Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

Hello,
I want to use a 4G Sim in my Nokia N900. The LTE Bands that the SIM uses are Band 3, 5 & 40 over frequencies 1800Mhz, 850Mhz & 2300Mhz respectively. Is there any way to manually switch the bands and select network on N900?
I know that this is hard to achieve but If it is possible then I want to achieve it. This is possible in many 3G Android mobile devices so hoping that it is possible in this phone as well.
If it is possible by doing some hardware hacking then I am ready to do it as long as it is reasonable.

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

There's no such thing as a "4G SIM". It's the modem, and it's built-in in your N900 with no possibility of removing or replacing it.

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

What you could do, however, is get an USB-stick 4G modem (usually called a "mokkula" in finnish BTW) and stick that into da USB port of your device. With right kind of SW tweaks you should be able to run your data connection through that external modem and still have the internal modem take care of your voice traffic.
You can even run the modems with active 3G and 4G data connections in parallel, achieving better throughput than any of your friends with their fancy modern Android/iOS devices :D

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

Another option is to use a mobile hotspot device. Some folks did that to get better data speeds on their Jolla phone as it only got 2g in US.

Would you provide a link that describes manually switching bands on android phones. Sounds interesting although I would think the hardware limits what bands are usable.

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

I've read that the Network Signal Guru is able to select particular band on Android OS. Needs root access.
Although, I haven't tested it on my own.

Here are some people's experiences (in Polish language): https://www.telepolis.pl/forum/viewt...rt=180#p885174

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

Correct me if I am wrong but my understanding is that an LTE modem configured to use frequency bands Foo, Bar and Baz might potentially be enabled to use the band Qux, if the radio allows it and is just disabled by a software configuration. I assume this is the story with said Android devices.

But no amount of tweaking can turn a non-LTE modem into LTE. The N900 does not have an LTE modem. End of story.

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

I think OP is confusing this with the fact that some LTE devices have a selection of bands available for use, and some bands that are locked out due to the fact that the device is meant to be used in certain parts of the world. (as different bands are allowed/available in different countries...)
On some devices it is possible to flash another baseband firmware to enable the locked-out bands, but this is of course only possible if the chipset of the device supports those bands.
Flashing a 4G baseband to a 3G-only chipset is of course not possible! :eek:


OK, this is another thing alltogether; how much of HW hacking you are prepared to do? For example swithcing the motherboards of your N900 to Neo900 hardware equivalents makes this possible. :cool:

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

And regarding unlocking some additional LTE bands I also have read about some tools for Qualcomm and Mediatek based devices.
The threads on XDA are showing up under the "mediatek lte xda" or "qualcomm lte xda" queries to Google.
Although, like previously, I haven't tested it out on my own.

Of course if there is no support for 4G/LTE at all in the hardware, then there would not be possible to enable that (like said previously).

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

Have people gotten usb modem to work on Jolla or n9/n950?
If so, and you happen to know, would you provide link that explains how to. Thanks!

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

get one of the mobile hotspots like the one in this video and use wifi. then you have all you need, good data and calls and you can use whatever sim for data== > cheapest prepaid you can find. No need to hassle with phone soft / hardware .
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HFsJxOVir2g

other link for mobile hot spots
http://www.bestproducts.com/tech/gad...wifi-hotspots/

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

Yes, I mentioned that in an earlier post in this thread. But, for me it would be more fun to use usb stick modem and play with the software!

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

Thank You all for replying.
So in the end it drops down to either getting a dongle/wifi dongle or upgrading to Neo900 which isn't really worth it IMHO.

I had less knowledge on this and thought that 850MHz and 1800Mhz are supported by N900 and the SIM carrier which I want to use so I can some how achieve this by some soft/hardware hacking. But it seems like this is not the case as it also requires LTE modem support.

Can't we get any opensource lte cellular modem?

and for the android trick here's a link
http://vlivetricks.com/use-4g-sim-in...mobile-phones/

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

Well, it is a piece of HW, not SW so the question is a bit off I think :D

Or to be precise, the modem can be a separate chip or part of the SoC (built on the same chip as the main CPU)
The modem baseband part runs its own firmware, which is a RTOS variant (or rather, very dedicated O&M loop with some very simple OS operations...)
This firmware is very much propriertary SW owned and developed by the chip vendor and is not opened.
There does exist some limited (meaning, just 2G functionality) open-source implementation of the GERAN stack but even that only supports some very old modems not an longer on the market. :eek:

Re: Achieving 4G/LTE Network on N900
 

Well, I was talking of HW thinking that we could fit a seperate lte modem inside N900 but you explained the difficulty very well.
So I'll be better off with some cheap prepaid 3G internet or a 4G modem to use with the kali linux