Database Develop

Any USA Diamond Users? Miss the 850 cellphone frequency?

I'm really debating -- I like HTC phones and am tied to ATT right now -- it "seems" like missing the 850 frequency is a show stopper and I'd be unwise to buy one. But I see a lot of places advertising them here in the USA -- anyone who bought one haveenough experience to comment on the lack of the 850 radio frequency?
Thanks!

Hello,
I am using it in Canada. Reception is so so. The 850Mhz band is really a big miss...
Philippe

Yeah, like Phil, here, I'm using it in montreal, too. 850 is a big need indeed, but I can live without it. the only thing is we don't get 3G. but since FIDO doesn't give any good 3G service, it's not worth it.

Att in Texas
I live in Dallas and the reception is about the same as with the other band (850).
I went to East Texas to our lakehouse in the country and got spotty coverage, but it is usually spotty anyway. I believe that the reception is only a shade off for me. I use to get 0-1 bar in our lakehouse but now get no reception. The small towns surrounding I get good reception just like the 850 band. I am getting Edge reception but no HSPDA reception. I can mangage without it for now waiting on the USA version. I like the Diamond though. For me it works great and YOUTUBE has been smooth and very clear using a wi-fi here at the lakehouse. Only thing for me that is a bother now is the battery life. Great unit otherwise.

Excuse the language the the phone is badass. Im in Hickory, NC near the mountains, I get signal fade but it picks up right away, I havent had callers compalin about interferance of any sort.
I havent had dropped calls or problems. This area is not a good ATT/Cingular area due to the mountains. There is no 3G service in the area yet, so cant give you feedback on the phone. If you have cash to burn, dont wait. If its a lot of money wait. I've been using GSM luxury phones, and most never hit the US market so a few of them never had 850. Not a big deal to me, as the other US users have said SCREW IT, the phone is too good. Good Luck

My usability in Toronto is ok but I do with I had 850...even if I had no 3g...but alas, what can you do!

I would try it , but on t-mobile I know I would need the 850 to roam. That kind a bread and not being able to roam = no good. It is a deal breaker for me. Would wait for nam or get something else. Had same issue with euro dual. Great phone but no roam= Sold!

How do I find out what this country runs on? Im using Etisalat in UAE.
Thanks

http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/index.shtml
900 (GSM), 2100 (3G)

So is a particular band better than another? How come Etisalat runs on 900GSM while competing company DU runs on 900/1800?

CorruptedSanity said:
So is a particular band better than another? How come Etisalat runs on 900GSM while competing company DU runs on 900/1800?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are limited frequencies. One band can usually support 2 operators, usually the first two operators are given 900Mhz and the next two 1800Mhz. Often one operator has bought out another so they end up with both bands.
At the begining of GSM, 900Mhz was better, because less towers could provide more coverage (the 900Mhz signals travel farther with the same power). But now it doesnt mean much at all. There's no noticable difference at all.

nope oh ya what frequency'?????
Just Kidding....i Live In Lake Thaoe And No Problem With The Att Tmobile Frequency That I Can See.

creiz said:
Yeah, like Phil, here, I'm using it in montreal, too. 850 is a big need indeed, but I can live without it. the only thing is we don't get 3G. but since FIDO doesn't give any good 3G service, it's not worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm i guess it sucks to be in Montreal then. Here in Toronto, 3G reception is great. Well, so-so where i live. Although i get a good 3G reception a block away from my house .

ref: 850
brucewilsonpa said:
I'm really debating -- I like HTC phones and am tied to ATT right now -- it "seems" like missing the 850 frequency is a show stopper and I'd be unwise to buy one. But I see a lot of places advertising them here in the USA -- anyone who bought one haveenough experience to comment on the lack of the 850 radio frequency?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use tom_condon 1.00.20.05, and have seen the search for 850 in auto, but it seems that tmo only uses it when roaming in SoCal? I think that only NY has 850/1900. The factory rom 1.34.831.1 did not search. I will try att, and that should tell me if the change works.

att works fine in LA in the 850 band. Now waiting for tmo

brucewilsonpa said:
I'm really debating -- I like HTC phones and am tied to ATT right now -- it "seems" like missing the 850 frequency is a show stopper and I'd be unwise to buy one. But I see a lot of places advertising them here in the USA -- anyone who bought one haveenough experience to comment on the lack of the 850 radio frequency?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Missing 850 band?? If you do a search of this site, you will find a million threads on this subject. The 850 band has been available in radio roms since about June, as a matter of fact is available from HTC themselves as part of a ROM update. Try the 1.25.00.05 or 1.25.00.07 or 1.25.00.08 versions in the ROM Development forums. Unfortunately, no 3G. I prefer .07 version for my area of Vancouver, Canada.

