I was wondering how good Cingular is about releasing new firmware versions for phones they use. I have an s710a, and I was reading that the Rogers version of the phone has a newer version of the firmware than Cingular is using (supposedly speeds things up a bit and improves signal strength)... so, if there's no word about this one specifically, how do they normally treat new firmwares?
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i actually just found out that there are cingular s710a's with the newer firmware version being sold. i bought my s710a over the phone about a week ago. anybody know if i can take this to a corporate store to exchange it with one i can check the firmware on? if not, what's the likelihood of me being able to specify the revision # that i want over the phone?
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Aleq
Jun 26, 2005, 3:01 PM
Heh heh, "firmware..." Yeah, me too... 😲
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you've been extraordinarilly helpful. thank you. 🙄
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Aleq
Jun 26, 2005, 5:23 PM
Any time, and twice on Sundays! 😛
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If you need a firmware update check with SE. I am a roger's subscriber, nearly all the firmware versions are different. It mostly has to do with spelling on predictive text dictionaries and CRTC (like your FCC mostly useless) regulations on performance. It may or may not increase the performance on your phone. But for software and firmware it is always best to check with the manufacturers rather than the carriers as they make and support that end of the phone.
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kind of--cingular still has to approve a version of their custom firmware before SE will release it. i updated my T616 once, and i sent it to AT&T to do it.
i found a place that will drop an unbranded Rogers R2A firmware on my phone, and everything will remain the same (save for the branded graphics) except it's rumored i'll lose ENS. i don't know what that stands for, but i think it has something to do with my phone's ability to use both Cingular and AT&T network towers. on a question related to that-> my phone hasn't said ATT on it for months (even when i had ATT), so would that actually matter?
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Loosing ENS would be bad. FCC stated all AWS had to be rebranded which is why it stopped saying AT&T a long time ago. If you loose ENS you will prefrence one network over another rather than the best of either old AWS or Cingular. If you do loose ENS deal with the firmware you have.
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but the rub, as i understand it, is that the phone doesn't just switch between networks to find the one with the best reception on its own-- it only switches when it has no signal. that's something the phone does anyway, so the only time ENS is a benefit is if i lose signal but the phone is able to reconnect to a weaker Cingular signal instead of a strong AT&T signal because of the preference. but even without ENS, if i lose signal and my phone can't reconnect to Cingular, it might end up with that AT&T signal anyway.
correct me if i'm wrong, but that's the gist of the information i have.
in all honesty, i haven't noticed that my new s710a gets signal in more places than my old AT&T T616. it does have a habit of having "more bars in ...
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