At present, we have topics every few weeks or so with someone new, coming to ask if GSM works in America. Then, someone wants to help and try to figure out why -- but there is no consistent thread for this. So let's use this.
Does the Droid 4 work in the US on GSM yet? NO
This is to be used as a master thread to post research/thoughts/findings. If anyone has any clever thoughts, please search the thread first to make sure it hasn't been found yet.
What we do know is that with OTA ICS from Verizon, the Droid 4 supports GSM for *OTHER* carriers outside of the US. There could be any number of reasons that it does NOT work. As a quick run-down of the problem, I'll identify where the primary issues could be and allow for anyone else to build upon it, ask questions, and discuss.
The Radio Firmware
-- The firmware for the radio itself could have a lock or a setting that needs to be adjusted and all data requests are blocked through this.
RIL
-- The interface between the radio and Android -- there could be a software lock here that restricts specific carrier ID's.
ROM
-- The ROM itself has a baked-in block for GSM in America.
The best thing we can do is to try and identify or step through the stack (if such is possible -- I'm a developer, but not for Android) and see WHERE the calls break at.
--If it is a software lock in the ROM, then aftermarket ROM's like CyanogenMod should allow data to work in the US. If we're not seeing this, then this is likely not the case.
--If it is a software lock in the RIL library, then we'd have to have a reverse-engineered library (which could be very difficult to do). We should be getting some kind of error somewhere in here. At this point, though, it's hard to tell if the Radio Firmware or RIL is the actual problem.
Anyone with any background on this, please feel free to contribute. correct, and update. I'll try to get back here and update this master page as I see responses further in the thread.
Does the Droid 4 work in the US on GSM yet? NO
This is to be used as a master thread to post research/thoughts/findings. If anyone has any clever thoughts, please search the thread first to make sure it hasn't been found yet.
What we do know is that with OTA ICS from Verizon, the Droid 4 supports GSM for *OTHER* carriers outside of the US. There could be any number of reasons that it does NOT work. As a quick run-down of the problem, I'll identify where the primary issues could be and allow for anyone else to build upon it, ask questions, and discuss.
The Radio Firmware
-- The firmware for the radio itself could have a lock or a setting that needs to be adjusted and all data requests are blocked through this.
RIL
-- The interface between the radio and Android -- there could be a software lock here that restricts specific carrier ID's.
ROM
-- The ROM itself has a baked-in block for GSM in America.
The best thing we can do is to try and identify or step through the stack (if such is possible -- I'm a developer, but not for Android) and see WHERE the calls break at.
--If it is a software lock in the ROM, then aftermarket ROM's like CyanogenMod should allow data to work in the US. If we're not seeing this, then this is likely not the case.
--If it is a software lock in the RIL library, then we'd have to have a reverse-engineered library (which could be very difficult to do). We should be getting some kind of error somewhere in here. At this point, though, it's hard to tell if the Radio Firmware or RIL is the actual problem.
Anyone with any background on this, please feel free to contribute. correct, and update. I'll try to get back here and update this master page as I see responses further in the thread.