I don't live anywhere near the coverage of this carrier but I am curious. They have released a CDMA phone which they have titled the Milestone. My presumption is that the hardware is more like the Droid, but they had to pick another name because only Verizon has licensed the use of "Droid". Has anyone tested out whether this phone has an unlocked bootloader (which would presumably make it compatible with Droid ROMs)?
This clarification may be helpful so that users of this phone will not accidentally follow any of the other "Milestone" instructions out there on the web.
Are you sure it's CDMA? The whole "Milestone" model is GSM based.
I imagine a CDMA Milestone would just be a Droid without all of Verizon's Droid crap all over the UI. Haven't even heard this but it'd be cool to know. Wonder why Telus didn't grab this too?
GlitchZero said:
Are you sure it's CDMA? The whole "Milestone" model is GSM based.
I imagine a CDMA Milestone would just be a Droid without all of Verizon's Droid crap all over the UI. Haven't even heard this but it'd be cool to know. Wonder why Telus didn't grab this too?
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Yes, it is a CDMA phone. Cellular South is a CDMA carrier. They have no way of operating any phone that isn't.
Telus didn't grab this because they didn't want another CDMA phone. They want pretty much all new releases to be HSPA phones. That's why they released the HSPA Milestone.
You can root it using universalandroot. It installs superuser and then install rom manager from market and flash recovery then you need to make a nandroid backup.you can now flash any Droid rom you want I am using sapphire 1.0 with 1ghz kernal and it is working. Just make sure you don't flash a different radio baseband.anymore information on this you can look up Droid forums/cellular south milestone/Droid.com
Sent from my Droid using XDA App
Thanks, glad to clear that up! I wonder if the forums should be renamed to reflect the fact that this "Milestone" should be treated as a Droid.
And so it begins...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7926606&postcount=24
If this one is shipped unlocked. can it be used to unlock the droid 3 they are the same except the bell one has 4G
droid 3
http://developer.motorola.com/products/droid-3-xt862/
XT860 4G
http://developer.motorola.com/products/xt860-4g/
set for release Aug 9
http://www.unwiredview.com/2011/08/01/motorola-xt860-4g-to-be-launched-by-bell-on-august-9/
i haven't found any thing on the bootloader yet still looking will post if i find any more news
I think that the unlocked that they're referring to is a SIM unlock, not a bootloader.
oostah said:
If this one is shipped unlocked. can it be used to unlock the droid 3 they are the same except the bell one has 4G
droid 3
http://developer.motorola.com/products/droid-3-xt862/
XT860 4G
http://developer.motorola.com/products/xt860-4g/
set for release Aug 9
http://www.unwiredview.com/2011/08/01/motorola-xt860-4g-to-be-launched-by-bell-on-august-9/
i haven't found any thing on the bootloader yet still looking will post if i find any more news
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Motorola apparently says this is NOT a 4g phone....it is just named the 4G
check page 8
https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/53563?start=105&tstart=0
and this thread....yes....I was venting on Moto....sorry if you guys don't agree
https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/55156?tstart=0
It is kinda 4g like T-Mobile has 4G. More like 3G+
pplude said:
It is kinda 4g like T-Mobile has 4G. More like 3G+
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if that's the case, there's still opportunity for additional speed since vzw users are locked in at 14.4.
It's no different than our phone. They just call it the 4G because GSM companies like to call their HSPA+ technology "4G" when it's really just an extension of 3G. Our phones support the same bands - you're gaining nothing by buying that phone unless the MCC 310 block is not in place, in which case you'd theoretically be able to use the phone on AT&T or TMo here. Both of those carriers are atrocious in my area, so I can't see selling the D3 for that just to get the MCC 310 unlock. Odds are, that will be broken soon too anyway, just like the D2G.
There are different versions of the Droid 3: XT862 (USA), XT860 (Canada), XT860 (Brazil), XT883 (China).
I'm wondering whether there are any differences in the hardware between these version, especially now that the Droid 3 has been rooted.
