4G Digicel TT D6633 only get 3.5G no LTE

[1bit]

When we come to Piarco International Airport in Trinidad I stopped at the Digicel kiosk to get the local SIM card,

I have seen the 4G sign and interet plan so being spoiled by the offer of EE.co.uk and the maximum 3GPP rel8 bandwidth of 20MHz I choose them insted of Bmobile.

Activation was bit painfull as I have first used my spare Jolla, but was told it's not compatible

(according to the sales person Digicel TT supports the highest frequency for the 4G, when I asked about their 4G network and the spectrum bandwidth 10MHz,15MHz or 20MHz that their network supports) as I know that Jolla only supports 4G/LTE: Bands 3 (1800 MHz), 7 (2600 MHz), 20 (800 MHz),

so tried Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini with its LTE Band 3 (1,800MHz), Band 7 (2,600MHz), Band 8 (900MHz), Band 20 (800MHz) but that had kicked in 3.5G at the Airport so I thought I be better outside looking for 4G and had a transfer to Tobago soon left the conversation at that thing that the I will pick up 4G/LTE outside of the Airport.

I have chceked the coverage map for their 4G at the place we are staying

http://www.digicelgroup.com/tt/en/mobile/plans---services/coverage-map.html

that shows the area we are staying covered, but still no 4G.

The D6633 has the most LTE bands covered and yet I can't pick up any 4G anywhere on the island, so put the SIM into my D6633.

Numberous phonecalls to Customer Service number 100 option 2520 did not shed any light either, as the first line of support does not have a clue what the frequency band, spectrum bandwidth mean and insted mix in terms like WiFi and take your battery out, restart your phone etc.

I have found on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digicel that they build their 4G on 700MHz in other islands which the D6633 supports, but no sign of 4G network

I am on "My 4G Plan" when I log in into the selfcare http://selfcare.digiceltt.com/loginForm.do that has 4G all over the page, but their actuall website has no info on LTE

[Uliwooly]

@1bit

I'm sorry to hear that but that's something that your local carrier/network has to address. 

[1bit · Accepted solution]

Got in touch with the owner of this blog post:

http://techtt.hassantt.com/2012/05/what-is-4g-digicel-4gsamsung-galaxy.html

he has other articles covered by the so called "4G" in TT

http://techtt.hassantt.com/search/label/4g

advised that 4G in TT is actually 3.5G / 3.75G the speed is deliberately limited by the operators) on the two islands no matter what thechnology is used .. althoug he quotes "ITU (International Telecommunications Union) ruled that HSPA+ can be classed as 4G. So I personally feel comfortable calling the underlying technology 4G." I very much dissagree!

[Uliwooly]

@1bit

I totally agree with you but that's something you will have to address with your local network and perhaps any consumer police, here in the US we have the better business bureau