AT&T???

Will the HTC Diamond Europe/Asia version work for AT&T here in the US? If not, Why??

I would recomend searching this first, as the answere is practicaly everywhere, but the answere is: Yes... kind of. The phone will work fine but most of the U.S. uses a different 3g frequency than in Europe.
What does this mean for you, your diamond will make phone calls but will not be able to have high-speed internet. I couldn't stand using this phone without the 3g connection.

If your going to get a TD and use it on AT&T do yourself a favor and make it a NAM version. No 3g is a real dealbreaker when you can get the exact same phone with it.

I called AT&T and they told me that they are using the 900 frequencies in my area.....is that right???

Its 850/1900 for 3G on AT&T. Im begining to think you maybe have rolled to a cheap euro diamond. Dont do it, these phones are nothing without data and 3G is much faster than what your going to be getting over GSM. This is a no brainer dude, pony up for the NAM version. And start reading, the information you seek is practically everywhere.

the kaiser, t-mobile, and 3G

Hi everyone--
I have an unmodded, "unlocked" at&t tilt that has a t-mobile gsm sim chip in it. I'm still running the WM6 that came in it, and can't seem to get access to the 3G speeds I know this thing is capable of. I've tried numerous software apps to "force" the phone to go 3G, to no avail. T-Mobile customer "support"--HAA! tells me I need a t-mobile phone to be able to take advantage of the 3G speeds. Needles to say, I feel this is a bunch of malarkey. T-Mobile put out this phone, did they not, and called it the "MDA Vario III"? Is there a rom for the mda that I could flash this thing with so I could get the 3G speeds? Or another rom perhaps? Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks!
tripp
mods: if this post is in the wrong place, please move it where it should be (sorry!)

trippster said:
Hi everyone--
I have an unmodded, "unlocked" at&t tilt that has a t-mobile gsm sim chip in it. I'm still running the WM6 that came in it, and can't seem to get access to the 3G speeds I know this thing is capable of. I've tried numerous software apps to "force" the phone to go 3G, to no avail. T-Mobile customer "support"--HAA! tells me I need a t-mobile phone to be able to take advantage of the 3G speeds. Needles to say, I feel this is a bunch of malarkey. T-Mobile put out this phone, did they not, and called it the "MDA Vario III"? Is there a rom for the mda that I could flash this thing with so I could get the 3G speeds? Or another rom perhaps? Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Thanks!
tripp
mods: if this post is in the wrong place, please move it where it should be (sorry!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, the malarkey is the truth! Because T-Mobile runs its 3G network on a different band than the Tilt is capable of! Sorry, this also effects me as I am a T-Mobile customer using a Tilt as well! My advice is to use Opera mini 4.2 for your internet browsing it is very fast on the Edge network!

The T-Mobile you refer to is European
It does not run on the same 3G as the US T-Mobile. The US T-Mobile uses 1700 Mhz and 2100 Mhz, I believe. The Tilt does not use the 1700 Mhz band. There was a rumor going around that there would be a new version of the Kaiser (KAIS140) that would use the US T-Mobile 3G bands but it was never released for sale. I don't think it will since it is pretty much at the end of the life cycle of the phone. They (HTC) have moved on to newer models with more features. If you would like to use the US 3G and live in an area with 3G, The T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream) uses T-Mo 3G and has its own section on this forum.

bleh. newer models should still freaking tilt. that is the coolest thing about this phone. and it's pretty solid construction. my friend has had his over a year and its still going strong.

dashmaster1000 said:
Unfortunately, the malarkey is the truth! Because T-Mobile runs its 3G network on a different band than the Tilt is capable of! Sorry, this also effects me as I am a T-Mobile customer using a Tilt as well! My advice is to use Opera mini 4.2 for your internet browsing it is very fast on the Edge network!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought the Tilt accessed 3G through it's tri band frequencies 850/1900/2100Mhz so that it could connect to most 3G networks worldwide, making it a world business tool for users?

denco7 said:
I thought the Tilt accessed 3G through it's tri band frequencies 850/1900/2100Mhz so that it could connect to most 3G networks worldwide, making it a world business tool for users?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True but T-Mobile uses the 1700 for upload and 2100 for download. ATT uses 1900 for both.

