 cpuwizkidPremium
join:2007-04-17
Long Beach, CA | i'm no electrical engineer but... how come manufacturers don't just put the support for all worldwide frequencies into their phones? I understand there's probably a battery life issue, but maybe manufacturers can have the phone automatically determine what frequency to use based on physical location using GPS or something to save battery? just a thought...
the Nokia N900 doesn't have the AT&T 3G bands either, so that was definitely a deal breaker for me. otherwise i would have jumped right on it... if this new google phone doesn't support AT&T 3G, then i'm not going to buy it either. AT&T might annoy the crap out of me sometimes but my company discount sure is nice | |
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 | | Re: i'm no electrical engineer but... Or have an option for the user to pick one and then disable the other bands until a change is initiated? | |
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 |  MizexWTF?Premium
join:2002-03-11
Miami, FL | Re: i'm no electrical engineer but... I agree with that. Let the user select which band the phone should use that way it makes jumping to another carrier easier if you want to keep your phone. | |
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| | cpuwizkidPremium
join:2007-04-17
Long Beach, CA | Re: i'm no electrical engineer but... said by Mizex:... Let the user select which band the phone should use... As much as I would like to agree with you, there are A LOT of people who would not know which frequency to switch to and from and then wonder "Hey, how come my phone says 'No Service' or 'Searching for Network' all the time?" There is another side to that statement though that if the person doesn't know which one to choose, that they shouldn't own the phone in the first place. HAHA  | |
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| | | | | Re: i'm no electrical engineer but... It will enhance their ability to research pretty quick.  | |
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| | | | | The best option is to have a menu option where the customer selects the carrier from the drop down and the phone automatically recognizes the frequency. | |
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| | | | | said by cpuwizkid:said by Mizex:... Let the user select which band the phone should use... As much as I would like to agree with you, there are A LOT of people who would not know which frequency to switch to and from and then wonder "Hey, how come my phone says 'No Service' or 'Searching for Network' all the time?" There is another side to that statement though that if the person doesn't know which one to choose, that they shouldn't own the phone in the first place. HAHA And there may be further hardware design issues as well because antennas and other components are designed and placed within a phone to work with certain frequency bands. I am sure those issues could be worked out, but it would complicate the design and also increase the cost of the phone.
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| |  NOVA_GuyObamaCare Kills AmericansPremium
join:2002-03-05 | Why not just make it something simple, like a box that pops up during activation that asks for the country and network that the phone will be used on? The network drop down can be filtered to only display providers for the selected country. If someone doesn't know the country they're using the phone in, and the network they're using the phone on, then they probably shouldn't be using the phone in the first place.
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 GbcueAlmost P.E.Premium
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA
kudos:8 | Now it seems that the AT&T 3G band is the "oddball".
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 tubbynetreminds me of the danse russePremium,MVM
join:2008-01-16
Chandler, AZ | said by cpuwhizkid :
how come manufacturers don't just put the support for all worldwide frequencies into their phones?
while i don't work with cell phones specifically, i have done some microwave frequency design work. while i don't consider my point to be the truth, it may shed some light.
there are a number of factors that go in to design. not only do you have to have the receiver and transmitter circuitry tied together, each of those bands has to be matched to the antenna to prevent signal reflection at the input and output ports. in order to tie the components together, stripline (or more commonly microstrip) lines are used. since microstrip is a "quasi-tem" structure, it has a frequency dependent characteristic impedance, which could only be matched over a small set of frequencies to provide maximum power transmission.
while i'm sure that there are some economic factors in play (i.e. why would qualcomm design a 3g chip for a carrier locked phone that would support att and tmo when neither carrier wants phone portability), i'm sure that there are some limits on the number of radios packed into a device that still cuts consumer mustard (battery life, heat dissapation, fcc-imposed limits on power radiated). could it be done? sure. however, the economics of the devices sold need to change before money is piped into a design that no phone manufacturer (and the carriers that support them) will buy.
q.
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