[Guide] Will your phone work on Mobilicity

[xtachx]

Hi,

Someone requested that I write a guide to checking if your phone supports Mobilicity frequencies or not. Here it is; and we should debate it and then sticky this. The guide has 2 parts:

1. Summary / Short Verdict
2. An insight into the different frequencies and which one mobi uses.

I will also explain what the HSPA, AWS, PCS LTE etc all mean.

Hopefully you will find this helpful.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Summary/short Verdict:

• iPhone- WILL NOT WORK ON MOBILICITY period. This applies to ANY AND ALL iPHONES including iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S.
• Phones bought from Rogers/Bell/Telus/AT&T wont work, but there are a few exceptions which I will go over.
• Phones from T-Mobile USA WILL work on Mobilicity. Please understand that Mobilicity is a 3G/4G ONLY network. so you need a 3G or 4G capable phone from T-Mobile.
• Phones from Wind, Videotron, Cincinnati Bell will also work on Mobilicity.
• 3G 2100 (IMT) IS NOT THE SAME AS 3G 1700/2100 (AWS)!!!!!! Look for NOTHING but the "1700" Mhz frequency. Nothing else matters. Mobilicity runs on 1700 Mhz and NOT 2100 Mhz!!!!
  
  If you DO NOT SEE THE NUMBER 1700 - it will NOT WORK!! Do not bother asking!

---------------------------------------------------------------------
2. An insight into the different frequencies and which one mobi uses.(+meaning of the terms)

To understand why this is like this, lets delve deeper into how the frequencies are used in North America vs the rest of the world. A "frequency" is the number of cycles of the radio wave per unit time. Now, phones only need to use a "band" of 5Mhz to transmit or receive data (or voice or text etc). The frequencies available are used differently in different parts of the world. I will list the 3G frequencies most commonly used:


Name: IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 standard for 3G radio frequencies)
Used: The world EXCEPT US/Canada
Tower to phone : 2100Mhz (this is the frequency used to transfer from tower to phone)
Phone to tower: 1900 Mhz (this is the frequency used to transfer from phone to tower)
Common name: 3G 2100. THIS IS NOT USED IN NORTH AMERICA!!!!



Name: PCS (Personal Communications Service - for Mobile phones in North America)
Used: US/Canada (AT&T, Bell/Telus, Telcel, Rogers), Venezuela (Movilnet, Movistar))
Tower to phone : 1950Mhz
Phone to tower: 1870 Mhz
Common name: PCS


Name: CLR (Clear)
Used: US/Canada (AT&T, Bell/Telus, Telcel, Rogers), Australia/NZ (Telstra, Vodafone_Hutchison_Australia, Telecom NZ), Dominican Republic (Claro), Hong Kong (SmarTone-Vodafone), Thailand (TrueMove), Brazil (Claro, Vivo), Philippines(Smart Communications)
Tower to phone : 880Mhz
Phone to tower: 840 Mhz
Common name: 850 or CLR


Name: AWS (Advanced Wireless Service)
Used: USA (T-Mobile, Cincinnati Bell Wireless), Canada (WIND Mobile, Mobilicity, Videotron), Chile (VTR, Nextel)
Tower to phone : 2100Mhz
Phone to tower: 1700 Mhz
Common name: AWS or 1700 or 3G 1700/2100 (because the tower to phone is 2100Mhz)

THIS IS THE FREQUENCY MOBILICITY WORKS ON. This is NOT THE SAME AS 3G 2100.
3G 2100 (IMT) IS NOT THE SAME AS 3G 1700/2100 (AWS)!!!!!!



Thus you see - If your phone reads ONLY 2100 Mhz, then it WILL NOT WORK ON MOBILICITY!!! It needs to read either 3G 1700 or 3G1700/2100. The number 1700 MUST BE THERE!!!



------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. What is "4G" or HSPA??

Well, simply put - its a marketing gimmick. "4G" is a software upgrade over 3G - and this allows the phone ot use multiple "channels" to the tower. This technology of using "multiple channels" (for both upload and download) is called HSPA. (or High Speed Packet Access). It is deployed on ALL networks possibly in the world.

4G is a MARKETING GIMMICK. The correct term is "3.5G" since its multiple "channels" of 3G. This works on ALL of the networks - and so Mobilicity, Wind, videotron, T-Mobile, Bell, Rogers, Telus AT&T are ALL "4G" or HSPA networks!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------


4. So why doesnt the bell/telus/rogers phones work on Mobilicity? What is "unlocking then"?

bell/telus/rogers phones are locked to the respective company you bought it from. Unlocking lets the phone ACCEPT other SIM Cards. However, these phones have an antenna PHYSICALLY DIFFERENT from what mobilicity / wind needs. These antennas were made for PCS and CLR bands and NOT for AWS bands. Hence, even if unlocked, they WONT work with mobilicity.


Exceptions:
1. Nokia N8, C6-01, E6, (Rogers) X7 (computergeek and I confirmed that rogers have a special version of x7 - DESIGNED to not have the AWS radio in it. This version is special to rogers, so a ROGERS x7 wont work. However if you buy it from amazon, it will.)
2. Samsung Hercules Galaxy S II (Telus)

These phones have 2 antennas built in - one for AWS and one for CLR.


--------------------------------------------------------------------

5. What is LTE? why do we need 700Mhz?

LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the real 4-G or the 4th generation of mobile communication systems. It is much faster and handles latency better.

The physics behind radiowaves dictates these:

Higher frequencies: very high speed data transmission, but very low building penetration.
Lower frequencies: Very good building penetration but bad data speeds.

