930 on AT&T USA Questions?

lawrencepepper

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Hello,

I am considering doing the same and purchasing a 930 for use here in the states on AT&T.

If anyone using a 930 on AT&T in the US would not mind I have a few questions that I was hoping you could answer:

1: Can I just swap the SIM from my current phone into the 930? Will it work with all features? I want to be able to swap between the phones if I feel I want to go back to my current phone. I realize it is a nano sim BTW.

2: Will the AT&T Visual Voicemail app work?

3: Will I still get the OTA updates? GDR1?

4: How is reception? I have read some reports that it does not get great reception. Data intermittent.

I am in the Philly suburbs. Loss of LTE does not bother me as I am usually on wi if and h+ speeds will be ok.

Any other issues I should be aware of?

Going to make a decision once the 830 is announced.

Thanks for any help!
 

hopmedic

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Here's a thought. Instead of the 930, how about the Icon? They're essentially the same phone, but the Icon has a CDMA radio. It is not locked to Verizon, it is available in the US, and it has GSM radios since it is a "world phone."

I don't know if it will get the LTE, as I have not looked up which bands it has vs ATT, but it will definitely work on ATT. I have set up two Lumia 822s for my adult step-daughter to work on ATT's bands with a StraightTalk SIM.

As for your questions...
1. If the phone is unlocked, whether it is the 930 or Icon, yes, you should be able to pop in the sim and it should work, but you will have to use the Access Point app to set the correct settings for it.

2. I doubt you'll be able to get the app, for either 930 or Icon, as neither will have the ATT segment of the store.

3. OTA updates you will get, but you won't get them on ATT's timing. You'll get them on the timing of wherever the phone is from. For example, if you get an Icon, you'll get the updates whenever Verizon releases them.

4. Reception will depend on where you are. I have no problems with my Icon, but I'm using it on Verizon.
 
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lawrencepepper

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Thanks for your reply but what I have been told is the Icon will not work on AT&T.

And I can not switch to Verizon as I am in a 5 person family contract on AT&T with 4 other phones in contract.

L
 

berty6294

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Thanks for your reply,

but the Icon will not work on AT&T as AT&T is a GSM network and the Icon is CDMA only.

I am also locked in with a family plan on AT&T with 5 other phones in various states of contract so switching to Verizon is a no go.

L

On the contrary. You will have better luck getting the Icon activated on AT&T than the 930. I have done it and get everything working except MMS and LTE just by swapping the SIM. I have read online about people getting MMS and LTE working I do not however know what steps they took to do it. (Never really paid much attention as I am on Verizon anyway)
 

berty6294

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Thanks for the reply, good to know.

Why does MMS not work?

L

If I knew I'd tell you. I don't know too much about cellular, but I know enough that I can tell you that the Icon has the hardware to get 3g and lte on AT&T whereas the 930 can get 3g but will never be able to get lte on AT&T.
 

hasasimo

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If you check out the Icon forum you'll see that many people have had MMS issues with it on AT&T and T-Mobile. If you're going with AT&T it makes more sense to get the 930 as there are no MMS issues. There have been a few threads started about the 930 on AT&T or in the U.S., just do a search.
 

hopmedic

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Check the Icon forums, but also look in the 928 and 822 forums, because those are Verizon phones and you'll see threads of people getting them to work on other networks, since Verizon phones were the only ones sold in the US that were not locked to the carrier.

And yes, you CAN get the Icon to work on ATT - and like Berty said, probably easier than the 930.
 

lawrencepepper

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Decided to go with the 930 after this morning's announcement about the 830. Was waiting to see if the 830 was going to be close to the 930 spec wise and an official US AT&T phone as well. Seems no on both counts. After hearing from someone using the 930 on AT&T it seems except for LTE it works flawlessly.

I ordered one unlocked from Newegg, I should have it tomorrow or Monday.

Will update once I have it up and running.

L
 

kb4000

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Some of the posts here are wrong. The icon will NOT work on att 4g. You will get HSPA+ or 3g but there is no way to get 4g as the icon doesn't have att bands. If you don't believe me look up the bands it supports. A 930 that is unlocked should just work. MMS can sometimes be made to work with the correct APN settings.
 

kb4000

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If I knew I'd tell you. I don't know too much about cellular, but I know enough that I can tell you that the Icon has the hardware to get 3g and lte on AT&T whereas the 930 can get 3g but will never be able to get lte on AT&T.

Want to cite some sources? Because you have it backwards. Icon can't access att 4g because it doesn't support the correct bands.
 

Squachy

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The 930 works but doesn't get lte. Different bands. 3g works, and its as easy as getting popping a sim in rebooting. I never had to input apn settings and I get mms and txt. TELUS in Canada I think uses similar frequency as att.so it should be the same.

The icon on the other hand....something is wierd about that. It does have the supported lte bands but does not work. And If you do get it to work on att you wont get lte, you might get 3g and you wont get mms. I don't even know if its easy to set up if there's those problems.
 

Squachy

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Still misinformation here.

The Icon DOES support North American Band 4 (and Verizon band 13). BUT for some reason it does NOT work on AT&T LTE. There is something locked down or who knows something is up with the Icon but apparently if you get it to work outside of Verizon's network you will get 3G, but will be missing MMS (no one seems to be able to get that to work regardless of APN settings) and you cannot access LTE (again it has the supported bands, but it wont function). Why? Who knows. If you cant get LTE you might as well just get an unlocked 930. At least you should be able to get MMS.

