A sad day - I've returned my BB Torch
 

It's a sad day for me as I have just returned my Blackberry Torch. When I got my Torch I was so excited by its WOW factor but as time went on I became increasingly frustrated with silly little things like emails from the day before suddenly appearing among today’s list, no 3G service, and a number of other small frustrating factors like that.

Considering I had paid far more than the market price for the phone (I bought it on eBay) these niggling little glitches only felt that much worse so I eventually caved and told the seller that I wanted to work something out because his listing stated that everything including the 3G would work without problem on any network - that's before I read on here that there is no way in hell that it could ever work. Eventually PayPal ruled that his listing was inaccurate and granted my FULL refund...

So now I am looking for a new phone and may consider a reasonably priced Torch (which is what I tried to work out with the original seller) considering I won’t get the 3G and will still have the glitches.

Anyone looking to sell their Blackberry? Must be working correctly and in like new condition (or very near it - one or two *minor* scratches are ok).

why won't you get 3G?

Because the AT&T Torch won't work on the OP's 3G network of T-mobile. Different frequencies.

As I found out on BBF the frequency used by AT&T is different than T-Mobiles (my provider); each provider uses their own band I guess.

All that said, I am far from an expert on this matter so please do your research, though I would suspect that the 3G service on say a Storm II from Verizon would also not work on the T-Mobile network... can someone with the knowledge confirm/dispel this statement.

A 9530/9550 will use EDGE only as it doesn't have the appropriate 3G freqs for either ATT or TMO.

Thnx Dubdub, that's what I was expecting; so to the get the 3G service you must get a phone built for your provider.

Basically, yes. CDMA devices won't work with GSM carriers and vice versa. But, you cannot use a Verizon device on Sprint and vice versa because, even though it is the same technology, the carriers will only allow their phones on their network. And all GSM flavors aren't the same either, i.e., Rogers and ATT use the same frequencies.

But IMHO, it is always best to go with a device that your carrier sells and supports, because if you need tech support, that can generally help.

Sorta correct. AT&T and most of the Canadian and European carriers share the same 3G bands, TmobileUSA does not.

If you have WiFi in most of the places you use the device (home and office) you may rarely miss the 3G. But if you travel a lot or drive about town a lot, you will definately miss 3G.

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Atnt, Rogers group (chatr, fido), Bell/Telus group (solo, virgin, koodo) uses 850 and 1900

Europe and most places uses 900/1800/2100

Tmobile, Wind, Videotron uses 1700

That all for 3g, 2g edge take the same most place.

As for the cdma carrier 'world phone' they uses the carrier cdma bands + a 2nd radio for edge connection everywhere else

So a phone with 3G service in the US wont have 3G service in say the UK?

In many cases if the phone has a capability you can contact your phone supplier and pay extra to get 3G service in another country. If you do not make arrangements in advance with the phone supplier then either you will not have internet service or it will cost you a firtune.

If you have Verizon they have a very affordable package for many countries.

It will work in the UK if it's 3G radio covers the UK 3G band. I'm using an AT&T Torch on T-Mobile UK and 3G works fine. The Torch can use bands 1,2,5 and 6, the UK uses band 1. T-Mobile US uses band 4, that's why it doesn't work for the OP.