AT&T HD7S: no int'l 3G frequencies and screen not really any better than HD7

All the info I've seen so far indicates that the AT&T HD7S is *ONLY* 850/1900. No world-standard 900 or 2100, and therefore no 3G outside the US (and perhaps a couple of other locales). This includes a trip to the AT&T store to see it in person today and ask the people in there about int'l roaming.
The T-Mo HD7 on the other hand definitely has at least 2100 (in addition to AWS).
I find this pretty disappointing. Is this normal for AT&T? WTF are they thinking?
I'll also say that I found the screen only very marginally better than the original HD7 -- if at all. The thing I was looking at was the tendency towards artifacting during scrolling, with the dark theme. On the T-Mo HD7 this was visible enough that I permanently switched to the light theme to get rid of it.
I found the SLCD screen to have a similar artifact.
If AT&T's HD7S really doesn't support any int'l 3G, then I'd say it's going to be a pretty poor choice for some folks. The addition of an SLCD screen is not even close to enough to recommend it over the original T-Mo HD7.

tai4de2 said:
All the info I've seen so far indicates that the AT&T HD7S is *ONLY* 850/1900. No world-standard 900 or 2100, and therefore no 3G outside the US (and perhaps a couple of other locales). This includes a trip to the AT&T store to see it in person today and ask the people in there about int'l roaming.
The T-Mo HD7 on the other hand definitely has at least 2100 (in addition to AWS).
I find this pretty disappointing. Is this normal for AT&T? WTF are they thinking?
I'll also say that I found the screen only very marginally better than the original HD7 -- if at all. The thing I was looking at was the tendency towards artifacting during scrolling, with the dark theme. On the T-Mo HD7 this was visible enough that I permanently switched to the light theme to get rid of it.
I found the SLCD screen to have a similar artifact.
If AT&T's HD7S really doesn't support any int'l 3G, then I'd say it's going to be a pretty poor choice for some folks. The addition of an SLCD screen is not even close to enough to recommend it over the original T-Mo HD7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tbh im really not surpised. i dont like at&t really, and when they merge with tmobile im moving to verizon.

HD7S is quad band. I do not know where you got your info from.
If you go to ATT website to look all HD7S details you will find it does support 900/2100.
tai4de2 said:
All the info I've seen so far indicates that the AT&T HD7S is *ONLY* 850/1900. No world-standard 900 or 2100, and therefore no 3G outside the US (and perhaps a couple of other locales). This includes a trip to the AT&T store to see it in person today and ask the people in there about int'l roaming.
The T-Mo HD7 on the other hand definitely has at least 2100 (in addition to AWS).
I find this pretty disappointing. Is this normal for AT&T? WTF are they thinking?
I'll also say that I found the screen only very marginally better than the original HD7 -- if at all. The thing I was looking at was the tendency towards artifacting during scrolling, with the dark theme. On the T-Mo HD7 this was visible enough that I permanently switched to the light theme to get rid of it.
I found the SLCD screen to have a similar artifact.
If AT&T's HD7S really doesn't support any int'l 3G, then I'd say it's going to be a pretty poor choice for some folks. The addition of an SLCD screen is not even close to enough to recommend it over the original T-Mo HD7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

and as for your screen only being marginally better... i have no clue what you were looking at but it wasnt a tmo vs att hd7.... the att one is tremendously better.... the magenta actually looks magenta on att's while the tmo one looks lavender... its no focus screen but it is much much better than the tmo one...