You just gotta read up on the Icon forums as LTE and missing MMS seems to be the main sacrifices for an Icon outside of Verizon.
 

kabel_mk

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Still misinformation here.

The Icon DOES support North American Band 4 (and Verizon band 13). BUT for some reason it does NOT work on AT&T LTE. There is something locked down or who knows something is up with the Icon but apparently if you get it to work outside of Verizon's network you will get 3G, but will be missing MMS (no one seems to be able to get that to work regardless of APN settings) and you cannot access LTE (again it has the supported bands, but it wont function). Why? Who knows. If you cant get LTE you might as well just get an unlocked 930. At least you should be able to get MMS.

You just gotta read up on the Icon forums as LTE and missing MMS seems to be the main sacrifices for an Icon outside of Verizon.
Icon supports LTE band 4 but one needs to be sure if ATT uses LTE band 4 in a given market/region. I believe ATT uses band 4 in very few markets (if i'm not mistaken, the most spread out LTE band that ATT uses is band 17, band 2 should be second). Maybe this is the reason why some people cannot get LTE with Icon on ATT. I'm not disregarding the fact that Verizon are nasty players and could very well be that they are doing some nasty low level blocks in the modem/radio.
 

psiu_glen

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Couple things:

I remember reading right when LTE was first rolling out, that even within the various bands, here in "Corporate 'Merica" there are still sub-bands, so to speak. And our carriers are going to male damn sure their phones work best on their network (this is when people still had naive optimism that maybe we would finally have true interoperability).

Re: MMS, iirc, in the 928 forum, one of the updates (Amber? Black?) Verizon actually removed the ability to see ALL of the fields you would need to tweak things. This basically broke MMS on AT&T and T-Mo for the 822 and 928.

Lastly, you should still get the AT&T app selection when you pop in an AT&T SIM. My 928 magically got the AT&T apps when I threw in my prepaid SIM after getting my Icon.

Good luck with the 930.
 

kb4000

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Lumia Icon

AT&T

LTE Band 4 would be the compatible band.

As some other people have hinted at band 4 is not the only band att uses. Band 17 is their main one, which the icon doesn't support. Band 4 is in very few markets. If you happen to live in an area with band 4 then you'll be fine, but don't count on it. The 930 doesn't support either, but mms works.
 

hopmedic

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Still misinformation here.

The Icon DOES support North American Band 4 (and Verizon band 13). BUT for some reason it does NOT work on AT&T LTE. There is something locked down or who knows something is up with the Icon but apparently if you get it to work outside of Verizon's network you will get 3G, but will be missing MMS (no one seems to be able to get that to work regardless of APN settings) and you cannot access LTE (again it has the supported bands, but it wont function). Why? Who knows. If you cant get LTE you might as well just get an unlocked 930. At least you should be able to get MMS.

You just gotta read up on the Icon forums as LTE and missing MMS seems to be the main sacrifices for an Icon outside of Verizon.

The same was said about MMS on the 822, but I was successful. It takes some fiddling, but the MMS can be made to work. LTE? I have no idea.
 

psiu_glen

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Lol, I didn't even realize what I was doing just now, but now that I'm back in the app...

I have my 928 in hand. I use a GoPhone SIM back and forth between a 520 (just unlocked it after 6 months) and my 928 (just got the Icon, so it has my VZW SIM).

I'm not on a smartphone plan, just stock prepaid cash, minutes and texts cost whatever.

Went to send a screenshot to a buddy via text and it failed. Flipped data on, still failed, saw there was nothing in MMS APN fields, went ahead, downloaded the Nokia Access Point settings app, and a moment later retried and the message went through. (still no "regular data" in browser, either.)

:p

Of course, I think there has been even more gnashing of teeth regarding this on T-Mo service, but...

So the Icon might not be that bad, 930 certainly shouldn't.
 

lawrencepepper

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Update on the 930 on AT&T.

OK, after a few days of use I am back to report on how my new 930 is working out on the AT&T network here in the good ol' US of A.

I received my 930 this past Monday September 8, 2014. The phone itself is beautiful, well made and arrived in perfect condition. There is many a review on this phone and they all pretty much some up this phone so I am not going to elaborate on the phone itself. I just want to clarify how it works on AT&T here in the states for anyone who may may be considering purchasing it.

As for my concerns on using this phone on AT&T.

It works VERY WELL.

1: The SIM. I previously was using a HTC One (M7) which uses a micro SIM. The 930 uses a nano SIM so I needed to cut down the SIM in order for it to fit in the 930. No big deal, I followed instructions found on You Tube and voila it was inserted without a hitch. Turning on the phone for the first time the SIM was detected and I was on the network. No issues.

2: Reception and data. As we all know this phone does not get LTE here in the states. I live in the Philadelphia suburbs where coverage is very good. I have found so far that everywhere I go, home, work around town etc.., I have been consistently getting H+ connections with three or higher bars, usually 4 or 5 with no problems. Download speeds are fine. In my daily use I really do not see a day in and day out apparent difference. Web pages load quickly, maps load quick, streaming begins quickly and is fine. I am not downloading huge files etc, either, but for normal use I am quite pleased.

3: Visual Voice Mail. This worked out of the box, no issues. It setup immediately and works great.

4: SMS MMS. Again, works like a charm. I can send and receive both SMS and MMS messages. No issues.

So far I LOVE this phone. As long as Microsoft keeps improving Windows Phone and supporting it and it's users I think I will remain a customer into future.
 

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