Due to government regulations, the scarce availability of radio spectrum, and carrier business choices, modern mobile devices need to support a number of radio frequencies. A given carrier, such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and others, often has multiple radio bands operating in their network, and different services can be available on different bands within the same network. The ideal mobile device would support all radio frequencies possible at the same time, but due to chipset and antenna limitations, this is currently not possible. Therefore, a given version of hardware typically does not support all services on all networks.
In addition, network technologies evolve through generations, such as “2G”, “3G” and “4G”. Each generation brings a new set of capabilities, such as faster data rates, and requires the deployment of new network equipment to support those services. Therefore, a given frequency band may be used for one or more of the services.
Most premium mobile phones on the market today, including all Dell phones, support four frequency bands for 2G – 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. This provides nearly global coverage. Japan and Korea are notable exceptions as they don’t have 2G GSM networks. For 3G, 2100 MHz is nearly globally accepted except for the U.S. 3G in the U.S. is divided by carrier (ATT – 850/1900 MHz, T-Mobile – 1700 MHz). In some countries additional frequencies are available to improve network capacity.
Let’s take the Dell Venue Smartphone as a specific example. Venue has two base product versions from the frequency band support perspective:
1.Version One has the following:
- 2G support: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (GSM/GPRS/EDGE)
- 3G support (WCDMA): 850/1900/2100
- This version supports quad-band 2G and 2100 3G, therefore it has largely global capability in either 2G or 3G. It also supports the 850/1900 MHZ bands required by AT&T in the US. This version would be recommended for consumers with AT&T service.
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2.Version Two has the following:
- 2G support: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (GSM/GPRS/EDGE)
- 3G support (WCDMA): 900/1700/2100 (1700 is also known as the AWS band)
- This version also supports quad-band 2G and 2100 3G, therefore it has largely global capability in either 2G or 3G. It also supports the 1700 MHZ bands required by T-Mobile in the US. This version would be recommended for consumers with T-Mobile service.
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Note: The specific services any user gets with these devices will depend on their service plan and the network capabilities in each country. Users must contact their carrier to be certain precisely what frequency bands are used for a given country and carrier. Verizon, Sprint, and others use a different set of 2G/3G radio technologies than those for AT&T, T-Mobile, and most of the rest of the world. These are not covered here.
