US 4G/5G LTE support

[rocket2nfinity]

I've been talking with Quectel's  engineers about the possibility of swapping the EC25-G module with the EC25-AF that has all the bands for US 4G+ LTE on AT&T and T-Mobile and their related MVNOs.

They tell me that electrically, it's possible - the modules are compatible, and the antennas would likely not need to be changed. However, getting the EC-25-G module off the board would be difficult. It requires unsoldering the pins and heating the module to soften the solder underneath. The module will not survive the disassembly. But cleaning the pads and putting the EC25-AF should be straight forward. The module has it's software and IMEI and serial# loaded to the module but would require registering it if it hasn't been done already (I have a registered module sitting on my desk).

Before I consider risking doing this,  I'd like to know the possibility of Pine doing a batch of PinePhones for the North American market next year. How hard would it be to portion a subset of the next batch with the EC25-AF  module?

[Neat]

The current chip works with the North American LTE bands already: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePh...ifications

Unless you specifically mean LTE+ and 5G versus just LTE.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rocket2nfinity]

The current chip works with the North American LTE bands already: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePh...ifications

Unless you specifically mean LTE+ and 5G versus just LTE.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I mean specifically band 66 and 71

[tllim]

The current chip works with the North American LTE bands already: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePh...ifications

Unless you specifically mean LTE+ and 5G versus just LTE.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I mean specifically band 66 and 71

There is no plan to release PinePhone with EC25-AF module until market call for such request. Please note that EC25 and EG25 will not exactly drop in replacement.

[bcnaz]

There is no plan to release PinePhone with EC25-AF module  until  "market call"  for such request.

 IF  ..  there is even a slight chance of different hardware to be offered in later versions of the Pine phone.

    "  Maybe a Poll asking for options available in some future Pine phones  "   ?

  A slightly more "North American optimized"  modem would be nice !

  Also,   Any  "Possibility"  of being able to use the GPS independent of the Cell modem...  ( ? )

            Thank You  !

---

Even if it cost extra for the option, It would be worth it..!

[rocket2nfinity]

The current chip works with the North American LTE bands already: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePh...ifications

Unless you specifically mean LTE+ and 5G versus just LTE.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I mean specifically band 66 and 71

There is no plan to release PinePhone with EC25-AF module until market call for such request. Please note that EC25 and EG25 will not exactly drop in replacement.

My thinking is that it will be more likely for you to sell more phones in the North American market if it has the EC25-AF chip in it. You will be one of the only phones, and the cheapest that is 5G ready (using the existing 5G network not the millimeter wave proposed). That, along with how open the phone is for hacking, could make this one hot item especially to the Xda-Developers community. I know Android hasn't been ported to the phone, but it's bound to happen in addition to the other OSes currently being ported. Something to consider for the future maybe.

The EG 25-G spec sheet says - "EG25-G is pin-compatible with Quectel's best-selling EC2X family, allowing flexible migration." So, unless I'm missing something, it should be a one for one swap, no circuit board modification necessary

[tllim]

The current chip works with the North American LTE bands already: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePh...ifications

Unless you specifically mean LTE+ and 5G versus just LTE.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I mean specifically band 66 and 71

There is no plan to release PinePhone with EC25-AF module until market call for such request. Please note that EC25 and EG25 will not exactly drop in replacement.

My thinking is that it will be more likely for you to sell more phones in the North American market if it has the EC25-AF chip in it. You will be one of the only phones, and the cheapest that is 5G ready (using the existing 5G network not the millimeter wave proposed). That, along with how open the phone is for hacking, could make this one hot item especially to the Xda-Developers community. I know Android hasn't been ported to the phone, but it's bound to happen in addition to the other OSes currently being ported. Something to consider for the future maybe.

The EG 25-G spec sheet says - "EG25-G is pin-compatible with Quectel's best-selling EC2X family, allowing flexible migration." So, unless I'm missing something, it should be a one for one swap, no circuit board modification necessary

How EC25-AF can be 5G ready? on which band? Please note the band 71 considers as a T-Mobile "closed" band, your phone needs to be whitelisted in oder to use this band, this is what I understand.

[tllim]

There is no plan to release PinePhone with EC25-AF module  until  "market call"  for such request.

 IF  ..  there is even a slight chance of different hardware to be offered in later versions of the Pine phone.

    "  Maybe a Poll asking for options available in some future Pine phones  "   ?

  A slightly more "North American optimized"  modem would be nice !

  Also,   Any  "Possibility"  of being able to use the GPS independent of the Cell modem...  ( ? )

            Thank You  !

---

Even if it cost extra for the option,  It would be worth it..!

There is no plan to support another PinePhone SKU, this means no plan using independent GPS module.

[rocket2nfinity]

The current chip works with the North American LTE bands already: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePh...ifications

Unless you specifically mean LTE+ and 5G versus just LTE.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I mean specifically band 66 and 71

There is no plan to release PinePhone with EC25-AF module until market call for such request. Please note that EC25 and EG25 will not exactly drop in replacement.

My thinking is that it will be more likely for you to sell more phones in the North American market if it has the EC25-AF chip in it. You will be one of the only phones, and the cheapest that is 5G ready (using the existing 5G network not the millimeter wave proposed). That, along with how open the phone is for hacking, could make this one hot item especially to the Xda-Developers community. I know Android hasn't been ported to the phone, but it's bound to happen in addition to the other OSes currently being ported. Something to consider for the future maybe.

The EG 25-G spec sheet says - "EG25-G is pin-compatible with Quectel's best-selling EC2X family, allowing flexible migration." So, unless I'm missing something, it should be a one for one swap, no circuit board modification necessary

How EC25-AF can be 5G ready? on which band? Please note the band 71 considers as a T-Mobile "closed" band, your phone needs to be whitelisted in oder to use this band, this is what I understand.

Two things make a modem 5G capable - the frequency bands and the way the modem accesses them. AT&T is using 850Mhz to start for theirs and standard LTE as the method (they call it 5G E) T-Mobile is using 600Mhz, augmented by 700 MHz, and 2500 MHz if their merger with Sprint happens also starting with LTE-A. The Quectel modems are capable of the base 5G standard (LTE). So, although not really any faster, technically it can be called 5G. I need to read the spec sheets more to see if their modem is capable of the follow on 5GNR standard and I'll probably have to discuss it with their engineers. Or you can. I'll gladly relay who I've been talking to at Quectel if it will help get the ball rolling on maybe using their EC25-AF or another North American optimized modem in a run of PinePhones.

Here's some technical data on the 5G standards

https://www.t-mobile.com/news/americas-f...5g-network

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_5G_NR_networks

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G_NR

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G

The first article from T-mobile says they will let anyone with a 5G capable modern on their Network - which is band 71. So I don't know anything about it being closed or having to register your device specially with them to gain access. But then I haven't talked to T-mobile about it. You obviously have so you must know more about that then me.

---

Or maybe see if their RG500Q is pin compatible https://www.quectel.com/product/rg500q.htm Or one of the higher bandwidth LTE-A modems, if what I'm reading here is coorect - that at&t and T-Mobile don't intend to use anything other than standard LTE or LTE-A on their 600 and 700 MHz spectrum for now. But if they require device whitelisting ... That would be wasted money if they won't whitelist Pinephone

[evilbunny]

How EC25-AF can be 5G ready? on which band?

Maybe they're talking about AT&T pushing phone makers to show 5Ge (evolution) but it's really just LTE...