2 ms·

> In Europe, if you buy an international phone, chances are that phone will just work across the litany of carriers across the continent. That’s not quite the c

by shmerl 4y ago

> In Europe, if you buy an international phone, chances are that phone will just work across the litany of carriers across the continent. That’s not quite the case in the U.S., as fewer international devices support the necessary bands. Can't modern modems simply support all bands? How hard is that?

hocuspocus 4y ago
Afaik modems do, it's the radio frontend that differs between continents. These differences are pretty slim nowadays and open market European phones will work in the US and vice versa. However the performance might be slightly degraded because some bands were prioritized over others that are supported for roaming. Also some combinations of bands for carrier aggregation might not work as well. And then you have OEMs (like Google!) who think it's smart not to enable 5G just everywhere but only for selected carriers, and you'll sometimes need a firmware update before you can utilize your phone fully. One big difference might be the mmWave support which is pushed by some US carriers and that'd be completely lacking otherwise (no antenna).
thequux 4y ago
The modem supports it just fine, but the carriers all block phones that aren't on their "approved" list (i.e., phones that they sell). I took a trip to the US earlier this year with my European Motorola G9 Plus. My Belgian sim roamed onto T-Mobile's network just fine but charged €13/MB; a T-Mobile SIM next to it worked fine for about 2 hours and then refused to connect ever again. This resulted in a delightful conversation with a support agent who told me without any sense of confusion that my phone physically did not have the hardware necessary to connect to T-Mobile's network while looking at my screen which read "Mobile Vikings - Roaming (T-Mobile)". AT&T wouldn't connect either; I ended up just going without for two weeks.

by shmerl 4y ago

hocuspocus 4y ago

Afaik modems do, it's the radio frontend that differs between continents. These differences are pretty slim nowadays and open market European phones will work in the US and vice versa. However the performance might be slightly degraded because some bands were prioritized over others that are supported for roaming. Also some combinations of bands for carrier aggregation might not work as well. And then you have OEMs (like Google!) who think it's smart not to enable 5G just everywhere but only for selected carriers, and you'll sometimes need a firmware update before you can utilize your phone fully. One big difference might be the mmWave support which is pushed by some US carriers and that'd be completely lacking otherwise (no antenna).

thequux 4y ago

The modem supports it just fine, but the carriers all block phones that aren't on their "approved" list (i.e., phones that they sell). I took a trip to the US earlier this year with my European Motorola G9 Plus. My Belgian sim roamed onto T-Mobile's network just fine but charged €13/MB; a T-Mobile SIM next to it worked fine for about 2 hours and then refused to connect ever again. This resulted in a delightful conversation with a support agent who told me without any sense of confusion that my phone physically did not have the hardware necessary to connect to T-Mobile's network while looking at my screen which read "Mobile Vikings - Roaming (T-Mobile)". AT&T wouldn't connect either; I ended up just going without for two weeks.