0 blog cited and backed up the notoriously erroneous Shaw Wu in stating that T-Mobile US might get the iPhone 4 (and potentially even the current 3GS). See: tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/06/10/an-iphone-for-t-mo... They've got it all wrong.
The conclusion is drawn in this quote from the Apple 2.0 article: "T-Mobile's 3G network runs on 1700 MHz and 2100 MHz while AT&T supports 850 MHz and 1900 MHz. 'Interestingly,' Wu writes, 'both the new iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS support 3G at the 2100 MHz frequency.'"
What Wu (and Apple 2.0) don't seem to realize is that 3G bands work in pairs -- one band for transmit, one band for receive. Just because a phone supports 2100MHz doesn't mean it will operate on every network with 2100MHz. (This is why you never single-band devices, only dual, tri, and quad-band.) The iPhone 4 and 3GS would need to support both 2100MHz and 1700MHz (aka AWS) to operate on T-Mobile's US network, and as of today no Apple devices support the AWS band.
In other words, entirely new devices with different radios and antennas would have to be introduced before this would be possible. So don't expect to see the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 on T-Mobile US any time soon.
Discussion about
Today Fortune's Apple 2.
This is a good example of why I like gdgt. Intelligent people that are able to discuss a news story and offer additional facts and scenarios that I wouldn't normally think to check out. Good job Ryan!
Being able to work on T-mobile was one of the theories being spouted Monday and its nice to get a different take on it.
Being able to work on T-mobile was one of the theories being spouted Monday and its nice to get a different take on it.
I should note that during the liveblog, as soon as Steve mentioned the iPhone 4 would be quad-band 3G I speculated it might include T-Mobile's AWS band (live.gdgt.com/2010/06/07/live-wwdc-2010-keynote-co... ). However, this was before it was revealed which band Apple was adding; a few minutes later Steve presented a slide that showed Apple had not added T-Mobile US's 1700MHz band, and thus would not change the iPhone's AT&T-only 3G status in the US.
There's a lot of confusion over AWS and UMTS bands. Although it's true that AWS consists of 1700 and 2100 up and down frequency pairs, phone specs don't generally list them separately. AWS is usually refer o as just "1700". Whenever there's a "2100", it mean's IMT, which is 1900/2100 (up/down).
Because both uses the same down link frequency "2100" isn't even used in North America at all because it's already occupied by AWS. A phone can have "1700" or"2100" or both ("1700/2100"), but a carrier can only operate on ONE of those bands.
If you see "1700/2100" in the specs of a phone. It means it supports both the AWS band that T-Mobile uses and it has the IMT band that you can use for overseas 3G roaming. There are many phones that only has "2100" (like the iPhone) and only "1700" (like the T-Mobile Nokia 3555).
For this reason, I always have problems with people saying AWS is 1700/2100. It's not. It's just 1700. Notice that MetroPCS phones -- while being a different tech -- only lists 1700, and you'll never see 2100 even hough they use the same band frequency as T-Mobile.
You also won't see anybody say AT&T uses "800/850" and "1800/1900" because we don't list teh up and down frequencies in phone specs even though every single band has an up and down component.
For this reason,I've noticed that many manufacturers are listing the UMTS bands in the specs instead of or in addition to the frequencies. So you'll see "UMTS Band 1,4,8" which means it supports band 1 ("2100" or IMT), band 4 ("1700" or AWS) and band 8 ("900").
I found these links useful for understanding the band frequencies:
www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=99&p...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands
Because both uses the same down link frequency "2100" isn't even used in North America at all because it's already occupied by AWS. A phone can have "1700" or"2100" or both ("1700/2100"), but a carrier can only operate on ONE of those bands.
If you see "1700/2100" in the specs of a phone. It means it supports both the AWS band that T-Mobile uses and it has the IMT band that you can use for overseas 3G roaming. There are many phones that only has "2100" (like the iPhone) and only "1700" (like the T-Mobile Nokia 3555).
For this reason, I always have problems with people saying AWS is 1700/2100. It's not. It's just 1700. Notice that MetroPCS phones -- while being a different tech -- only lists 1700, and you'll never see 2100 even hough they use the same band frequency as T-Mobile.
You also won't see anybody say AT&T uses "800/850" and "1800/1900" because we don't list teh up and down frequencies in phone specs even though every single band has an up and down component.
For this reason,I've noticed that many manufacturers are listing the UMTS bands in the specs instead of or in addition to the frequencies. So you'll see "UMTS Band 1,4,8" which means it supports band 1 ("2100" or IMT), band 4 ("1700" or AWS) and band 8 ("900").
I found these links useful for understanding the band frequencies:
www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=99&p...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands
I for one didn't know that T-mobile would require two bands to do uplink and downlink frequencies. I've always thought that 1700 MHz was the dedicated frequency needed for devices to go 3G with T-Mobile. Nice to hear this info but I already felt that it will never happen with T-Mobile since they've never mixed, even in GSM that special AT&T frequency with T-Mobile (850 MHz). I've always known T-mobile having weak signals at remote locations cuz of that not-quite-supported frequency with their phones. Most of T-mobile phones are tri-band for international.
This post has been removed.
hmm.. has anyone actually tried jailbreaking the new phone and trying it out on t-mobile's 3G network?
if you look at the nexus one for tmobile www.google.com/phone
they show the same bands as the iphone 4:
===
Compatible with 3G on T-Mobile (U.S.)
Supports three 3G/UMTS bands (900/AWS/2100 MHz) and four GSM radio frequencies (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
===
i'd love to get it on T-Mobile... walked into the Apple store today -- they will sell the phone without a contract for $400 + the contract price, ie: $599 for 16Gb
if you look at the nexus one for tmobile www.google.com/phone
they show the same bands as the iphone 4:
===
Compatible with 3G on T-Mobile (U.S.)
Supports three 3G/UMTS bands (900/AWS/2100 MHz) and four GSM radio frequencies (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
===
i'd love to get it on T-Mobile... walked into the Apple store today -- they will sell the phone without a contract for $400 + the contract price, ie: $599 for 16Gb
follow this discussion
share:
Products mentioned
6 users following this discussion:
This discussion has been viewed 562 times.
Last activity .