Nexus 5 and Telecom LTE

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anandpatel18

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#133744 1-Nov-2013 07:53

Nexus 5 was announced today in the US and was wondering if it would be compatible with the new Telecom 4G network.

I tried to do my own research but all the different LTE bands and frequencies are confusing me. I was wanting to get a better confirmation before buying the Nexus 5 and finding out it doesn't support telecom 4G.

So here are the LTE bands supported by the Nexus 5:

North America:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
CDMA: Band Class: 0/1/10
WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8/19
LTE: Bands: 1/2/4/5/17/19/25/26/41
Rest of World:
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8
LTE: Bands: 1/3/5/7/8/20

I understand telecom 4g will be 1800mhz when released, then 700mhz later once the analog tv spectrum is shutdown.

So I went to wiki to check bands and frequencies:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_frequency_bands#Frequency_bands_and_channel_bandwidths

but this just confused me since a frequency could have more then one band.

Anyone think they can help me with this?

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#925305 1-Nov-2013 08:00

you could ask in this thread as they are already discussing Telecom 4G

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johnr

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#925307 1-Nov-2013 08:02

VodafoneNZ TelecomNZ are using band3 1800Mhz so yes

anandpatel18

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#925310 1-Nov-2013 08:04

Ok cool thanks.

johnr

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#925312 1-Nov-2013 08:05

It will not work on the LTE 700Mhz band plan that is going to be used in New Zealand

Behodar

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#925315 1-Nov-2013 08:07

The "rest of world" one looks good (supports bands 3 and 7) but the US one is a no-go. Of course, none of them support 700 MHz (nothing does yet).

anandpatel18

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#925318 1-Nov-2013 08:10

O, so is the 1800mhz band temporary then it will be migrated to 700mhz? or will 1800 be used for highly populated areas (CBD) and 700mhz for outer CBD areas? My understand is correct that higher frequency is better for highly populated areas and lower frequency is better for coverage?

Will this also be the case for Vodafone? are they using 1800mhz and 700mhz?

johnr

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#925326 1-Nov-2013 08:28

No the 1800Mhz use for LTE / 4G is not temporary the 700Mhz will be used along side of it,

Vodafone NZ is using 1800Mhz in rural areas / smaller towns now and the sites are live

examples

Warkworth
Matakana
Piha beach
Motuweka
Nelson

And more places I can't think of right now

:Edit parts of the Coromandel holiday hot spots

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sbiddle

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#925334 1-Nov-2013 08:37

There isn't a single production device anywhere in the world that supports the 700Mhz APT band. Based on roadmaps expect to start seeing a number of devices support this band by the 2nd half of 2014.

anandpatel18

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#925337 1-Nov-2013 08:42

Ok cool, so getting a device that supports only 1800mhz at the moment isn't going to have a big impact of my ability to have LTE. Since there wont be devices till late 2014, there wont be cases of areas with LTE 800mhz only (well not until later 2014).

johnr

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#925340 1-Nov-2013 08:46

No a 1800Mhz LTE area will still have to have 3G fall back as Voice calls do not go over the 4G / LTE network,

openmedia

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#925458 1-Nov-2013 10:13

So again a missed opportunity to launch a 700Mhz device.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

johnr

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#925467 1-Nov-2013 10:20

openmedia: So again a missed opportunity to launch a 700Mhz device.

Why when there a no 700Mhz networks using the APAC band plan?

NikT

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#925502 1-Nov-2013 10:55

openmedia: So again a missed opportunity to launch a 700Mhz device.

Have a look at the countries using the APT band scheme here. Given no networks using band 28 are live, there's just zero incentive for hardware at this point from a manufacturer & costing perspective because the off-the-shelf baseband chipsets don't support it yet - especially when the Nexus devices are subsidised in territories Google services directly.

The 700/1800 LTE division is playing out much like the 2100/900/850 3G division did. Higher frequencies suited to urban areas, lower to more rural. Devices with 1800MHz 4G are still going to get 4G everywhere they can right now, and more to come besides. Seems to be a bit of confusion about it out there.

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old3eyes

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#925623 1-Nov-2013 12:53

Why didn't we just implement the US 700 Meg band and we would now have hardware for it??

Regards,

Old3eyes

Behodar

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#925628 1-Nov-2013 12:57

old3eyes: Why didn't we just implement the US 700 Meg band and we would now have hardware for it??

Take a look at this and then ask that again with a straight face :) (sorry about the image quality; it's not mine!)

Edit: And we'll have hardware in the future; the APT plan covers around 10x as many people as the US one so the hardware makers will adopt it once it starts to roll out.

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