We have a lot of weak teams in the east? We also have the top teams in the country so I think it evens out.

Not to go too far off topic but what teams do you think happen to be the top?

White Sox... Midwest
Spurs / Pistons... Midwest / Southwest
Chicago / Indy / Seattle... Midwest / West

I know nothing of Hockey so you might have it there.

EVERYONE KNOWS THE BENGALS PWN U ALL

ers. pistons are in the central division in the EAST, my favorite team. 🤣 we don't have that many weak teams. just a lot in basketball i.e. hawks, raps, cats, etc. etc.

can we get back to topic now?

😳 We do?

my guess would be that the ny metro area is so large it will take a lot longer to upgrade the equipment there. Imagine trying launching it there when only part of the 3g network is up and running. I can allready imagine all the "3g doesnt work here" calls to care.

Doubtful. They're already using two bands for their 3G network. It would complicate things in an expensive way to operate a 3G network spanning 3 different frequency bands.

Plus the spectrum they have now should be more than enough, and even if they wanted more, I doubt the FCC would let them have it. Don't forget that the FCC made them get rid of spectrum in the ATTWS merger because it would have been too much.

Now that varies by area - in a few cities, they probably could use a bit more spectrum. But again, it would be a big and expensive step to expand the 3G network to a whole third band. All of their 3G phones would have to be tri-band WCDMA (plus dual-band GSM). I would expect them to find ways to work with what they have first.

true, but it is up for auction. You know if verizon, t-mobile or sprint get into the bidding then i wouldnt be surprised if cingular jumps in

Rich, when is the auction, and how is T-Mobile gonna play in this auction? Thanks.

Supposedly June 2006.

T-Mobile needs the new spectrum if they ever want to launch 3G. They've already said publicly that they intend to aquire new spectrum and launch 3G, so I expect them to be a big player.

so if the big possibly the 1700mhz will be theirs (t-mobile's). so does that mean the 2 gsm carriers are trying to go seperate ways regarding 3g. and what affect do you think this will take on roamin between the two companies 3g bandwidths.
i know the roaming agreements between t-mo and cingy are scarce now but with 3g will there be NO possible roaming agreements between the two unless their is phones built to support all the different bands?

You're right. It kind of sucks, but no one really had a choice.

With the buyout of AT&T Wireless, Cingular had the opportunity to launch 3G, on a large scale, and quickly. The combined spectrum of both companies is what gave them that opportunity. It would have been colossally stupid of them to delay 3G several years, let huge swaths of extremely valuable spectrum sit idle, and then spend billions on more spectrum... just to be on the same band as T-Mobile. There's no way that would have added up or made any sense.

T-Mobile also doesn't have a choice. The spectrum they have now in the 1900 band simply isn't enough for 3G. There's the forthcoming PCS "H" block, but that's probably not enough, either. So they need the new 1700/2100 spect...
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Tmobile has spectrum, they have been buying up chunks of the 850Mhz spectrum. I seriously doubt the 2100Mhz band will be opened up in the US. The

T-Mobile has been signing lots of new 850 Mhz roaming agreements. What 850 spectrum have they actually been buying, specifically?

The government is very far along in auctioning off 2100 MHz spectrum for 3G. The FCC auction date hasn't been set, but it's still tentatively scheduled for June of this year.

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/aws/ »

Note that this is different from the 2100 band that the rest of the world is using for 3G. That band is 2100 paired with 1900, which is already taken for the PCS band here in the US. Our 2100 band is paired with 1700 MHz.

well if cingular has the necessary 1900 band wouldnt they just need to buy the necessary 2100 band?

It doesn't work that way.

First, Cingular has enough spectrum in the 1900 and 850 bands to launch 3G without buying any new spectrum, so that's exactly what they're doing.

But even then, the 2100 spectrum being auctioned off by the government is paired with 1700 Mhz. That means phones will transmit to the towers in a range of 1710 - 1755 Mhz, while the towers will transmit to the phones in the 2110 - 2155 MHz range.

Each of the six licenses being auctioned off contains a part of each band. So for example the "D block" consists of 1735 - 1740 MHz paired with 2135 - 2140 MHz. You can't buy only 1700 or only 2100 spectrum - you have to buy the pair, and you have to use them according to the FCC rules, which include phones transm...
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So does that mean that if T-Mobile wins some spectrum in the 1700MHz band, that they will have better coverage since the 1700MHz is like 850MHz in the fact that it can travel farthar, and penetrate better, since its less than 1900MHz? How long after the auction will phones on the new bands be released? Thanks.

The behavior of 1700 MHz vs. 1900 and 2100 is not that great. Not like the difference between 850 and 1900.

Even then, any network, new or old or whatever, will be designed to provide good coverage in the areas it covers. People really make too much of the 850 vs. 1900 signal propagation thing. The raw science is true enough, but that's exactly why any company building a network at a higher frequency builds more towers, closer together - to account for that difference.

Regardless, the 1700 MHz band we're talking about is paired with 2100. That means it goes together and can't be split up. The phones will transmit to the towers in a range from 1710 MHz - 1755 MHz, while the towers will transmit to the phones in the 2110 - 2155 MH...
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Thanks for the reply.

this is true, but I doubt cingular will buy another band when they are already launching 3G services on their existing bands.. it remains a possibility though 🙂