It doesn't get the same signal strength as the GSM Network.

My UMTS phone would have 1 bar of signal while my friend's non-UMTS Cingular phone would have 5 bars of GSM.

Someone told me Cingular hasn't been able to convert all their 850Mhz towers to UMTS. Sounds funny but it does explain why it's happening.

Fortunately for me, I have the LG CU500 and I can force it to do 2G online by hitting 277634#*# in case someone else is having the same problem. It works on the CU320 as well.

that's hilarious! i did the exact opposite in my area to force it into 3g online. 2g on my cu500 is terrible. i hated the phone before we launch UMTS/HSDPA, dropped calls more than any phone i've ever had(even my motorolas)! but force to 3g only and EFR I love it. Our market is only 1900Mhz, though. We see the same thing. but it's because we only alloted 2 channels for UMTS initially. GSM is def going to be stronger in certain spots. i still have better service with 3g than i had with 2g on the lg.

Yeah if you are a 1900 only market, I would imagine there are far fewer people on the 3g network.

What Market are you in? I'm in the Washington-Baltimore Market in the Northern Virginia portion.

the carolinas

how do you find out what band your market is using, because im in the Metro-Detroit area, in Michigan and i've been wanting to find out for a long time, plus im soooo confused about what 3g phone i should get

i initially wanted the CU500 but pple are saying that phone is bad, my options are open, but which is better between the CU500, CU400, or the Sync

really, you should be able to go into or call a local COR store and they should be able to tell you. all the rep around here know since there were only 2 full GSM markets when cingular formed the carolinas and california. all of our other markets us 850 and 1900.

I figure it's basically my CU500 plus PTT.