timnan said:
HD7S is quad band. I do not know where you got your info from.
If you go to ATT website to look all HD7S details you will find it does support 900/2100.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From AT&T's web site:
GSM/GPRS: GSM/GPRS/EDGE Quad-Band 850/900/1800/1900MHz
3G - UMTS/HSDPA: HSPA/UMTS Dual-band 850/1900 MHz
The "quad band" you mention is for GSM/Edge -- *NOT* for 3G.
UMTS is 850/1900 *ONLY*.
Where did you see 900/2100 support mentioned?
AT&T seriously rides the fail train.

kawgirlval69 said:
and as for your screen only being marginally better... i have no clue what you were looking at but it wasnt a tmo vs att hd7.... the att one is tremendously better.... the magenta actually looks magenta on att's while the tmo one looks lavender... its no focus screen but it is much much better than the tmo one...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It certainly was a T-Mo HD7 next to an AT&T HD7S .
I don't disagree that colors might be more accurate on the SLCD but it's all relative and for day to day use one gets used to the particular color characteristics of a phone and "close enough" is good enough.
The thing I was looking at was the artifacts and clarity during scrolling. The HD7S is no better than the HD7 in that regard. Maybe I'm just used to the AMOLED screen on my phone and have gotten spoiled .

tai4de2 said:
It certainly was a T-Mo HD7 next to an AT&T HD7S .
I don't disagree that colors might be more accurate on the SLCD but it's all relative and for day to day use one gets used to the particular color characteristics of a phone and "close enough" is good enough.
The thing I was looking at was the artifacts and clarity during scrolling. The HD7S is no better than the HD7 in that regard. Maybe I'm just used to the AMOLED screen on my phone and have gotten spoiled .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
must have been in bad light........... anyhow for all who really care heres the specs from htc's site.... atleast i dont have to buy a australian hd7 like i did the hd2 just so i could have a decent phone on at&t...

Never really noticed the artifact thing till I read this thread honestly. As for AMOLED, unless it is a Super AMOLED, I rather have artifact than the lower effective resolution of the PenTile (RGBG) setup AMOLED's use.
As far as the 3G, that's a hardware issue, there's no arm chipsets that support all 3G bands. Plus, the frequencies AT&T/T-mobile/etc uses is not their choice. They get what they can in the USA. T-Mobile had a huge problem with upgrading it's 3G network as a lot of areas failed to update their emergency frequencies for fire/EMT/etc in a timely matter which used the 1700 MHz band before it was sold to T-Mobile USA.

drkfngthdragnlrd said:
As far as the 3G, that's a hardware issue, there's no arm chipsets that support all 3G bands. Plus, the frequencies AT&T/T-mobile/etc uses is not their choice. They get what they can in the USA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are missing the point.
Most AT&T phones (including all their other WP7 phones) support 850/1900 (USA frequencies) *AND* 2100 (int'l standard, for 3G roaming) for UMTS.
Similarly, most TMOUS phones support AWS (USA frequencies) *AND* 2100 (int'l standard, for 3G roaming) for UMTS. This includes the TMOUS HD7.
AT&T has dumbed down the HD7S so you cannot get int'l 3G roaming with it. In other words you get less than you get with their other WP7 devices and their other smartphones, and less than you get with TMOUS HD7.

drkfngthdragnlrd said:
there's no arm chipsets that support all 3G bands
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For the record, this is incorrect. Go look up "pentaband" -- for example the Nokia N8 supports 850/900/1700/1900/2100 UMTS. Those are all the 3G frequencies in common use around the world.

tai4de2 said:
You are missing the point.
Most AT&T phones (including all their other WP7 phones) support 850/1900 (USA frequencies) *AND* 2100 (int'l standard, for 3G roaming) for UMTS.
Similarly, most TMOUS phones support AWS (USA frequencies) *AND* 2100 (int'l standard, for 3G roaming) for UMTS. This includes the TMOUS HD7.
AT&T has dumbed down the HD7S so you cannot get int'l 3G roaming with it. In other words you get less than you get with their other WP7 devices and their other smartphones, and less than you get with TMOUS HD7.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still not AT&T's fault as HTC made the device. Also, it may be a restriction of the QSD8250 chipset & AT&T's frequencies. Don't forget that WP7 atm only supports the chipset. I may be wrong, but not that any of this matters because it just don't support. Complaining isn't going to change a thing.
tai4de2 said:
For the record, this is incorrect. Go look up "pentaband" -- for example the Nokia N8 supports 850/900/1700/1900/2100 UMTS. Those are all the 3G frequencies in common use around the world.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Whoops, though I put "as far as I know" in there. Ether way, it's a broadcom 680 MHz CPU, doesn't meet WP7 Specs. I am kind of disappoint that by now pentaband 3G isn't widespread as quadband GSM.