When looking the official Motorola specs, I find:
1) XT862 has HSDPA 10.2 Mbps in the consumer specs, but HSDPA 14.4 Mbps in the developer specs. Both are HSDPA category 9/10. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Speed_Downlink_Packet_Access, category 9 has a approximated max rate of 10.1 Mbps and category 10 has 14.0. So maybe Motorola took the value of category 9 instead of 10 when typing the consumer specs, while they should have listed the higher rate of category 10?
2) The Brazilian XT860 has HSUPA 7.6Mbps, while the Canadian XT860 and the XT862 have HSUPA 5.76 Mbps. But because the Brazilian and Canadian are both are XT860, I would expect this rate to be the same, instead of being different.
3) The XT860 doesn't have CDMA 800/1900 and CDMA EV-DO Release A, while the XT862 and XT883 do.
4) The XT862 and XT883 appear to be the same, although I haven't looked in the consumer specs of the XT883 (because it's in Chinese).
Rationaly, when a characteristic of device isn't listed in a specification, you cannot conclude that the device doesn't have that characteristic. The specification might simply be incomplete, but still be correct. But when a characteristic isn't listed for which you would expect it to be listed when would have that characteristic, then the specification suggest (but not conclude) that the device doesn't have that characteristic.
So rationaly, the XT860 might (or might not) have CDMA support, and the Canadian XT860 and the US XT862 might have the same higher HSUPA speed as the Brazilian XT860. And, according to the specs, the XT862 does support 14.4 Mbps HSDPA, although with doubt because the consumer specs list a lower value.
So based on the official specs it is difficult to derive the real maximum speed specs and all features
The best thing would be if someone physically opened all Droid 3 versions, and list the hardware chips. Like this:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Droid-3-Teardown/6108/1
Which says the XT862 has the following hardware chips:
-Qualcomm MDM6600 supporting HSPA+ speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps
-SanDisk SDIN4C2 16GB MLC NAND flash
-Elpida B4064B2PB-8D-F 512MB RAM and TI OMAP 4430 CPU
-Triquint TQM7M5013 Linear Power Amplifier
-Avago A2F1106
-A5005 K1116, A5002 K1118, A5001 K1118
-Kionix KXTF9 11425 1411 three-axis accelerometer
-The Qualcomm PM8028 chip works in conjunction with the Qualcomm MDM6600 to provide wireless data connection to the phone.
-Hynix H8BCS0QG0MMR memory MCP containing Hynix DRAM and STM flash
-ST Ericsson CPCAP 006556001
-WL1285C 13M1HH3
-6792A 1113 T3971
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Click to collapse
I expect that the XT883 has the same hardware. But the more interesting question is whether the XT860 also has this hardware.
From this list, when it comes to mobile networks, the most important part is probably the Qualcomm MDM6600 and maybe also the Qualcomm PM8028.
The specs of the MDM6600 can be found in http://www.docin.com/p-162606115.html . If I understand it correctly, it supports both CDMA and GSM networks.
But even if a mobile device has a MDM6600 in it, which by itself supports CDMA, it doesn't mean that the mobile device supports CDMA. This is the case for the IPhone 4, which comes in a GSM/AT&T version and a CDMA/Verizon version:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Verizon-Teardown/4693/1
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Teardown/3130/1
Interesting is the following quote for the CDMA/Verizon IPhone 4:
The Qualcomm MDM6600 chip supports HSPA+ data rates of up to 14.4 Mbps and CDMA2000® 1xEV-DO Rev. A/Rev. B.
This is the same chipset as the Droid Pro world phone. It supports both GSM and CDMA—which means that Apple could have supported GSM!
Why didn't they? It may be that it was easier to design antennas for a CDMA-only phone -- this phone supports two cellular frequency bands, while Apple supports five bands in the GSM version.
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So even when a phone has a chip that support CDMA, other parts of the phone might not (because of design reasons), causing the phone not to support CDMA.
But why would Motorola first release XT862 that supports both GSM and CDMA, and later release the XT860 with CDMA stripped off? I would expect that they would do this only if stripping CDMA from the XT860 would benefit some other feature. Any ideas?
