@telusux wrote:
I am looking at a phone that does not support band 17, but does have 4 and 7. I'm just wondering what impact this will have in major cities like van and tor... or will it even work at all? From what I understand the 17 band is for lower frequency 700mhz for urban areas and indoors. I have very strong LTE signal in most areas where I work and live right now. So i'm wondering how important is this band. Thanks
Hello Telusux,
Welcome to the forums!
The short answer to your question is no, band 17 (700MHz) is not required to access LTE. You can verify the compatible bands here. The caveat with regards to not having all of the compatible bands is that coverage will depend on the frequencies of the surrounding towers. That said, band 4 (1700/2100MHz) is the more widely used band/frequency so coverage shouldn't really be an issue.
One thing to note: Rogers recently launched LTE-advanced (LTE-A). Whether Fido customers will also be able to avail of this feature in the future has not yet been determined. While LTE uses only a single band at a time, LTE-A combines two bands/frequencies for higher speeds. Initial reports suggested the combined bands would be bands 4 and 17 (see here). However, subsequent articles have reported that the bands are 4 and 7 (see here). So until we can get confirmation, band 17 may be required for LTE-A which could be a moot point if the phone in question is not LTE-A capable.
Hope this helps 
Cheers
