AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

Will AT&T's 4g work on the n900? or will it need an update?

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

What AT&T 4G? They are just starting their 3G improvements. Given that the n900 has no 4G radios, nor works on AT&T's "3G", its doubtful.

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

N900 3G: 900/1700/2100
AT&T 3G: 850/1900
T-Mobile 3G: 1700/2100
AT&T LTE (Sprint's WiMax is 4G. AT&T and Verizon do not have true 4G): 700MHz and have ~0% coverage.

Frequency isn't everything either, just the initial requirement. You still need the towers, the cellular stack compatible (it will not be compatible with GSM) and perhaps the carrier stack (else they may chose to block you)

Due note that you CAN use the N900 on AT&T's "EDGE" 2.5G which is probably what you'd be on most of the time anyway (their 3G coverage is literally getting worse over time)

EDIT: That was their first post. I apologize. (I assumed they created a new account...)

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

I'm not trolling, i just really dont know very much about phones or anything that has to do with them

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

If it's literally getting worse over time do you know why? I would love to know what's going on at/with AT&T that's causing this? Are towers just failing due to maintenance or something? Are they taking them down? Or are there other problems that cause it?

As for the trolling comment, the op already answered, but I just wanted to say I didn't think so: It seems more like a genuine inquiry from someone who doesn't know much about the physical workings of phones. I would've asked the same question at best a couple years ago. (I probably did, I just am the kind of person who would've entered "3G" into Google and learned that way. While I encourage that habit, I don't really blame people because most societies nowadays don't actively encourage self-driven learning or have it be a norm that parents try to instill it in their children. Plus, for some people that might just not occur naturally, because they just never do stuff like that.)

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

You're kidding right?? When did AT$T get a 4G network??

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

scribbles, they must be working on one, or iPhone wouldn't be coming with 4G as one of its selling points yet locked to AT&T again (at least I THINK I read that somewhere. Hoping I didn't misunderstand so I don't look like a ******).

Doubt it's available in that many areas. I mean, last I checked Sprint's 4G covered like 3 states, so I wouldn't say it's fair for them to say they already "have" a 4G network (without elaboration that they are still building most of it) either.

- EDIT -

Really, me calling myself a mentally challenged person gets censored but I've seen "suck my dick" get used without censorship? Political correctness is an insult to human intelligence.

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

thats why i asked the question in the first place... and to ur edit,
"two things in the universe are infinite, space and human stupidity, and im not sure about the space part"
-Einstein

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

iPhone 4 = 4th gen of iPhone, not 4G network capable.

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

the iphone 4 is the fourth generation iphone.
it will not have "4th Generation" network capability.

For instance this http://i46.tinypic.com/dm4a3o.jpg is a ipod nano 4G. It did not contain a 4G cellular modem (or else I wouldn't have been so quick to sell it)

no 4G source (+ common sense): http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/...why-no-4g-lte/

As far as AT&T's shrinking overage. I have AT&T (and one of their dumbphone "messenging" phones; supports 3G w/ HDSPA). And let me put it this way, I used to be able to make phone calls on it at home (with 4/5 "bars" of 3G). Then suddenly not able to (0 bars). Same goes for other places I frequent.

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

well then what about AT&Ts 3g?

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

The numbers are particular frequencies - a device radio that can send/receive, say, in the 1700 band, can't pick up the 1900 band, or any other band. IE: A device needs to support those specific bands to be able to pick up whatever internet/connection is available on that band.

The N900 only support the 900, 1700, and 2100 bands for their 3G. AT&T only offers 3G on the above bands (850/1900). This is done on purpose because if, say, Verizon and AT&T used the same bands, their signals would interfere with each other. So around the world there's different standards which determine what bands will be used by who. Most of the world uses the same bands for G3, but in the US T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T get their own bands (Not sure about the other providers). So if a phone's hardware doesn't have the ability to pick up a certain frequency, there's no amount of hacking that can make it do so as far as I know.

P.S. It wasn't the 4 in the iPhone 4 that made me think it had 4G support, I just thought I remembered comparisons between it and Evo 4G, so I think I or whoever I was reading may have misinterpreted the information we got to think it could do 4G.

- Edit - Before anyone misconstrues, I get that signals don't have to necessarily interfere with each other - or else the majority of the world couldn't use the same couple of bands for all of their providers, but I suspect that to do this they had to make phones somehow identify which signal is coming from where. The countries that use the same bands do so because they had the foresight to try to make all phones be compatible with all carriers. The US operators either didn't bother, or just didn't think about it because they were the first providers of average-consumer-affordable mobile phones, and so there hadn't yet been any annoyance from people wanting to switch providers but keep their unlocked phones. Etc. Actually, now that I think about it, I think it might be the exact data-encoding technology that makes it so that, say, T-Mobile can't use the same bands as Verizon.

Honestly, if you want the details, you'd probably have to dig around. Wikipedia would honestly most likely have a detailed explanation of this. The only thing I can say for sure without being wrong or accidentally misleading in some way is just that the N900 can only pick up certain frequencies of signal, and AT&T uses a different set of frequencies.

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

Actually, You're correct, if they all used the same exact frequencies and channels then there would be a lot of interference and issues with connecting and what not. Similar to how there can be interference between WiFi devices and other 2.4GHz wireless devices such as cordless phones (not cellular) or wireless controllers within the same house on the rare ocasion they are all operating at the same frequency and channel. The frequencies you listed (900, 1700, 850 etc) are "bands". These bands are then split into more specific frequencies for upload (824.0 - 849.0 for the GSM 850 band) and Download (869.0 - 894.0) These specific frequencies are further separated into a wide array of channels. Furthermore, in the USA, carriers have to acquire licenses to use these frequencies in each region from the FCC. For example, when you hear about the FCC "auctioning off" the 700MHz band (or any other), that means they're selling licensing rights for carriers to use specific frequencies and ranges called "blocks" (or in some cases, shoudl the company desire to and bid successfully, the whole band) within a given region.

http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-info/45005.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/700_MHz...ectrum_auction
Also, a great grapics showing how various spectrums have been designated: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...o_Spectrum.jpg

I'm not sure how things work in Europe in regards to licensing off spectrum, I imagine its a similar process, but the overwhelming reason is the spectrums were designated at different times, and thus inter-regional cooperation and standardization of the spectrums was not a concern. T-Mobile does use the same UMTS bands in the USA as is standard in Europe for the most part (I believe), while AT&T and the others do not.

Re: AT&T 4g on Nokia N900?
 

When more users are active in a cell, its coverage area shrinks. More subscribers and/or more use per subscriber without corresponding infrastructure upgrades means reduced coverage, as well as the (more obvious) issue of congestion on backhaul.

But don't worry, it's negative feedback, so eventually (yay for 2-year contracts! :rolleyes:) people will leave AT&T for other networks and things will approach a steady-state solution. :/