Hey everyone, could somebody elaborate a bit more on the modem variant, you can choose in the shop? What are exactly the implications of this option? Am I right assuming that the LTE variant also supports the usage of 3G and 2G networks? Do I have to expect an impact on the battery life?
the power consumption of LTE and UMTS differs, yes. But that's mostly related to the technology used rather than the modem itself. IOW a LTE modem on UMTS will use similar power as a UMTS-only modem
[2015-05-18 Mon 17:19:58] <bleb> anyone in the U.S. ordered the PHS8 (worldwide) modem over the LTE U.S. one? I want to have compatibility around the world and don't care about 4G, but I also need to be sure theres a U.S. carrier that will work [2015-05-18 Mon 17:23:26] <DocScrutinizer05> bleb: PHS8 *should* work with most US carriers afaik. Please see http://neo900.org/faq#networks and http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=93095 (particularly links to external info sources on page2 and 3) [2015-05-18 Mon 17:25:18] <DocScrutinizer05> bleb: try to find out which *bands* your carrier supports. *bands* are precisely specified by 3GPP while 'frequency' is quite ambiguous and fuzzy [2015-05-18 Mon 17:26:06] <DocScrutinizer05> e.g. there are 3 or 4 bands all called "700MHz" by their frequency moniker [2015-05-18 Mon 17:26:54] <bleb> thanks, I'll check it out [2015-05-18 Mon 17:27:04] <DocScrutinizer05> carriers sometimes use different "frequency: XXXX" name for same band [2015-05-18 Mon 17:28:41] <DocScrutinizer05> some bands are named by their downlink frequency, others by their uplink frequency, which always differ and sometimes this results in ambiguous naming [2015-05-18 Mon 17:29:36] <DocScrutinizer05> something like BAND-14 is absolutely clear [2015-05-18 Mon 17:31:14] <DocScrutinizer05> at least when you augment it by the Radio-Access-Technology (RAT) which is UMTS, LTE [2015-05-18 Mon 17:32:22] <DocScrutinizer05> PHS8 supports UMTS:Bd1,2,5,6,8 [2015-05-18 Mon 17:32:57] <bencoh> there is no way to change it (firmware flashing) ? [2015-05-18 Mon 17:33:19] <DocScrutinizer05> afaik not [2015-05-18 Mon 17:33:45] <bencoh> I wonder why [2015-05-18 Mon 17:33:46] <DocScrutinizer05> I guess there are discrete filters in RF secion that are tuned to the supported bands [2015-05-18 Mon 17:34:39] <bencoh> maybe [2015-05-18 Mon 17:36:37] <DocScrutinizer05> if they had managed to implement a (set of)parametric filter(s), aka tunable filters, that would allow for adjusting to virtually arbitrary frequencies and thus bands. But this technology is pretty new and just emerging on latest generation modem chipsets afaik [2015-05-18 Mon 17:38:03] <rjeffries> I want to find online reference which defines frequencies and bands used by (in my case) US mobile carriers. It seems like this MUST exist but I only see bits and oeices [2015-05-18 Mon 17:40:30] <DocScrutinizer05> rjeffries: please see the links in http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...24#post1423824 [2015-05-18 Mon 17:42:26] <rjeffries> Thanks! It's a sticky wicket as my British (English?) friends might grumble [2015-05-18 Mon 17:45:44] <DocScrutinizer05> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...works#Americas [2015-05-18 Mon 17:47:29] <DocScrutinizer05> ^^^ is pretty good I'd say [2015-05-18 Mon 17:47:46] <DocScrutinizer05> particularly it has BANDS