Making a USA Xoom into a worldwide GSM Xoom

[srjacob]

No, I haven't studied up on how to do it, but every broadband Xoom has the same hardware: A Qualcomm Gobi 3000 chipset. This chipset has all the broadband protocols (GSM, CDMA, 3G, EDGE, etc.), and the upgraded chipset also has 4G LTE (that's what the Motorola upgrade is all about). The Gobi also has the GPS receiver. You can find out more about the Gobi here:

Gobi | Wireless Internet Chip | Qualcomm

and

http://www.gobianywhere.com/

Qualcomm has a development kit out, but I haven't taken a look at it. It should be fairly straightforward to modify the drivers in a rooted Xoom to not only unlock the Xoom from Verizon, but enable the GSM capability. Either that, or get the GSM drivers from the non-USA versions and incorporate them into the Verizon Xoom.

Perhaps for one of you geniuses out there this would be a challenge.

Go for it.

Steve

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[tkess]

GSM connectivity would be amazing. Subscribing to this thread.

[Astrix]

Yeah im Non US Xoom and not locked to any service provider...subscribed this thread : )

[tdetroit]

Also subscribed to this thread. I have the 4G Xoom through Verizon, and I'm visiting family in Europe next summer....would be nice if I wasn't tethered to WiFi, especially since my Grandma lives way out in the country and doesn't have Wifi....I'd have to drive 30miles to get to a Starbucks or something with a hotspot.

[seena]

Guys I have a used xoom. Under model number it says xoom. How do I know if it's gsm or cdma? And if it's gsm, does it need special software to work internationally?

[rive]

What you suggest is currently not possible.

Gsm/umts and cdma/lte are competing wireless technologies, and do not play nice together. cdma2000 uses a different transciever, both operate on different spectrums, the qualcomm chipsets are not dual band gsm/cdma/lte.

that is why a cdma/lte device at this time cannot roam on gsm towers or vice versa.

gsm is slowly to be replaced in Europe with the new standard (lte and lte-advanced), but even so, since the spectrum isnt the same, a usa lte device cannot roam on lte there, and future Europe lte devices wont be able to roam on the current lte towers here ( or anytime in the near future).

gsm/umts is no longer the standard and will be phased out within the next 5-10 years or so.

[rive]

the current Xoom lte's are variants of the gobi 4000 used in pc's, and are not the same as the qualcomm 3000 chipsets