3G on an HTC Hero

[Gestalt]

I realise that out of the box the HTC Hero does not work with American 3G frequencies, forcing consumers to use Edge services with AT&T and T-Mobile. I have always wondered if this is a software issue or a hardware issue? I'm too much of a novice to go tinkering with phone connections but is it possible to make the Hero able to work with different 3G frequencies?

 

[quantumrand]

It is a hardware issue. The European Hero uses a specific chip for the 900/2100 3G frequencies. Getting it to work on US 3G frequencies would require not only getting the a US 3G chip, but also desoldering and then resoldering the chip to the PCB, and assuming you could do this, you'll then need to write a custom driver (if not a modded ROM).