800MHz or EVDO RevB

[kh4fun]

For what it is worth. Sprint Customer service says that the phone is not RevB ready at this time. However when needed Samsung should have a fix to make it ready. Also they have no time frame on when RevB will start being rolled out or when 4G will be expanded.

 

[John P. Smith]

For what it is worth. Sprint Customer service says that the phone is not RevB ready at this time. However when needed Samsung should have a fix to make it ready. Also they have no time frame on when RevB will start being rolled out or when 4G will be expanded.

Any statement from Sprint CS on this topic (and most others) is worth essentially nothing. Sprint does have a timeframe for network upgrades and we should know what it is on Oct. 7.

 

[experiment 626]

So EVDO Rev.B will equal the HSPA+ data speeds on GSM carriers?

 

[NismoZ]

A software update will enable it?! Seems like we need the hardware 1st. Anyone verify that we infact have a chip that can go 800MHz RevB?

 

[JayWill]

A software update will enable it?! Seems like we need the hardware 1st. Anyone verify that we infact have a chip that can go 800MHz RevB?

Not to nitpick, but you're combining two separate things.

The 800mhz ESMR band is currently used by Sprint for iDEN, which is its legacy Nextel push-to-talk network. It was announced awhile back that Sprint planned to provision that band for CDMA. So any phones that are capable of operating on that band, which our E4GT is, would immediately benefit, although the benefits are arguably minimal for most customers. But in the end it would boil down to "more bars in more places" for voice.

EVDO Rev B is an evolution of the Rev A technology for the transmission of data. From my limited understanding, moving to it only requires some kind of software overhaul by the carrier, but in order to take advantage of it, a device needs to have the hardware, which from what I've been able to gather so far, the E4GT does not assuming it is indeed using the Qualcomm QSC6085 CDMA Processor.

The EVO 3D does it seems, as the CDMA radio is integrated onto its Snapdragon SOC. It probably helps that Qualcomm created the entire SOC in that phone's case.

 

[kh4fun]

Again for what is worth, take 2. Called Samsung regarding EVDO RevB. I was informed that it appears that the phone would possibly need a Over-the-Air software upgrade to enable the phone to receive the RevB signal however the hardware in the phone is ready to go. Again this is from a Samsung agent, however she did place me on hold twice for a little while to research this and verify the information being provided. I hope that the agent is correct about the phone and also that the announcement on Oct 7 is that Sprint decides to upgrade to RevB.

Update: Just noticed JayWill72's post above and I believe what the research of the chip says it will do over an agent anyday, however decided to go ahead and leave my post up at this time. Maybe it will save someone from calling to Sprint or Samsung. Of course.. different agent, probably different answer.

 

[JayWill]

Update: Just noticed JayWill72's post above and I believe what the research of the chip says it will do over an agent anyday, however decided to go ahead and leave my post up at this time. Maybe it will save someone from calling to Sprint or Samsung. Of course.. different agent, probably different answer.

Oh by all means please share what you find out. I'm no expert on this stuff. I'm just digging for information and trying to use a bit of logic to put it all together. I haven't even been able to confirm FOR SURE that this phone indeed has the QSC6085 chip in it, as the picture on iFixit has a white sticker over the chip so you can't read the stamp. I'm just going off what iFixit is calling it for now, which while probably correct, could be wrong heh. Also, I don't know with absolute certainty that the QSC6085 chip is NOT capable of EVDO Rev. B. Information out there is a bit limited, but it's been enough to lead me to my conclusions so far.

 

[chuckz28]

D**n you JayWill! You're squashing my hopes lol. It's OK, as it wasn't a selling factor for me but it was sounding like a fantastic prospect for a bit.

 

[JayWill]

D**n you JayWill! You're squashing my hopes lol. It's OK, as it wasn't a selling factor for me but it was sounding like a fantastic prospect for a bit.

Haha yeah sorry man. I have a knack for digging into details. Sometimes too much according to my wife.

It's not really a factor for me either by the way. I've been digging into it more for people who've been reporting bad data speeds, and to give them something to hang their hat on and possibly stick it out with this phone and Sprint.

 

[John P. Smith]

It is my understanding from multiple sources that Sprint smartphones from EVO 4G on all have the hardware for Rev B and need at most a software upgrade to use it.

 

[Slingbox]

Phonearena specs it out at 800mhz yet it doesn't list rev-B.
Anyway I got a feeling Fixit is off on chip read

Samsung Epic 4G Touch specs

 

[JayWill]

Anyway I got a feeling Fixit is off on chip read

Naw I don't think so man. Looking up close at the image on iFixit, you can barely make out half of the letter Q under the sticker. The placement matches up with other images of the QSC6085 I've seen. I guess it's simply going to boil down to whether or not this chip can indeed work with EVDO Rev. B, or if there's some other hardware on the motherboard that we know nothing about that would allow it. I'm still waiting hopefully for a reply from the guy at Gizmofusion to confirm his statement.

 

[Slingbox]

Samsung specs 800mhz as well
Features and Specifications - Samsung Galaxy S

 

[JayWill]

Well I called Samsung technical support for giggles, and after a 5 minute wait the Rep (who I could barely understand due to the accent) said the device does support EVDO Rev. B, yet she had to ask me to spell it out exactly and ask me to correct her on what I was looking for a couple of times. In other words, she had no idea what EVDO even is. Yet she did come back and say the phone supports it. Then when I asked for documentation that states it, she said she could not provide it, and to check the Samsung website for updates on the specifications.

Yeah ....

the quest continues.

 

[chuckz28]

Well I called Samsung technical support for giggles, and after a 5 minute wait the Rep (who I could barely understand due to the accent) said the device does support EVDO Rev. B, yet she had to ask me to spell it out exactly and ask me to correct her on what I was looking for a couple of times. In other words, she had no idea what EVDO even is. Yet she did come back and say the phone supports it. Then when I asked for documentation that states it, she said she could not provide it, and to check the Samsung website for updates on the specifications.

Yeah ....

the quest continues.

Hard to trust someone like that lol. They probably see EVDO rev A and say yeah it supports it. We can only hope for the best I guess.

 

[Malkozaine]

maybe with this other band we might bd able to use data and voice at the same time.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

 

[error4o4]

I just hope that in terms of "Potential 65% increase of speeds" does not mean that I'll go from 50-200Kbit/s to 82.5 - 330Kbit/s

Phoenix sucks Please make it not suck sprint. Pretty please.

 

[DNicolasL]

I just hope that in terms of "Potential 65% increase of speeds" does not mean that I'll go from 50-200Kbit/s to 82.5 - 330Kbit/s

Phoenix sucks Please make it not suck sprint. Pretty please.

Panama City sucks too. I'm tired of getting speeds in the 175 kbps range.

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

 

[boe]

I chatted with Samsung today and the rep said she couldn't comment on that either way. I'd have to wait and keep on eye on Samsung's website for any new developments on this phone.

I get crappy speeds in Culver City so I was hoping the rev B would fix that - now I have to hope the phone even supports rev B.