Cingular users

[gregshin]

I'm thinking of getting a tri band phone for use on my cingular account...but it doesnt support GSM 850 will my coverage suffer that bad?

 

[Skunkwourk]

I have an SGH-D800, I don't think it supports GSM 850 but my coverage seems fine.

EDIT: Sorry I forgot to clarify that its a Samsung phone.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

From what I've heard, yes, the lack of 850 will seriously hurt you on Cingular.

What specific phone are you looking at, and why not just get it in quad-band?

- M4H

 

[TuxDave]

Not sure if it's the same case, but I have a friend that bought an overseas tri-band phone so I'm guessing that since it's an overseas phone it's missing one of the USA bands. Either way, her reception is beyond terrible.

 

[Juice Box]

It really depends where you are in the US. I also bought a tri-band phone last year w/o knowing I needed 850 on Cingular in my area (Illinois). There are a lot of services that will unlock tri-band phones to work on quad-band networks. I think there might be a coverage map on Cingular's site that says what states use which band....but I'd say that if you are in the midwest, chances are you'll need 850.

Side note: The phone I had was a motorolla L6 (which I got unlocked....really easy procedure) and it worked on every band.....go figure we canceled Cingular a few months later 😛

 

[Skunkwourk]

This might help, its a PDF though.

 

[AnyMal]

It entirely depends on your location. If you live in a densly populated area where there are many tall structures, if you need coverage inside buildings, basements, garages, you'll miss 850MHz band sorely.

 

[gregshin]

do any of you know what the diff between 850mhz and 1900mhz technology is?

 

[AnyMal]

Originally posted by: gregshin
do any of you know what the diff between 850mhz and 1900mhz technology is?

Thechnology is the same, they're just different frequencies of the cellular radio. 850MHz and 1900MHz are two frequencies allocated by FCC for mobile communications. Rest of the world uses 900 and 1800 MHz