3G Phone in non-3G area

If you buy a 3G phone than it will work in a 3G area. The newer sim cards are 64K 3G sims which is standard now when you activate a phone with Cingular whether it be a 3G phone or not.So if you purchase a new 3G phone you will need a new sim card. All you need to do is go to Cingular store and I believe the sims are still 25.00 the store will activate the new sim for you.If you prefer to purchase a sim online than you can call care and give them the number off of the sim and they will activate it for you. Good luck

 

I'm assuming this discussion has to do with the rollout of UMTS/HSDPA. Now, I know some other cities near me (Baltimore, DC, etc.) have UMTS service, but we do not have it in NYC/NJ as of yet.

I just signed up with Cingular in February and purchased a V3 RAZR. Will there be some sort of firmware upgrade offered (I know the RAZR works with 3G EV-DO on VZW) or something to that effect? I'm the type of person that always likes to have "the latest," and I'd probably buy a new phone if it came down to it, but hey, I don't WANT to spend extra money.

If I were to buy a UMTS-capable phone, will it work on the rest of the standard GSM network? Does anyone know how indoor coverage with UMTS since it's on the 1900MHz band, whose signals tends to bounce off structures (just ask any T-Mobile customer).

Thanks!

 

As far as I know you would have to buy a new phone. I think the RAZR doesn't have the hardware to work with UMTS. UMTS is backwards compatable with the current GSM, as far as I know. As for coverage I have no idea, but it would depend on tower placement and some other things.

 

Even though most of the UMTS/HSDPA network is 1900MHz, Cingular plans to run it on both the 850MHz and 1900MHz bands. I am not sure if any 3G area currently uses the 850MHz band, but that time is coming. As such, UMTS/HSDPA phones should/will (eventually) get the same service as your current GSM phone. Moreover, just because an area is 1900MHz-only that doesn't necessarily mean that indoor coverage is or will be suffer. Surely, the 850MHz band/frequency has better building penetration, but it also depends on where the towers are placed. A 1900MHz requires more towers, but a company can build a very good network on that band/frequency. Network design, tower placement, and build out are just as important as the band/frequency being used.