Will my handset lacking the 850 MHz band work on the at&t/Cingular network?

[gregsmith59]

You will get inferior coverage even on T-Mobile. Although T-Mobile does not have any native 850 coverage, it does use 850 for roaming.

I would advise to stop replying to this line of questioning from REAL.

He has posted the same questions countless times in the T-Mobile coverage sub-forum, and won't stop. Maybe he will finally stop and check the coverage maps etc. if people don't keep replying to him. Thanks.

[REAL]

if i have a 1900 only phone i want to roam on tmobiles 1900 network if att does not have 1900 coverage

[REAL]

Yeah, but they're taking out a lot of the 1900 spectrum for UMTS and HSDPA. When I use my sans-850 phone, I've noticed a dramatic deterioration of coverage since AT&T flipped the switch on 3G in my area in October.

what about the users that prefer the 1900mhz spectrum for voice more than data?

[char777]

what about the users that prefer the 1900mhz spectrum for voice more than data?

I don't think the majority of AT&T's customers are crying over the dwindling coverage of 1900, let alone know what that is. Sorry, but things move on, and if you're not happy with AT&T, then pick a different phone or move on to someone else.

[RogerPodacter]

if i have a 1900 only phone i want to roam on tmobiles 1900 network if att does not have 1900 coverage

why not switch to tmobile service?

since you are on ATT, why not try out some of the new 3G phones? ATT is rolling out a nice new HSDPA/3G network, and even if you dont use data, the voice quality is greatly improved on 3G. there are no compression codecs used yet, and there is higher quality in voice calls. there are cheap and even free 3G phones that ATT sells. i'm in socal and unless you are in a dead spot, you will get decent reception with 3G. i say this because in general att is more expensive but has better coverage with 850, as well as they have 3G up and running. tmobile is generally cheaper service, and slightly less coverage. though in socal tmobile has an awesome 1900 only GSM network.

[Booot]

Ok heres my problem:

Like 2 years ago, I had a tri-band ROKR. It did not work in my town, but when I would travel, it would work in other towns. Well now, Iam getting an LG Viewity and it is tri-band. And based on the maps in the original post, it says my town has 1900 and 850. So I should be covered right?

I just dont see how it would change from a few years back.

[Tacamo]

From what i've read on other occasions the current maps aren't accurate. I wouldn't put much faith in older ones. 850 wins for building coverage.

[i0wnj00]

The problem with the maps from the GSMA is that they don't indicate the QoS which can be expected, this can only be determined by actually using the 1900 MHz phone in question. Those same maps do indicate GSM 1900 for me and while this is true, the inside coverage isn't usable for the most part and outside coverage isn't any better, as I'm still dropping calls and losing parts of sentences. While, I have only used my Nokia 1900 MHz phones for a few days and in my immediate area I doubt that I will see much of an improvement in QoS unless I move to Nashua, NH or Pocatello, ID/Nephi, UT. Of course, there are other AT&T markets that only use 1900 MHz.

If two well-built Nokias are still dropping calls outside then I don't think any other GSM 1900 phone will cut it.

[alphaod]

Living NYC, I've noticed a big difference between 850 and 1900. 1900 has a severe lack of penetration. 850 gives no problems. With T-Mobile, I've had no issues whatsoever with 1900.

My advice is to get a 850 phone if you can.

[Mr.Phear]

quick question then:
I was looking at the upcoming sony ericsson W980. it has, according to phonearena.com, quad-band capable of roaming with 850/900/1800/1900. it also has UMTS europe/asia 2100. (data: GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA 1.8 Mbit/s/HSDPA 3.6 Mbit/s).

question for you guys is, when this phone is released, if i buy it and pop in the AT&T SIM card, the phone will work perfectly right? it has the 850 and 1900 bands which AT&T uses. the only problem is there will be no 3G? is that what would happen?

[i0wnj00]

That's correct, it will work on the 850/1900 portions.
Right no 3G, just GPRS and EDGE.

[Chaos Inc.]

Edge is almost 3g to be honest, well maybe not entirely but then again its quite fast. So it really should do fine.

[adam917]

Here are the relevant threads from the Rogers forum that explains all this to a tee:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...hreadid=503115 - GSM 850 & the Scientific Thruth

http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...hreadid=464527 - Should I Use an 850 MHz Phone on Rogers?


All of the points in these threads apply equally to AT&T & the US in general. Perhaps this could be a sticky on all threads. It's a good write-up, especially that first thread.

[pakxelaos]

My P1i had worked fine with Tmobile (in my area), after switching to ATT, it hardly gets signal (the P1i has tri-band, lacking of 850Mzh) and a lot of disconnections. Now it's been retiring for sometimes.

[alfer]

So what about phones that DO support 850 on GSM, but not on UMTS? I'm looking at the new HP Voice Messenger which supports GSM 850/900/1900/2100 and UMTS 900/1900/2100. I'm in northern CA (Sacramento), so does this mean if there is no UMTS1900 coverage in a certain area my phone will drop back to GSM850 without dropping calls?