View Single Post
Community Council | Posts: 4,920 | Thanked: 12,867 times | Joined on May 2012 @ Southerrn Finland
#24
Originally Posted by nonsuch View Post
Well, there's my cheapo Nokia 130 (2017) which is GSM only - I understand this to mean that it simply does not have the hardware to connet to 2,3,4,5G networks.
How can it then be that "The traditional GSM voice call ... still needs the 2G or 3G cell to work", as you wrote?
Does the GSM network itself rely on 2/3G, even if the phones using it don't?

I had a look at what peterleinchen linked but I still don't get it.
"GSM" means "2G". Period.

GSM refers to the modulation and timeslot structure that is used to transmit data over radio waves between your handset and the base station. (GSMK modulation, 8 timeslots)

The data that is transmitted can be any of a number of packet data, including digitized voice packets, control messages, SMS messages, IP, etc...

It is entirely possible that the baseband in your handset can only handle and use digitized voice and SMS, however those are just a subset of the specification and the base station sure can handle everything.
__________________
Dave999: Meateo balloons. What’s so special with em? Is it a ballon?
 

The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to juiceme For This Useful Post: