Moving to us|Need simcard[Q]

[henky]

Hey guys,
so in 2 months I'm moving to the deep south. Louisiana.
Anyway I've got an HTC Hero GSM so not the CDMA the states uses,
now I want to take my phone to the us without the simcard and get one there.

I want a plan with also a data plan, the phone is useless without it!
But I heard that AT&T's networks are seriously overloaded, therefore I was wondering what my best option would be!

So with what provider would I have the best reception and speed/reliability in louisiana?

Thanks!

[inquisitor]

Where have you bought your HTC Hero from? If you have bought it outside the Americas your Hero is very likely to support 3G at 900 and 2100 MHz only, which means it is incompatible to the frequency bands used in the US (850, 1900 and 1700/2100 MHz). In that case you would only be able to use 2G networks, which means nearly unusable slow data speed.

[henky]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Where have you bought your HTC Hero from? If you have bought it outside the Americas your Hero is very likely to support 3G at 900 and 2100 MHz only, which means it is incompatible to the frequency bands used in the US (850, 1900 and 1700/2100 MHz). In that case you would only be able to use 2G networks, which means nearly unusable slow data speed.

damn! you have got te be kidding me! that really really sucks man
yes I bought it in the netherlands, so european. Damn I'm really in love with this phone & can't afford a new one of the same quality...

[PhotoJim]

There will be EDGE there... so you can limp along.

[inquisitor]

I'm sorry for you. Actually I can't understand why handset manufacturers still can't manage to get more than three different 3G frequency bands in one phone. As Sierra Wireless have proven with their MC8795V data card (which supports 3G at850/900/1900/2100 MHz), it's possible to get at least four 3G frequency bands in one device. I suspect them to limit frequency bands intentionally, so they can isolate markets and maintain different pricing levels between the Americas and the rest of the world.
While EDGE (the fastest data technology available on 2G networks with speeds up to 200 KBit/s) is enough for some eMailing and instant messaging, it can really be a pain when it comes to larger data volume, such as loading webpages. Especially in urban areas, that are crowded by iPhones and other intensive "data-volume generators", which congest networks, you may experience bandwidths far below the theoretical maximum of 200 KBit/s. It really depends on where you are, but generally data over 2G networks sucks!

[Stu]

I think the Blackberry Bold is also quadband HSPA.

[inquisitor]

Actually the specifications for the Bold 9700 mention one version with support for four frequency bands:

• 2100/1900/850/800 MHz (Bands 1,2,5/6)
• 2100/1700/900 MHz (Bands 1,4,8 )

However band 5 (850 MHz) and 6 (800 MHz) are not really different frequency bands, but band 6 is just a subset of band 5, which was introduced due to limited frequency spectrum availability in Japan, which forbad using the whole range of band 5.

While band 5 uses 824-849 MHz for the uplink band 6 operates at 830-840 MHz.
Downlink is on 869-894 MHz for band 5 and 875-885 MHz on band 6.

So even the designation "UMTS 800" for band 6 is completely misleading, as it is not operating on a lower frequency than band 5, which is refered to as "UMTS 850".

A phone with support for band 5 does not require any hardware modifications (especially no additional RF-chips) in order to register on a band 6-network, but simply some software tweaks - so I do not count band 6 as a separate one.

[henky]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

Actually the specifications for the Bold 9700 mention one version with support for four frequency bands:

• 2100/1900/850/800 MHz (Bands 1,2,5/6)
• 2100/1700/900 MHz (Bands 1,4,8 )

However band 5 (850 MHz) and 6 (800 MHz) are not really different frequency bands, but band 6 is just a subset of band 5, which was introduced due to limited frequency spectrum availability in Japan, which forbad using the whole range of band 5.

While band 5 uses 824-849 MHz for the uplink band 6 operates at 830-840 MHz.
Downlink is on 869-894 MHz for band 5 and 875-885 MHz on band 6.

So even the designation "UMTS 800" for band 6 is completely misleading, as it is not operating on a lower frequency than band 5, which is refered to as "UMTS 850".

A phone with support for band 5 does not require any hardware modifications (especially no additional RF-chips) in order to register on a band 6-network, but simply some software tweaks - so I do not count band 6 as a separate one.

yeah I looked for the specs of my phone, and you're right
the new phone I want is 200 dollars on top of a 2year contract ! damn it, I have to forfeit the best phone ever

[inquisitor]

What about selling your European Hero and buying an American one?

Afaik for $200 you can even get the Google Nexus One on a 2-year-contract with T-Mobile and the Nexus One is even better than the Hero, as it has more CPU power and especially more than double resolution (854 x 480 pixels instead of 480 x 320), so you can view regular websites with way less scrolling. However I think AT&T have better 3G-coverage, so one should better wait for the AT&T-compatible version of Nexus One to appear (it's already subject to FCC-approval, which means we're few weeks away from release).

And before buying a US-compatible phone, be aware that AT&T run their 3G-network at 850 and 1900 MHz, while T-Mobile uses the so called "AWS-band" at 1700/2100 MHz (which is incompatible with the European 2100 MHz-band) and there is no phone supporting both, AT&T's and T-Mobile's 3G frequencies. So your decision on your next phone will tie you to an operator.
All other nationwide 3G operators in the US (Verizon and Spring) use CDMA, a SIM-card-less technology, where you generally can't take a phone to another operator.
So practically in the US you can't keep your phone when switching to another 3G operator due to these compatibility issues.
Are you still planning to move to the US?

[Bossman]

If you need 3G in the US, your better go with AT&T. Tmobile's 3G footprint is no where close to AT&T's. And it will even be worse or non-existent down there in Louisiana. What part of La. are you heading to. I used to live in Baton Rouge and then New Olrleans briefly in the early 90's.