I wish they did this at first. I'm stuck on AT&T and bought the Nexus One when it came out. I couldn't handle Edge though, and got rid of it. My wife will kill me if I buy the same phone twice in a few months!
So my question is, what sort of data plan does AT&T force you to buy in order to use this? AT&T's data plans are so confusing right now. There is a $30 "unlimited data and texting plan", but then there is a $50 version that is "unlimited data and texting for smartphones", etc.
It almost seems like a better deal to just get an iPod Touch with skype and google voice and carry around something like Verizon's MiFi.
Or buy a Nexus One and just don't put a simcard in it, and use a mifi for sharing a data connection... or just get a data plan from tmobile cheaper than what att and verizon charge....
Ugh...I just bought my Nexus One too. Upgraded from an iPhone, so I'm still on AT&T right now. Would be nice if they could make one phone for both providers, but I'm sure that's more complex than I realize or understand.
Still, I'm moving to T-Mobile because I'm in a major city, so coverage is good, I'll have GSM for international travel, and AT&T is a roaming partner, so I can use them as a backup for free. All that and it's $30 per month cheaper. Hell yeah!
They use different bands for their 3G service, that's why they aren't in the same phone. I'm looking forward to when there is a chip that supports both so that we can get a GSM phone that supports any 3G service (or at least the common North American and European ones). Anyone have any idea when/if such a chip is coming out?
[IIRC, Rogers (Canada) and AT&T (USA) use a non-standard frequency for 3G service, but T-Mobile (USA) and WIND Mobile (Canada) use the same 'standard' frequencies that are used in Europe.]
The way it's been worded by others, it sounds like it's just a matter of tuning the radio to another frequency. Is the underlying protocol still the same between these providers since it's all just GSM?
GSM and CDMA are separate from 3G. That's why either of the GSM models of the NexusOne will work on any GSM network and will work with Edge on any network. It's 3G that's different between these networks.
Also of note, is that most of these chips target a specific frequency (or frequencies). They are not software programmable radios. I imagine that the underlying protocol possibly differs between the different 3G bands (otherwise I would expect that someone would have created a chip that supports all of the common bands by now).
1. If I currently have an iPhone 3GS on AT&T, will the Nexus One work with my existing data plan? I'd like to use both phones, at least at first, but I don't want two data plans.
2. Does the Nexus One support tethering on AT&T? Presumably it would if it supports it on other networks and is simply an unlocked device, since there's no carrier involvement. Right?
the more i think about this model, the more it makes sense to me.
eventually google can start to leverage their phones sales and can negotiate service contract prices if more device manufacturers sign up to sell their phones thru google.
That will be soon, and then we should see some very exciting things. Given the way the Droid has sold I expect the Verizon edition of the N1 to do pretty well, even without much marketing from Google.
Nope. That's only T-Mobile. If you buy the Nexus One, you're best to also pick up the next iPhone at $200 and sell it for $700, to make up for the extra 20 bucks a month you'll be paying for the next two years.