Some info as reference for the different Droid 3 versions:
1)
-Name: Motorola Droid 3
-Code: XT862
-Country: USA
-Sold by: Verizon Wireless
-Release date: 14 July 2011
-Motorola Consumer specs link
-Motorola Developer specs link
2)
-Name: Motorola XT860
-Code: XT860
-Country: Canada
-Sold by: Bell
-Release date: 9 August 2011
-Notes: Called "XT860 4G" at the Motorola and Bell website, but the manual and box just says "XT860" without "4G" in the name.
-Motorola Consumer specs link
-Motorola Developer specs link
3)
-Name: Motorola MOTO XT883
-Code: XT883
-Country: China
-Release date: ~1-11 August 2011
-Note: Called "Milestone 3 XT883" at the Motorola Developer spec page.
-Motorola Consumer specs link
-Motorola Developer specs link
4)
-Name: Motorola Milestone 3
-Code: XT860
-Country: Brazil
-Sold by: Vivo
-Release date: ~18 August 2011
-Note: Sometimes called "Motorola Milestone 3 com Motoblur"
-Motorola Consumer specs link
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Speaking with a bit of experience with manufacturing, there isn't a lot of sense in making too many models, because the price savings based upon leaving out an antenna on one model would easily disappear in the context of devoting another production line to another model.
So, I have the strong impression that they are all cdma/gsm capable, though differences in firmware probably define the active radios.
This is a guess, though, so take it with a grain of salt.
Sent from my DROID3 using xda premium
For us Europeans this is an interesting question, because if the XT860 and XT862 have the same hardware, there is no reason to get the XT860 other than it doesn't have the verizon logo (now that we have root).
The XT862 can already be ordered in unlocked state while the XT860 cannot.
I also would think that creating just 1 phone is way more convenient and way cheaper for motorola, so I'm curious as to whether all "droid 3's" are the identical.
CDMA only works in america, and a couple other small countries, and only on a couple carriers, so support for it ONLY makes sense in the XT862. the rest of that world went GSM and it's various 3g offshoots. the differences between the 860 & 883 are to support what those countries run on.
sarreq said:
CDMA only works in america, and a couple other small countries, and only on a couple carriers, so support for it ONLY makes sense in the XT862. the rest of that world went GSM and it's various 3g offshoots. the differences between the 860 & 883 are to support what those countries run on.
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But, like Sadrak86 said, from a manufacturing cost point of view, it doesn't make sense to simply remove CDMA support because it isn't used in another country. Why would Motorola release a global phone (Droid3/XT862) and then a month later release the same phone but this time non-global phone (XT860) by removing CDMA support. There must be a better reason.
I can understand them making specific versions of specific regions, but not with different hardware components if they could just disable them software-wise.
DoubleYouPee said:
I can understand them making specific versions of specific regions, but not with different hardware components if they could just disable them software-wise.
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I also think that if they can control it software wise without extra costs compared to hardware wise, they will choose software wise. But if the XT860 has CDMA removed software wise, than why didn't they remove GSM from the XT862.
This brings back the question: why would they first release a global phone (XT862), and later release the same phone (XT860) with less features and a higher price.
A reason could be that by removed hardware features (CDMA) from the XT860, other features (GSM) might perform better.
Found this page called Motorola XT860 4G Fact Sheet, but is more press release page. But it confirms that the XT860 has a QualComm MDM6600 (which supports both GSM and CDMA). The XT860 contains a GSM compatible antenna, but the question than is: does the XT860 also contain a CDMA compatible antenna?
This question is very interesting for all non-Americans. Because the following choice depends on it:
-Should you buy the cheaper, more widely available, and more network supporting global XT862? or
-Should you buy the more expensive, less widely available, less network support, but (possibly) better GSM signaled XT860?
At the moment we don't even know whether this option/choice exist. If this option doesn't exist, then there is NO reason at all to buy the XT860.
This (whether the XT860 has a CDMA antenna) is something that can only be proven by a teardown (physically open a XT860). I hope some guys will create an iFixit page for it.
deoxy said:
If this option doesn't exist, then there is NO reason at all to buy the XT860.
