grommitt63 said:
Thaks for the response. I have started to look at the T mobile option - though their plans don't seem to be as good as AT&T/Cingular. Sigh, one day the world will unite with one mobile system (well, I can dream can't I? :-)

Well, it's practically united under one technology (GSM). What's wrong with Tmobile's rates? Last time I checked they were the shiznit.

Bad advice given especially in his situation.

1) T-Mobiles rates are great, i'd put em equal to Cingular or ATT depending on the situation. Cingular and ATT toss in free M2M to make up for the daytime minute difference... so it could be better or worse...

2) In Texas Cingular operates on 850 GSM and everyone knows that 850 GSM is MUCH better than 1900 in terms of call quality and signal.

3) Now that AT&T and Cingular are roaming buddies, that gives him an even bigger footprint.

-- My suggestion:

There are quad band phones...
There are 850/1900 phones that also have an additional frequency such as either 900 or 1800, and that'll cover you >ALMOST

Dang, phonescoop keeps cutting off my message...

...
There are 850/1900 phones that also have an additional frequency such as either 900 or 1800, and that'll cover you almost every country, just a few holes for international roaming here and there.

Or you could just leave your SIM card in your US phone and take an unlocked world phone with you internationally... either buy a prepaid sim card there, or pop your sim in it if you want to use your phone number and don't mind roaming rates. Either way, it isn't that big of a deal to swap your SIM card around.

Actually, it is a big deal to have more than one phone. I have SIM cards for overseas, what I want to do is have one phone on which all my contacts will stored (rather than on individual SIM cards). That way regardless of which SIM card is in the phone I have the same phonebook.

I have thought of another way to get around the problem - buy two phones of almost the same model (e.g. Sony Ericson T610 for international and T616 for the U.S.) and use software on my laptop to keep the phones in sync. But, a) it's a lot more expensive and b) a bt of a hassle to keep two phones up to date.

on phonescoop it shows that cing is getting a new quad band LG later this month

If you want just one phone you've really only got 2 choices as I see it. Either you go with a quad band phone, although you seem to have already nixed that idea. Otherwise you should get a phone that has the 850, you'll experience miserable service if your phone is only 1900 capable.

mycool said:
Bad advice given especially in his situation.



2) In Texas Cingular operates on 850 GSM and everyone knows that 850 GSM is MUCH better than 1900 in terms of call quality and signal.

A)The man mentioned something about being "not interested in quad-band phones". B)The man mentioned something about being "interested in tri-band phones" because of possible world travel. C)The man mentioned something about being "concerned about 850mhz phones because the phones he was interested in were tri-band models". I gave him the advice I did because I actually read his post. Don't tell me I gave him "bad" advice.

mycool said:
Bad advice given especially in his situation.



2) In Texas Cingular operates on 850 GSM and everyone knows that 850 GSM is MUCH better than 1900 in terms of call quality and signal.

Oh, and I forgot D) 850mhz is only marginally better than 1900mhz in regards to building penetration. When it comes to call quality, there's no real difference between 850mhz and 1900mhz.

I would have to disagree with this statement about 850 MHz. I live in Canada and use Rogers and have experienced a significant increase in service availability since they completed their 850 overlay approx a month ago. IE. in my basement where I previously received no service I now get a steady 3 bars with little to no issues with voice quality. IMO, the 850 MHz has a significant impact on penetration and quality.

theDMan said:
I would have to disagree with this statement about 850 MHz. I live in Canada and use Rogers and have experienced a significant increase in service availability since they completed their 850 overlay approx a month ago. IE. in my basement where I previously received no service I now get a steady 3 bars with little to no issues with voice quality. IMO, the 850 MHz has a significant impact on penetration and quality.

Tests done by the big three have shown only minimal gains in penetration through 850mhz use. It could be that whatever band they were using previously in your area wasn't up to par with the current 850mhz overlay (in terms of quality of the physical network).

could be, like I said, it works for me so I just shut my mouth for fear of jinxing it.

theDMan said:
could be, like I said, it works for me so I just shut my mouth for fear of jinxing it.

Knock on wood and all that crap.

And these are the same tests that help the companies create those wonderful maps that don't truly represent coverage properly...

Real life situation: 850 GSM surpasses 1900 GREATLY.

mycool said:
And these are the same tests that help the companies create those wonderful maps that don't truly represent coverage properly...

Real life situation: 850 GSM surpasses 1900 GREATLY.

