BGR Breaks It Down: Why a BlackBerry's 3G bands are no longer relevant

By on Feb 2, 2010 at 1:55 PM
Featured February 2, 2010

blackberry-bold-9700-front

It seems that every BlackBerry-lover on the Internets is making a big deal over this AWS spectrum-equipped BlackBerry 9100, and while it’s great to have confirmation that the unit is hitting T-Mobile (and maybe even visiting our Canadian friends at WIND, too), all in all, it doesn’t really mean much. Here’s why:

Enter the BlackBerry 9700. RIM has done something incredibly smart. They’ve been using identical hardware for every single BlackBerry 9700, regardless of the carrier it is intended for. Let’s revisit that… RIM has used the same exact hardware for AT&T, T-Mobile, Vodafone, WIND, Rogers, TIM — whatever. How could this be, you’re asking? The chip RIM uses in these units supports practically every 3G band out there, and so do the antennas. What controls the hardware is the vendor/branding of the device. This enables RIM to produce one set of hardware, and brilliantly change the software to enable the 3G bands they desire. This keeps manufacturing costs lower as they only have to manufacture one single piece of the puzzle as opposed to two completely different ones, and this also will apply in theory to 3G devices going forward.

That means that BlackBerry 9100 you see with AWS bands will be able to be flashed with AT&T branding (by RIM, not by you), thus enabling 850/1900/2100MHz 3G bands without any effort. While this won’t necessarily speed up the release of these new smartphones on every carrier (they still have exclusivity agreements), you can at least rest assured that any model 3G BlackBerry from now on, will in theory support your local 3G bands, even if it doesn’t support your local 3G bands.

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  • danage420

    wow reviewed the manual this is total bs!

    • Kyle

      This is absolutely wrong!! Research prior to a statement such as this is probably in your best interest if you want to become a reputable tech site. Branding a device DOES NOT allow for use across multiple carriers and therefore antennas (i.e, branding a Tmo BB to ATT will not work).

      • Ryan

        Yes, it’s completely correct. The RIM Blackberry units all have the same Radios and Amplifiers, meaning they can use just about any 3G band. RIM locks down the bands available to the end-user by flashing a branding on the phone per-carrier. So if RIM decides to flash their AT&T branding on a T-Mobile phone, it will unlock T-Mobiles 3G band, subsequently locking AT&Ts. Look at the Branding in this case as a special type of low-level firmware that unlocks certain parts of the hardware, instead of a brand NAME. I believe you have the definition of branding mixed up here. Branding ( AT&T, T-Mobile) is different from Branding (3G Bands 1,2,3 etc…). RIM has their own slight definition of branding.

      • RD

        Where is your proof of this? This article has NO sources, so don’t point to the article.

      • Ryan

        It’s common knowledge among the RIM community how that works. Each carrier has it’s own branding number, like AT&T = 102, RIM=1, etc… When a branding is flashed to the board, it will activate the proper duplexer and amplifier for that carrier’s frequencies. It cuts down costs greatly for RIM as they only have to produce one set of hardware for each model, and flash the carrier branding on it so they can be used only on that carrier’s 3G band. Technically speaking, most modern Blackberrys can be used on every 3G band. Does that make sense?

  • badonkadonk

    I like how this article is totally BS but BGR still has it as a featured article…

    The version of the 9700 supporting bands 1/4/8 and the version supporting bands 1/2/5 are physically different devices with different components on the 3G front-end, and likely the antenna (as one would be tuned around 1700 whereas the other would be around 1800) – slightly different but enough so that if you “flashed” the wrong firmware on the device you’d get shit-all in terms of 3G performance because the front-end components would be filtering out the uplink RF from the band you’re trying to transmit on.

    RIM is smart in that they’ve built one device with two SKUs that covers two tri-band 3G configs, and props to them for that. I’m sure in the next few years you’ll see them (and other OEMs) providing quad-band and penta-band 3G devices that will indeed have “global” coverage with a single SKU, but for now these phones won’t do that, regardless of what software you put on them.

    Go back to doing what you do best – leaking future roadmaps of companies products, and stay out of the areas you clearly don’t understand.

  • StevenGlansburg

    the iphone is not coming to verizon btw

  • cobalt

    I guess this one needs a lift..

    cobalt drill bits

  • Crunch

    It certainly would make sense to me. Now we gotta find someone who’ll hack our phones. Let’s start with the HTC HD2 for AT&T’s 3G lol…(drewl)

  • RD

    Why is this article still here? This is complete BS.

  • alex

    How can i enable my T-Mobile 9700 BB to work on the AT&T bands ???

    • Orlando

      with Shrik a os…. I guess

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