Lumia 830 on T-Mobile

[pankaj981]

http://forums.windowscentral.com/no...-rm-984-985-what-differences.html#post2857329

Basically, the 983 and 985 have the same band support. The 983 adds carrier agregation and PMA charging.

Same LTE bands but not the same HSPA+ or 3G bands, the 985 supports AWS bands for T-Mobile US and Rogers, Wind Canada

 

[oryan_dunn]

Same LTE bands but not the same HSPA+ or 3G bands, the 985 supports AWS bands for T-Mobile US and Rogers, Wind Canada

I've not seen anything that suggests the 985 has AWS HSPA+ (1700/2100). Can you provide a link?

There is a typo on the band support, in that it should have the same WCDMA bands listed as the 984 and 985, according to the FCC documents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands

850/900/1900/2100 are bands 5/8/2/1 respectively. AWS is band 4.

SAR report for the 985, note the table at the beginning of section 2:
https://apps.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=2401323

No mention of AWS, though they also didn't test 900/1800 for GSM or WCDMA.

Edit: Though the report does say

Outside of USA and Canada, the transmitter of the device is capable of operating also in
GSM/GPRS/EGPRS900, GSM/GPRS/EGPRS1800, WCDMA900 (Band 8), WCDMA2100 (Band 1) bands
which are not part of this filing.

 

[pankaj981]

I've not seen anything that suggests the 985 has AWS HSPA+ (1700/2100). Can you provide a link?

There is a typo on the band support, in that it should have the same WCDMA bands listed as the 984 and 985, according to the FCC documents.

UMTS frequency bands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

850/900/1900/2100 are bands 5/8/2/1 respectively. AWS is band 3.

SAR report for the 985, note the table at the beginning of section 2:
https://apps.fcc.gov/eas/GetApplicationAttachment.html?id=2401323

No mention of AWS, though they also didn't test 900/1800 for GSM or WCDMA.

Edit: Though the report does say

First of all, I have a RM-985 and it does support AWS. Secondly AWS is Band 4 and not Band 3. I don't have a link or a T-Mobile SIM anymore to test AWS but look for threads under the 830 section, folks have confirmed getting HSPA+ in T-Mobile's non-refarmed areas

 

[oryan_dunn]

First of all, I have a RM-985 and it does support AWS. Secondly AWS is Band 4 and not Band 3. I don't have a link or a T-Mobile SIM anymore to test AWS but look for threads under the 830 section, folks have confirmed getting HSPA+ in T-Mobile's non-refarmed areas

If that's true, I wonder how the device can be legal if the FCC filing didn't list that?

Also, seems like they'd be loosing out on sales by customers of carriers with AWS HSPA+ looking at the phone specs and seeing that it doesn't work (when it may in fact work).

 

[DaveUK1000]

Yes, AT&T unlocked the Lumia 830 for me. I went on the AT&T live chat and told them that I bought the 830 off-contract at full price from a eBay seller. They submitted a unlock request for me and a few days later I received the unlock code via email. Worked perfectly.

Although, now i'm wondering if I should have just bought the HTC One M8 haha! I'm never satisfied

 

[OldManQ]

Now I'm confused as to which model to pick up. The RM-983 or the RM-985? Since the LTE bands are the same on both models and the RM-983 has carrier aggregation (not useful for the LTE bands on T-Mobile), will both models support HSPA+ on T-Mobile?

 

[Desynthesis]

Yep. Working very well on T-mobile where I am. I got the RM-985 from B&H Photo.

This thread has been really informative.

I've gotten tired of spending the last 4 months getting calls from Microsoft to fix internet sharing/music playback on my Lumia 925, so I'm thinking about getting an 830 (that, or just going Android) for T-Mobile. And then you'll be able to use internet sharing?

So it's as simply as getting an AT&T Lumia-830 (RM-985, NOT 984) off eBay or an online retailer, and calling AT&T and presenting a receipt, to have an unlock code? Will they even do this if you're not an AT&T customer--that's surprising, since calling T-Mobile, the first thing they ask is for your account with them.

What reason do you need to give? Can you just explain to them that you want to use one of their phones on another plan? How long does it usually take for them to give you the code?

If it's that simple, I may pull the trigger on one off eBay. I live in the United States, so a more expensive but "safer" option might just be buy one from an AT&T store, without contract--they'd have to support their own sale, right?

 

[PLGomez]

I just bought one from AT&T because I wanted the black one. I called Customer support and they said I have to use the online form. The online form doesn't let me unlock the phone. I'll try the AT&T live chat and see if that works... The guy did tell me that their unlocking policies are changing Dec. 4th. They are going to be more unlock friendly; he said to try again then.

