Buying North American LTE phones

[7789849803]

I am writing this post to share a recent experience I had that, to me, highlighted the importance of buying a phone that supports all possible bands in use in North America.

Recently, while shopping at my neighbourhood grocery store, I notice my phone had great coverage. On my Nexus 4, I used to get almost no coverage in this store. I took the following screenshot that shows that this is because at this particular location (in Vancouver, BC), Telus is using LTE band 17. This is a lower frequency that provides better coverage through fewer towers. The band was not supported in my Nexus 4 (admittedly a 4 year old phone).

So far, just within Vancouver, I have seen Telus use bands 2, 4, 5, 7, and 17 for its LTE network.

[7789849803]

Sounds like a good idea, @srlawren. Let us know how you like it.

[srlawren]

Definitely time to pick up that Moto X Play I've been thinking about, as it supports 2, 4, 5, 7, 12 (useful for T-mobile's extended coverage when on Roam Mobility), and 17.  My current 1st gen Moto X (xt1053) only does some of those.

[7789849803]

@ckl You are correct: Band 13 is supposed to be used in some regions by Telus (though I'm not sure when or where). Bands 12, 29, 40, and 66 could also possibly be used by Telus in the future. Though nothing is official until you either see it in use (like in my field test screenshots from my phone), or you see an official announcement from Telus.

For now, I can only state with certainty that in Vancouver, Bands 2, 4, 5, 7, and 17 are currently in use. YMMV...

[ckl]

I wrote a reply about this in another thread that listed the frequencies for LTE, but it's nice that you validated it.

http://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/What-bands-frequencies-belong-to-and-AWS-w...

Check this thread over at HF. I'm not sure how accurate the information is but it seems to me like LTE operates on more than just band 4.

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1878804-Telus-bands

"Telus uses Band 2 and 5 for HSPA and Bands 2, 4, 5, and 17 for LTE with Band 7, 13, and 29 coming on over the next few years"

So it seems like there might be additional bands 13 and 29 "coming in the next few years" whenever that may be.