There is a tradeoff. Presently, Rogers, bell, telus has BOTH high and low frequency spectrum licenses. Mobi and Wind has only high frequency ones. Hence, their building penetration is worse. We NEED Mobi and wind to get 700 mhz (lower frequency) licenses for better building penetration.


--------------------------------------------------------------------

6. Why cant mobi and wind get the same frequency as others?

Because the "others" (rogers bell and telus) have bought ALL the available frequencies in their range so NO ONE ELSE CAN COMPETE with them. This is squatting and should be illegal. They have more than 2X the spectrum of NTT DoCoMo in Japan - and 3X more than SK Telecom in korea. (speeds of SK telecom: 700Mbps. Speeds on rogers: 21 Mbps - now you decide if rogers needs more spectrum or if they should use their PRESENT spectrum more efficiently before they can bid for more?)


Acknowledgment:
1. Wikipedia
2. HowardForums Members!
3. computergeek specially for meticulously checking this thread over and over!

[Insurge]

Great guide. I was wondering if Mobi gets MHz frequency, won't this limit their phone selection even more because they will need phones that are compatible with 700 AND 1700 frequencies rather than just 1700? Sorry if this is an obvious question, I do have intermediate knowledge on this stuff but not all that high.

[bluenote73]

Lookin good, thanks xtachx. Ill let the more knowledgeable than me critique technical details.

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk

[xtachx]

Great guide. I was wondering if Mobi gets MHz frequency, won't this limit their phone selection even more because they will need phones that are compatible with 700 AND 1700 frequencies rather than just 1700? Sorry if this is an obvious question, I do have intermediate knowledge on this stuff but not all that high.

AT&T , Verizon and T-Mobile will use 700 MHz. So phones will be available for 700 in plenty. However the future of 1700 is not so clear - since its biggest user, t-mobile is being sold to AT&T

Sent from my Nexus One using HowardForums

[fruvous]

Although technically not true, shouldn't Public Mobile be added to the PCS list of carriers?

[shadowlord]

AT&T , Verizon and T-Mobile will use 700 MHz. So phones will be available for 700 in plenty. However the future of 1700 is not so clear - since its biggest user, t-mobile is being sold to AT&T

Sent from my Nexus One using HowardForums

Agreed. In the previous generation, tri-band (and later quad-band) GSM (2G) phones were considered "world-phones" and then became common place, hopefully the trend in the future will be towards pentaband (3G) phones that can handle all frequencies. That would maximize a phone-manufacturer's market for their phones by allowing customers to buy their favorite phone and use it on whatever provider they want.

That would be a win-win for manufacturers and customers. But not for carriers that rely on handset exclusivity. Apple is one exception, which uses the popularity of the iPhone to force Sprint to prepay for 30.5 million iPhones -- I've read that Sprint will not make money on this deal until 2014.

[xtachx]

Although technically not true, shouldn't Public Mobile be added to the PCS list of carriers?

This deals with GSM only. Public (and Verizon and sprint) are cdma

Sent from my Nexus One using HowardForums

[AllanVS]

Great guide Tach!

[BurntPixels]

Thread of the year! Thread of the year!

[Insurge]

AT&T , Verizon and T-Mobile will use 700 MHz. So phones will be available for 700 in plenty. However the future of 1700 is not so clear - since its biggest user, t-mobile is being sold to AT&T

Sent from my Nexus One using HowardForums

So you're saying if and when Mobi gets 700 MHz spectrum they're going to ditch 1700? What about all the customers on 1700 phones?

[bluenote73]

I know this isn't a FAQ thread but, for posterity ...

Mobilicity makes it really hard to determine whats a corporate store and what's not.
Computergeek posts info from mobilicity facebook post on the subject : http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...0#post14542970

TORONTO: 1885 Kennedy Rd., Scarb, 1343 Lawrence Ave. W., North York, 252 Queen St., Brampton, 2550 Hurontario St., Mississauga.
OTTAWA: 1595 Merivale Rd, Bayshore Shopping Centre
CALGARY: Sunridge Mall
EDMONTON: G7-13720 40th St NW
VANCOUVER: 10255 King George HWY Surrey, 8180 No 2 Road, Richmond"

[Imtiax]

Very useful OP/GUIDE Thanks

[Dan Szilagyi]

Just wanted to confirm, if anyone could actually...but would the Samsung Hercules Galaxy S II (Telus) actually work for Mobi if it was unlocked?

I'm also wondering if getting a phone from T-Mobile makes your call quality any less then say if i got a phone right from Mobi itself? I ask because i'm using a T-Mo SGS Vibrant and while the call quality isn't bad i've been told i have some echo sound when i make a call even with full bars.
Just curious

thanks! the guide is amazing

[xtachx]

Just wanted to confirm, if anyone could actually...but would the Samsung Hercules Galaxy S II (Telus) actually work for Mobi if it was unlocked?

Yes.

I'm also wondering if getting a phone from T-Mobile makes your call quality any less then say if i got a phone right from Mobi itself?

No


And your echo problem most likely has to do with the microphone!

[alexrms]

Although my Bell and Fido sims work as expected, I just trimmed my Mobilicity sim here in Vancouver Canada and inserted into my unlocked iPhone 4S. Did test call to confirm it works ok. Data also works but believe I am on Mobilicity's Edge network as I see a small 'E' at the top. Only concern is that it displays Canadian Roaming in place of Carrier logo. Any help would be appreciated

Thanks