drkfngthdragnlrd said:
Still not AT&T's fault as HTC made the device. Also, it may be a restriction of the QSD8250 chipset & AT&T's frequencies. Don't forget that WP7 atm only supports the chipset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly, HTC makes the device with customizations AT&T asks for. If AT&T had asked for 2100 support, HTC would have delivered it.
Secondly, there is no such chipset limitation. As evidence: every other AT&T WP7 handset uses the exact same chipset and *does* support 850/1900 and 2100.
Most Americans probably wouldn't even notice this issue. I guess I am complaining because I am a T-Mo customer and this kind of restrictive AT&T FAIL is what I have to look forward to once AT&T has gobbled up T-Mobile. I really hate those guys.

tai4de2 said:
Firstly, HTC makes the device with customizations AT&T asks for. If AT&T had asked for 2100 support, HTC would have delivered it.
Secondly, there is no such chipset limitation. As evidence: every other AT&T WP7 handset uses the exact same chipset and *does* support 850/1900 and 2100.
Most Americans probably wouldn't even notice this issue. I guess I am complaining because I am a T-Mo customer and this kind of restrictive AT&T FAIL is what I have to look forward to once AT&T has gobbled up T-Mobile. I really hate those guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still don't believe it to be deliberate decision.
Don't get me wrong, I hate AT&T too. Their service sucks. I'm on T-Mobile & don't like this merger either. I've seen it happen numerous times I have 4 bar signal when my AT&T friends don't have any signal or 1-2 bars at most. I just wish there was another national GSM provider to move too. I just don't like CDMA at all. I love just being able to pop a SIM card into any unlocked device & go.

[Q] HTC Vivid on Tmobile 3G/4G?

Hi all,
I was wondering whether there would be any way to flash a custom modem or a ROM that would unlock the LTE bands so that the Vivid can access HSPA on Tmobile's network?
From what Ive read, the AT&T GS2 Skyrocket and the AT&T Galaxy Note have been unlocked through this method and Im not sure why the Vivid cant be since it shares much of the same specs between it and the Skyrocket & G-Note
Thanks

dante58 said:
Hi all,
I was wondering whether there would be any way to flash a custom modem or a ROM that would unlock the LTE bands so that the Vivid can access HSPA on Tmobile's network?
From what Ive read, the AT&T GS2 Skyrocket and the AT&T Galaxy Note have been unlocked through this method and Im not sure why the Vivid cant be since it shares much of the same specs between it and the Skyrocket & G-Note
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No that isn't possible, tmobile and att have different bands. I know that you could use a sim card on the vivid, but you wouldn't get the same speed.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium

IIRC you can use a T-Mobile phone on ATT and get 2G but can't use ATT on TMO.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using XDA

doktor buknasty said:
No that isn't possible, tmobile and att have different bands. I know that you could use a sim card on the vivid, but you wouldn't get the same speed.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The LTE band can be used on Tmobile to get 4G download speeds. As visible here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1507825
OP is asking if this is possible for the Vivid, need a Tmobile radio to flash. Would be great if someone could work on it.

twolves14 said:
The LTE band can be used on Tmobile to get 4G download speeds. As visible here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1507825
OP is asking if this is possible for the Vivid, need a Tmobile radio to flash. Would be great if someone could work on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. The LTE Band will never work on T-Mobile's GSM. What allows the Note and Skyrocket to work is that they have the pentaband hardware GSM modem and flashing a different software modem enables access to those frequencies on GSM.
Sent from my HTC PH39100 using xda premium

