Maximum PC

Is WCDMA 2100Mhz band faster than the 1900Mhz 3g wireless band?

As to the frequency or frequencies (2100 vs. 1900 MHz) there should not be any difference. However, from what I have read the posted (estimated speeds) will vary greatly based on how bust a tower is and distance from a tower.

I use 3G on my laptop and my cell phone (Blackberry Storm) under the Verizon network. About once a year I spend several days at a Day's Inn hotel in a place called Flatwoods, West Virginia. The hotel sits just about directly under a Verizon tower. There have been times I used 3G rather than the hotel Internet connection. I always have gotten great up and down speed.

I did notice as I move away from the hotel (tower site) and back into the mountains that even with a good line of site to the tower as my signal level drops things really slow down. Not like I ran speed test but just an observation.

In conclusion for what it's worth I just assumed the key players in speed were distance from the tower (signal strength) and how busy any given tower was at any given time. I also noticed the laptop using an external 3G card fared better than the phone as I moved further away from the tower.

Also, I have heard some carriers use one frequency (band) for upload and another frequency (band) for download so we could see 2100 MHz. Down and for example 1900 MHz. Up.

Overall that was just my limited experience with things.

Additionally this thread may get better response in another section so maybe we should see about moving it.

Ron

Moved here for better target audience.

But one is 2g and the other is 3g, right? There shouldn't be a difference though?

WCDMA 2100Mhz is the European, Mid-East, and Asian 3G band, where 1900Mhz is the North/South American 3G band. Here's a Wiki that will help you understand.

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

Frequency bands deployment

* Band I (W-CDMA 2100) in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand (ITU Region 1) and Brazil (part of ITU Region 2)
* Band II (W-CDMA 1900) in North America and South America (ITU Region 2)
* Band IV (W-CDMA 1700 or Advanced Wireless Services) in the United States (T-Mobile USA) and soon will be offered in Canada
* Band V (W-CDMA 850) in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, the USA, Venezuela, other parts of South America, Israel[1], parts of Asia (ITU Region 2 and ITU Region 3)
* Band VIII (W-CDMA 900) in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand (ITU Region 1 and ITU Region 3), and Venezuela (Corporación Digitel, C.A.)

2G = 2nd Generation & 3G = 3rd Generation. The "G" is for Generation not speed.

Ron

Actually with each generation came bandwidth (speed) increases.

• General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) offered speeds up to 114 Kbps. (2G)

• Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) reached up to 384 Kbps. (2.5G)

• UMTS Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) offered downlink speeds up to 1.92 Mbps. (3G)

• High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) boosted the downlink to 14Mbps. (3.5G)

Both frequencies are 3G or 3.5G bands. I've owned phones that work on either frequency and I saw no difference in speeds

ok. it all makes sense now. Thanks a lot!