Lumia 820 on Net10 with T-Mobile carrier ? EDGE data

[Yitzhak Khabinsky]

As of March 1, 2013 AT&T limited Net10 customers to 1.5 GB of data.
Net10 started to sway their customers to T-Mobile due to their commitment to the unlimited Internet data:
?Buy unlocked phone, we?ll provide you T-Mobile SIM card, and you?ll be all set?.

Following Net10 advice I bought a new factory unlocked Nokia Lumia 820 phone, ordered T-Mobile SIM card from Net10. To my dismay Lumia 820 has data access in the EDGE mode most of the time or 3G mode sometimes.

Lumia 820 About app reveals the following:

• OS version: 8.0.10211.204
• Firmware revision #: 1232.5951.1249.1001
• Hardware revision #: 1.0.0.0
• Radio software version: 1.0.202075.3
• Chip SOC version: 8960

Endless phone calls to the Net10 customer support produced no results.
What could be done?

 

[wmgreenjr]

I thought the Nokia Lumia 810 was the T-Mobile version but not sure if that matters any. I have the 820 on ATT with the same version info as you and I am getting LTE most of the time in my area. I am not sure if there are any limits to taking the 820 to T-Mobile (I assume not but maybe an expert can confirm) but if you were using ATT towers before and now are on T-Mobile towers, I would suggest you go to the T-Mobile website and confirm your area actually has T-Mobile 4G (either their partial 4G version of it or their full implementation of it) before worrying if it is a phone issue or not.

Not much help there but maybe an expert will chime in...but reply back with if you have confirmed T-Mobile is 4G in your area so they can help more. Good luck
Edit: Link to tmobile map to confirm: Unsupported Browser <--the link works - not sure what the issue is with posting links

Edit#2: Well this article states that the 810 is the only device that will get LTE at this time: Nokia Lumia 810 to be the only T-Mobile Windows Phone with LTE (sorry Windows Phone 8X buyers) | Windows Phone Daily
You may want to subscribe to this guy's thread to see the response he gets on the 8X...may be the same situation with using an 820 instead of their 810: http://forums.windowscentral.com/htc-8x/221541-so-i-emailed-tmobile-ceo-regarding-8x-lte.html
Not sure how this affects HSPA+, etc.... on T-Mobile either. Again hopefully experts will chime in.

Also, ask T-Moblie what frequeny you need for 3G/4G data in your area. The 820 does not have: WCDMA Band IV (1700) which the 810 does have, so maybe that is the issue?

 

[Yitzhak Khabinsky]

The T-Mobile map shows that 3G/4G smartphone signal strength is Excellent and Very Strong in my area.

Chat with T-Mobile support produced the following revelation:
"...Jeremiah L: Non-T-Mobile phones without the AWS 1700/2100 band will not work on T-Mobile's 3G / 4G network due to band limitations. In order to connect with the 3G / 4G network, a device needs to use both of the AWS 1700/2100 bands (not just one or the other)..."

 

[wmgreenjr]

Sorry for the bad news then Well maybe whoever you bought it from will take a return and you can get an 810 instead. If not, then I am sure you can sell the 820 on ebay since it is unlocked and you should not lose much if any money. That's assuming you want to stay with Net10 after all of this. Good luck

 

[Yitzhak Khabinsky]

Is it possible that the upcoming 1232.5957.1308.0001 firmware update will make the AWS 1700/2100 band open/available and, by doing that, T-Mobile compatible for Lumia 820 phones?
The idea here is that the Lumia 820 hardware could support AWS WCDMA, but that was locked out in firmware

 

[wmgreenjr]

Just a heads up that there are a few messages here today stating that the 810 will not be able to do LTE just in case you were thinking of going with that option. Not sure about your firmware question though...just wanted to update you on the 810 since it seems like things have changed.