[Xperia Arc Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] danfoss5000:
Hello

I purchased this SonyEricsson Arc S on eBay. The seller was in Hong Kong.

On the ebay listing it states that the phone uses the following frequencies:

• 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

• 3G Network HSDPA 2100

I can get service in Perth, Western Australia but I work up near Karratha in the NorthWest part of the state. I lose service as soon as I get off the plane in Karratha.

I went to the Sony forum and they suggested that it may be a hardware fault so I sent the phone back to the seller and he sent it back to China and then back to me but it has made no difference to the problem.

I found an article on the web that says that the Telstra Next G works on the UMTS 850 network. Is it possible to upgrade the firmware on the phone to make it use the UMTS 850 network (the eBay listing says it uses the 3G Network HSDPA 2100).

Can anyone provide any other advice that may help me to determine what the problem may be with the phone and why I can’t get reception up here? Thanks

Daniel

I found an article (see below).

Looks like Telstra Next G used on remote areas uses UMTS 850.

Mine has:

• 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

• 3G Network HSDPA 2100

That would explain why I have reception in Perth (Telstra also uses GSM900 and GSM1800 to cover 96% of the population), but to cover 99% of the population (up here around Karratha) I need UMTS 850.

"Global System for Mobile - GSM

GSM 850 = Will not work in Australia as there is no GSM 850 network

GSM 900 = Standard for Optus, vodafone and Telstra GSM handsets

GSM 1800 = Standard for Optus, vodafone and Telstra GSM handsets

GSM 1900 = Will not work in Australia as there is no GSM 1900 network

In terms of GSM 900 networks:

Telstra provides 96% population coverage

Optus provides 96.5% population coverage

Vodafone provides 94.5% population coverage (this is extended to 96% population coverage via Telstra GSM national Roaming Agreement in regional Tasmainia and regional Victoria)

Technically Three (3) also provide 96% population coverage via Telstra GSM national Roaming Agreement, how? several GSM 900/1800 handsets do accept the Three (3) SIM card for service provision, also if you have a 3G handset (UMTS2100/GSM900/1800) you can set the network settings to GSM only and thus get Telstra GSM coverage.

Wideband Code Division Multiple Access - WCDMA (a.k.a 3G UMTS and 3G HSDPA)

Due to Telstra irresponsibility in naming their own outright 3G network NextG they have indeed confused the entire market place (not to worry Optus are not far behind with yesG and i cant wait to see what Vodafone call their extended regional 3G network)

Ok lets take a look at 3G.

Telstra 3G = UMTS 2100 which provides 60% population coverage

Optus 3G = UMTS 2100 which provides 80% population coverage

Vodafone 3G = UMTS 2100 which provides 60% population coverage

Three (3) 3G = UMTS 2100 which provides 60% population coverage

now the hard part:

Telstra NextG = UMTS 850 which provides 99% population coverage

Optus yesG = UMTS 900 which extends the current Optus 3G UMTS 2100 population coverage from 80% to 96% population coverage (an increase of 16%) Optus will eventully drop the brand name Optus 3G and use the brand name Optus yesG once their entire population footprint reaches 98.2% (which will be around july 2010 at current rate)

Vodafone?

The new regional UMTS 900 network was supposed to be up and running this month (January 2009), however they announced in october 2008 that the network builder Ericsson was taking time to get it bug free so their new regional extension network will probaly come online sometime around June or July 2009, which will extend their current 3G population coverage (which is UMTS 2100) to 95%.

Ok now that all that BS is out of the way to answer the question:

In the USA only one major provider has UMTS 850, and that provider is AT&T (used to be known as Cingular).

In Canada the big UMTS 850 provider is Rodges Mobile.

So essentailly a 3G UMTS 850 handset from those two providers will work here (provided they are unlocked)

Or the other way round is when buying from the USA simply ask, what network band they use for 3G.

If its UMTS 1800, nope wont work here

if its GSM 850, again wont work here

If its GSM 1900 again wont work here

If its CDMA 800 or CDMA 1900, again wont work here

So what your looking for is UMTS 850.

Also you wont find any UMTS 900 handsets in USA and Canada as they dont use UMTS 900 there."