Can someone explain firmware variants?

[ThermoDust]

/I recently bought the Lumia 830. It came with 059W5M3 - RM-985 VAR LTA 7R CV SLV loaded on it. I was then looking around after hearing about todays firmware update for AT&T and thinking. Would it be wise to change to another firmware? So that is my question. Is there a better firmware to run on the Lumia 830 for those on T-Mobile USA?

Global version?

 

[PepperdotNet]

Looking on LumiaFirmware | Download all Lumia firmware And Emergency Files there are a lot of RM-985, including 059W6R7 and 059W742 which are the NAM 4R CV (US and Canada) variant.

 

[ThermoDust]

Thanks for that. But what will flashing to those do for me is my main question? Will it help with bands or features?

 

[PepperdotNet]

Hard to say. Just depends whether you think a firmware designated for the US and Canada might work better than one for the Latin America region for your chosen carrier. Maybe someone who has the US variant 830 will have some input.

 

[ThermoDust]

059W6R7 - Saw nothing special about it other than it has access to the field test. Still digging through it.

 

[pizzaboy192]

I know it's almost a month since you dug into this. Did you find anything interesting in Field Test?

My 830 is on T-Mobile and I'd love to be able to see if there's any other PCS or AWS bands available to enable on the 830 so that calling works better. I'd even be willing to reflash my phone to do it.

Thanks!

 

[ThermoDust]

I did dig into it a bit. I went through a few firmware and nothing helped. Field Test was only available on Windows 8.1 FYI and no extra bands were available. So for T-Mobile, no Band 12 :'(

 

[pizzaboy192]

I wasn't expecting Band12, but was hoping that there might be AWS, PCS, or GSM bands that are hiding. I live in an LTE only area for T_Mobile, which means I can't really place calls when I'm on their network, and I also miss calls if I'm connected to their network.

I guess I might have to switch to the 640 for a while until I either move, or I find a different option.

Any options in Field Test for VoLTE? I know the AT&T one had that, and VoLTE would fix my issues too.