Rumor Mill

Doubt it. The coolest thing about possibly having DoCoMo as a partner for 3G, is the fact that Japan has been using this technology since 2001 and they already know how to fix the bugs that could happen in the first 3 years. That's just really cool in my book. Since we will be using the exat same technology that they use, it will do nothing but help the US transition to 3G. This could possibly lead to lower prices for equipment and faster advances in technology.

DoCoMo is so advanced in that regard, that they are currently testing 4g... 😲
It will be a big benefit to Cingular forthem to partner up.

DoCoMo must release its interests invested in to AT&T Wireless which is the UMTS already deployed in few markets.

Since the investment was done I think it will be a great talent to learn from if Cingular partners with it.

the merger still isnt final i should say and it might be weeks or months for it to go through utms is an at&t technology. whether cingular goes with it is beyond me. as an employee of at&t who knows what will happen and if cingular will even keep things that are already with at&t

Umm Cingular's been testing UMTS for a while now in ATL. UMTS is not an AT&T technology...

RichLok said:
Umm Cingular's been testing UMTS for a while now in ATL. UMTS is not an AT&T technology...

It is true that Cingular has been testing UMTS since early April or even earlier, however not with phones. They've been testing with Lucent PCMCIA cards at 1900MHz only!

This does serve a problem with Cingular 850 MHz markets seeing that most of their markets are currently 850 MHz. The only markets still operating on 1900 MHz are older markets (the Carolinas/Tennessee). California and Nevada stilla re 1900 MHz but are in the process of being bought by T-Mobile because of a) the extensive spectrum in those markets and b) because it would cost more to upgrade all the towers and "throw away" the 1900 M...
(continues)

You are correct about what they are testing in atlanta right now. however you are wrong about the mostly 850.
most of their current gsm coverage is actually in 1900. their entire california network is 1900. so is florida. cingular has many unused licenses in 850 and top executives have been quoted as saying that 850 is cingular's future. philly for example is half 1900 and half 850. but i think they mean in terms in future coverage. most major metros are covered by cingular in 1900. 850 will be used to fill holes so to speak.

Dude, i'm right and you're wrong. I hate to be that blunt...

I work for Cingular...in the Philadelphia market. They rely on the 850 MHz spectrum (a 1900 MHz only phone will not work in PHilly) in that area and most of the other areas in the northeast (NJ and NYC being the main exceptions).

Shawn is right about that. I work for cingular as well and just validated that!

Aye Aye there, another cingular employee here... that makes the third validation... need anymore proof out there?

as of june 2004 philly was ENTIRELY 850, my bad... but don't presume you know more about it than I do... I handle marketing for the NE REGION. The info you get about the markets you take calls from comes from MY office. Specifically PHILLY and NYC. But you are still wrong about Cingular being mostly 850. They are STILL mostly 1900 for GSM.

How would you be able to determine what frequency certain areas use? I'm just curious and I'd like to look around and sort through it, since I already finished all the training work they gave us for the hour. -_-

they used to have maps that showed the different frequencies. I am working on getting a newer map, but no one is really interested in helping me with it, because we sell strictly dual band phones now. you may be able to look at the "my cingular" home page.... i think some of the older maps are at the bottom of the page.

i found some newer maps that show the "cingular owned" coverage and it has mostly 850 coverage. Don't get that confused with what the total coverage is. Most of our roaming agreements are with 1900 regional carriers.

Ah, I was just wondering. Because I was interested in importing a 7610, becuase I'm tired of waiting, but if my area is mostly 850(which I do believe it is) then I don't want to do it, and have all the dropped calls and what not.

I hate this stupid GAIT phone. =/ Constantly power cycles in 850 areas...and well, it power cycles all the time. Meh.

what's your zip code?
i believe the 7610 will be released around christmas with 850 on board. you'll pay less for it... dude, just trash the gait phone and buy a refurb gsm phone if you can't wait for your 7610. Have you looked into the 6620? It doesn't have a megapixel camera, but it's the best camera i've ever used in a phone. it takes better pics than the moto v710 and IT has a megapixel camera... check it out.

32526 Is my zip code. I mean... I have access to most of Cingular's systems, I just don't know where to look. =p

And well...I guess I could just get a refurbished gsm phone. I should probably get one for my mom as well, she's still on a TDMA phone. She's all mad because Cingular switched over and she has to buy a new phone and she's not at the end of her contract yet. Meh.

I was actually looking at the 6620. And well...I'll still have to pay full price unless I start my own account(which might be a possibility considering how my mom is acting.)

But I just think that 7610 is so cool. Hahaha.

that area is indeed 850 when you are talking about Cingular's owned towers. That may change in the future if att has 1900 there. the western coastline of florida is mostly 1900 and the eastern coastline is 850. the pensacola area is 850 tho.

Yeah, figured as much. Meh. Thanks for the info. ^_^ I guess I can wait for around Christmas. It's getting close.

I hope...

hey i just looked at the map for the romaing agreements with tmobile... pensacola is there. So you will have 1900 cooverage in pensacola...

Oh, awesome. Thanks. ^_^

I think I might just wait. Depends on the next few paychecks and what not...

I was wondering, if you could look into the bands for Cingular in my area. My zip is 63010. I know theres 850mhz, but beyond that I don't know. If you don't have the time it isn't a big deal.

Thanks

mostly 850 there. You may have SOME 1900 on a a roaming carrier.

antisociallarry said:
And well...I guess I could just get a refurbished gsm phone. I should probably get one for my mom as well, she's still on a TDMA phone. She's all mad because Cingular switched over and she has to buy a new phone and she's not at the end of her contract yet. Meh.

If she's 6 months into her contract, have her call in and state she wants to cancel. We''l upgrade her for cheap. 😉

lisam said:
the merger still isnt final i should say and it might be weeks or months for it to go through utms is an at&t technology. whether cingular goes with it is beyond me. as an employee of at&t who knows what will happen and if cingular will even keep things that are already with at&t

yeah... i would guess that it IS beyond you. UMTS is a GSM technology invented by japanese company NTT DoCoMo. Cingular has indeed been testing this for awhile now. ATTWS was under contractual obligation BY DoCoMo to have it ready BEFORE 2005. That's the only reason they deployed it so soon.