dante58 said:
I was wondering whether there would be any way to flash a custom modem or a ROM that would unlock the LTE bands so that the Vivid can access HSPA on Tmobile's network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
twolves14 said:
The LTE band can be used on Tmobile to get 4G download speeds. As visible here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1507825
OP is asking if this is possible for the Vivid, need a Tmobile radio to flash. Would be great if someone could work on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uh yeah, it's going to be hard to get the LTE bands on the LTE radio on the phone to pick up UMTS/HSPA signal.
There's a reason why phones are usually advertised like:
GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900MHz
UMTS/HSPA 850/1900/2100MHz
LTE AWS700MHz
They kiiiinda aren't interoperable. Note how you can't connect to UMTS 900MHz or use a Telstra LTE phone and get 1800MHz 2G service if the phone doesn't have that band in its 2G spectrum.
I remember reading about the pentaband radios having UMTS/HSPA 850/900/1700/1900/2100MHz. That's still pretty different than your standard quad-band GSM radio.

It is absolutely possible...given that the specs on GSM Arena and Phonescoop are right...
700 MHz Class 17, 1700/2100 MHz
It has the correct pair for Tmobile.
The only thing is whether or not you can flash the radio with a Tmobile equivalent (Amaze?) radio.
What happened to all the hardware hackers on this forum? It seems as if no one knows ANYthing about the interworkings of a network anymore.
Anyhow, the phone having the bands and knowing what to do with them are 2 different things. For example. Stereo FM 101.9 Mhz vs. HD(Digital)-FM 101.9...they're both on the same band/frequency but are utilized differently...
The signals are still transmitted on the same frequency, however the radio itself doesn't know how to decode/interpret the HD (Digital) signal...unless it is told how to do so.
The only place that this analogy differs is when it comes to actual comparison of FM receivers and Cellular phones. With FM receivers it actually requires a decoder to understand the digital signal being broadcasted...Cellular however just needs to be flashed and voila, you've got HSPA...
So. Yes. It is %100 possible.

NO NO NO NO.
LTE bands do NOT equal GSM. Not going to happen. They are physically different receivers for lack of a better phrase. There is no way to do this without physically changing hardware. Also, you realize T-Mobile's "1700" frequency does not actually mean 1700 on the dot. They use a different subset of actual radio bands than AT&T's 1700 LTE. As in 1721-1727 or some such vs 1781-1793 or something. I don't know the actual frequencies, but you get the drift.
Sent from my Lumia 900 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

It is absolutely possible. No question about it.

