[iPhone 3G] TMobile USA 3G Band

[jgor2000]

Hello there. Does anyone have any idea what's the band for 3G for TMobile in the US? D you know if the 3G iPhone will e compatible? (I know you gotta unlock it first)

[secretmrx]

i don't know much about T-Mobile as i live in New Zealand, but I image it would be compatible. I saw a post on engadget where someone had found the 3G iPhone firmware and then posted the specs (like processor type and modem etc). It looked like it will be compatible with most of the carriers in the world, as it is debuting in like 50 new countries, so it needs to fit on most networks. And i dont think T-Mobile uses really diffrent technology from those other 50 countries.

So i would say yes

[googs]

Hello there. Does anyone have any idea what's the band for 3G for TMobile in the US? D you know if the 3G iPhone will e compatible? (I know you gotta unlock it first)

Idiots at Tmo decided to go with 1700 its not gonna work on their 3G.

[secretmrx]

Idiots at Tmo decided to go with 1700 its not gonna work on their 3G.

why the f*ck would they do that? stupid tmobile... in doing so they are severly limiting the phones that they can use

[goudok]

well well well.. i remember like 4-5 months ago ppl were putting me down for saying that the new iphone is not gonna work under t-mobiles 3g.... i find it funny how ppl think they know whats going on but they clearly dont.. obviously as of now nobody knows what the specs are of the 3g iphone.. however... i can bet almost anytying that i have taht it wont have 1700 mhz which requires for 3g for t-mobile..reason being that 1700 is only for t mobile in the us and since apple and att have the exclusive contract it would make sense not to include 1700 so people would switch to att... its probabably gonna be 3g with 850/1900/2100 mhz .. so far the only phone that i know that have quad band 3g is the sony errickson.. that has 850/1700/1900/2100 3g/umts/hsdpa.....

[dtube]

FWIW, about 20 days ago I called tmobile usa regarding my contract. I told them I am considering cancelling it because I may want to get an iphone on AT&T ... Next thing, they transferred me to the next level to convince me to stay on tmobile. The next person explained to me that tmobile fully support iphone as it is the officical carrier in Europe for iphone and blah blah blah. I asked about 3G and she told me the system is fully ready to support 3G (not sure how much truth to this) because it is the official carrier in Europe again. Next thing I know, she told me I can get an iphone and unlock it so it can be use in US. I asked how do I unlock. She told me to go to this website called iphonesimfree :D:D:D. I was laughing my *ss off ...

[buy3giphone]

Well i think if youre gonna unlock it, then it should work with no problems. Anyway, we'll have to wait.

[capntang]

Do most of you honestly not realize what's involved in the selection process for wireless bandwidth? It's not that T-mobile USA wanted an odd frequency, but 1700mhz was available for licensing. I don't understand all the details myself, but I'm pretty sure they would have gone for one of the more common frequencies if the licenses were available. You can't just setup and deploy a wide-area wireless network on any frequency you wish. The FCC wouldn't be too happy with that.

Personally, I think it would be a very unwise and shortsighted decision by Apple to not include quad-band 3G support. Sure, they signed an exclusive with AT&T in US (another big mistake in my opinion), but including support for 1700mhz would only serve to widen the potential customer base to include T-mobile customers (the second largest group of GSM users in the US). Apple wouldn't make a commission on T-mobile iPhone customers, but they'd also have the privilidge of denying warranty service to all those unlocked phones (no support costs for phones unofficially unlocked).

In addition, the exclusivity agreement ends at some point. Having said that, Apple may just continue to release a new iPhone revision every year, and we may just have to wait for the year that brings an end to the AT&T/Apple contract before we see one that's fully compatible with T-mobile USA.

In any event, we won't really know anything for certain until the release.

[wsxijn03]

T-mobile USA does not really have a choice not to go 1700MHz though because with their current limited GSM spectrum, it is difficult for them to carve out 5MHz for 3G even without consideration of future expansion where more 5MHz chunks are needed.

Just because T-mobile Europe 3G is compatible with iphone 3G doesn't mean that the same device will work with T-mobile USA for the same obvious reason. Now, the T-mobile USA customer service lied to you when he/she said iphone will work on their 3G network.

[jgor2000]

Hi there s no way to know if the Infeon chipset is supporting the 1700 frequency?

