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T-Mobile and 850MHz

ajohnston

Nov 6, 2003, 12:37 PM
Does T-Mobile have any 850MHz properties? i.e., if I'm getting a new phone for use on T-Mobile, should I one with 850 and 1900 MHz frequences? 🙂
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Rich Brome

Nov 6, 2003, 2:13 PM
Nope. T-Mobile is 100% 1900. It definitely makes it much easier to shop for phones for T-Mobile. 😁
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NeumZ

Nov 7, 2003, 11:44 AM
why would that make it easier to shop for phones? all it does is limit the coverage area.
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michaelr

Nov 7, 2003, 7:13 PM
NeumZ

T-mobile not using 850 mhz is not limiting your phone selection it is expanding it. More phones are made that use the tri-band frequencies 900, 1800, and 1900 mhz. As far as coverage goes technically no since 850 mhz is used only in the US then you are limiting your coverage by using that frequency. Sticking with a tri-band phone using the above frequecies is the largest coverage you can get world wide. In the US however you are correct, a quad-band phone would be even better coverage then a tri-band phone if the roaming agreements were in place. But given the choice I would still select a tri-band phone (1900, 1800, and 900) over a dual-band (1900, 850), because the phone selection is greater and the fact that at&t and cingular's g...
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NeumZ

Nov 9, 2003, 5:35 PM
To say that ATT and Cingulars GSM is not as good as T-Mobiles is not accurate, GSM is the same no matter which company you go with. The Coverage is whats important. Cingulars coverage almost doubles T-Mobiles. This is because of 850. Cingular shows massive expansion in the west and in michigan. i believe most of that is going to be 850. If you look at T-mobiles map it shows only a little areas of expansion. I live in michigan and to have coverage in the thumb is more important than having no service, but the satisfaction knowing that my phone will work in a country that ill never go to. I think 90 percent of cell users usally stay in the US and Canada so coverage in our own country is more important that in europe. And besides ATT and Cingul...
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michaelr

Nov 9, 2003, 8:14 PM
Sorry for the confusion I made. I did not mean that cingular and att gsm is bad... I know that gsm is gsm. I mean that the coverage of the two carriers is weeker. And yes I agree coverage in the US is more important, but I dont know if you have a cingular phone or if you know that they are getting sued because they are implying coverage in areas that there is no coverage, but at my store cingular phone get returned all the time because of poor reception, we just hand them a t-mobile and they love us.
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vega

Nov 10, 2003, 8:07 PM
i'm not sure how it is in the rest of the country, but here in california t-mobile has no network. t-mobile leases cingular's sites. from what i understand it's like that in several parts of the country. you must understand that voicestream was a regional provider that covered only a small part of the us. now they have to build their own network throughout most of the country... as they are doing in california now. their buildout is very slow, and in the meantime, they are using cingulars network to provide nationwide service. depending on where you live, the t-mobile phone you xchanged for the cingular phone may use the same xact network.
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michaelr

Nov 15, 2003, 3:51 PM
The only places that t-mobile shares cingulars network is in Cali and actually it is a trade... t-mobile let cingular use New York and they let us use Cali; and the Carolinas where t-mobile actually rents out service from cingular. The only reason cingular has more coverage in Cali is because, Cingular is made up of 5 different companies, the one in Cali being Pack Bell. And I forget what the part of Cingular is used to be called in the Carolinas but those two parts of the country where t-mobile is borrowing. I am in Florida.
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vlad213

Nov 16, 2003, 9:20 PM
In the Carolinas - it was BellSouth Mobility DCS.
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Iggster

Dec 20, 2003, 8:20 PM
Please help me to understand the use of 850MHz.

Is 850MHz being used by Cingular and ATT while they switch to GSM from TDMA? If so, does this mean that at some point in the future they'll switch to 1900MHz like T-Mobile and the rest of the GSM world?

Thanks,
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NeumZ

Dec 22, 2003, 1:41 AM
rest of the world uses 1800 and 900. they cant really switch to another band when they dont have spectrum allowed for it. plus those companies have no reason to.
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mycool

Jan 4, 2004, 1:50 AM
ATTWS and Cingular use a mixed network of 850 and 1900. They only sell phones that carry at LEAST 850/1900 bands, but that doesn't mean they can't carry the other international bands.

T-Mobile already owns spectrum in the 1900 Mhz range and would be wasting a LOT of money trying to buy 850 Mhz spectrum when really there isn't any available [technically]. So there is no reason for them to go 850. They MIGHT pick up some 850/1900 phones in the future for roaming agreements... but this is just a thought, nothing evidential.
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Rich Brome

Nov 9, 2003, 5:45 PM
NeumZ said:
why would that make it easier to shop for phones?


Because there are a LOT more phones with GSM 1900 than there are with GSM 850. You can pick up any tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 phone - even import ones from overseas - and use it with T-Mobile. Can't do that with Cingular (unless you never leave CA / NYC).

all it does is limit the coverage area.


Not necessarily. I believe T-Mobile's GSM network is actually bigger and has better coverage than AT&T or Cingular at the moment. That will probably change as Cingular and AT&T continue to expand their overlays, but for now...

It's true that a single GSM 850 tower can "reach" farther than a single GSM 1900 tower, but all ...
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NeumZ

Nov 25, 2003, 12:56 AM
phone selection is slightly better, but i disagree with coverage:

http://onlinestore.cingular.com/html/Maps/Western/na ... »

this map breaks down the coverage with each band. 850 fills in all the spiderwebbing 1900 coverage from T-mobile. Although i dont know for sure, but its very likely that the new coverage thats going to be in the west is 850, to me that fairely substantial. also in michigan they are going to have the thumb in what i belive is 850. all these places (western us/areas in mich) euro phones (900/1800/1900) wont go.
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Rich Brome

Nov 25, 2003, 9:45 AM
But that map is showing coverage of both Cingular and its roaming partners combined, which doesn't tell you much. When I said T-Mobile is better at the moment, I wasn't comparing 850 to 1900. Cingular's GSM coverage alone, compared separately to T-Mobile, is what I was talking about.

In most parts of the country, Cingular's GSM - 850 or 1900 - is new and unoptimized. Optimization is key. Plus, Cingular is strapped for spectrum, so GSM and TDMA fight for spectrum allocation in many areas, hindering capacity and affecting network quality.

Of course, Cingular is the bigger carrier by far and I agree 100% that in a year or two, their GSM coverage should surpass T-Mobile. I just don't believe that's the case at the moment.
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CRCinOklnd

Dec 3, 2003, 3:33 PM
Thanks Rich! I was wondering about the difference between 850 & 1900, and based my GSM future selection towards AT&T and Cingular simply because I thought I needed 850 to get better coverage. Sound's like 850 will help and be better in the future, but not at the moment.
Chris (CDMA-GSM, HELP!!)
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ajohnston

Nov 7, 2003, 2:20 PM
Thanks. How about roaming to T-Mobile partners in the US, do they have any 850MHz properties? I was in Raleigh last weeek and noticed I was roaming on ATTWS for a while! 😕
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Rich Brome

Nov 9, 2003, 5:46 PM
AFAIK, all of T-Mobile's roaming agreements so far have been 1900-specific.
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poison7

Dec 2, 2003, 10:39 PM
No. Strictly 1900mhz in the USA
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