Pyra phone module for US market - GSM or CDMA or both?

[levi]

Right, and the modules being looked at for the Pyra are unlikely to have CDMA built in. I suppose some world phones used to have both TDMA and CDMA (and GPRS) built in, but I've not seen phones touting that since the advent of WCDMA 3G, though that could just be because marketing phones based on old 2G technologies gets you pretty much nada.

 

[deadofmind]

So then this begs the question, exactly what carriers will the Pyra support in the USA?

 

[WizardStan]

exactly what carriers will the Pyra support in the USA?

Any carrier that uses the 850 or 1900 band (GSM and UMTS). CDMA is completely out.If he goes with the "world" version then we'd also have access to the 800, 900, 1800, and 1900/2100 bands, but to the best of my knowledge no one in North America uses those.

I'm just going through the list on wikipedia and checking each one that has a link for matching frequencies. This is not an exhaustive list, a lot of companies don't have their bands listed.

AT&T, Iowa Wireless, Indigo (2G only), T-Mobile (2G definitely, with some places that may have 1900Mhz UMTS support), and West Central Wireless (2D definitely, and HSPA I think)

So AT&T is the only major provider that would be fully supported, with T-Mobile being kind of supported, and probably a bunch more lesser companies than I've found.

 

[Grench]

Since this module is on the peripheral board - and it's clear that there will be several types of peripheral board...

Do they need two types of peripheral boards (based on phone module) for sale to support the US market?  Would they communicate back to the SoC just like the Euro version or would there need to be additional software support figured out?

Verizon Wireless, Sprint and US Cellular are all CDMA2000 and are ~160 million of the US market.

AT&T and T-mobile are GSM/UTMS and are ~ 156 million of the US market.

The rest of the companies appear to be sub 1 million in subscribers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_wireless_communications_service_providers

I was actually kind of shocked to see that CDMA2000 is more prevalent than GSM - not by much and probably depends on who is measuring it.

So - can two versions of the peripheral board be made for the US market to cover the GSM and CDMA sides of our coin?

 

[hipnotoad]

In the US there is also straight talk, which pulls from AT&T's nationwide GSM network. Unlimited data at only $49/month.

 

[WizardStan]

Since this module is on the peripheral board

Is it? Can you quote that for me? I've been bugging ED for this information for quite a while now without any notice.

 

[Grench]

Since this module is on the peripheral board

Is it? Can you quote that for me? I've been bugging ED for this information for quite a while now without any notice.

Here:  http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/15682-a-physical-dummy-power-usage-and-mipi/?p=315668

I believe that is the 3G antenna on the bottom left corner of the Dummy peripheral board.

Someone is bound to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Natsu]

So - can two versions of the peripheral board be made for the US market to cover the GSM and CDMA sides of our coin?

Defeats the purpose of just trying to use one chip for 3G. Might as well use 4G. (I know. Broken record.)Besides, the PXS8 seems to cover both.

Actually, PLS8 (4G) doesn't cover CDMA. Is CDMA dying out or has it just not caught up yet?

 

[WizardStan]

Is CDMA dying out or has it just not caught up yet?

Dying out. It was only ever majorly used in North America. The "4G" equivalent of CDMA2000 was supposed to be something called UMB but apparently that was dropped years ago and everyone is switching to LTE. The only reason to want CDMA now is legacy, regions that haven't been updated yet (of which there are probably still a lot)

I believe that is the 3G antenna on the bottom left corner of the Dummy peripheral board.

Yes, I think you're right. Googling some of the numbers and "antanova" makes it out to be the penta band SMD antenna.Interesting point though: EvilDragon has said one of the reasons he doesn't want to offer 4G alongside the 3G is that it would require a completely different antenna, but according to the specs on this A10340 antenna it fully supports all the PLS8-P bands, so that isn't actually a problem at all, it just needs some tuning.

 

[Grench]

My Samsung Galaxy Note II through US Cellular runs on their 4G LTE network - but falls back on the CDMA2000 network in areas where the 4G LTE isn't available.

So - the question is - if the Pyra were to have a 4G option, would we all be able to use it regardless of country or carrier so long as they're using 4G LTE?

The big question is - if you're roaming through a non 4G world, what is it going to fall back to?

 

[Natsu]

My Samsung Galaxy Note II through US Cellular runs on their 4G LTE network - but falls back on the CDMA2000 network in areas where the 4G LTE isn't available.


So - the question is - if the Pyra were to have a 4G option, would we all be able to use it regardless of country or carrier so long as they're using 4G LTE?


The big question is - if you're roaming through a non 4G world, what is it going to fall back to?

No, there are two different chips, PLS8-E and PLS8-US. Unless it can fit both and you are willing to buy it.

Which I doubt it. 


Reading about the chip, it's probably going to fall back to 3G. Then again, I'm not sure how they are switching from CDMA2000 to 4G LTE and back.

 

[Grench]

Here's a condensed high level article on the whole mess:

http://geekbeat.tv/a-guide-to-cellular-radios/

In that theory, some day LTE will be the 'standard'.  In the meantime it's a patchwork mess.

So - when the Pyra comes out I'm likely going to need to switch carriers.

 

[WizardStan]

No, there are two different chips, PLS8-E and PLS8-US.

There is also the PLS8-K which is Japanese and the PLS8-P which is worldwide.It would be redundant to put both the -E and the -US in when he can just stick the -P in for about 5EUR more.

edit: wait, no, I confused myself. The PHS8 has the Japanese and world chips. Doesn't look like the PLS8 comes in -P variety, it would need to be -E or -US, you're right.