Latest Android news, applications and forum discussion

Send Us Tips!

Dec

6

2010

Will the Nexus S be 2G only on AT&T?

11

by Tyler Cunningham
tagged , , , , ,

Now that the Nexus S has formally been announced, we are being flooded with information about specs, features, early reviews, and so on. One concern that has been raised is that the Nexus S will only be able to run on AT&T’s 2G (EDGE) network. According to a tweet by @tnkgrl, the Nexus S will be 2G only on AT&T, and that the tri-band 3G is 2100/900 for Europe and AWS 1700 for T-Mobile in the US.

John Gruber from DaringFireball.net has also picked up on this, so take it for what it’s worth. We’re going to do a bit more digging around, so stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

[via Twitter, Daring Fireball]

» See more articles by Tyler Cunningham

Categorized as Android Carriers, Android Leaks & Rumours, Android Phones

Comments

  • Iain John Morrison

    First of all Gruber is whiner – If he doesn’t have an Apple product to evangelize, he’s complaining about competing technologies.

    And Second – if AT&T officially have the worst 3G network in the US [According to Consumer Reports], why complain? 3G on AT&T doesn’t work. Ask any iPhone or iPad user….

  • Joseph

    What’s the point of having an unlocked phone if there’s only one choice of providers?

  • Ivan
  • AJ

    A majority of the time the 3g speeds on my iPhone were as fast if not faster than my friends smartphones that have Sprint or verizon. usually around 1.2 mbps download, but lowest around 800kbps . According to the speedtest.net app which we used to determine superiority :) Anyways, I switched to Sprint just to get the HTC Evo 4G and the only thing I regret, since I live in a 4g area, is the speed of my 3g network. Which is rarely over 1mbps download. Oh yea, talk and surf without 4g or wifi would be nice too.

  • Vanessa

    AT&T does not have the fastest mobile broadband network anymore. All three of the other major carriers surpass it. AT&T’s 3G network is the fastest, yes, but coverage is crap outside of major cities. The other carriers have some sort of 4G or pseudo-4G network that surpasses the speeds of 3G. AT&T’s network maxes out at 7.2 Mbps down. Sprint and T-Mobile’s 4G networks max out around 14.4 Mbps down in real life, with theoretical peaks up to 21 Mbps down. Verizon’s newly launched 4G network can actually get close to 20 Mbps down in real life and early tests showed in is theoretically capable of going over 50 Mbps down. Fastest mobile broadband network? I think not!

  • rick

    Where is the data for those numbers? I have sprint and t-mobile both, living in a 4g city and those are speeds I’ve never experienced. As for Verizon. Their 3g is slow. And until I experience their 4g, those numbers are all theoretical.

  • AJ

    Yea I thought that was BS too. LTE will be just as fast as wimax when it comes out how much u wanna bet? Well see I guess. My 4g peeks at 7.5 mbps which is fast enough for me, but of course I would want faster speeds. Makes wifi tethering way better but all that data trafficking would surely destroy my battery life. A little off subject, it would be so great to have a smartphone that can handle high volumes of data and can multitask for… hours without a single lag. A better quality camera and camcorder, and a ridiculously high resolution screen and battery life comparable to a car battery lol All this but no bigger than my Evo. It would just be ridiculous after that. So are my specs I know but ah, wouldnt that be wonderful! Haha I just had to throw in that ” never gonna happen” idea.

  • Vanessa

    All data is taken from claims made from their respective carriers. Sprint’s WiMax averages 3-6 Mbps down, but can go up to 14.4 Mbps down. T-Mobile is similar. Verizon’s LTE averages 5-12 Mbps down. And LTE has been out since November already.

  • flav

    lte and wimax is buch of bs they advertise but they dont have the speed its all made up do your reasherch its dosent have the speed they proclaim

  • Matt

    Here are the Nexus S specs for GSM and 3G…
    * Quad-band GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900
    * Tri-band HSPA: 900, 2100, 1700
    * HSPA type: HSDPA (7.2Mbps) HSUPA (5.76Mbps)

    They are the same as the Samsung Vibrant, which is officially supported on Simple Mobile. I just spoke to a CSR for SM and she confirmed SM operates on 1900 and 3G on 1700.

    So if I buy the unlocked version in the US, I should be able to buy a Simple Mobile sim card and use the Nexus S on Simple Mobile? Right?

  • John Black

    The 1900 mhz band is used on major networks throughout the world such as Rogers, o2, Orange, and Softbank. The 1700 mhz band is an odd ball. In my area, southern Oklahoma, AT&T is by far the best carrier. (Not true, US Cellular is, but I can’t live on a 5 gigabyte cap and their sub-par phones that they will only allow to run on their CDMA network) T-Mobile has coverage in only 3 cities whilst AT&T’s 3G coverage includes most of the state. And it’s brilliant. I get speeds approaching 5 mb/s down.