T-Mobile is deploying 1900MHz HSPA/4G

[MrObvious]

How can I check if Wichita has 1900 MHz? I have a Droid 3 but it only picks up EDGE but I can see AT&T 3G.

[reuthermonkey]

How can I check if Wichita has 1900 MHz? I have a Droid 3 but it only picks up EDGE but I can see AT&T 3G.

If your device can see ATT 3g but not T-Mobile 3g, then that's your answer right there.

[davegtestr]

GSM spectrum usage is a lot lower per user, as most GSM users aren't using data, and the ones that are have iPhones, which will switch over to HSPA+ when it goes live on the PCS band.

IPhone 3GS and 4 do not have HSPA+, and there are lot of them percentage-wise, especially on T-Mobile.

[MacFrog]

IPhone 3GS and 4 do not have HSPA+, and there are lot of them percentage-wise, especially on T-Mobile.

HSPA+ is backward compatible with prior generations of WCDM (UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA) - which means it will work for all the iPhones that support 3G (3G, 3GS, 4, 4s) and all iPads.

[Loyal Servant]

*new person alert*

Is there a way to determine what bands you are using on an Android device?
I picked up a T-Mobile sim and dropped it into Nexus One from back in the day. (It's the T-Mobile version)
Got a Galaxy nexus (GSM version) on the way from Google and I am sending my horrendous Nexus back to Verizon since the thing can't stop muting my calls.
They are sending me a Rezound instead....

I am getting H on the Nexus One with iffy signal inside and it's actually iffy with with Verizon LTE and CDMA so I know
this isn't a T-Mobile issue but a terrain issue.

I just want to keep an eye on this and see if they drop 1900 in my area.
Thanks ladies and gents!

[cmstlist]

*new person alert*

Is there a way to determine what bands you are using on an Android device?
I picked up a T-Mobile sim and dropped it into Nexus One from back in the day. (It's the T-Mobile version)
Got a Galaxy nexus (GSM version) on the way from Google and I am sending my horrendous Nexus back to Verizon since the thing can't stop muting my calls.
They are sending me a Rezound instead....

I am getting H on the Nexus One with iffy signal inside and it's actually iffy with with Verizon LTE and CDMA so I know
this isn't a T-Mobile issue but a terrain issue.

I just want to keep an eye on this and see if they drop 1900 in my area.
Thanks ladies and gents!

Well it goes without saying that your signal on the Nexus One *must* be AWS because there was never any variant of the N1 that could do both AWS & PCS 3G.

That said, if the only Androids you own are Nexus devices - stock Android has no feature to tell you what band you are on. What you could do is use an app like NetMonitor and take note of all the different cell tower IDs you are able to get in your area on both devices. If a tower ID appears on the GN that you aren't able to see with the N1, it might be a PCS 3G signal.

You can confirm this by:
- Trying out a device that has PCS but not AWS
- Trying an LG or Samsung NON-Nexus device - both the LG UI and Samsung TouchWiz have a hidden band select menu built in.

[Loyal Servant]

Well it goes without saying that your signal on the Nexus One *must* be AWS because there was never any variant of the N1 that could do both AWS & PCS 3G.

That said, if the only Androids you own are Nexus devices - stock Android has no feature to tell you what band you are on. What you could do is use an app like NetMonitor and take note of all the different cell tower IDs you are able to get in your area on both devices. If a tower ID appears on the GN that you aren't able to see with the N1, it might be a PCS 3G signal.

You can confirm this by:
- Trying out a device that has PCS but not AWS
- Trying an LG or Samsung NON-Nexus device - both the LG UI and Samsung TouchWiz have a hidden band select menu built in.

I figured that there was no other trick in Android to gain access to this info.
I did not think about noting the tower ids and looking for a difference, that is a good idea.

Yeah.. I know the original Nexus only did AWS.. even has the death grip still
Aside from that even 2 years later this is a phenomenal device IMHO.

I even tried using logcat and looking at the debug data from the radio to see if they happened to dump out any frequencies... oh well.
Pen, paper... write down tower ids is good enough for now I guess.

[Kies]

If your GN gets 0 bars on HSPA, you should have a decent 3-4 bar GSM signal.

[terryjohnson16]

Does T-mobile have to go to every cell site, and program the panels, and hardware to broadcast PCS HSPA+?

Since majority of T-Mobile's 3G phones are primarily AWS, it will take a long time before they free up AWS 3G. Most of T-mobile's 3G phones from the launch of their UMTS network, has been plain AWS/2100, and then after that 850/AWS/2100. Do they even have enough AWS in majority of the country to even run AWS HSPA+ and LTE simultaneously?

[jet1000]

Does T-mobile have to go to every cell site, and program the panels, and hardware to broadcast PCS HSPA+?

And they probably need to add hardware to broadcast UMTS on PCS as well.

Since majority of T-Mobile's 3G phones are primarily AWS, it will take a long time before they free up AWS 3G.

Well the plan is just to reallocate some of the AWS to LTE. I'm sure they expect to have AWS HSPA for a long time.

Do they even have enough AWS in majority of the country to even run AWS HSPA+ and LTE simultaneously?

The question is at what speed would the LTE be. Initially, this is mostly just a PR move to say they have LTE. I don't expect the AWS spectrum that they can initially spare to run LTE will give top LTE speeds. But they want to be able to sell LTE devices and say we have LTE too.

As they get more customers switched over from AWS HSPA+ to PCS HSPA+, they will then be able to free up more AWS for LTE.

[xur17]

The question is at what speed would the LTE be. Initially, this is mostly just a PR move to say they have LTE. I don't expect the AWS spectrum that they can initially spare to run LTE will give top LTE speeds. But they want to be able to sell LTE devices and say we have LTE too.

As they get more customers switched over from AWS HSPA+ to PCS HSPA+, they will then be able to free up more AWS for LTE.

This sounds like a bad idea. They are going to end up with bad LTE speeds when they first start, which will cause people to start labeling TMobile LTE as slow.

[jarrodpd]

This sounds like a bad idea. They are going to end up with bad LTE speeds when they first start, which will cause people to start labeling TMobile LTE as slow.

They will be fine speed wise once it comes out and for a few months, Verizon is slowing down so there network will be faster and the. Slow down over time but since their equipment is LTE advance ready they can switch it over.

[Loyal Servant]

I flashed a rom (Venusaur) onto a Rezound that they sent to me to replace my Galaxy nexus since they can't seem to get those fixed.
It enables the GSM radios in the phone and I popped my T-Mobile SIM into it and it fires up on Edge.
I have not seen anything around the internets that confirm that it works on the 1900Mhz band.

[Kies]

Pretty sure the Rezound HSPA is 2100MHz HSPA only

[ilvla2]

Pretty sure the Rezound HSPA is 2100MHz HSPA only

It does 2100 and 900 HSPA.