T-Mobile USA with international version 925

[multo]

Did some searching but I didn't get the results I needed or I probably overlooked so I thought of creating a new thread. Apologies if it was discussed before so please point me to the thread if it has been. Long story short, well, I'd like to give my mom a 925. Currently NOT in the US so I only have access to the international unlocked version (rm-892). If I get her this, would she have issues with data? I believe she's not using lte so 3g would suffice however will it still be seamless for her? I'm not well versed in the bands the network uses so if there are users of the rm-892 on tmo it would be a big help if you could drop me some ideas. Thanks all

 

[Iain_S]

I have an unlocked 925 from Romania in Canada it works just fine, gets 4g, if you load up the tmobile rom on it you will get lte also.

 

[multo]

hey mate. what network in canada? don't you guys use both 1700 and 2600 for lte? if i remember it correctly tmo usa uses only 1700 so perhaps your unit uses the 2600 frequency?

 

[Iain_S]

I am on rogers in Canada, so yes it it using 2600 for lte.

 

[Iain_S]

the internation version of the 925 will not support T-Mobile lte as they do not include the 1700 band on these phones. I have a Vodafone Romania 32gb 925 loaded with the Malaysia black rom and it gets very good lte using the 2600 band. in Calgary Canada.

 

[palandri]

here ya go, there are three different models. You need band 4 for T-Mobile LTE which is only available on the RM-893 U.S. model: Nokia Lumia 925 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[multo]

here ya go, there are three different models. You need band 4 for T-Mobile LTE which is only available on the RM-893 U.S. model: Nokia Lumia 925 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

thanks for the link but as i've mentioned in the original post, i'm not concerned with LTE for Tmo. it's the 3g bands i'd like to make sure that won't have any issues. i've gotten mixed reviews saying they do and some say they don't so that's where i'd like to focus on.

 

[IanMcB]

According to that Wiki link the RM-892 does not have the 3G 1700 band so unless your mother is in one of T-Mobile's refarmed areas I'm pretty sure she'll be stuck on EDGE.

 

[multo]

According to that Wiki link the RM-892 does not have the 3G 1700 band so unless your mother is in one of T-Mobile's refarmed areas I'm pretty sure she'll be stuck on EDGE.

Thanks for the response Ian. So I take it that tmo uses also a 1700 frequency for 3g, not just for lte? Regarding the refarmed area, would you happen to have info if WA is part of it?

 

[IanMcB]

Thanks for the response Ian. So I take it that tmo uses also a 1700 frequency for 3g, not just for lte? Regarding the refarmed area, would you happen to have info if WA is part of it?

No problem. I stole this from T-Mobile US - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1900 MHz 2 GSM/GPRS/EDGE 2G In Service
1700 MHz AWS 4 UMTS/HSPA+ 42Mbit/s 3G[62] In Service Has marketed 3G HSPA+ as "4G" since 2010. Covers 229 million POPs as of Oct, 2013.[63]
1900 MHz PCS 2 UMTS/HSPA+ 42Mbit/s 3G In Service/Building out Moving 3G HSPA+ traffic to this band.[64] Covers 203 million POPs as of Oct, 2013[63]
1700 MHz AWS 4 LTE 4G In Service/Building out Covers 203 million POPs as of Oct, 2013[63]

airportal.de maps out places where people have reported T-Mobile refarming, though I'm not sure how accurate it is. I assume there are other sites that do this but I don't know of any.