x. The Nexus has a 21Mbps radio. Functionally, there isn't a whole lot of difference.
Fortunately, we should see true 4G in the states soon, as T-Mobile plans to roll out LTE-Advanced; which, unlike AT&T, Sprint and Verizon's LTE, is the version that actually complies to all of the initial 4G standards, which are not limited to speed. Unfortunately, it will likely still be quite a while before we see speeds of 100Mbps / 1Gbps, which are also one of the requirements. The backhaul and infrastructure for such a network simply aren't utilized in the US. Also, I don't think we really need speeds like that. The initial LTE we have now is still a battery drainer, where HSPA+ still excels in efficiency. The main benefit of LTE and LTE Advanced is changing from a circuit switched network to a fully IP based system, which HSPA+ partially supports.
Correction: The 4S uses HSDPA+HSUPA, which is close but not identical to HSPA+.
HSDPA+HSUPA Release 6
HSPA+ Release 7
LTE Release 8
LTE Advanced Release 10

3G is UMTS. 4G is HSPA/HSPA+
4G and 3G are not the same in these terms.
"Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to light."

T-Mobile's LTE gonna be at 48mbps correct??? Gonna be damn fast.

Here's Verizon speeds.

DLD511 said:
T-Mobile's LTE gonna be at 48mbps correct??? Gonna be damn fast.
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T-Mobile's HSPA+ is already at 48Mbps in most cases. No word on the max speed for LTE Advanced yet.
Keep in mind that maximum theoretical speed and maximum real usage speed are two different things, but LTE Advanced supposedly reduces a lot of the issues that HSPA+ has, including the speed degradation that HSPA+ has when it comes to distance from the tower and interference.
Also, to be honest, speed tests are just like benchmarks. They really don't show realistic results most of the time. Besides, most of us really only use about 250kbps-3Mbps in actual real time usage, at best and on high load.

JaiaV said:
T-Mobile's HSPA+ is already at 48Mbps in most cases. No word on the max speed for LTE Advanced yet.
Keep in mind that maximum theoretical speed and maximum real usage speed are two different things, but LTE Advanced supposedly reduces a lot of the issues that HSPA+ has, including the speed degradation that HSPA+ has when it comes to distance from the tower and interference.
Also, to be honest, speed tests are just like benchmarks. They really don't show realistic results most of the time. Besides, most of us really only use about 250kbps-3Mbps in actual real time usage, at best and on high load.
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Verizon got to play serious catch up on speed.

DLD511 said:
T-Mobile's LTE gonna be at 48mbps correct??? Gonna be damn fast.
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They're already on 48mbps HSPA+. When they deploy LTE, it'll be LTE-Advanced, which is the next iteration above the current LTE deployments by AT&T/Verizon.
DLD511 said:
Here's Verizon speeds.
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cool story.

Verizon gonna do this too???

DLD511 said:
Verizon gonna do this too???
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Verizon's still busy implementing Release 9 LTE. Less incentive for them to upgrade to LTE Advanced, but possible the groundwork has already been laid for it, not entirely certain of what the differences between the hardware needed at the cell site or the hardware needed in the handset have to be.

JaiaV said:
Verizon's still busy implementing Release 9 LTE. Less incentive for them to upgrade to LTE Advanced, but possible the groundwork has already been laid for it, not entirely certain of what the differences between the hardware needed at the cell site or the hardware needed in the handset have to be.
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Bet it's gonna **** on the battery.... again.

DLD511 said:
Bet it's gonna **** on the battery.... again.
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LTE is quite horrible for battery life. I'm not sure what the difference LTE Advanced will make. I do know that one of the reasons LTE battery life is poor is that LTE coverage is relatively sparse for the time being, as the radio is having to work harder to get and keep a signal than it would if LTE coverage were as prevalent as HSPA+ coverage is.

[Q] Testing Phone for GSM Carrier

I have a question for you GSM junkies out there. I am looking at coming from my VZW Galaxy Nexus to a GSM one to save on my monthly bill. Now T-Mobile appears to have pretty solid signal in my area, but before making such a change I wanted to test it out. Theres a guy selling TMo HD2 on the cheap and i was thinking of buying it to test signal, call quality and the such to see how it works before making the change over.
Now my question is this: I know the new phones are HSPA+ whereas the HD2 is 1700/2100 (if i recall right) HSPA. Will I see the same kind of signal regardless of if it is HSPA or HSPA+ or do they run different bands/towers. I just want to get a good test device before making the change.. I know of course the brand of phone and everything is just as important.
Thanks a bunch in advance!

I believe different bands yes, not diferent towers. My field of expertise is not really mobile access.
sent from my i9250

You could also look at the Open Signal Map for a better look of your area.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

HSPA+ is just a higher speed protocol running over the same frequencies, technology and air interface as lower grade HSPA.
To note, the HD2 probably does not have 1900 (PCS) HSPA. So if you are in an area where T-Mo has started refarming PCS for HSPA, the HD2 may under-represent the signal strength you could be getting. And it will definitely show you slower speeds than the GNex.
I think in general Samsung makes better radios than HTC, although not as good as Motorola, RIM and Nokia. So if the HD2 gives you satisfactory signal wherever you need to be, you will most certainly get *at least* that signal and speed with the GNex.