Then do it. For one, there is no compatible modem to flash. Two, it isn't possible.
Sent from my Lumia 900 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Hand is hitting my face so hard right now.
RavenII, if it's so possible, then why don't you do it? If you can't, give a large donation to one of our developers and tell them to do it.
I, and many others here are blatantly telling you it's not possible for clear reasons.
The Galaxy Nexus has a PENTABAND UMTS/HSPA "3G" radio. 850/900/1700/1900/2100. That's why it can access TMobile's 3G and faux-G. We here, on the HTC Holiday, have a tri-band 3G radio.
DIRECTLY from your sources at GSM ARENA and PHONESCOOP. I've added HTC.com for good measure:
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE 700 MHz Class 17 / 1700 / 2100
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
LTE 700 / 1700
WCDMA 850 / 1900 / 2100
LTE (AWS/700), HSPA+/UMTS Tri-band (850/1900/2100MHz), and tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz)
What? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the fact that "3G network/WCDMA/HSPA+/UMTS" doesn't have 1700MHz. Oh wait, I couldn't hear you over the fact that TMobile's faux-G is not based on LTE, nor is it 4G (big hint: it's 3G HSPA-based service ).
GSM Arena and Phonescoop also do not account for the of LTE bands supported by the Vivid. Each region of the Holiday pretty much only supports the LTE band in that region. Rogers and ATT only supports AWS700, Telstra only supports 1800, etc.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to retain my senses about this. Leave it to a fellow Saab fan to explain it correctly.
Sent from my Lumia 900 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Ok...I really didn't want to do this since I HATE spoon feeding people on forums...but here goes. And try to keep up because I'm only going to dumb it down so much.
What you guys are mistaking for "Bands"...really ARE NOT BANDS....there is NO SUCH THING as an LTE band...or HSPA+ band...
There are Network types ...LTE, HSPA+, -Insert other modulation/channeling scheme here-, etc.
There are Frequencies (which are actually specific ranges but for the sake of confusion, they're referred to as the following 700, 800, 850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100...etc.) By the way...all those frequencies fall under the UHF band...
So far we've established that there are Network types...and different frequencies...are you still with me? Any questions?
Ok, onward.
There exists something called an SDR or Software Defined Rado...it has the ability to receive and transmit on certain frequencies...It's the software that defines how much of that frequency to use per channel (1Mhz, 25khz, etc.), what range of frequencies to use, how to use them, how much power to use while transmitting, among MANY other things (what frequency to send on, which to receive on, etc.)...That's how they came up with "Software defined radio"
If you look at the Product Brief for the MSM8X60/APQ8060 you should notice all of the frequencies that these specific chips support...
I really don't want to lose you guys, still following?
You might notice that the APQ8060 doesn't have a WWAN modem...but what does THAT mean? It means that it needs something like ohhhhh let's say the MDM9200...FINE! Here's one more spoon full
Reader to me: But RavenII...you're being a condescending ****, and we still don't know what the hell your point is...you're spewing all this **** like you're some know it all...
Me to Reader: There there grasshopper. I will get straight to it...
With all of the information I've given you...you should be able to see that when you see something like "LTE (AWS/700), HSPA+/UMTS Tri-band (850/1900/2100MHz), and tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz)"...it means the radio is...
Being told to use LTE Standards (modulation, channeling, frequency steps, etc.) on AWS/700 (which if they're using AWS to signify Band IV...it would in turn mean 1700/2100), HSPA+/UMTS Standards on 850/1900/2100MHz...etc.
Still reading?
When I say that it is %100 possible...I'm saying that with software or "flashing the radio"...you can effectively change/tell what the chip should do (in this case either an MSM or MDM) with the frequencies it's capable of transmitting/receiving on. That's it.
Aus_Azn: I really hope you didn't leave a hand print on your face...
Thank you, good night.
One last thought: I never said that I would do it, I said that it's possible...

Here's the real simple way to explain it: it is theoretically possible to do but no one outside of HTC has the skill or proprietary code to do it.
So for all intents and purposes, impossible. It will not now nor ever happen.
Also, while the chip may support all bands from the factory that initially fabricated the chip, it may be locked at a firmware level (not a software radio, but actual ROM on the physical chip) that a software based radio cannot affect. This is why you can't just flash a T-Mobile software radio on another AT&T s-off device and have it work. The physical chip itself DOES NOT SUPPORT THE FREQUENCY NEEDED due to changed firmware configuration.
Is that condescending enough for you?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

Let's see, how can I put this...You're still wrong. It's still possible.
I don't even own a Vivid so I'm no longer going to post to this thread...but I will tell you this...everyone once told me that blackberrys could not have data without having the BIS (Blackberry specific plan)...and guess what. I'M the reason that people are hacking them away. I was the first one to figure it out and prove everyone wrong. While I don't have a phone that I need to convert for T-Mobile, you can bet, that once there's a phone that I want to use on T-Mobile's network...I'll more than likely find a way.
Farewell.

@totally off topic
RavenII I think you're going on the right track here. I'm already convinced by what your saying.
peaceout

What RavenII is saying does have a good base logically because it has been done before for a very similar set of hardware to the raider. The ATT Galaxy S2 Skyrocket and the ATT Note LTE are both phones featuring very similar processor and modem as the Raider. The APQ8060 and MDM9200 (i think).
Samsung released devices with this modem running on all sorts of bands 1700, 850, 1900, 2100 and even LTE on 1700 and 700.
The ATT Versions of the devices do not feature UMTS in AWS range however people have simply flashed the modem from the T-Mobile version of the device which doesn't have LTE and the ATT LTE devices actually started working on UMTS AWS bands. Various modems give various degrees of success but it is possible and has been confirmed many many times over.
Here is the thread for the ATT Skyrocket. You will find people doing the same thing on ATT Galaxy Note LTE.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1507825