You know, I suggest you do some reading...just basic web articles, periodicals, etc... You're greatly overstating the significance of 850 over 1900, and you're going to mislead someone.

I suggest you get your head out of badly written internet articles and actually work in the industry for a couple of years. 😎

I'm not "overstating the signficance", nor am I misleading anyone.

mycool said:
I suggest you get your head out of badly written internet articles and actually work in the industry for a couple of years. 😎

I'm not "overstating the signficance", nor am I misleading anyone.

Well, I suggest you stop getting info off your corporate monkey-boy bosses, and actually start reading ANYthing. 850mhz does not show significant improvements over 1900mhz as far as building penetration, call quality and certainly not data. Do you see the word "significant" up there? That means that while there IS a difference, it's not a great one? Got that "Mr. Wireless"?

There is a significant difference in voice quality and signal.

I don't get my info from my "corporate monkey-boy bosses" lol. I don't even work in the industry anymore, I used to, but I left it for another industry. Regardless, you can EXPERIENCE the difference between 850 and 1900. If the 800 Mhz band provided no significant difference every company would implement 1900 Mhz considering it won't offer ANY interference with 800 AMPS and the signal can cover a larger area. Why go GSM 850 then, ESPECIALLY if you are getting a "clean" start? Because it provides better quality of voice and better signal that you can EXPERIENCE!

- Signed
Mr. Wireless ;)

mycool said:
There is a significant difference in voice quality and signal.

I don't even work in the industry anymore, I used to, but I left it for another industry.

If the 800 Mhz band provided no significant difference every company would implement 1900 Mhz considering it won't offer ANY interference with 800 AMPS and the signal can cover a larger area. Why go GSM 850 then, ESPECIALLY if you are getting a "clean" start? Because it provides better quality of voice and better signal that you can EXPERIENCE!

The only reason the big six haven't instituted 1900mhz everywhere is because of cost and licensing problems. 1900mhz is better for data (which causes that twinkle in every CEO's eye). I've actua...
(continues)

Ah, do show me an article with a guy who has been "designing, customizing, and implementing these networks for years" that isn't on a forum and i'll be amazed. Guess what, I did your little google search and nothing showed up for the first 10 pages of the result. I tried many different methods of searching (and yes, im very good at searching out what i need). And guess what, NOT A SINGLE GOOD RESULT. The closest I could find was some guy who has cellphone service in Canada saying its really impossible to tell if there is a difference. Guess he never worked in the industry ;)

Ya know you won't win this arguement. Wanna know why?

A) Because I have worked in the industry for a long time.
B) I'm right, you're wrong. 😁

Go ahead,...
(continues)

I'm gonna have to jump back on the bandwagon with mycool here. The thing is that people do experience a difference with the 850 MHz. The articles and papers written may express opinions that differ but many of us still continue to experience significant improvement after 850 overlays. And lets think about this from a business sense. Do you think a major carrier like AWS would spend 2 Billion dollars plus to do an 850 overlay if it would only provide a marginal improvement. I don't think so. Why not just invest more into the 1900 MHz, build more cell sites, etc. And note that the key word here is overlay, 98% of where AWS put in 850MHz already had 1900 MHz service. Just one more point here, do you really think the carriers who have d...
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I'm going to have to agree with the guys on the 850 band issue.. I sell T-Mobile, ATTWS, and Cingular in Central texas .... Now T-mobile works okay here.. doesn't work in any of the buildings on Texas A&M's campus, well some of the green houses 🙂... however, you go into a solida building and you can't use it, and they use what, yes 1900 band, however, my Cingular Customers can use it in every building on campus, with no problems, and even some of the basements are getting 3 to 4 bars on their phones which was incredible to most of them (switchers). ATTWS is getting better here, especially after those roaming agreements kicked in, my ATTWS customers keep asking me why their phones says Cingular on it half the time and just tell them and the...
(continues)

mycool said:
Ah, do show me an article with a guy who has been "designing, customizing, and implementing these networks for years" that isn't on a forum and i'll be amazed. Guess what, I did your little google search and nothing showed up for the first 10 pages of the result. I tried many different methods of searching (and yes, im very good at searching out what i need). And guess what, NOT A SINGLE GOOD RESULT. The closest I could find was some guy who has cellphone service in Canada saying its really impossible to tell if there is a difference. Guess he never worked in the industry ;)

Ya know you won't win this arguement. Wanna know why?

A) Because I have worked in the industry for a long time.
B) I'm rig

...
(continues)