Nexus S 3G Frequency Foil
by Noah Bloom Posted in Canada, Gadgets, Mobile, ReviewsGoogle has done it again. This time with Samsung (previously HTC), they’ve release the hottest new mobile device, the Nexus S, follow up to their geeky delicious Nexus One. These are both clean installs of the most up to date Android operating systems, and the new Nexus S comes with brand spanking new OS 2.3, code-named “Gingerbread,” and some hot and fast hardware to boot. (Read TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb)
But they’ve goofed again. 3G on this first version of the device supports 900, 1700, and 2100 MHz. That’s great for a whopping 34.5 million mobile users, ie. 9% of the North American market.
In the USA, two networks support any of the bands, which is the 1700MHz AWS band. T-Mobile has 33.8M subscribers, and Cincinnati Bell Wireless has 571k. Out of a total of 292M, that’s 12% of the market.
In Canada, only the upstart carriers support AWS: WIND has 100k, Moblicity 50k, and Videotron 50k (and I’m being generous here for the undisclosed statistics). Out of a total of 23.4M, that’s 0.9%.
In Mexico, where there are 74M subscribers, nobody has 900, 1700, or 2100 (please comment below if I’m wrong here).
NINE PERCENT. BLAH. At least going 850MHz (like the iPhone or second release of the Nexus One) would serve today 114.8 million in USA and Canada alone (36%).
Does Google hate AT&T? How does T-Mobile get US “exclusivity”? Of course you can still make phone calls on other GSM networks, but you’ll only get slow EDGE (aka 2.75G) for data. This sounds like a dumb move by me. I’ll just sit and twiddle my thumbs (ie. mash my iPhone typos) a bit longer.
Approximate subscribers number for late 2010:
FYI In USA: AT&T 92.8M, Verizon 93.2M, Sprint 49M
In Canada: Bell Mobility 6.8M, Rogers 8.4M, Telus 6.8M
In Mexico: Telcel 57M
From our previous post, iPhone, Nexus One 3G Frequencies:
| T-Mobile USA: 1700MHz (AWS) | AT&T USA: 850 (1900 originally?) | Rogers Canada (850MHz) | Wind Mobile Canada: 1700MHz (AWS) | |
| iPhone: 850, 1900, 2100 MHz | no | you bet | yup | no ;( |
| Nexus One/S: 900, 1700, 2100 MHz | yes, go buy one | no, only EDGE access | no, only EDGE | yes… |
3 Responses to “Nexus S 3G Frequency Foil”
By Luc on Dec 24, 2010
Nexus S doesn’t work with Videotron.
I know it because I tried.
So pissed…
By Brill Pappin on Jan 11, 2011
it’s crazy!
It’s like Palm making a CDMA phone when everyone was going UTMS.
But then Google has always given Canada a back seat… things Google come out in Europe before they do here.
By Jonas on Feb 21, 2011
The Nexus S here in Brazil doesn’t work with 3G from Claro. Claro is a 850 Mhz and nobody from Best Buy in USA Orlando informed about it !!!!!! I’m trying to have somebody from Google to advise me what to do with my $529 piece of shite which doesn’t work on internet !!!! My old blackberry was better and I need to afford my son laughing about with his Iphone 4……………. ridiculous……