AT&T 4G question for Key2

So I am looking for facts if anyone has them. Each time I upgrade my phone I usually get a new sim card because I have to based on form factor. In the past it wasn't too bad with AT&T but when I switched to unlocked phones things started to get annoying. With my Passport because the device wasn't in their database yet they just put in a 00000000 for device type and I got the 4g. With my wife's phone passport (bought about 6 months later) they said they could no longer do that (000000) and her phone type was not recognized so it wasn't coming up 4g and we had to go through some pain to get it fixed. With my daughter she went straight from a Z10 (AT&T branded) to an unlocked priv so when we used the device type from her Z10 and she got 4G speeds. Since my SIM in my passport was 4G I just moved it to my Priv and same with my wife from her Passport to her Priv and we all kept our 4G that way.

If I move my SIM from my Priv to my KEY 2 and I losing anything? Such as does a newer sim possibly unlock my access to newer bands that may not have been available back when I got the SIM for my passport?

Please only respond with facts not guesses or if you really wanna guess make sure you are clear it is a guess.

These are the bands that AT&T uses:

.

**MAIN BAND

12 –700 MHz Lower B/C/A. This is a superset of band 17, so band 17 is not required if band 12 is available in the phone.



**ADDITIONAL CAPACITY

2 – 1900 MHz PCS, provides bandwidth in many markets; 25 is a superset of band 2 but 25 is not required for some reason

4 – 1700/2100 MHz AWS, provides bandwidth in many markets

5 – 850 MHz CLR, the main band for areas lacking 700 lower B and/or C blocks

29 – 700 MHz Lower D/E – supplemental downlink bandwidth only; implemented in key markets

30 – 2300 MHz WCS, provides additional bandwidth in many markets



**OTHERS

40 – not sure if this has been implemented yet

66 – AWS, asymmetric favoring download speed, which is being implemented by AT&T now. Band 66 is a superset of band 4.

14 – Public Safety, 700MHz. Can also be used for commercial traffic but will have less priority. I do not believe it has been implemented yet, and don’t expect it matters if a phone bought today has it

Not sure there are really any "new" bands on the KEYtwo that the Passport didn't have... you should be able to compare them.

My guess is you need to wait and see how AT&T provides the KEYtwo or if you have to go unlocked. Right now if you go unlocked you do loose some advance calling features.

Just to clarify, you keep saying "4G". On AT&T, 4G is Faux-G because it's really HSPA+, or the enhanced back-haul 3G. In other countries, it is shown as H+ on the network type indicator. AT&T decided to false advertise it as "4G" back when T-Mobile did it, instead of calling them out.

Every device you're talking about is an LTE (true 4G for the rest of the world) device.

So, what I'm getting at is: did, or do, you see "LTE" as the mobile network type? Or does it actually say "4G" ?

What I can say it that the network bands on the phone are hardware-based. The SIM only uses what's available to find the best tower to talk to. Each sub-model of every BlackBerry device has a fixed number of frequency bands for the various network types and for various markets around the world.

For example, the Z10 STL100-2 works best in the European market but is not compatible with AT&T in the U.S. At least not LTE. It does share some of the HSPA+ frequency bands, so it might connect and show "4G". The STL100-3 was specifically for AT&T.

Letting us know which model numbers are involved with your various phones would be helpful, too. I can't help beyond this, but it may give others a better idea of how to answer your questions.

Originally Posted by joeldf

Just to clarify, you keep saying "4G". On AT&T, 4G is Faux-G because it's really HSPA+, or the enhanced back-haul 3G. In other countries, it is shown as H+ on the network type indicator. AT&T decided to false advertise it as "4G" back when T-Mobile did it, instead of calling them out.

Every device you're talking about is an LTE (true 4G for the rest of the world) device.

So, what I'm getting at is: did, or do, you see "LTE" as the mobile network type? Or does it actually say "4G" ?

What I can say it that the network bands on the phone are hardware-based. The SIM only uses what's available to find the best tower to talk to. Each sub-model of every BlackBerry device has a fixed number of frequency bands for the various network types and for various markets around the world.

For example, the Z10 STL100-2 works best in the European market but is not compatible with AT&T in the U.S. At least not LTE. It does share some of the HSPA+ frequency bands, so it might connect and show "4G". The STL100-3 was specifically for AT&T.

Letting us know which model numbers are involved with your various phones would be helpful, too. I can't help beyond this, but it may give others a better idea of how to answer your questions.

Thank you for that reply. Yes you are correct I am saying 4G generically when I am really talking about LTE. Yes I realize the bands are a hardware thing I was questioning as with any platform that has certain hardware, was anything else was needed to use that hardware. Specifically does the SIM somehow dictate which bands can be used or does the device type listed on the AT&T system somehow dictate (or limit) which bands can be used.

On the Priv the little 4G lte indicator lights up so I am assuming I am getting lte speeds with that. My model number STV100-1.

My main concern is by just moving the SIM over and not telling AT&T I have a different model could I be not connecting to certain "newer" (if there are newer compared to my unlocked square black passport SQW100-1, the model AT&T thinks I have) bands. The only reason I am thinking this is again my experience of my wife's passport not getting lte until a model that was capable of doing lte was associated with her phone. Before her passport (SQW100-1 also) she had an AT&T Blackberry Torch 9810 wich had the HSPA+ only. So until a model number was in their database that was capable of doing lte was associated with her phone number her phone did not do lte. Of course this all occurred when they started to ship the unlocked white passport (SQW100-1). Things may have changed since then on how AT&T deals with this type of situation.