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Well unless you don't like the verizon logo
But ye you're right ^^^
There are plenty of reasons if you are GSM user. Verizon altered/disabled some GSM features of the phone like call forwarding settings for example. Droid 3 is certified/supported only with the Verizon SIM in it. There are already reported cases phone doesn't play nice on certain GSM networks across the world. Not to mention unlocking issues which were a wide spread issue with Droid 2 Global and there seem to be already one such case with D3 on this very same board. You can't use D3 on AT&T in the States either.
All those problems are easily overcome by going XT860 (pure GSM phone). Since I had to experience most of these above mentioned issues myself with my own Droid 2 Global in the past year, I went XT860 over D3. And I do not regret my choice. I do not use the phone on Bell (I unlocked and use with another operator in Canada), but I have no issues. I can go to the States and use the phone there just fine too.
So there are enough reasons to justify few bucks more when buying the phone.
Sent from my XT860 using Tapatalk
leobg said:
There are plenty of reasons if you are GSM user. Verizon altered/disabled some GSM features of the phone like call forwarding settings for example. Droid 3 is certified/supported only with the Verizon SIM in it.
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Can this be fixed by rooting the phone? If not, then the hardware must be different.
There are already reported cases phone doesn't play nice on certain GSM networks across the world.
Click to expand...
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Maybe the user forgot to unlock the phone, or did it incorrectly?
Here a case:
https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/56763
(Don't know if he unlocked the phone.)
Not to mention unlocking issues which were a wide spread issue with Droid 2 Global and there seem to be already one such case with D3 on this very same board.
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This might equally be the case for the XT860? Probably too early to tell?
(Both the XT862 and the XT860 have Qualcomm MSM6600, according to the Motorola fact sheet. But it could also be the antenna that determines the quality of the signal, instead of the chip.)
that issue on the motorla forums is due to the phone not being able to read the mcc and mnc codes from the sim card. buying a new sim fixes it (at least in my personal experience)
deoxy said:
Can this be fixed by rooting the phone? If not, then the hardware must be different.
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No - because this is a baseband feature (radio firmware). You can't alter the radio image unless bootloader is unlocked as it is signed. Root will not help.
deoxy said:
Maybe the user forgot to unlock the phone, or did it incorrectly?
Click to expand...
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I doubt - unlocking procedure is dead simple. And code is just 8 digits long. Good thing is you can't hard-lock the phone - after 1/2 hour being left on, or so, it will let you enter codes again.
deoxy said:
T
Here a case:
https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/56763
(Don't know if he unlocked the phone.)
This might equally be the case for the XT860? Probably too early to tell?
(Both the XT862 and the XT860 have Qualcomm MSM6600, according to the Motorola fact sheet. But it could also be the antenna that determines the quality of the signal, instead of the chip.)
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This is something the operator does. And the only one operator in the world I've ever seen doing this is Verizon. I doubt that would be a case with non-Verizon phones.
Above case is another example of issues with D3 and sim cards - D2G suffered same issues too. Using Verizon world phone with non-Verizon SIM card in it is a hit or miss, at best.
So how could we find out whether the baseband firmware is different on the XT860 than on the XT862?
The baseband firmware is absolutely different. One is a CDMA/GSM global device and the other is GSM only. Despite sharing the MDM6600 chipset, they are very different.
cellzealot said:
The baseband firmware is absolutely different. One is a CDMA/GSM global device and the other is GSM only. Despite sharing the MDM6600 chipset, they are very different.
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How do you know this? Motorola's factsheet says the XT860 supports CDMA.
Would it be possible to flash the XT860 firmware to the XT862 droid 3?
DoubleYouPee said:
How do you know this? Motorola's factsheet says the XT860 supports CDMA.
Would it be possible to flash the XT860 firmware to the XT862 droid 3?
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where did you see XT860 supporting CDMA???
btw if someone knows something about Motorola radios that would be Cell Zealot. You haven't heard of Team Black Hat??
Sent from my XT860 using Tapatalk
leobg said:
where did you see XT860 supporting CDMA???
btw if someone knows something about Motorola radios that would be Cell Zealot. You haven't heard of Team Black Hat??
