E70-2, 3G, PTT

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I have a Nokia E70-2 (North American tri-band: 850/1800/1900mhz) .

Scattered throughout the phone's menus are recurring links and commands to activate video telephony like services (even though there's no front cam), and push-to-talk.

1.) Is Nokia very sloppy and lazy and just couldn't be bother to customize the firmware to suit North American networks,

-or-

2.) Does this phone have some hidden 3G band that can support the video telephony services and other 3G applications peppered throughout the phone?

2a.) is this 3G band on 850mhz or 2100mhz?

I'd ask Nokia directly but will probably end up with more questions than answers...
.
Thanks
 
The E70 is supposed to have UMTS 2100, the E70-2 isn't supposed to have any UMTS bands bt all, to clarify.

Video calling and PTT don't need a 3G connection to function, but nonetheless, they also don't work in the US. It'd be nice if Nokia customized that firmware to not have these apps, including the useless IM apps, but it sounds like they won't even bother.
 
If the phone had 3G functionality that would work in the U.S., Nokia would be paying money to licence the U.S. patents from Qualcomm. Given the complexity of the situation with Qualcomm, I really doubt it.
 
Exactly. It seems as though Nokia doesn't take North Americans serious. I'm using an American phone, there's no reason for it to be full of references to non-functional services in this software. It's not like they're selling E70-2s to be used overseas.
 
I really hope they can come to an agreement. It would be really sad if we don't see any N.A. 3G phones from Nokia and S.E. I would rather use EDGE then get a Samsung/LG 3G phone.

When the N75 finally comes out, that might be it for awhile.
 
I'd be pretty happy if Nokia came out with a Symbian phone with a QWERTY keyboard and GSM/HSDPA for the Americas. I have a pretty intense dislike for Windows Mobile after spending a couple of months trying it out on two different phones (Blackjack, Tytn/8525). I was fairly open to WM, but I've really grown to hate it. I could post a rant with a lot of specifics, but this isn't the place for it.

On the other hand, I'm not really willing to give up HSDPA, so I'm stuck for now. It makes a big difference when tethering.
 
I think that's the point that JP is making. The E70-2 IS only sold here, specifically for the US market. The only places to get it are either from a flagship store and online retailers through Nokia where you get the warranty with it. It's not an import whatsoever. The fact that the E70-2 has the applications to make video calls, but the lack of UMTS bands altogether to do it in any country is just silly. Does Nokia expect us to use video calling over EDGE? And on what carrier? Nokia doesn't have answers for these questions. They made it black, took out 3G, replaced GSM 900 for 850, and called it a day.
 
Could you list reasons you disliked them? (or IM me if you don't want to post them)
The 8525 is tempting me to shift off my Nokia 6620 since it's roughtly $430 on fleabay and has a lot of features (can't tell if it can be upgraded to WM6 but that seems to be the only negative)...
 
It's about Nokia/S.E. vs. Qualcomm. If they can't come to an agreement, they won't make any 3G phones for N.A. unless they're made specifically for the carrier who will pay the royalites themselves like the N75.
 
Well, instability tops the list. It isn't horrible but I do find myself rebooting every day or two when the phone locks up.

The 8525 lacks some really basic functionality: A reasonable POP3/IMAP4 client (pocket outlook has very minimal IMAP functionality), "profiles" functionality, task switching/management. Third party programs can deal with all of this, but various combinations of third party programs render the phone unstable. It has taken me a week or so to find the right combination to do stuff that should have been in the operating system in the first place. By default when you "close" a program in WM5 it keeps running. This is great in theory if the WM5 memory management were really as wonderful as it maybe could be, but it means all of these programs are still running, perhaps taking slices of CPU, etc. The phone definitely gets slower over time.

It's really a very different experience. I can take a Symbian 9 phone out of the box and basically just use it with minimal reconfiguration and additional software. With WM5 I was struggling until I got the whole add on program thing sorted out to give me the right functionality without my phone locking up every 20 minutes.

Another annoyance. For instance if you turn Bluetooth off and on again, OBEX file transfers don't work until you check a box in the settings to re-enable it. Then turn Bluetooth off and on again, and I need to recheck the box yet again. More annoyances... the volume control generates loud beeps if you adjust the volume during a call. There is a fix for this - a registry tweak.

I don't think anyone knows whether the phone can be upgraded to WM6 yet. On the other hand, if you upgrade it to WM6 you lose Bluetooth DUN functionality as Microsoft removed it from WM5 AKU3 and later in favour of Bluetooth PAN. Bluetooth PAN is great actually if you happen to use Windows XP or Vista to tether. On the other hand, if you happen to be using a Mac, Linux, a PDA, etc. to tether you probably don't have Bluetooth PAN support.

In its favour, I have to say that the RF performance is good, and the phone is quite flexible. The speaker volume during a call isn't loud enough for noisy environments, but the phone does work with a Bluetooth headset and the speakerphone is nice and loud. HSDPA is nice and fast. There are lots of utilities out there to do all sorts of things - the PPC flavour of WM5 seems to have a tremendous amount of third-party software out there.

The phone is also a power hog, even when locked into GSM (UMTS off) mode. Coming from the Symbian world it's quite a shock. I'm not sure why exactly, although perhaps the 400MHz CPU in the 8525 just isn't that power efficient.
 
I think that only applies to triband UMTS chips. Nokia was already planning on releasing the N80 and the N75 with 3G capabilities for Cingular, but haven't been able to yet due to complications with Cingular. If T Mobile rolls out their 3G on 1700 with Nokia making 3G handsets on that frequency as planned, Nokia won't owe Qualcomm a dime for that technology.

.
 
What a stupid move. Even Australia is embracing HSDPA over 850/1900mhz. Why would T-Mobile/Nokia introduce another frequency?

If Nokia goes along with that then they're even more foolish and stubborn than Qualcomm.

What ever happened to EV-DV?

Nokia has a hard enough time making phones with 850mhz....imagine 1700mhz? Lmao.
 
Cingular, Verizon, and T-mobile have all won auctions on the new AWS 1700/2100 spectrum. The problem is, of course, that all of the 850/1900 spectrum is allocated in the U.S.

T-mobile simply doesn't have enough 1900 spectrum to deploy UMTS in many markets and keep their GSM network running at the same time. Of course, T-mobile has no 850 spectrum at all.

It's not T-mobile being foolish. T-mobile has no path forward to 3G in many markets without that extra spectrum.

Will Nokia make UMTS handsets for the new spectrum? I have no idea. Nokia is providing T-mobile with WCDMA base stations.
 
Sigh. I was hoping they fixed this. I panned the 8125 because of this when it came down in price. I like my stable 6620 w/ the BL6C battery that lasts a long time.

I wish Symbian would adopt Blackberry's trackball. That would address trying to run VNC on Symbian S60 without needing to go all the way w/ a touchscreen :-P
 
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