950xl with tmobile in US on band 12

[Neftv1]

If any of you with the 950xl on Tmobile, does the band 12 reception make any difference? Im on a Nokia lumia 1520 and band 12 is not on this phone. Biggest problem is building penetration using Ting right now.

 

[spicypadthai]

I have a 950XL on T-Mobile and while I can't say definitively it helps or doesn't, I generally don't have problems inside. However, that's mostly calls/texts. I'm on WiFi 95%+ of the time inside so I just did a couple Nperf speed tests (best one, IMO) using cellular from my office, where I'm inside the most, and I'm getting 15+ Mbps down and 5+ up, which is fine for me b/c I'm not doing a lot of bandwidth intensive things over cellular. For calls and texts inside, I haven't noticed any reception or quality differences vs. Verizon. Same with coverage, pretty much the same as Verizon in my area.

 

[nate0]

Yes in a nutshell generally speaking it is better than the 1520.

It is possible to change nvi and modem parameters to gain from both phones though. For the average user it is not usually an option because the phone should work or not right out of the box with no tweaking of changing things...
Band locking is weird on the 1520. Band 12 can be enabled on the 1520 but it is not worth it unless you do it on the 1520.3. If you have the 1520.2 you are stuck with the at&t firmware which has some hard baked nvi settings that wont allow optimized use of that frequency and it won't allow HD Voice. This is all coming from customizing an unlocked phone mind you with your own nvi settings. The 1520.1 is similar and I have not had luck enabling HD voice on that one but band 12 works...

Generally speaking the 1520 using T-mobile gets poor building receptions with Brick or other non-penetrable materials. The 950 XL can too in some situations, but I use it on t-mobile as well and I definitely would take it any day over the 1520 as far as reception goes on T-mobile. On the 950 xl though I too utilize my own nvi settings for that phone. Bare bones stock the 950 XL would be a better fit for T-mobile.

 

[Neftv1]

I do have the 1520.3 version. Is it worth trying to unlock band 12? Can you share resource on how that done?

 

[Adventurer64]

I use a 950xl as my daily driver on TMo with no issues. I travel all over the US and Canada weekly and the only issue I've had is in Napannee, IN where TMo has no coverage. I have a TMo V20 as a backup (rarely use it) and it gets similar to slightly better signal than 950xl, but not enough to matter. Same with the TMO Idol 4S I used several yrs ago.

 

[tgp]

the only issue I've had is in Napannee, IN where TMo has no coverage.

I'm kind of surprised about that! I know this area fairly well as I have relatives around Nappanee and Goshen. It is a farming community and it is very flat and open there and highly populated for a rural area, usually good for coverage.

 

[Adventurer64]

I'm kind of surprised about that! I know this area fairly well as I have relatives around Nappanee and Goshen. It is a farming community and it is very flat and open there and highly populated for a rural area, usually good for coverage.

You would think, but no TMo in town. I get signal all around town in the corn fields, but not in Nappanee itself. Very strange. I'm going back in 2 weeks, so we'll see if that's changed in the last 6 MThs.

 

[nate0]

I do have the 1520.3 version. Is it worth trying to unlock band 12? Can you share resource on how that done?

If your decision is to stick with the 1520.3 to unlock band 12 for coverage as opposed to getting a 950 XL for the same you would be spending time just to do it for fun. You can give it a whirl if you want. I made it a bit easier with a custom ROM for the 1520.3, you would need to unlock your boot loader and flash it, but you will erase everything not backed up and start over. Alternatively you can replace the NVI files I mentioned in that thread along with the ADC files, then run an nvi update/modem reset from thor2...it is not as easy as it sounds.