You guys are funny, now I can't wait to get my Vivid which I just received today running on T-Mobiles "4g". The funny thing about this is when i very first started reading this thread and saw Mr. buknastys' reply, I was thinking "That is absolutely not true". Now I'm not going to go into detail or try and prove any points, as Raven has done a perfectly fine job proving his point and answering the OPs question. Bottom line; the two readers are absolutely wrong and Raven is absolutely right. Also one last thing, I love how suddenly a firmware "lock" is something of an obstacle, yet we have gained S-Off on nearly every HTC bootloader out there. Just sayin..

motoxxx138 said:
You guys are funny, now I can't wait to get my Vivid which I just received today running on T-Mobiles "4g". The funny thing about this is when i very first started reading this thread and saw Mr. buknastys' reply, I was thinking "That is absolutely not true". Now I'm not going to go into detail or try and prove any points, as Raven has done a perfectly fine job proving his point and answering the OPs question. Bottom line; the two readers are absolutely wrong and Raven is absolutely right. Also one last thing, I love how suddenly a firmware "lock" is something of an obstacle, yet we have gained S-Off on nearly every HTC bootloader out there. Just sayin..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really didn't mean to come off as a **** in this thread, but it seems as if though people have forgotten about actual hacking and everything has moved to "Supercharging" and theming...it's saddening, I come from a time where there was no such thing as impossible.
...I encourage you to try, but do so with a lot of caution...because the fact of the matter is...you can brick your device...
Happy hacking.

THANK YOU!!!
RavenII said:
I really didn't mean to come off as a **** in this thread, but it seems as if though people have forgotten about actual hacking and everything has moved to "Supercharging" and theming...it's saddening, I come from a time where there was no such thing as impossible.
...I encourage you to try, but do so with a lot of caution...because the fact of the matter is...you can brick your device...
Happy hacking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would just like to say thank you to Raven as I now have a AT&T Vivid and have successfully placed it on the T-mobile 3G network working 100% of the time. I will be putting together a full tutorial on how to do this shortly as it was indeed a challenge. I have been reading these forums for awhile and Raven your post has by far been one of the most beneficial and inspiring ones...thanks for sticking it out on these forums...few do these days. I actually just joined this forum after months of reading because of this post. I figure i too will provide feedback. I am actually a Tech Manager w/ Sprint. I work on these things everyday in other words....hints why I actually have a T-mobile phone lol. Not saying T-mobile is the best but you at least get exactly what you pay for and they are honest about coverage haha. Anyways..back on topic...the HTC Vivid is an interesting phone to root even and get the S-off. It is needed in order to get the sim unlocked. You have to do a combo of the rooting kit "Vivid_All_in_One_kit_v2.2" posted on another section and the "ControlBearRelease_holiday_ICS_WIN" (if your running Win 7). After you do what they call the "wire trick" (basically short the sim reader temporarily to allow temp access to flash) you can get the sim lock off. After that it is simple trial and error with modem flashes from various tmobile devices onto the HTC Vivid to get the 3G up and going. Mine actually kicked on with the AT&T radio flashed at first but I only had coverage in certain areas. Basicly it will depend alot on your local towers. Believe it or not...ALL CELL TOWERS ARE LEASED FROM VARIOUS COMPANIES LIKE SONY ERICSON WHICH MAINTAIN THEM ALL ALMOST!!...therefore it is very dependent on the towers in your area which radios are likely to work if not the stock modem on the device. It depends on what lease and roaming agreements are in place in your region....again...I WORK ON PHONES EVERYDAY FOR SPRINT...know a little about all that stuff...trust me...i have people yelling everyday about not having this or that when most of it is the carrier hasnt signed an agreement with Kyocera or whom ever to support that device or the lease contract has expired and will be resigned in a few days....bottom line is ....if the phone has a radio chipset that supports multibands and frequencies it is almost always possible to do what ever you would like with it. As far as firmware lock....too funny...those do not work on Android devices as the chipsets were intentionally designed to be unviersal to all carriers to cut manufacturing costs...much like in automotives where Mazdas and Fords use the same parts...just a reference. Anywho....It really is possible...it just takes research and a TON of time sometimes but that is the point of hacking....most would have said the Xbox Kinect wouldnt have been able to been hacked or the Wii remote seeing as both those use internal chips that range in the thousands if sold for other purposes. Long story short....happy hacking and Thanks to all of you for a great discussion forum.