[goudok]

well supposedly if this is true (link below).. it does not have 1700 which i have been saying for months now... it just makes sense for them not to include it.. this would make users switch to att....and once the exclusive agreement runs out in 4 more years i think then they will have iphone generation 4 or 5 and that one will support everything...

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/06/iphone-3g-iphone-firmware-leaked-tri-band-hsdpa-and-gps-are-go/

[one4house]

Save you a click:


It's easy to take for granted the 3G iPhone's launch at this point. After all, Steve said it was "coming later this year," as did a number of prominent mobile executives. And then there's been the barrage of carrier announcements, many in international markets that use UMTS and have zero support for the iPhone as we know it today. But the fact of the matter is we've had very little to go on by way of material evidence -- until now.

We have it from a reliable source that a version of the 3G iPhone's firmware has been released -- possibly for carrier partners currently field-testing the device -- and has since been dissected. While nothing is ever guaranteed, in combing through the raw data, we think we got more than enough information on the low-level hardware and drivers that run the device to make some informed conclusions about what we can expect: quad-band GSM support (as we currently have), A-GPS (as we'd already gotten from another source), and tri-band UMTS / HSDPA -- which would make the new iPhone(s) 3G-capable in just about every market in the world. Hardware details after the break. We're through the looking-glass, people!

All the dirty details:

* Infineon PMB6952 / S-GOLD3 six-band UMTS / HSDPA transceiver (as we'd heard)
* Murata LMRX3JCA-479 tri-band amplifier (we're assuming for the 3G)
* Sony SP9T antenna switch for GSM / UMTS dual mode
* ARM 1176JZF-S - Main CPU (same as in 1st gen iPhone)
* Skyworks 77427 chip - UMTS / HSDPA tx 1900MHz, rx 2100MHz
* Skyworks 77414 chip - UMTS / HSDPA 1900MHz
* Skyworks 77413 chip - UMTS / HSDPA 850MHz
* Internal build model number: n82ap (1st gen iPhone was model m68ap)
* UMTS Power Saving option - on or off
* Hooks for Global Locate Library (GLL), software that handles A-GPS related commands for the host processor

*

[MikeMiranda]

will 3G be backwards compatible with EDGE? cause thats all I really need

[jgor2000]

Yes it will be.

[MikeMiranda]

Yes it will be.

thanks :D

[cwestpha]

T-mobile 3G will operate on 1700 and 1900 bands if I remember corectly. The iPhone will support the 1900 band but not the 1700 band. As such there is a 50/50 chance full 3G will work in your area under T-Mobile.
T-Mobile had to take the 1700 band because:
A) that is what was available
B) Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, and (then) Cingular had taken up most of the other spectrum. Between AT&T buying Cingular and the recent auction, AT&T is sitting on a massive block of spectrum
c) the lower Hz the band is, the further you can send the signal with the same power. For example a 5 GHz signal takes about twice as much power as to generate a 2.4 Ghz signal at equal strengths.

So technically the 1700 band is more desirable then the 1900 or 2100 band. That means stronger signal strength with normal distance between towers or increased tower distance with the same signal strength.

So why cant you just swap a component or two to add 1700 support?
1) the antenna has to be a function of the band it is "listening to" for ideal signal. As you can imagine, even the original iphone's quad band antenna and chips require some vary precisely engineered components.
2) You need an transceiver/"tuner" that can isolate the specific frequency of the signal and also provide some mathematically derived fine tuning and adjustment.
3) the amplifiers boost the signal strength within a specific range without boosting the "noise" of the rest of the RF spectrum.
4) all of this must be done while in compliance with FCC regulations and thus able to handle interference from millions of simultaneous RF sources. All of this as an antenna the size of your thumb nail tries to communicate with a single cellphone tower.