 

[PLGomez]

Can you provide a link to the live chat you used? I just tried and I'm getting nowhere without having an account.

 

[Desynthesis]

Yeah, I found out the answer to my question: You can't buy a 830, or any phone, without a AT&T account, and you can't unlock a phone without an AT&T phone number. I don't know where you guys live that you can do this, but where I am, buying a phone is way harder than buying, say, a gun.

I'm pretty sure I can only buy the international version. Which..probably works with internet sharing? Who knows.

 

[mark233]

I've never used internet sharing on a smartphone :-/. I'm very ignorant about all that. I wish I could help.

 

[pankaj981]

I'm pretty sure I can only buy the international version. Which..probably works with internet sharing? Who knows.

The RM-985 variant works

 

[PLGomez]

Yeah, everything works on the RM-985 for T-Mobile. I flashed the rogers firmware, since I've got the prototype, and I also swapped my sim card. I was using an old one that was cut down to size, and I believe it was contributing to some of the problems. I don't have random restarts anymore and I used to get a notification saying I had a new text message after every restart, but that's gone now. I'm just down to seeing whether I still have problems with the bluetooth/wifi but that may be because of the Microsoft band.

 

[Desynthesis]

Yeah, everything works on the RM-985 for T-Mobile. I flashed the rogers firmware, since I've got the prototype, and I also swapped my sim card. I was using an old one that was cut down to size, and I believe it was contributing to some of the problems. I don't have random restarts anymore and I used to get a notification saying I had a new text message after every restart, but that's gone now. I'm just down to seeing whether I still have problems with the bluetooth/wifi but that may be because of the Microsoft band.

From what I understand, on the RM-985, you don't need to flash any firmware to get those functions, right?

Honestly, I might just save myself +$400 and flash my Lumia 925 back to 8.0, before internet sharing and music playback broke...

 

[PLGomez]

I had to flash it because I have the prototype version of the RM-985 I bought off eBay when they were there. If you buy it unlocked from a retailer, you probably shouldn't have to flash a different firmware.

 

[Desynthesis]

I had to flash it because I have the prototype version of the RM-985 I bought off eBay when they were there. If you buy it unlocked from a retailer, you probably shouldn't have to flash a different firmware.

Thank you for that information. If I get it, it'll probably be from B&H, so that wouldn't be a prototype.

 

[oryan_dunn]

Yeah, I found out the answer to my question: You can't buy a 830, or any phone, without a AT&T account, and you can't unlock a phone without an AT&T phone number. I don't know where you guys live that you can do this, but where I am, buying a phone is way harder than buying, say, a gun.

I'm pretty sure I can only buy the international version. Which..probably works with internet sharing? Who knows.

You can buy the AT&T version direct from Microsoft
Buy AT&T - Nokia Lumia 830 + Free Fitbit Flex - Microsoft Store

If you are a student or in the military, you can get the 10% discount dropping the price to $405. You can use fatwallet to get an additional 4% cash back.

As for unlocking it, find a friend with AT&T and submit the request under their name if they won't unlock it.

 

[Desynthesis]

You can buy the AT&T version direct from Microsoft
Buy AT&T - Nokia Lumia 830 + Free Fitbit Flex - Microsoft Store

If you are a student or in the military, you can get the 10% discount dropping the price to $405. You can use fatwallet to get an additional 4% cash back.

As for unlocking it, find a friend with AT&T and submit the request under their name if they won't unlock it.

I'm tired of dealing with AT&T, and rather not burden my one friend who uses AT&T--I'll probably just buy it from B&H and forego the Fitbit (really the only advantage of buying it AT&T).

That way it'll work immediately, and I don't have to deal with AT&T branding (which is always a plus) without having to resort to flashing. Not having a carrier splash screen has ALWAYS been a plus for me.

 

[pankaj981]

Or look out for an RM-985 prototype on eBay. Not sure what's the prototype part in it, everything works as expected, firmware can be flashed to any RM-985 variants to get Denim, comes with a year's warranty and is cheaper than the B&H version. I got mine shipped for $300. Couldn't be happier

 

[sahib lopez]

Or look out for an RM-985 prototype on eBay. Not sure what's the prototype part in it, everything works as expected, firmware can be flashed to any RM-985 variants to get Denim, comes with a year's warranty and is cheaper than the B&H version. I got mine shipped for $300. Couldn't be happier

This !!!!! ^ I got mine cheaper than B&H