Sent from my XT860 using Tapatalk
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Their own site
http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/C...ces/Mobile-Phones/ci.MOTOROLA-XT860-CA-EN.alt
No I haven't heard from team black hat or CelL Zealot
edit: i saw his post now
It only lists WCDMA, which is not the same as CDMA. (The Droid 3 supports both.)
deoxy said:
It only lists WCDMA, which is not the same as CDMA. (The Droid 3 supports both.)
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Ah, i never noticed that. What is WCDMA then?
DoubleYouPee said:
Ah, i never noticed that. What is WCDMA then?
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Wikipedia says:
Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. It should not be confused with the mobile phone standards called cdmaOne, CDMA2000 (the 3G evolution of cdmaOne) and WCDMA (the 3G standard used by GSM carriers), which are often referred to as simply CDMA, and use CDMA as an underlying channel access method.
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So I was searching around XDA and found that they finally have found a way to unlock the AT&T and T-mobile bands on the Droid 2 Global. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1057064&page=3 I was wondering if we could benefit from this thread in trying to get the Droid 3's U.S. bands unlocked. The reason I ask this is because those of us on AT&T don't have a great selection of dual core android devices and this would be a great feat. I hope with the power of the XDA developers we can get this badboy's bands unlocked
I believe TBH is/will be working on this for the D3. Patience is a virtue...
I have been looking into this but I am not confident it will ever work.
The band lock has been moved into the radio image itself and without the ability to sign a radio image ourselves we won't be able to alter that. It is no longer accessible in the NVM as it was on the original firmware builds for D2G and Pro. This was done at the request of VZW to make it more difficult, if not impossible to do.
This is just a thought and I doubt it even make sense but could the radio be stripped from the Droid 3's gsm cousin the XT860 4G. They are virtually the same phone besides the fact one is CDMA while the other is GSM.
MeNaCe2s0cieTy said:
This is just a thought and I doubt it even make sense but could the radio be stripped from the Droid 3's gsm cousin the XT860 4G. They are virtually the same phone besides the fact one is CDMA while the other is GSM.
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I'd suggest you buy a XT860 from Bell, in Canada. They use the same 3G bands as the AT&T network. It would also make it easier for you to unlock. Cost me 20$ to unlock mine, got the code within 15 minutes.
I am looking to try to dring my droid 4 to straight talk. A lot of places have said plenty of different things. But can anyone tell me how I can do this for the droid 4. I can find barely anything for the droid 4 itself. Most of the stuff I find is for other droid models and none of them are clear for the process.
darkdragonmc said:
I am looking to try to dring my droid 4 to straight talk. A lot of places have said plenty of different things. But can anyone tell me how I can do this for the droid 4. I can find barely anything for the droid 4 itself. Most of the stuff I find is for other droid models and none of them are clear for the process.
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Click to collapse
It looks like you can unlock the phone for GSM -- I'd follow the guides relevant to that. Next, you'll need an unlocked GSM StraightTalk MicroSIM card.
I'm going to take a gamble and try this myself and see what happens and if I can pull it off. Are you intending to run this as a GSM phone or a CDMA phone?
As I recall only 2G works with AT&T/GSM, but potentially some other people have unlocked it for 3G... I'll be testing and let you know!
I too am curious about using this with straight talk. I had heard about 50/50 with people getting 3g to work with GSM. There was another post in this forum about unlocking the bands, so I might have to give that a try..
Just FYI -- in case anyone comes across this post at a future date:
At present (October 1st, 2012), the GSM bands in America remain locked (despite what some websites have claimed) and no workaround has been discovered as of yet.
I tried placing my MicroSIM for StraightTalk in the D4 and had no luck, unfortunately! :-/
terinfire said:
It looks like you can unlock the phone for GSM -- I'd follow the guides relevant to that. Next, you'll need an unlocked GSM StraightTalk MicroSIM card.
I'm going to take a gamble and try this myself and see what happens and if I can pull it off. Are you intending to run this as a GSM phone or a CDMA phone?
As I recall only 2G works with AT&T/GSM, but potentially some other people have unlocked it for 3G... I'll be testing and let you know!
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i would like to go to straight talk using cdma if possible.. anyone know how to program the droid 4 on the straight talk network.??