Lesson: stop moaning about compatibility, be amazed any of it works to begin with. :p

[libertybenz2]

yea, dtube would ask how to unlock it, hes an iphone nub hahaha yeaa rite! u shouldve been like "do u know who i am?! Im dtube from hackint0sh, u just got pwned! click..." hahaha

Benz

[xcesivemastub8ah]

T-mobile 3G will operate on 1700 and 1900 bands if I remember corectly. The iPhone will support the 1900 band but not the 1700 band. As such there is a 50/50 chance full 3G will work in your area under T-Mobile.


wrong and wrong.
t-mobiles 3g will be AWS 1700/2100 aka "ONE OF A KIND". and even if it WHERE 1700/1900 you'd still be wrong. that doesnt mean that if you're in an area where tmo USA uses 1900 it would work. just to clarify once again:rolleyes: : t-mobile will use the 1700 frequency to upload (phone to tower) and the 2100 to download (tower to phone)since it appears the iphone WONT be supporting the 1700 band, there is NO WAY for it to communicate with t-mo USA's towers. hence, it'll more likely than not, wont work...

[raulr]

...t-mobile will use the 1700 frequency to upload (phone to tower) and the 2100 to download (tower to phone)since it appears the iphone WONT be supporting the 1700 band, there is NO WAY for it to communicate with t-mo USA's towers. hence, it'll more likely than not, wont work...

Maybe you could upload with EDGE and download with 3G? Download is what takes the most bandwidth anyway. Not sure if Tmobile would be able to support that type of connection.

In any case, I also think the portion of the 2100 spectrum that Tmobile has allocated is at a different range of the band than the European flavor, so it might not matter.

[wsxijn03]

Maybe you could upload with EDGE and download with 3G?

No smoking crack please. :D

[romenator]

No smoking crack please. :D
LMAO. that reply cracked me up.

All will be revealed in an hour or so.

[weezo]

LMAO. that reply cracked me up.

All will be revealed in an hour or so.

t minus 1h13

[jgor2000]

So did you like it?...

[nine days]

SO the iPhone 3G works on 1900 not on 1700 so not available for T-Mobile?

[jgor2000]

iPhone 3G will not compatible with Tmobile US 3G

[dagamer34]

T-Mobile's 3G network not being compatible with the iPhone 3G means there is no reason for massive unlocking of the iPhone 3G in the US. Maybe a few will unlock because they would like to have GPS, but they'd be paying at LEAST $500 for an 8GB version just to jump through a lot of hoops.

Now in other countries, it's a different story though I'm pretty sure there are a few countries that force unlocking after a few months (though you might need to pay the carrier for them. At the very least, expect the iPhone 3G to fetch a pretty penny because someone will have had to part with it WHILE still paying off the subsidy to the carrier (or wait 2 years before selling it).

[aranmor]

T-Mobile's 3G network not being compatible with the iPhone 3G means there is no reason for massive unlocking of the iPhone 3G in the US. Maybe a few will unlock because they would like to have GPS, but they'd be paying at LEAST $500 for an 8GB version just to jump through a lot of hoops.

Now in other countries, it's a different story though I'm pretty sure there are a few countries that force unlocking after a few months (though you might need to pay the carrier for them. At the very least, expect the iPhone 3G to fetch a pretty penny because someone will have had to part with it WHILE still paying off the subsidy to the carrier (or wait 2 years before selling it).

Well by reading what you wrote I can asume that you already have an iphone, but remember that some people not only those waiting for a price drop (which may not get for a not subsidised iphone) but those who just want an iphone regardless of 3g and gps and will not get iphone1 since it will be.... erhh discontinued; those people will mark the pace of the unlocking mass, so only time will tell

[JN2]

I am disappointed to hear about the sh*t 3G radio of the new iPhone, with no 1700 mhz.

Or could it be capable of it and Apple is just not saying on their spec sheet because only TMobile USA would use it? Does anyone know what the actual radio components are and their true capabilities?

[jumphopspin]

I am disappointed to hear about the sh*t 3G radio of the new iPhone, with no 1700 mhz.

Or could it be capable of it and Apple is just not saying on their spec sheet because only TMobile USA would use it? Does anyone know what the actual radio components are and their true capabilities?

no i doubt they added a radio just for one carrier that isn't even a partner with apple.

[JN2]

no i doubt they added a radio just for one carrier that isn't even a partner with apple.No, Apple would not have done it on purpose, but if a radio component they bought from a 3rd party supports the 1700 mhz, the new iPhone might, by accident, be capable, and Apple could still leave it off their spec sheet, if they do not intend it to be used that way, being only T-Mobile USA being at 1700 mhz.

If such accident did not happen, then my only conclusion about the 3G radio, is that it is a sh*t radio.