Voice capabilities are not tied to type of network?

[SnowyOwl]

I'm getting strange communications from the Fido Service reps in saying the following:

an Edge only allows voice and txt's to be sent... HUH? :confused:

LTE (if available) would require an updated sim card.. HUH? :confused:
http://forums.fido.ca/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/mobile_internet/thread-id/1271/page/1

Do you know for sure that Sim cards are only to allow the authorization of a person to use a network irrigardless of signal/band as that is held on the phone exclusively..

I understood it as the phone # some contacts and that's it. What your take?

[artstate]

Edge actually means that you're using data. So no, edge doesn't only transfer voice and text, it actually caries ONLY data over a 2G GSM network.

Voice and text actually requires even less speed than edge. Current voice transfer needs something like 20 kb/s so a 2G phone is more than capable of delivering that. Which is why there's no voice quality difference between a 2G and 3G phone, improvements are due to the phone's speakers and microphone.

I can also browse using edge on my phone if I turn off 3G. It's slower (obviously) but it works. Preferably mobile sites though..

As for switching the SIM card, it could be a valid statement depending how old your current sim card is. LTE could need some authentication/encryption that their old sim cards did not have (could just be a few extra KB added to the new cards, changes are really very small) I don't know enough to really enlighten you on this

[Tyrone]

There are a lot of agents out there (for all companies) who have a less then stellar grasp of how cellular technology works.

As for SIM cards, they do all of the "communication" with the network, in as much as your brain does all of the communication with the outside world. Your mouth may be saying the words, but your brain is sending it the message.

Difference Between EDGE and 3G (http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-edge-and-3g/)

Difference Between 3G and 4G (http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-3g-and-4g/)