Why don't quad-band phones also support international UMTS/3G frequency bands?

[dandv]

I'm trying to buy an Android phone that would support AT&T's 3G in North America, but for some reason they all (http://phandroid.com/phones/) only support T-Mobile's 3G frequencies. What's up?

So pretty much every smartphone nowadays is quad-band, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, and works pretty much anywhere in the world.

Why don't phones also support international 3G frequencies: 850/1900 as well as 900, 1700 and 2100 Mhz?

[orb3000]

That should be a rule in all modern devices
100% all communication in all the world!

[Rudegar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad-band#3G
if you look at the population in the various places
and add the extra cost it seems to currently offer
feature you request it would most likely
not be worth it for htc and other manufacturers

but maybe in time as first we had dualband phones then triband and now quadband 2g

of cause with 4g starting to take off some places maybe it will be absolute before
universal 3g chips get cheap enough

[dandv]

That should be a rule in all modern devices
100% all communication in all the world!

The area lot of business people who travel all over the world. How do they manage data access? Do they carry more than one phone all the time?

[Rudegar]

but as I state the only large user groups of 850 3g is in america
like CDMA is also only supported there
it all comes down to if the inc in cost is enough to justify the inc in
revenue

business people from the rest of the world don't have those issues

people here have also been requesting htc phones which does both cmda and gsm

[netnerd]

it' all about GREED!
do you know how many channels your radio or TV receives?
those HTC fools just discriminate against USA users! (my opinion)

[~~Tito~~]

I would really like to know how much "more" its going to cost to make a quadband, and 5 band UMTS phone. . . . .

[Rudegar]

think only qualcomm can answer that question

[netnerd]

think only qualcomm can answer that question

it doesnt matter how much! i'm sure qualcomm 1G snapdragon cpu is more expensive than 528mzh cpu, that doesnt stop toshiba or Acer from using it!
it' all about GREED!
htc wants to make it with the cheapst parts, and sell it at the highest price possible! (my opinion)

[Rudegar]

well yes
even if greed is a negative word for the general capitalism which drive all these company's
it's not like htc are the only ones on that ship :S

[ua549]

Quad band UMTS are rare indeed. Blackberry and Apple have them. Nokia has a quint band unit coming out in about 3 weeks, N8-00 (I have one on pre-order).

The Galaxy S Captivate is a tri band unit that will work in most of the world. It is missing the 900 MHz band. I can't recommend it because GPS is broken while awaiting a software patch and AT&T refuses to unlock the sim for 10 months. There is no known way to unlock the phone at the present time.

[magicdanw]

it doesnt matter how much! i'm sure qualcomm 1G snapdragon cpu is more expensive than 528mzh cpu, that doesnt stop toshiba or Acer from using it!
it' all about GREED!
htc wants to make it with the cheapst parts, and sell it at the highest price possible! (my opinion)

Don't be so hard on the manufacturers (please, note that HTC isn't the only phone manufacturer in the world...) AT&T only just started selling Android phones. Why would Android phone manufacturers make a phone that supports AT&T bands if AT&T won't support them in return? With the delays in so many phone shipments, I'm sure the companies don't need that much more business than they already have. Now that AT&T has decided to play ball, however, I'm sure there'll be a reciprocal increase in the number of Android phones with AT&T 3G bands :)

[gsvnet]

Quad band UMTS are rare indeed. Blackberry and Apple have them. Nokia has a quint band unit coming out in about 3 weeks, N8-00 (I have one on pre-order).

The Galaxy S Captivate is a tri band unit that will work in most of the world. It is missing the 900 MHz band. I can't recommend it because GPS is broken while awaiting a software patch and AT&T refuses to unlock the sim for 10 months. There is no known way to unlock the phone at the present time.

You can buy an unlock code for like $25 .