4g in the usa
asked 2014-08-22 22:01:43 +0300
Anyone know of any firmware hacks that would allow the phone to work with American 4g/Lte?
1 Answer
answered 2014-09-19 16:05:58 +0300
As far as we know:
- Jolla supports LTE2100 (B1), LTE1800 (B3), LTE2600 (B7), LTE800 (B20)
- US networks support 700 MHz (AT&T, Verizon), 1700/2100 MHz (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon) as well as 1900 MHz (AT&T, Sprint)
It could be that the hardware supports more frequencies but aren't licenced to use more (see comments by midnightoil and Elliott). Jolla developers could already enabled "4G" in EU area months before it was officially published in an update. Reasons for the delay were the time it took to test and certify the usage of those frequencies.
If I remember right (has been a while I looked that up), there isn't another phone using the same Qualcomm's Snapdragon 400 MSM8930 supporting more LTE frequencies than the Jolla does. I might be wrong though. So maybe that chipset simply is limited to those frequencies?
I really don't think that such a firmware hack would help and/or is even possible.
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Asked: 2014-08-22 22:01:43 +0300
Seen: 1,253 times
Last updated: Sep 19 '14
Pretty sure that any 4G limitations are a result of what the SoC is capable of, rather than a firmware limitation.
strongm ( 2014-08-23 14:10:39 +0300 )editIs 3G not working in the USA? I personally find 3G more than enough for everything I need to do. I know it is not nice to have it not fully functional, but the question is, do you really need it?
dsilveira ( 2014-08-23 15:31:03 +0300 )editNo 3G in the USA either, just 2G.
It seems like the SoC is theoretically capable of supporting additional frequencies, based on its use in other smartphones, but there might be licensing issues or something else that prevent Jolla from enabling those frequencies. Or maybe the chips are customized enough that they actually don't support those frequencies, but I kind of doubt that.
Jolla was always very up front that the US is not a supported market, and the phone is not FCC certified which means it can't be sold in the US, so it's not necessarily a surprise that some features don't work here. The phone technically "works on 6 continents" as advertised; it just drops to the 2G data rates of 10+ years ago which is more than painful - many apps (particularly Android ones) depend on high speed data and are more or less unusable with 2G. WiFi resolves this, when it's working, but it does limit the "smart" aspect of the smartphone.
Elliott ( 2014-08-23 19:57:22 +0300 )editAssuming the radio attached to the SoC is capable of it, the reason it isn't implemented is because the phone will not have been tested or certified at these frequencies (for any market). At least I would imagine this is the main blocker.
midnightoil ( 2014-08-23 23:41:18 +0300 )editI asked on another site about the Jolla phone being used in the USA. I know it is anecdotal but this user was able to use 3G on T-Mobile:
Here
Shortavion ( 2014-12-12 19:48:52 +0300 )edit