Will a T-Mobile Sidekick work on Telecom XT?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Will a T-Mobile Sidekick work on Telecom XT?

HarriNZ

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#61362 14-May-2010 23:27

Hi everyone

I'm normally pretty tech savvy but I wanted to get a second opinion on whether this mobile would work in new zealand on telecom xt? I am going to the usa in 20 days and want to know if I can buy it to use here?

It's a T-Mobile Sidekick Lx, awesome phone and I have a mate in the states who loves hers but . . . will it work here?'

http://www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/Cell-Phone-Detail.aspx?cell-phone=Sidekick-LX-Carbon

All help is Gratefully appreciated ASAP!

Harri

quickymart

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#330256 14-May-2010 23:44

As long as it's WCDMA 850 compatible (and most North American phones are) it should be okay - so that one will probably work.

michaelt

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#330260 14-May-2010 23:52

I think this refers to the same phone: http://www.gsmarena.com/t_mobile_sidekick_lx_2009-2787.php

That states: 3G Network UMTS 1700 / 2100

It'll work on XT in the major cities on 2100Mhz, but won't work outside the cities and won't be officially supported. You need one that supports UMTS on 850Mhz for full XT support.

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#330263 15-May-2010 00:33

michaelt: It'll work on XT in the major cities on 2100Mhz, but won't work outside the cities and won't be officially supported. You need one that supports UMTS on 850Mhz for full XT support.

This is correct, but to clarify 2100MHz is only used as in-fill and the network is only officially marketed as W-CDMA 850MHz, so while technically it may work ok in parts of a city, it's safer and easier to say that the phone won't work because Telecom's intention isn't for people to use phones that support the 2100MHz frequency, and like you say its use will be very constricted.

freitasm

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#330290 15-May-2010 07:38

T-Mobile phones won't work on Telecom. Sidekick devices won't function outside t-Mobile because they need a special gateway for everything but voice calls and SMS.

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freitasm

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#330295 15-May-2010 08:16

quickymart: As long as it's WCDMA 850 compatible (and most North American phones are) it should be okay - so that one will probably work.

Incorrect. The only American operator to use WCDMA 850 MHz is AT&T and even so not all of its handsets are 3G.

Also this means handsets from Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile won't work on Telecom XT.

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#330303 15-May-2010 08:51

My understanding is there is no way to hack the data so it will work. Voice calling will work if the device is unlocked.

firstin.co.nz sold these a week or so ago, IMHO it was very unethical of them to not actually tell their customers that many functions would not operate in NZ.

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quickymart

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#330386 15-May-2010 14:18

freitasm:
quickymart: As long as it's WCDMA 850 compatible (and most North American phones are) it should be okay - so that one will probably work.

Incorrect. The only American operator to use WCDMA 850 MHz is AT&T and even so not all of its handsets are 3G.

Also this means handsets from Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile won't work on Telecom XT.

My apologies. I saw the "3G support" and "850" and thought it would work. Guess you learn something every day :)

akia

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#330806 17-May-2010 09:17

Not helping much here but I would love a Sidekick, they were everywhere on MTV at one stage :)

kyhwana2

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#330825 17-May-2010 10:20

sbiddle: My understanding is there is no way to hack the data so it will work. Voice calling will work if the device is unlocked.

firstin.co.nz sold these a week or so ago, IMHO it was very unethical of them to not actually tell their customers that many functions would not operate in NZ.

firstin has also sold the Acer eTouch 101 claiming that it would work on XT. (The phone is 2G/GSM only on 850/900/1800/1900, no 3G!)